Monday Motivation: my favorite healthy living blogs

March 5, 2012 by 14 Comments

Welcome to Monday Motivation! Every Monday, I take a few minutes to talk about what motivates me to eat healthy and exercise daily.

Like many bloggers, I read a lot of blogs! These are just a few of the many competing for space on my Safari bookmarks menu.

Just a sampling of my Safari bookmarks bar...

Hearing what other bloggers are doing to stay fit and strong and seeing (most food bloggers have the strange habit of photographing much of what they eat!) the scrumptious looking meals they’re dining on, inspires me to work harder in the gym and the kitchen. I regularly ‘pin‘ their workouts and recipes to try out myself when I need a new challenge.

Here’s a sampling of just a few of the healthy lifestyle bloggers I regularly look to for inspiration and motivation. Click on through and get to know them for yourself; I promise you won’t be disappointed! They’re all members of the FitFluential family and they rock my world!

Jody at Truth2BeingFit

Carla at MizFitOnline

Jess at BlondePonytail

Alexandra and Kymberly at Fun and Fit

Courtney at Sweet Tooth Sweet Life

and Lindsay at In Sweetness and In Health

What are some of your favorite healthy lifestyle blogs?

Does reading blogs about exercise and healthy eating motivate you to make better lifestyle choices?

{14 Comments }

The tyranny of perfection: why fitness, food and knitting slip-ups no longer faze me

February 19, 2012 by 17 Comments

Years ago, I was a perfectionist.

I held high expectations for myself and all of my endeavours. Workouts had to be all or nothing. If i missed one, I was ‘lazy’ and ‘soft’. Diets had to be adhered to ‘to the letter’ or abandoned entirely. Recipes had to be tried and perfected before serving to company. An accidental right slanting decrease rather than an SSK in my knitting? Rip it all out and start again.

Then I had children. The perfect anti-dote to perfectionism. They remove your ability to control the world around you. You can fight it, but it is an tireless and insanity-making battle. Embrace the chaos they embody or go mad.

Evidence that I’ve moved beyond perfectionism?

This week, I missed my Friday workout due to (yet another) Pro-D Day, Saturday yoga because I slept in (an extremely rare occurrence) and Sunday step class (sorry guys, I’ll be back next week) out of sheer exhaustion. No worries. There’s always tomorrow and sometimes rest is as good as a change. No one de-conditions over the weekend :) .

Valentine’s Day chocolates tempted me to relent on my ‘no sugar’ meal plan. I enjoyed each and every one of the nut and caramel-filled treats, without guilt or worry that I would immediately revert to my old ‘sugar filled’ ways. (And more importantly, without running to the bathroom scale to see whether I’d gained weight)

I finally finished the sweater I’ve been knitting and cast off only to discover a mis-crossed cable. I decided to leave it there in the age-old tradition of quilters who purposefully make one mistake per quilt just to acknowledge that no one’s perfect.

Bet you can’t even spot it (okay, maybe you can, but I’m not going to worry about it!).

Pattern is Irish Coffee knit in Madelintosh Vintage (Briar colorway); ’cause I know that somebody will ask!

My children have taught me that life is TOO SHORT to fill it up with negative thoughts about errors and might-have-beens. A little imperfection is a small price to pay for a more relaxed, enjoyable life!

Enjoy the rest of your perfectly imperfect weekend; I know I will!

{17 Comments }

Monday Motivation: diet, exercise and heart health

February 12, 2012 by 10 Comments

Tomorrow is Valentine’s Day. February is Heart month. Both of these events are important to me. Nine Valentine’s Days ago, my infant daughter was recovering in hospital from the first of two open heart surgeries.

Today, I want to talk about improving your heart health as a motivator to eat well and exercise regularly.

In Canada, heart disease and stroke are the number one cause of death in women. In 2008, nearly 30% of women’s deaths were attributable to one or the other!

Although we often think of ‘heart disease’ as referring to arteriosclerosis (thickening of the blood vessels in the heart), it’s a much more general term, encompassing a range of conditions including acute coronary syndrome, angina, arrhythmia, congenital heart disease, coronary artery disease, heart attack, heart failure, endocarditis and a variety of valve disorders.

Estimates suggest that over 90% of adult Canadians have at least one of the risk factors for developing some form of heart disease during their lifetime. How many describe you?

  • overweight
  • diabetic
  • high blood pressure
  • high cholesterol
  • inactivity
  • smoking
  • stress
  • excessive alcohol consumption

The good news is, all of the above risk factors are life-style in nature. That means we can all lower our risk of heart disease by making some relatively simple changes in our day to day living.

