No Excuse Strategies to keeping fit during the Holidays

Ladies!!!  During the eat, drink and be merry season, there are a million excuses to not exercise. But with the temptations of eggnog, shortbread and latkes everywhere, it is more important than ever to keep active.

Here are five simple ways to excuse-proof the season:

1. Turn parties into outdoor eventsInstead of focusing all of your socializing around cocktails and food, plan some activities like skating, tobogganing and snowshoeing. Walking up a long toboggan hill four or five times can be equivalent to a 20-minute run!!! Even snow shovelling can be fun family time and help to burn off extra calories if you overindulged the night before.

2. Lower your standards temporarilyDon’t fall into the “all or nothing” trap – some exercise is always better than none. When time is tight, do just half of your regular workout. When you break your habit of regular exercise, not exercising can easily become your new habit.  And then it’s a struggle to get back to your old routine, especially if you’ve gained weight and lost your previous fitness level.

3. Go harder and shorterAnother option is to compress your workouts and up the intensity. Instead of three or four standard workouts per week, temporarily shift nto shorter and more intense workouts that just two or three times a week.

4. Try the 10-minute workout (Fiona Style!)When even a shortened workout won’t fit your schedule, squeeze in two five-minute quickies. For example, try consecutive one-minute sets of push ups, ab crunches, stationary lunges, squats and calf raises when you step out of bed in the morning. Before bed the same night, choose five favourite stretches and hold them for one minute each.

5. Plan a sun and surf getaway
If you have some spare cash, plan some beach time for the New Year. Booking an early-winter vacation that involves a bathing suit is one of the best ways to stay motivated to stick with your exercise routine and eat healthy over the holidays.  ... That said, Vegas is looking mighty Fine!

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I Wish I Were Really Part of the Challenge

It's hard being pregnant while you guys are doing this and not being able to put my whole self into it.  I know I haven't come to a meeting yet sometimes because it's the only evening I might have to spend with hubby that week (he works evenings) and also because I can't be weighed and measured and such.  There's no point when I'm going the other way, lol.

I do think that what you're all doing is amazing though and hope to have some similar support next summer when I need to lose all the extra weight and fit back into my old clothes I haven't worn since April 2009.  I miss those clothes!  If you do anything else outside of the weekly meeting as a group (breakfast, family outing....) I hope to make something like that depending on my work schedule though.  I work a rotating schedule so don't have set days off.

I'm waiting for my foot to heal so I can do workouts with a little more intensity..........or even walk pain-free actually.  When I fell the other day I didn't break anything thankfully but the whole top of my foot is still swollen and black and blue.  That and I'm still waiting for that energy you're supposed to get back in the second trimester.  I'm there but still waiting.........

I lost 44 pounds on weight watchers 9 years ago and kept most of it off until getting pregnant so I know it can be done!  Just maybe a little harder with what pregnancy can do to the body.......but SO worth it!

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Tommy Europe Replies

Whoever said a little hard work and a few emails wouldn't work was wrong!  ..

...
Hi Jessica,

Thanks for your email. Congrats on your awesome results and working so hard to achieve your goals! Nice work! It sounds like your group would benefit from coming out to one of my “10 LB Shred Bootcamps” that I’m taking across Canada. You can head to my website at http://www.tommyeurope.tv/, for tour details. Also, on the website you can also access training tips and purchase weight loss meal plans from registered dietician Maria Thomas. For even more training tips and motivation, I’ll be coming out with a book and DVD in spring 2011 designed to help you reach your fitness and weight loss goals.

You can also:

add me on facebook http://www.facebook.com/#!/pages/TOMMY-EUROPE/166905873451

follow me on twitter http://twitter.com/TommyEurope/status/7677943870390272

and check out more information on the websites for “The Last 10 Pounds Bootcamp” http://www.slice.ca/shows/showspage.aspx?title_id=105451

and “Bulging Brides” http://www.slice.ca/shows/showspage.aspx?title_id=113151


Hang in there and stay motivated. With the right tools and hard work, you should get the results you deserve.

