exercise - 2/4 - fitknitchick

Monday Motivation: What motivates you to exercise and eat well?

January 16, 2012 by Tamara 13 Comments

Perhaps one of the most common questions that I get asked by group fitness participants and personal training clients is about motivation.

Where do you find the motivation to get up every morning, pack your cooler and head to the gym?

When you didn’t sleep well the night before? When your husband is away for work? When your children are sick? When your legs are sore from yesterday’s workout? When your girlfriends invite you for coffee? When you’d rather go shoe shopping? When your workout clothes are all in the laundry?

When you just don’t feel like it?

Given the prevalence of challenges with motivation, I thought I’d start a weekly feature on the blog to help you all stay motivated with your exercise and healthy eating goals.

Welcome to the first instalment of Monday Motivation!

Each week, I’ll offer you a motivational tip. A photo, a quote, perhaps just a question for you to think about. A success story or a the results of a new study. There may be a recipe or a workout involved. And of course, I’d love to hear what motivates you! If you’d like to contribute a guest post, please contact me via Twitter (@fitknitchick_1) and we can set something up!

Now I know it may sound trite, but my primary motivation comes from my children.

My children motivate me to keep fit and fuel my body with healthy food. Why?

So I can keep up with them! I waited until I was in my 30′s to start a family. While that decision afforded me lots of time to travel and pursue my career, it meant that I would never be the youngest mom at the playground. My kids are active and I need to be active with them. Exercising gives me the energy to be a mom who moves!

To show them that exercise is a normal part of a healthy lifestyle. I don’t want my children to start exercising as adults. I don’t want them to think of it as a chore. I want them to revel in movement.

To ensure that they get the nourishment their growing muscles and brains need. Preparing healthy meals and snacks made primarily from whole foods teaches them that good nutrition doesn’t come out of a box. I want them to go off to university knowing how to feed themselves well and avoid the ‘freshman fifteen’.

Of course, my kids like treats too. But I avoid buying pre-packaged cookies and instead, make my own, from regular cookbooks, but subbing in healthier ingredients where possible.

Try these yummy sunflower seed butter and chocolate chip cookies. We did! (Recipe adapted from an old Canadian Living Desserts cookbook my grandmother gave me before I started to eat clean).

Sunbutter and chocolate chip cookies

1/2 cup butter, softened
3/4 cup brown sugar
2 eggs
1 cup sunflower butter (any unsweetened nut butter can be substituted; I use sunflower seed butter because we have a ‘no nuts’ policy at our school)
1/2 tsp pure vanilla
1 cup whole wheat flour
1/4 cup wheat bran
1/4 cup ground flax seed
1/2 tsp baking soda
1 cup chocolate chips (the darker the better!)

Cream butters, sugar, eggs and vanilla in a large bowl.
Beat in dry ingredients.
Stir in chocolate chips.
Drop by tablespoon onto lightly greased or parchment lined cookie sheet.
Bake for 10 minutes (or just underdone looking) at 375 degrees.
Allow to cool for 5-10 min on cookie sheet before removing to wire cooling rack.

Although it slows down the process I invite my kids to bake with me as often as possible. It gives me the opportunity to talk to them about the ingredients we’re using and how those ingredients benefit their growing bodies!

Tell me what motivates you to maintain a healthy lifestyle?

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My favorite blog posts; the final installment

December 23, 2011 by Tamara Leave a Comment

With only two days left until Santa arrives, my house is alive with excitement and nervous energy. The children can’t wait until Sunday. I can’t wait until Monday (when the real holiday for moms begins!).

This past week, I’ve been directing you towards some of my favorite posts of the last year. Today’s installment will be the last! Enjoy and have a wonderful weekend with family and friends.

a timely post about willpower as it pertains to food; May 29, 2011
one day after Freshly Pressed and a recipe for turkey leftovers; April 26, 2011
a personal note about the challenges of parenting a picky eater; July 5,

I’ll see you next week!

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An early Xmas present; my new workout buddy!

December 21, 2011 by Tamara 9 Comments

Wow, this will be my second post today! That’s a first!

But I got something in the mail this morning that I just couldn’t wait to share. Join in my excitement and then head to the gym with me for a demo. Got your towel and water bottle?

Disclaimer: I have no official affiliation with the company that produced this product. I purchased it myself and the information (and enthusiasm) provided in this video comes from me, not them. If you’d like to order your own, please visit Muscle Up Canada.

P.S. The delivery man returned later in the day with this (more purple!);

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Favorite blog posts part deux

December 21, 2011 by Tamara 2 Comments

Earlier this week I posted the links to a few of my favorite fitknitchick blog posts of the past year (and why I’m re-posting rather than writing new content this week).

