Stop Doing These 7 Things If You Want To Get Healthy

This is for anyone who wants to start changing there life and health and feel better if your not there yet.



Stop Doing These 7 Things If You Want To Get Healthy 

Sometimes getting healthier isn’t about the choices you're making, it’s about the choices you should stop making. To live your best, healthiest life, try to add some of these tips to your health and fitness routine. 

1. Stop with the excuses.
Everyone has the same amount of time, and to give you some tough love: people who are busier than you are finding time to workout. Do away with the energy-defeating excuses and create time in your day to exercise. You'll feel so much better after you do.

2. Stop skipping workouts.

Working out on the occasional Thursday isn’t going to keep you healthy. Come up with an exercise plan that works for you and stick to it. Maybe you do cardio three times a week and strength training twice a week. Or maybe you'll power walk a couple days a week and swim laps on weekends. Get exercise on your calendar most days of the week, and give yourself one day to skip instead of skipping six.

3. Stop self defeating thoughts.

If you say, I don’t like exercise, guess what? You won’t like exercise. Approach it from a different angle instead. Ask yourself: What exercise would I enjoy? What form of activity will motivate me to do it each day because I like it? Maybe it’s playing soccer with your kids or going for a walk with your neighbor. You have endless options—play a sport, join a gym, take a ballroom dance class, swim, hike, ice skate or rollerblade. No matter what your age or physical ability, there is something out there for you. You just need to find it.

4. Stop ignoring strength training.

You don’t need an at-home gym or free weights to build muscle, there are many resistance training exercises you can do with your own body weight and you can always incorporate good, old fashioned push-ups. Try some squats and lunges. Don’t forget the plank position too—it’s a great strength builder for your whole body.

5. Stop mindless eating.

Pay attention to what you eat and why. Instead of losing yourself in the fridge for comfort, ask yourself what’s going on with you instead. Slow down. Decide to eat healthy first and once your appetite is satiated, you probably won’t be craving to overindulge.

6. Stop avoiding the scale.

Advice about weighing yourself has always been all over the map. Some experts think weighing yourself daily can be defeating if you see a slight increase because of water weight gain, but weighing yourself daily is a great way to gauge how you are doing. Just be realistic about it and don't give the scale permission to determine how you should feel about yourself. Don’t freak out if you're up a pound or two one morning. Just use the scale to track your weight and keep your health top of mind.

7. Stop skimping on sleep.

You need eight hours of sleep a night for your health. You also need it for your waistline. When you don’t get enough sleep, it drives down leptin levels, which means you don't feel as satisfied after you eat. And a lack of sleep causes ghrelin levels to rise, which stimulates your appetite and you get hungrier. With eight hours of sleep, you'll be well rested and more likely to make great decisions—to do or not to do—for your health.

What are you going to STOP doing for your health?

Riding at Lake of the Woods

Awesome Group Ride!

First, thanks to all who were able to come out for a long group ride in the hills at Lake of the Woods.  Second, to those who were not able to make it, don't worry!  There will be more!  It was such a great experience that we MUST do it again!

Training for the bike in triathlon can be.... boring.  In the winter, we spend all this time on our trainers, and then come springtime, we head out to our faithful Birds Hill Park to get some outdoor time in.  The only issue is that one lap is roughly 11km, so if you're looking at doing a 100km plus ride, that's a lot of laps.  Almost like a hamster wheel.  So when the opportunity comes up to get out on some different terrain, we're going to jump at it.

A group of us were either camping or staying at a cabin for the long weekend in the area.  We met up at 'Base Camp' in Clearwater Bay and then started our ride out towards Kenora.  There were hills, there were laughs, there were tears, there was beer, but most of all, there was great company.  With most of the riders training either for the 70.3 or full Ironman races this summer, it was a great ride with some challenges for the ol' legs.  Definitely something that needs to be repeated.

If anyone is looking for a challenging ride, or tips on where you might consider going, or just want to hear how the ride went, get in touch with any of the people in the picture :)  I'm sure they'll have some good stories to tell.

