Biggest Loser update

Hey frequent followers!
So last weigh is tomorrow night for Biggest Loser#5. Im super stoked because this one is looking like a stellar finish! Im already making plans for Biggest Loser #6 which will be starting January 10th 2011! So watch this spot for upcoming news and more info about it! There will be cash money to be won!!!
I counted only 105 days of class left before I become a registered massage therapist! Im really looking fwd to finishing and getting on with my career and expanding Fine Tune Fitness to its full potential. I am doing more treatments @ home so if anyone is interested in getting a massage please feel free to contact me! Im not going anywhere for Christmas so I should be just hanging around Regina.
Also for the Christmas season, there are gift certificates available for personal training so if you want to send the gift of fitness let me know!
For those who want to know, since my last post I have been helping out with the Cougar track team with the throwers, and massaging the sprints and jumps once a week at the U of R, so Im expanding my parameters and meeting some great people and hopefully I am affecting their performance in a positive way!!!
So until next time Keep Fit and Have Fun! ....... oops sorry I should come up with my own tag line. Any suggestions?

Sushi Class

Hey gang,
So sushi class went really well, we had 9 ladies come out to learn new healthy ways to make sushi. We used beet juice and Chlorophyll to die the rice to make a decorative sushi too, so it was pretty cool! I hope all the ladies had a good time, I sure did and it was delicious!
3rd weigh in for biggest loser is on Monday so I am looking forward to that. Any participant that loses more lb's than me gets a free 1hr session so Im doing good so far so hopefully that motivates the ladies to put in 110%
I have 12 weeks until I go to mexico and look fab in my bikini so my goal is still set in place to be down so that when I find my first bodybuilding competition that doesnt interfere with anything, I will be ready! I will still train like I will be competing in April and will keep you posted.
I'm writing my first quarterly exams this week for massage school and I have one more this afternoon and then I'm done. They've went really well but I am looking forward to being done so that I can help out my fellow Reginian(?) (I don't know if that is a word! ha)
So keep up with all your workouts guys and watch your eating. If you are looking for a good website to track you food, our group has been using http://www.livestrong.com/
Don't hesitate to email me with any questions you may have about diet or exercise!

Biggest Loser update

Hey All
So the Biggest Losers are still in full swing. They had their first weigh ins last week and they all lost, ranging from 4lbs to 11 lbs in the first month, so well done ladies. We did our grocery store trip with our registered dietitian Darci Norton and like always I learn something new every time. Next Monday will be our first experience doing the cooking class other than me and Darci running it. We have asked Sarah Atcheson-Achter, who RHN (registered holistic nutritionist) and her business is Beyond Body Holistic Nutrition www.BeyondBody.info She is going to be teaching us a holistic Sushi making class. So I am really looking forward to it and am excited to take my sushi skills to the next level. I will let you all know how it goes.
As for my training I was down another 2lbs then I had some Halloween candy to treat myself so I went back up. No fret, I have been doing some additional workouts to make up for it and am back on track. I have unfortunately found out that the weekend of the SABBA Novice Bodybuilding show that I wanted to compete in, is the same day as a mandatory course that I need to take for massage therapy. So I'm pretty bummed and also have something going on the weekend of the INBF Canada show Calgary, so the 2 shows that I have been planning for all year have been put to a halt. So my goals are still the same as before I will train and diet like I am dieting for a show and when the time comes when there is a show that will fit my schedule I shouldn't be too far away from peak weight. So this month with the Biggest Losers I do challenge them to a little friendly competition so I give a free session to all those in the group that lose more weight than I do in that month. So look out girls, I love a little friendly competition!!!

Happy Thanksgiving

Happy Turkey day everybody!