Here’s a few more that I think you’ll like, whether you’re reading them for the first time or the fifth!

a post about mindfulness and a speeding ticket; June 1, 2011
thoughts about the search for physical perfection; February 8, 2011
and my signature piece about exercise and knitting (this one was Freshly Pressed, but you still might have missed it ); April 24, 2011

I’m still enjoying spending time with my family, so new posts will have to wait until the enjoyment evaporates (I’m giving it another day or two!).

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Do what you love, love what you do

November 7, 2011 by Tamara 13 Comments

For several years now I have vacillated between wanting to hire a housekeeper and wanting to have the time to clean the house myself. Okay, I’ve never really wanted to clean it myself, but rather, felt that I ought to want to clean it myself (note the subtle difference).

Perhaps it’s my mother’s fault (let’s face it, moms get blamed for almost everything; sorry Mom).

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She kept a perfectly clean house, welcomed us home from school with fresh, wholesome baking, attended all of our field trips and filled the cold cellar with preserves for the winter. And she did it all with a smile on her face. I can only assume that she enjoyed doing these things, as she never complained and I can’t remember a time when her demeanour suggested otherwise. (Note, to be fair to myself, she didn’t work outside the house when I was young).

Whenever I contemplate hiring a housekeeper, a little voice in my head says “your mom raised three children and didn’t need help with the housework, clearly you should be able to manage too”.

Mother guilt strikes again.

And so, I continue to scrub the toilets (far less frequently than they need to be scrubbed), clean the floors (although I vacuum weekly, I’m hard pressed to remember when they were last washed), wash the windows (monthly, at least, more often during ‘dirt clod fight’ season) and dust the baseboards (actually, I haven’t dusted them in weeks, but I have thought about it a number of times).

Given that I write a fitness blog, I’m sure you’re wondering what my musings about housework have to do with fitness.

The reason I don’t clean my house as frequently as I think I should is exactly the same reason you don’t go to Zumba OR run OR lift weights OR swim OR cycle OR hike. You know you ought to, but you don’t like it!

And what we don’t like, we don’t do.

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The trick with exercise, as with anything perceived as work, is to find some variation that appeals to you. Something you might (learn to) enjoy doing. Don’t like to run? Try cycling. Or kickboxing. Or rock climbing. Or pole dancing.

Do what you love, love what you do!

While I detest housework, I do love to cook. I thoroughly enjoy experimenting in the kitchen and preparing wholesome meals for my family (that would be my Mom’s fault too ). Clearly, I should focus my energy on the tasks I enjoy and delegate or hire out the other (Thank you’s to Cathy and Cheryl who have both passed on the names and numbers of potential candidates).

If you can find a form of exercise to love, I’ll hire a housekeeper. Deal?

What type of exercise do you most love to do? Most hate?

Do you have a housekeeper? If not, why not?

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The gift of an extra hour: what will you do with it?

November 6, 2011 by Tamara Leave a Comment

I love setting my clock back an hour every fall. Not only do we get to see a little more daylight during the dreariest part of the year, we receive the gift of time. An extra hour in our over-busy weeks to do with what we choose.

Some of us will choose to sleep, because that’s what we’re short on.

Or knit, because we haven’t picked up our needles since Thursday.

Some will use the hour to go for an early morning run or catch up on that workout they missed earlier this week or squeeze in some time on their yoga mat.

Perhaps you’ll spend that extra time with friends and family. Cooking a healthy, nourishing meal, enjoying a walk in the fallen leaves, curling up next to the fire with a steaming mug of herbal tea. Reading a book with your children.

Treat daylight savings as a gift of time. The gift of an hour to nurture yourself and honour your needs.

The gift of an extra hour. What will you do with yours?

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New to weight training? Use your own body weight to get strong and lean

November 3, 2011 by Tamara Leave a Comment

For many reasons, people (women in particular) are intimidated by dumbbells (that aren’t pink…), barbells and squat racks. Rather than cross over to the free-weight section of their gym (where the ‘gym rats’ hang out), they head for the machines (hamstring curl, leg extensions, seated shoulder press, chest press and row, to name a few).

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While machines have their place in some people’s fitness programs (correcting muscular imbalances, rehabilitating injuries, improving range of motion and breaking through plateaus are how I typically use them with my clients, when I use them at all…), they’re not so great for metabolism raising, fat burning or improving day-to-day functional movements. The three primary reasons people choose to exercise.

Why? Because you sit at machines, rather than standing on your own two feet. Sitting does not require you to activate your glutes or engage your core to any great extent, both of which will dramatically improve your posture, fitness level and caloric burn.