  • start moving; incorporate moderate intensity exercise into your day, most days of the week
  • quit smoking (ask your doctor for assistance)
  • reduce alcohol intake
  • take up a relaxing hobby (like knitting!)
  • sleep more
  • eat more foods that are high in fiber (fruits, vegetables, beans, legumes and whole grains) and low in salt and saturated fat (clean eating is the perfect diet to help reduce cholesterol and blood pressure and eliminate type II diabetes)

Still not convinced that improving your heart health is a smart thing to do?

Consider the cost to your pocketbook of medications used to control diabetes and reduce cholesterol and high blood pressure (three of the risk factors for heart disease and stroke).

Here’s the receipt for my daughter’s most recent prescription refill.

That’s a three month supply of one of the two medications she takes to control her high blood pressure (a consequence of the time that elapsed between her first and second heart surgeries). The other costs even more. Not everyone is as fortunate as we are to have a good drug plan.

Heart disease is one of the few forms of death that you can cheat.

What will you do today to reduce your risk of heart disease and stroke?

{10 Comments }

Monday Motivation: A guest post from ‘down under’

February 6, 2012 by 6 Comments

This week, a friend of mine agreed to write a guest post about what motivates her to eat well and exercise daily.  Meet Samantha Trenerry! Sam lives in Australia, with her son Cadel and husband Phil. She’s super fit (CrossFit will do that for you!), a fabulous mama, and a knitter too (I met her first on Ravelry and we bonded over exercise and yarn!).

Hello fellow fitknitchick fans!

I am an Aussie stay at home mama to 4-year-old Cadel and am married to Phil who is a shift worker. Cadel’s story is a blog post in itself, so I am going to do my best to sum him up in a paragraph. Cadel is a sweet, loving, cheeky little boy, he is the light of my life and I am incredibly lucky to be his mama. Cadel lives with Spastic Quadriplegia, a form of Cerebral Palsy so debilitating that he needs help with all aspects of daily living, he is also severely impaired intellectually. Cadel is in a wheelchair and unlike the average 4 year old Cadel cannot take himself to the toilet, fix himself a snack, feed himself, sit himself up or move from one activity to the next without our help. We build therapeutic activities into each day and he visits regularly with a team of therapists at our local disability service. Medically he has a lot going on too, but the main condition he has that affects his daily life is an acute form of Epilepsy, despite being on 4 different medications he has dozens of visible seizures each day and has many more we cannot see. Our days are busy, and although they are filed with fun and laughter they can be draining both physically and emotionally for all 3 of us.

Tamara asked me to talk about what motivates me to lead a healthy lifestyle, and the first big motivator for me is the most obvious, my family! Phil works outside the home as a Police Officer and I care of the little guy, when Phil is home we share the role taking care of Cadel. This gives us both time to work out and a little time to chill out too. The three us make a great team! Knowing that Cadel and Phil are relying on me is all the motivation I need. I want to eat right so I have the energy to power through my day and still have a bit left in the tank for a workout. I want to workout so I can get the 45kg wheelchair in and out of the car on my own and so I can lift Cadel up and down all day without a second thought. Let’s face it, strong, healthy people are far more useful, and I want to know that I will be strong enough to take care of Cadel for a long time to come. Having a child who is disabled also motivates me because it makes me realize how lucky I am to have a fully functioning body, it would be a shame to waste it sitting on the couch all day with a big bag of chips, I want to make the most of it!

The second big motivator for me is that I have found a sport I LOVE. If there is one piece of advice I can give you it is to keep trying different activities until you find something you really want to do. If you want to make a lifelong commitment to exercising you need to be enthusiastic about what you are doing or it will become a chore, and soon after it will become just another failed exercise program. I do CrossFit, it makes sense for me because it challenges me physically and mentally, I am able to set goals for myself and I leave every session knowing I have nothing left to give. I have also made some wonderful friends at the gym, they inspire me, push me to reach my goals and they make working out fun.

Other than my family and the sport I love, I find motivation the same way everyone else does, I want to look in the mirror and feel good about what I see, I want to set a good example for Cadel and for the other children in my life, I want my husband to think I am still as hot as I was the day he married me and I don’t want to see the number on the scales go up unless I know it is because I am getting stronger!

Having said all that I have to confess that I have a downfall, and I am sure it is one many of you share, FOOD! I bet a lot of you fail in that area at times for exactly the same reason I do, I forget about myself! I manage to eat a healthy breakfast every day and dinner is usually something wholesome too, but I can be hopeless during the day unless I really plan for it. This is something I am working really hard on, but on really busy days, especially when we have a lot of appointments to get to, I find myself hungry at 3pm and suddenly realize the last thing I ate was my oats for breakfast. I am getting better, and I have Tamara to thank for introducing me to clean eating and some wonderful websites that inspire me with tasty recipes. I have a lot of work to do though, and if there is one thing I want to achieve in 2012 it is to make planning my own meals a habit every single day. Let’s make that something we work on together okay? I am getting back on track after the holiday madness with a sugar free February, with the exception of one (portion controlled!) treat on a Saturday, if you care to join me let me know via Tamara’s comments!