So I am thankful for a lot of things recently, the October issue of Adrenaline magazine is out and its awesome I am very pleased with it!!! Thanks to Julie, Ashley and Jay for their great work! So be sure to pick up a copy from lots of places in the city, even SETS Fitness Center. Here is the link to see if online! http://adrenalinereginasports.com/ Just scroll down to the bottom and click on this months issue, its blue with a kite boarder on it!
I also had an excellent weekend in Saskatoon this weekend, my friend got married and went to my farm for Thanksgiving and got to do some visiting. So big weekend to been more vigilant with the diet. My Rider game snacks consisted of veggies dipped in no fat tzatziki and crispy minis. I did snack on some ruffles chips and dip, I have to admit but did a lot of yard work the next day and danced up a storm at the reception that night!
So tonight is left over night so key to watching those extra calories stack up. try and stay away from the snacks before dinner. Sometimes you may think theyre fine but those cals add up really quickly. Veggies are a good start because theyre loaded with fiber and will make you fuller faster. Try and concentrate on every bite and enjoy it. Over eating is common especially if you are wolfing down all the turkey. Try and serve yourself all veggies and salad first then get your mashed potatoes and dressing, there wont be as much room and you wont consume as many of the higher calorie items. Also it is thanksgiving, you can have a piece of pie....... its ok or have my favorite, pumpkin spice dip!!!! mmmm........mmmmm.........mmm
So try these tips and dont stress we try and eat as good as we can for so long but remember to treat yourself! If you restrict yourself too much from what you enjoy you will end up cheating on your dieting and feeling guilty afterwards!

Biggest Losers first weigh in tomorrow so Im looking forward to that and seeing their results! My weight has dropped another 1lb and I ave this week off of school so im really gonna focus on my workouts this week, Im looking fwd to it!
So until next time go look at the magazine, dont stress about your extra thanksgiving cals, and here is the recipe for pumpkin spice dip.....enjoy!

Pumpkin Spice Dip

1 pkg (8 ounces) fat free cream cheese

½ cup canned pumpkin

½ cup Splenda

1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1 teaspoon maple flavoring

½ teaspoon pumpkin pie spice

½ teaspoon ground nutmeg

1 carton (8 ounces) fat free whip topping (I used 1 dream whip pkg with skim milk)

In a large mixing bowl, combine the cream cheese, pumpkin, and splenda, mix well. Beat in

the cinnamon, vanilla, maple flavoring, pumpkin pie spice, and nutmeg. Fold in whipped

topping. Refrigerate until serving

Week 3 of dieting

Well week 3 of dieting and I will be honest I was not as consistant. I had a wedding last night and indulged on some cabbage rolls and perogies which were delicious, but I did not drink much at all. But I drank probably 8 big glasses of water throughout the night, so people thought I was drinking vodka and Sprite but really wasn't. So weigh in this morning was the same due to all that H20 I drank.
Anyways my touch football season is wrapping up soon, just one game left so training has been around my football schedule. So double header this afternoon, I ran like I was doing cardio at the gym! I did aquire an injury to my right ear which is really painful, I got a cleat in the ear while I was making a diving catch to tag a girl. So now im paranoid that Im going to get cauliflower ear. I've spoken to a wrestling friend of mine and he assures me that I will be fine. So that makes me feel a bit better, but it still really hurts!!!
So plan for this week, Im in the process of making a roast again with roasted veggies and weighing my meat being 4 to 6oz and the rest veggies in a tupperware. So this is where I made most of my success is when all my meals were measured.
So I will keep you updated with next week, I have a fairly regular schedules of bootcamps and such. Biggest Loser week 2 will begin tomorrow so Im excited to see how the girls have been progressing and to see if they have been doing their homework.

Week 2 of Dieting!