For those of you who are still not convinced that you need to learn to love free weights (or get to the gym in the first place), I’ve put together a list of my favorite body weight exercises. Exercises that can be done at home with minimal equipment, or at the gym in the corner or in the ‘stretching’ section of the weight room.

These are all ‘bang for your buck’ exercises, in that they use multiple muscle groups and require you to stabilize your shoulder girdle and core throughout. When done correctly and at a good tempo, they’ll also elevate your heart rate, blurring the lines between ‘cardio’ and ‘strength training’.

A word of warning; some of these exercises are not for beginners. Just because you’re not lifting dumbbells or barbells doesn’t mean the exercise is easy; pushups and pull ups require you to push and pull 75-100% of your body weight (dumbbells are starting to sound like a good idea after all, aren’t they!).

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That being said, there are modifications that you can do as you progress towards full pushups and pull ups. I’ve written previously about learning to do chin ups; you can apply the same rules in your quest for the pull up, just widen and reverse your grip (palms face forward). Check back tomorrow for ways to progress your ‘knee’ pushups to full on ‘toe’ pushups. Click on the links below for exercise descriptions and images.

Fitknitchick’s best body weight exercises

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Pushups
Pull ups or chin ups
Planks (of all type)
Squats (there are tons of great variations)
Lunges (again, variations aplenty)
Bird dog (looks easy, but isn’t and is extremely beneficial to all)
Back extensions (on the ball, floor or the back extension apparatus)
Burpees (half or full-on)
Skipping rope

Are you already doing some of these exercises in your daily workouts?

Anything I missed?

As always, I love to hear from you!

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No time to exercise? All you need is 15 minutes

October 26, 2011 by Tamara 7 Comments

Somedays it seems like there’s just no time to fit in a workout. With work, family responsibilities and driving kids to after-school activities, it might seem impossible to find time to exercise.

I’ve said it before and it bears repeating; you don’t find time to exercise, you make time.

What’s more, you only need to carve out 15 minutes to reap many of the benefits of exercise; better sleep, elevated mood, fewer sugar cravings, less-frequent injuries and perhaps, if you make time daily, weight loss and increased lean muscle mass.

Aren’t convinced that you can earmark 15 minutes of your day to workout?

How much time to you spend on Facebook? Twitter? Reading blogs (okay, read mine before you exercise okay)?
How much television do you watch? An hour? Two or more?
Can you get up 15 minutes earlier in the morning?
Do you need to spend an hour at the coffee shop with your friends, or will 45 minutes suffice?
Do you have ‘time to kill’ while your children are at soccer/piano/ballet/hockey practice?

We can all make room in our day for 15 minutes of exercise.

I’ve put together three 15-minute workouts (the first of which I did today, in the 15 minutes available between dropping my son off at school and teaching my morning small group training class; very effective, too, I might add!).

Two require equipment; depending on what type of workout tools you have at home, they could be done without leaving your house (saving you even more time) or at the gym. The third requires no equipment at all. You can do it anywhere (home, park, backyard, parking lot, behind the bleachers), anytime.

All three workouts have the same structure; perform each exercise for 45 s then rest for 15 s before starting the next exercise. Work through the number of cycles indicated (this is key!) without a break. If you can’t complete 45 s of a particular exercise, stop early and add the remainder of the work time to your next rest interval.

I like to use my trusty Gymboss interval timer, set for 15 intervals of a 45/15 s cycle. It does all the counting for me!

Before starting your workout, familiarize yourself with the exercises and perform 10-15 reps of each at a warmup level (toe pushups would be warmed us as wall pushups; dumbbell squats would be warmed us as body weight squats; pull ups would be warmed up as a dead hang etc.). Click on the links below to see descriptions and demonstrations of the most basic form of each exercise; make sure to use the equipment and perform the add-ons that I describe below!

Ready, set, go!

Workout #1 (equipment: 1 set of dumbbells, 1 pull up bar)

Pull ups (assisted, regular, weighted, wide grip, narrow grip; your choice)
Dumbbell front squats (hold dumbbells slightly in front of shoulders; add a shoulder press on the way up if you want)
Pushups (against the wall, from knees, on toes, spiderman; your choice)
Dumbbell straight leg deadlifts (heels elevated or not)
Burpees or squat thrusts

Workout #2 (equipment: 2 sets of dumbbells, stability ball, flat bench)

Walking lunges with dumbbells held at side (or alternating forward lunges if you don’t have the space)
Low ab pull ins/pushup combo over the ball (1 pushup, 1 pull in, repeat; if you can’t perform the combo in good form, choose one of the two movements and do this instead)
Dumbbell deadlift/bent over row combo (descending phase of deadlift, hold position and row dumbbells up to armpits, finish the row then the ascending phase of deadlift; if you can’t perform the combo in good form, choose one of the two movements and do this instead)
Holding a V-sit on bench, extend arms down to the floor, bicep curl to shoulder press (if the V-sit bothers your lower back, place one or both feet on the floor)
Bench hop-overs (straddle bench, place hands on bench at one end of the bench, hop both legs back and forth over the bench; you should look like an antelope!)