Fargo Marathon - my first 26.2

The Fargo Marathon 2014

My first 26.2!

I have to admit that I was nervous about this one.  Just like anything that you do for the first time, it's a bit of the unknown combined with some healthy excitement.  I don't think I slept much the night before, but I don't think that's anything unusual.  I had laid out all my gear so it would be a matter of getting up, hopping on the shuttle bus, and making my way to the start line.  The nice part of waiting for the shuttle was running into some folks from Winnipeg and chatting about nothing in particular.  It helped to keep my mind off of what we were about to do.

Standing at the starting line was crowded with little space to do any sort of stretching.  My nerves were starting to get the better of me.  After the national anthem and the starting of the race, my nerves were in full force and it took me about 5km to feel like I was into my groove.  I know that there was a lot of music along the way, but I needed to have my own music and run with something familiar.  I had my headset on, but again, this is what I needed to get myself settled.  I did about an 8 min/mile for the first 5km, and then picked it up to a 7:45 minute/mile until the half way mark.  At the 13.1 mile mark, I felt strong and was around a 1:42 split time.  This felt good.

The second half was going fairly well, until about the 20 mile mark.  There were no real hills or challenges to speak of, however I had heard time and time again about what happens to people at the 20 mile mark.  I'm not sure if it was mental or not, but I thought that this was going to be where my wheels fell off.  I had wanted to attempt to run a 3:40 marathon, and at this point, I was running with the 3:30 group.  Seeing as this was faster than I had hoped, I ended up dropping my pace and essentially telling myself that I had time in the bank and that there was no need to keep up the pace.  I have always known how much the mental endurance plays in these races, and at this point my internal dialogue was getting interesting.  Keep up the pace, slow down, your almost there, no you're not, my legs are tired... and so on.  In the end, I listened to my body as well, slowed down a bit, and finished with a 3:40:45.  I have to say I am very happy with this time.

 A huge thank you to my wife for meeting me at the finish line.  She ran the half and met me at the end.  A big shout out to the other local runners who made the trek down for this marathon - there are simply too many to mention!  All of the positive emails, texts, videos and thoughts proved to be exactly what I needed to make it through this race.

What's in a name?

What's in a name?

Actually, quite a bit.

I had the opportunity to do some group training last weekend with a great gang of triathletes.  Some of us were from Winnipeg, others were from Minneapolis, and we all shared a passion for the sport.  We had meals together, swam together, biked together, and unfortunately due to the weather, not all of us were brave enough to go out running together (way to go Elaine!), but overall, we had a great time.  We took over the pool at the hotel and even got kicked out of the hotel bar - but not for reasons that you would think.  It seems that triathletes dress a bit different than regular folks.

At the end of the weekend, Glinda (my bike) and Squirrel (me) felt like we had accomplished a lot.  Sure we could have trained alone at home, but there is something about being with a group that pushes you physically as well as supports you mentally.  I know a lot of us name our bikes, and we do it because... well.... I'm not sure why we do it other than we spend so much time on the thing that it just seems to make sense to give it a name.  It also represents what or how our bikes feel, or how we feel when we're on them.  You have to give the bikes' name considerable thought.  Nicknames however emerge from the group.  You don't get to name yourself.  It's how your peer group sees you and thinks of you, which can be quite meaningful and powerful.  These are the people that you will spend much of your training with, every good and/or agonizing mile.  Once the physical part of you is exhausted, it's the mental part that takes over and gets your training finished or gets you across the finish line.  Yes, there is a lot that goes on in your own head, but the support of others can takes you miles further than you thought you could ever go.

If you haven't already, have a look at your bike and give it a name that means a lot to you.  Even if you don't like your bike and haven't named it, consider naming it.  Who knows? It might change how you feel about it.  Take a look at your peers and think of what kind of nickname represents them.  Note: more than one person has to agree on the name, including the person who is getting named.  I know I have said it before, but your peers are a tremendous support and can make all the difference in your training and in your races.