Hey everybody, I am proud to say that I'm down another 2lbs this week!!! So a total of 5lbs since I've started blogging about it! So really excited about that. Training has been good, my knee is a little sore so easing up on the cardio.
Last weekends labour day Rider game was easy, I found some wrestler friends to watch the game with who completely understand the necessity of dieting and they didn't pressure me at all to eat or drink anything, they even gave me some veggies to snack on and didn't make it awkward that I brought my own crispy minis and a couple diet Pepsi's! So thanks guys!
Lots of rain this week so I'm looking forward to some sunshine for outdoor bootcamp! For those who live in Regina stop down to Les Sherman park on Wed @ 6pm for bootcamp and be in some photos that will be featured in Octobers issue of Adrenaline Magazine!!! So there it is, I spilled the beans, I am going to be in a magazine talking about Fine Tune Fitness and what its all about! So make sure you get your copy and I will be sure to post the link in this spot when the issue is out!
Also Biggest Loser #6 is starting Monday night so I super stoked to get started and see how these people will succeed! I will keep everyone posted on the successes of the group!
So my focus this week is going to be on my diet again. I have found that pre packaging my meals for a couple days in advance really has made a ton of difference. I always ate healthy but I guess where I struggled was when I was cooking my meals there was a lot of snacking that I never really noticed. So now I get home from school or the gym and my food goes in the microwave and I'm good to go! So tonight I'm gonna do my cooking for the week, also I will be doing it after I have eaten supper so that I don't snack!
So some of you may be wondering what I'm eating, well lots of chicken breasts, veggies like beets and beans that I have from the garden, also potatoes and carrots from the garden. I think these items also being home grown has made a huge difference as well. So once I'm out of that I will switch to sweet potatoes and broccoli because I like those. You have to make sure its foods that you enjoy, because if its not you will have a hard time dieting and not enjoy refueling your body. I went to an INBF Canada show in April and we had a meet and greet with all of the pros the day after competition and one of them I thought had a really great philosophy about food and eating. He said, "Everything you put in your body is used for fuel, why would you want to put anything in there that would impede your performance in the gym as well as all of your systems in your body? Feel how good it feels to eat good clean food and drink tons of water, you only have one body and take care of it and treat it with respect. Your body will respond better by being fed better. "
I took that home with me and thought of it like getting an oil change in you car, it doesn't run as well when you have dirty oil running through it. So running clean oil through it increases performance of your vehicle.
So hopefully this will give you a different view on food and how you eat. Its taken me a few years to feel like this but I understand what he was talking about. Eating like this makes you feel so much better, healthier and happier. So I challenge you to think about your food before you consume it and think, how is this going to make me feel?
Thanks to all of you for reading and comment, email, txt or tweet your thoughts about my journey, I enjoy hearing from you!

Week 1 Down

Hey folks, so its blogging day! And a great day it is, woke up to do my weekly weigh in and a solid 3lbs since last week! So feeling pretty good, last weekend I had my final as I call "dirty meal" of tortellini's and man was I not feeling good. So its taken me a few days to bounce back from that and it makes you realize that eating "clean" makes you feel soooo much better! Its hard to explain but you can feel everything better, I can easily tell when Im full and easily tell when Im hungry. Where as before, there was always a gray area. I have been eating clean for a couple months, its just tough in the summer with BBQ's and stuff but I haven't strayed too far.
Its the Labour Day Classic football tournament this weekend which I will be doing volunteer sports massage at and playing in as well. So this will be interesting eating while Im playing in a tournament and really not leaving the fields all day. I gonna get some groceries today and pre pkg some items but Im worried that it will not be enough food! So we will see, I may just have to send Jared on a food run for me.
Also recently I have been discussing eating out with a client and the social aspect of dieting and how to still be social. This sort of lifestyle seems to be harder on the people around you sometimes than you, yourself. Its only been a solid week for this and Ive already run into the issue of saying no to an invitation, but that seems to not be a option. They don't understand Im doing this for a reason and yes I know you're a good cook and you like sharing a meal with us, but don't be offended if I only eat one thing, or if I eat before I come. I am ok with it!!! So we will see how the rest of these social outings will occur! And to all of my friends now, Im sorry Im not drinking anymore, I haven't in quite a while and when we go out, don't worry Im fine, I already ate!!