Workout #3 (equipment: none, although an exercise mat may make things more comfortable when performing pushups and planks)

Body weight squats, hands behind head (keep chest forward, bum back and knees behind toes)
Pushups (whichever variety you like; add intensity by placing feet on a book or step)
Alternating backward lunges or lunge jumps (aim for 90 degrees at both knees at the bottom of your lunge)
Plank (from knees or toes, forearms on the ground with elbows under shoulders; tummy and bum should be held tight the whole time)
Imaginary skipping (for non-skippers, this is way more effective than trying to manage a rope!)

Disclaimer: These workouts may or may not be for you, depending on your age, weight and fitness level. Always consult your doctor before you begin a new exercise program.

Let me know which one you like/hate the most?

Do you make time in your day for exercise?

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The same, but with a twist; little changes can lead to big results

October 24, 2011 by Tamara Leave a Comment

I am a creature of habit.

I love routine.

My days and weeks run smoothly when I stick to a schedule.

I eat better and workout more consistently when I do cardio on Mondays and Fridays, strength train on Tuesdays and Thursdays and get to a yoga class Saturday morning.

That’s pretty much what my schedule looked like last week, with a few minor changes. The same, but with a twist.

On Friday, I participated in a spin class led by another instructor. Leisha’s classes are always fabulous, but this week, she tried something new. Instead of varying speed and resistance with each song (a fairly traditional way of organizing a spin class), she held us at a single resistance level for about 10 minutes, incorporating speed and movement drills at that same level of resistance before asking us to increase our tension for the next 10 minutes.

By the end of the class, we had increased our tension four times (no touching that dial!), ending with maximum resistance. My legs felt like jelly! A totally different workout than my body was used to and much more of a challenge too (I told her I’d be copying this format and using it in my own class; imitation being the highest form of flattery).

Saturday morning, I headed to my favorite Hatha yoga class. 75-min of gentle movement and breathing. A little bit of balance and a lot of core strength. After the first few minutes of focusing our breath, with standard, new-agey yoga music in the background, Chris switched playlists. When Doves Cry, by Prince, Crabs in the Bucket, by K-OS, some soul, some rhythm and blues and some good old eighties rock and roll. Not exactly the type of music you’d expect to help you reach nirvana.

But it worked! I felt more relaxed and less worried about my breathing listening to this non-traditional playlist than the usual birdsongs and waterfalls. I even managed to get into and hold crow pose for a short time. Maybe it wasn’t the music. Maybe I’m just getting better at balance poses. But surely, anything that helps you relax during exercise is bound to affect performance in a positive way.

The lesson?

Continue to schedule exercise and plan meals. Knowing what you’ll be doing each day of the week increases the likelihood that you’ll actually do it. But don’t be afraid to make small changes; a new class type, a new instructor, a new playlist of your own as you set out on your morning run.

Surprise yourself with the changes that results from the same, but with a twist.

Do you create and stick to an exercise schedule?

How do you deal with unavoidable changes to your routine? Complain or embrace?

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Welcome to the ‘other side’; when nutrition and exercise become second nature

September 16, 2011 by Tamara 8 Comments

On every successful journey towards health and fitness, there seems to be a ‘switch point‘; that morning when you wake up and realize that you’ve been eating well and exercising regularly not because you have to but because you want to. You know longer equate eating with dieting. Exercise is like brushing your teeth; you just do it!

How can you tell when you’ve reached the other side? It’s simple;

You own more pairs of black spandex pants/capris/shorts than you do jeans

Shopping for new running shoes excites you more than shopping for dress shoes (Fluevogs being the exception)

You bypass all the cute clothing stores in the mall and head directly for Lulu

Your kids’ activities are planned around your favourite spin class time

You get together with your girlfriends over skinny lattes rather than cosmopolitans

When there’s not enough time in the day to workout, shower, wash and style your hair and get dressed to go on the field trip you choose the workout and once again show up at school (yet again) in damp exercise clothes, a dirty pony tail and a baseball cap

The seasonal return of Starbucks’ pumpkin spice latte sends you searching through Clean Eating magazine for a recipe for pumpkin pie oats (rather than ordering the high fat, high sugar coffee)

Your back-to-school shopping results in another Power Y tank (my absolute favourite workout top in a great new colour) rather than a cute top or cuddly sweater (‘you can’t wear those to the gym’, says the common sense voice in my head)