Cheers,

Tommy

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Our group is going to make waves in the next little while, and I believe we are meant to be here for a purpose.. Not just for ourselves, not just for each other, but for the greater good... we can make a difference!  I say we make this a challenge and we tackle it head on! 

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The Mind & The Body

It's amazing how often times we visit the doctor, and he/she is just not quite sure what's wrong with us.  We complain of pain, or illness, however there seems to be no cause... nothing to signify that this self-diagnoses is actually true.  Many times I have had to take a step back and self-asses my current state of mind and realize that my mind needs to be controlled, for it has a most powerful influence upon my health. The imagination often misleads, and when indulged, brings severe forms of disease upon the body. Many people die of diseases which are mostly imaginary, and it is their very mindset that causes their illness.

Thousands are sick and dying around us who might get well and live if they would, but their imagination holds them. They fear that they will be made worse if they labor or exercise, when this is just the change they need to make them well. Without this they never can improve. They should exercise the power of the will, rise above their aches and debility, engage in useful activities, and forget that they have aching backs, sides, lungs, and heads. Neglecting to exercise the entire body, or a portion of it, will bring on morbid conditions.

How important it is to remember to live our lives with purpose even if never perfect, and to always keep a positive light on our surroundings.  Those who live for a purpose, seeking to benefit and help their friends and family, are truly happiest of people in life.  Those people that can always find fault with someone, something, somewhere, the one who is restless, discontented, and seeking this and testing that, hoping to find happiness, is always complaining of disappointment.  They will always be in want, never satisfied, because they live for themselves alone. 

I hope today you will remember how vital it is to be in continuous harmony with yourself, to be the positive light you wish to see in the world.  Don't think that you need to strive for perfection, harmony or balance at all times.. but accept the fact that you are alive and well.. .. Believe that you are healthy, strong, beautiful, and capable of anything... Let it be your aim to do good, to act your part in life faithfully; I promise that all else will be given to you in wonderful ways!... Just keep believing it!

From the Article I read Yesterday:
Strive for Imbalance

When someone tells you to try to have greater balance in your life, your immediate and appropriate reaction is a spasm of disbelief. "Balance?" you ask yourself. "How does that work? For every extra hour at work find another hour at home? For every extra kid at home, reduce my workload by exactly the amount my new child requires? For every school play I should attend, cut out a presentation on the road? For everything I say yes to, say no to something else? Is that it?"

Not according to the people we interviewed. They didn't talk about balance much at all. They seemed to realize that not only was a perfect equilibrium nigh on impossible to achieve, but also that even if they did manage to achieve it, it wouldn't necessarily fulfill them anyway—when you are balanced, you are stationary, holding your breath, trying not to let any sudden twitch or jerk pull you too far one way or the other. You are at a standstill. Balance is the wrong life goal.

Instead, do as these women did and strive for imbalance. Pinpoint the strong-moments in each aspect of your life and then gradually target or tilt your life toward them. This means being as deliberate as you can about making them happen. It means investigating them when they do happen, looking at them from new perspectives, and celebrating them. Above all, it means giving them the power of your attention.

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Life's Funny Sometimes

Have you ever felt like sometimes in life, you just can’t seem to get anything right?  Your frustrations just keep piling up and before you know it you’re a rumbling mess?  You tend to at times harbor resentment or just annoyance for your significant other, as you feel let down and un-appreciated?  You fight or scream about the littlelest things although in reality, you should be calm and collected?  I don't know if I'm the only one going through this but...

I guess that’s what basically explains my weekend, and although I don’t want to go into great detail, it’s just been a real wet mess these past few days.   I feel like I can only be so strong and keep hoping that my knight in shining armor will come and help me through the rest.  It’s not always like this, and sometimes as woman we seem to believe that regardless of the obvious, our men are those knights, even though they are as good as they’re going to get, and we just have to accept that.