So that’s a bit about me, my life has a little extra drama, but I am still able to make my own health a priority. I hope you have found something in my story that helps inspire you to do the same. If you have any questions or comments please feel free to leave them below. Thanks for reading!

{6 Comments }

Monday Motivation: Rockin’ your favorite jeans

January 30, 2012 by 10 Comments

I love Mondays! The start of a new week always inspires me to keep reaching for my goals.

Need a little Monday Motivation?

Let’s talk about jeans. Your favorite jeans.

You know the ones. When you wear them you feel like anything’s possible. You stand taller and prouder. They make you feel like a million bucks. They highlight all the work you’ve been doing in the kitchen and the gym. They make you look fitter, sexier and more confident.

You’d give anything not to, ahem, ‘outgrow’ them.

Think of them next time you’re tempted to skip a workout or reach for a calorie-laden dessert. Remember how great you feel wearing your favorite jeans and use them as motivation to stick with your exercise and nutrition plans.

I asked some of my fellow FitFluential Ambassadors to send me photos of themselves wearing their ‘motivation jeans’. (Thanks so much guys, for your willingness to pose for me and providing brand info, ’cause you know somebody is going to ask what you’re wearing!) Check out their awesome responses below.

Rebekah Borucki & Baby Summer (from BexLife) wearing Banana Republic grey skinny jeans (I love these ones; grey is so flattering!);

Caitlin Croswell (from Cait plus Ate) wearing her favorite American Eagles (rolled up or down, as you please!);

Madeline Glasser (from Food,  Fitness and Family) in her J. Crew Matchstick jeans (and a very sassy scarf; and I know scarves);

Alexandra from Fun and Fit, wearing Nautica and sad because they are tearing below the back pocket, and she has been unable to find a new pair (anybody know where to buy them?);

And Katie Heddleston (Healthy Heddleston), wearing her very first pair of maternity jeans (congratulations Katie!) from Motherhood Maternity (doesn’t she just glow?);

Theodora Blanchfield from Losing Weight in the City wearing Citizens for Humanity (I’ve been lusting after a pair of these…) and loving how they make her look and feel!

And me, Tamara (fitknitchick), wearing my favorite Miss Me’s (I have 4 pair, but these are by far the best fitting of them all);

How about you? Do you have a favorite pair of jeans that make you feel fabulous? Does fitting into them keep you motivated to get your workouts in and eat well?

Please share the details! Brand names and pictures too!

{10 Comments }

New to fitness? Preparation is your key to success

December 2, 2011 by 8 Comments

Congratulations!

You’ve decided to start the journey towards health and wellness by beginning to exercise; a decision to invest in yourself and your future. Perhaps the most important decision you’ll make this year (or ever, for that matter). Even better, you’re not waiting until January 1st to start; this isn’t a resolution, it’s a lifelong commitment.

But where to begin? How often should you exercise? How hard? What type of exercise should you be doing? All good questions. And there are tons of great resources out there that can help you answer them.

Rather than focus on the logistics of your new exercise program, however, I’d like to talk about preparation. Psychological preparation. Preparation for success, of course, but for setbacks as well.

Understanding yourself, your strengths and weaknesses, your fears,  motivations and expectations and most importantly, what ‘fitness’ means to you is a great way to ensure success. The more you know about yourself, the easier it will be to create a fitness program that you’ll stick with. A fitness program that will become a way of life.

Some things to think about before you set foot in the gym;

1) What does fitness mean to you? Is it about aesthetics? Strength? Endurance? Flexibility? Is it a particular number on the scale or your annual blood tests? Is it a feeling? Write out your definition of fitness. Doing so will help you clarify why you want to get fit and help to determine the types of exercise most likely to bring you closer to your goals.

Source

2) What types of activities do you enjoy? It may sound simple, but if you hate running, don’t buy a treadmill. If you can’t stand being in a weight room, don’t buy a year’s membership to one. If you don’t love (or at least like) what you’re doing, you won’t do it. Period. Save yourself the money and the inevitable feeling of failure. Make a list of activities you like. Think outside the box. Be unconventional (hula hooping, pole dancing). Most activities that require physical exertion can be turned into exercise if you increase the intensity.

3) Are you an introvert or an extrovert? Extroverts get energized by being in the company of others. Introverts need time on their own. Choose activities that fit your personality type. Group fitness classes are great for extroverts. Trail running and cycling can be done alone. If you’re an introvert who hates dancing, don’t sign up for Zumba; I can guarantee you won’t get through the session.

Source

4) What type of day is your energy highest? Lowest? When choosing an activity, think about when, during the day, you’ll be doing it. If you’re a morning person, take advantage of your early-in-the-day energy and schedule your exercise for then. Sometimes our preferred activity type conflicts with our daily energy level peak; sure, you’d love to get to that cardio kickboxing class, but it runs at 8:30 in the evening and you’re usually passed out on the couch by 9. Take a pass on it and find something that words with your early bird nature. Perhaps a 6 am spin class?

5) What will you do if you can’t do your scheduled workout? Plan for setbacks. No matter how diligent you are with your planning, at some point, something’s going to happen to make you miss your workout. Traffic, sick kids, cancelled class, power outage at the gym. Having a backup plan for those unexpected events will help keep you on track (as well as providing a bit of cross training). If you usually go to the gym or an aerobics class, make sure you have a set of weights and an exercise DVD at home for those days you just can’t get there. A little bit of exercise is better than none at all.

6) How quickly does your enthusiasm and motivation for new things wane? Know your own ‘reward schedule’; how often you need to be reminded of why you’re doing this, how frequently you need a pat on the back to keep going, at what interval you need a little external validation for all your hard work (for me, it’s a trip to Lululemon every 2 or 3 months for a cute new outfit). Daily motivational quotes and inspiration boards (like my Pinterest ‘Fitness Inpiration’ board) can serve as ‘pep talks’ to keep you moving forward towards your goals.

7) What type of support would you benefit from? Nobody can do this on their own. Everyone needs some sort of support to keep them accountable and on track. Try an on-line support group (Spark People or My Fitness Pal). Use Facebook to meet up with other like-minded individuals. Read fitness and nutrition blogs for inspiration (check out FitFluential Inc.’s Ambassadors for ideas). Enlist the help of a fitness friend. Hire a personal trainer.

Now that you’ve done the mental work, you’re well on your way to fitness success!

Need some suggestions for putting it all together? Feel free to comment below.

{8 Comments }

If variety is the spice of life, why does routine make me so darn happy?

June 18, 2011 by 2 Comments

In my roles as a fitness trainer and healthy lifestyle coach I frequently talk to my clients about the importance of cross-training and eating a wide variety of healthy foods each day.

Cross-training, or the inclusion of a number of different types of exercise in your fitness plan, confuses your muscles, prevents boredom and reduces the likelihood of repetitive strain injuries.

Similarly, including lots of different colors, textures and food types in your diet ensures that your body gets all the nutrients it needs, keeping you healthy and providing you with the energy you need to get through your busy day.

Clearly, variety in both fitness and nutrition is good! Yet despite the benefits of a varied diet and exercise routine, many of us are more successful at reaching our health goals when we limit our options and stick to a schedule.

How can we reconcile the two? Why not plan your variety?

I’m fortunate, that in my job as a group fitness instructor, my weekly schedule includes teaching a variety of class types; spinning, step aerobics and muscular endurance training (lighter weights, lots of reps). The days that I do each type of workout are rigidly scheduled. Typically, I add an extra couple of pure strength training sessions in the gym (heavy weights, few reps). Lots of variety, but a schedule that I religiously adhere to.

Planned variety.

In the kitchen, I’m also fairly consistent (some would say ‘boring’ :) ) in what I eat for breakfast, lunch and snacks. I have several options for each meal that I swap out from day to day.

For example;

  • Breakfast is always either overnight oats with fruit (berries, banana, apricot, pear or apple) and nuts or nut butter (almond, peanut, cashew or pumpkin) or eggs with leafy greens (spinach, kale or swiss chard; all from my kitchen garden) and sauteed veggies (onions, peppers, mushrooms or tomatoes).
  • Lunch is a salad with protein (chicken, turkey, salmon, tuna, shrimp or eggs) the specific ingredients vary with what’s in the fridge (and what needs to be eaten before it’s past it’s prime or picked before it bolts!).
  • Snacks are either fruit and nuts (only a handful) a whey protein shake or a homemade protein bar.
  • Dinner is always some sort of lean protein and a bunch of veggies, either steamed, roasted, stir fried or served in a salad.

By choosing from standard options I know that I’m meeting my daily protein, fat and carbohydrate goals. By switching up the specific ingredients in my standard options I know I’m getting a wide variety of vitamins and minerals.

Again, planned variety.

Knowing ahead of time what my day will look like in terms of exercise and nutrition helps me keep my health and fitness goals on track. For me, planned variety is the spice of life.

Do you keep a strict exercise and nutrition schedule?
Do you plan for variety like I do?

{2 Comments }