Well I can’t – I believe that in each of us is an ability to change, to be forward thinking, to be loving, kind, honest, and forgiving.  I think that sometimes we let our significant others get away with a lot more than they should, and we allow it to reach a point where our relationships are complacent, and void of the things we truly wish for.  It's not that we have been taken advantage of, we're just allowed it to get that way, because we're so busy with the rest of our lives...

In this challenge, I not only want you to self-focus, but focus on the things you want out of your life.  Set your goals, dreams, ambitions, and strive for them.  Include your partner in these discussions, and ask for feedback and ideas.  Don’t feel that you need to hide your aspirations, and be firm about those things that mean the most to you.  I think a lot of the times we don’t want to give ourselves a voice because we just don’t need the let down, but a lot of the times it’s our partners that don’t feel included.  As mom’s we lead such busy lives, and take the reins to everything, that we forget that there’s an able body waiting to be used; so they just fade into the background and sometimes they themselves become resentful.  Deep down inside, our men want to be wanted just as much as we need them to want us, to need us, to love us and share their lives with us….. I forget that sometimes….

Yes, things get rough sometimes, we cry and sob, we end up with a complete distaste for our lives, or the situations we’re in, but remember, we live by choice.  Nothing that happens in our lives is simply chance, or happens just because – there’s a reason for everything.  Let your reason for life be one of commitment not of complacency, of love not of hatred, of learning not of making excuses, of sharing not selfishness… and teach your families to do the same; you are their example, you bear that responsibility….   And as much as you hate it… You are MOM… (Ps. To you lovely single ladies, the same applies in your day – day lives even if you don’t have kids and aren’t married)..
 

Anyways, this is just in part a reflection of some of the things I’ve felt over the last few days and in talking to a few people, coming to my own conclusions and such… I can’t stress enough on the fact that I’ve made amazing friends out of you all.  You’ve been a support to me, even in unspoken words or gestures, and I just want to thank you for your extraordinary commitment and follow-through in making this group a success.  You are each such lovely ladies, and you all deserve the best… whether it’s of yourself or of others.. so never set the bar low!  … Set it high so that you may work to reach your goals and live the life you’ve always wanted…

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The First 90 Days

It’s amazing to see an idea come to fruition; to see so many woman bound together in order to reach a goal; to realize new friendships, and cultivate solid relationshipsl; to experience new found strength in mind, body, and spirit.


The reason for the name being that it’s based off the P90X series, and is part of a lifestyle change, not a Yo-Yo diet series. I have to admit, I am no fitness trainer, nor have I any Certification, but having grown up in a family of Nutritionists, Naturopaths, and Studious Vegetarians, I’ve watched -listened- learned … when it comes to Health & Wellness.


I’ve taken the fundamentals of healthy & satisfying Nutrition, the basics of the P90X Exercises (along with the formation of a running group, yoga, and zumba), and paired them into an amazing support group based around the idea of; “You can do anything if you set your mind to it, just commit”. In the last month, the group have lost an estimated 100lbs as a whole, and I am so excited to see where this all leads us.


One of the biggest challenges we all face is lack of accountability, lack of committment and follow-through, and a lack of feminine support in our day-day lives. We are either mothers, or busy ladies with careers and Univeristy education committments.  With simple diet changes, and regular exercise, we have no only increased our energy, are enjoying better sleep, but have felt improvement in all aspects of our lives.


As part of the support process, I blog everyday on our facebook page with encouragements, tips and tricks, as well as common sense sayings that keep them pumped and ready to take on or tackle.


Some of the concepts we are using are:


1. Enjoy Who your are
2. Believe that your uniqueness is important
3. Do not be afraid of change
4. Love and be loved
5. Enjoy your Food, and lastly
6. Stay Active!


These principles have really defined the way we shape our day-day, and with every Wednesday meeting we hold, we grow closer as a team, and stronger in mind, body and spirit.

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