Maple Hill Health and Fitness

How many times have we all done this? I feel this resolution alone could win 2021!

I got some exciting personal news! For the next 12 weeks, I am working with an old friend and absolutely kick ass personal trainer @ Craig Bongelli on the Rock Program. 12 weeks of detailed eating, 5 training days a week, working to get bigger, stronger, and leaner. You might be thinking , "Hey your a trainer, why would you spend money on something you already do for a living and know about?". I have a bunch of reasons to be honest! #1 I haven't trained with anyone since I ...left big box gyms in Guelph 5 years ago, that is a lot of solo training. I have wanted someone to give me a push for a long time and I find you only get that when working with someone. #2 I have always been great at eating a good diet and maintaining my exercise regime but I haven't pushed for a specific goal in a long time. I believe in the power of coaches to help with a goal. I have had in my mind what I wanted to do for a while now and it just so happens he was a running a program that aligned with what I wanted to do. #3 I trust this coach. If you are going to go out and spend money on something, you want someone who you know has the knowledge, experience, and tools to help you get where you want and deal with any road blocks in between. I ultimately have to execute the plan, but the plan must be worth executing. Craig checks these boxes. #4 I want to show what a good 3 months of focused training and eating can do for your body, mind, work ethic, and mental health. I am going all in and when it is over I am going to learn a lot and also maintain the results I worked for. If you follow this page you know I am not the celeb trainer taking mirror selfies every morning but this purpose I am going to do weekly progress pics and measurements. If you think something like this is for you and you are ready to bust out with a big change let me know. We are in the same boat!

This lockdown up North caught me off guard. I really didnt think we would be in this situation again but unfortunately we are and I will be closed until at least the 11th barring an extension. If anyone is interested in borrowing some equipment during this time (free), please contact me and I will be glad to set you up with what I can! See you all soon, have a Merry Christmas and Happy New Year.

January is coming up so with that I am going we are going to do some multiple choice on which diet is shown to be the best at hitting your weight loss goals! Is it : A) Paleo B) Intermittent Fasting C) Ketogenic... D) Low Carb E) None of the above If your taking E, you are correct! You see, all of these can work, but none can as well. There is a special ingredient inside each of these that I didn’t mention that totally changes the equation and it is adherence. Adherence is what is going to make any of these nutrition plans work in your favor. There is no magic diet, they all work when they are adhered to and that is why you will see people who have succeeded on any one of these diets as stronger backers of that plan, because it worked for THEM. Really, what you are trying to do is find something that works for YOU! In order for any plan you choose to have success, you have to find something that is going to create the least resistance for yourself and that means picking something that you are most likely to follow. Do your research on any plan you want to follow in order to decide if it is realistic for you to follow. If you are going to have to white-knuckle it for 2 months in order to lose 10lbs, you are bound to eventually cave in to old habits and your results are not kept, but borrowed! I know we all want THE answer, but really simplicity is always going to be your best bet for getting started. Here are some quick tips you can use to make the right choice and make lasting sustainable change! #1) Choose something that allows you to eat foods or use cooking methods that you enjoy #2) Identify problem areas that you notice and address them ONE at a time #3) Choose substitutions or reductions instead of elimination when looking at different foods #4) Exercise your discipline while shopping, what you bring home is ultimately what you will eat #5) Focus on reducing portion sizes This is a subject we could go way deeper into, but, if you are just starting off, you cannot go wrong with the advice above. You would be amazed at just how much change you can make happen when you make a choice, and hit it with that magic word adherence. What you stick with is what will work!

Remember why we stay in shape! Your body is a vehicle for lifes moments.

I got talking with someone the other day about body image, and it got me down a big rabbit hole in considering it and what it means to us. From what I see, we are rarely ever happy about what we see in the mirror. We focus on all the spots that we don’t like, the spots that need to tighten, tone, lose fat, gain muscle etc. As I talk with people about this, they usually highlight an area of their body that they do not enjoy, and then discuss a body part on some else that they ...want (this could be someone they know, or unrealistic social media images). The interesting thing I have noticed is this: Person A has a body part they don’t like (for an example we will use stomach) and likes that body part on person B, while simultaneously, person B has another part they don’t like but person B also happens to like the disliked body part on person A! What your unhappy with becomes something someone else wants and vice versa. I like to refer to this as body capitalism. We try to eat and train ourselves into the body we think we will like and we admire other people and their features and wish we had them. We are trying to collect body parts like things in our house, except it doesn’t work that way. We all have different bodies and we need to take the good with bad together, because we are a whole. Personally, I have a malformed sternum and growing up thi made me very self-conscious. I would walk around with my arms crossed to hide it, I was ashamed of it. Now, I accept this along with the things I like about my body because they are me. I have trained myself to an image I am happy with, taking in the things I can realistically change (based on how I want to live my life), and the things that I obviously can’t. In no way do I think that striving for the body we want is all negative, but I do think we need to realign our focus in how we approach our body image. The shift in mindset for me is subtle. I think if we put focus into the progress that ultimately results in the body we want to achieve, we will be much happier. So what does that look like? It means giving ourselves a big pat on the back for hitting all your workouts in the week. It is a high five for prepping your meals like you wanted to. It is nailing the extra couple reps to beat last week’s best. It is finding the joy in grabbing an after dinner walk instead of hitting the couch. When we start focusing on all those amazing things we do to make change, you will really be able to appreciate what you like about your body, and have forgiveness for the parts you want to improve. Put focus into the positive changes you make can lead to your improved body, instead of solely focusing on the end result of those changes can make a world of difference in your mindset.

Craig always has something worth reading, another great take !

Do you ever hear/see a quote or an idea that really hits home and gets you thinking about things from a different perspective? It is always the simple things too that I find most impactful. I came across something last week and it was, Choose your hard. I got digging into that idea from the perspective of my life and what I do for a living, as part of the quote was about being out of shape is hard, and getting into shape is hard. That’s a broad statement so what can that re...ally look like for real world examples? - Starting a running program can be hard, but so is being unable to walk a flight of stairs without being very winded or playing with your kids the way you want - Losing some weight can be hard, but dealing with daily chronic hips/knees/ankles/and back pain is hard too - Taking a risk and making a change is hard, so is staying the same and being unhappy - Getting stronger may be hard, but so too is struggling with daily tasks - Changing your eating patterns may be hard, so too are the common health repercussions of the Western diet As I write this I think more about how we can either focus our energy on living for tomorrow or living for the next 5 minutes. Are you choosing short term sacrifice for longer term gain and balance or living in those 5 minutes segments. Your life choices are always going to be hard but what type of hard are you going to choose? Give it some thought as I found this idea really impactful and it applies to many decisions you will make!

Let’s talk about setting realistic expectations for yourself. Let’s say over the past 5 years you have put on 10 lbs a year for a total of 50 extra pounds of weight. I will tell you right now, if you did all the right things, under most circumstances you are going to lose anywhere between .5 pounds to 2 pounds a week giving you a span of anywhere between 100 weeks to 25 weeks (2 years to 6 months). Either of those options still falls short of the 5 years it took you to get... to that spot in the first place. That is the point I want to hammer home on this post. Even if you do a majority of the things right, it is still going to take you time to get to where you want to go if you are making a large change. This is not to be discouraging but to help put you in the mind frame of being in it for the long haul. It is going to take a while to unravel all of the intertwined choices, habits, stressors, employment, mental health, and family dynamics that have contributed to the situation. If it takes 21 days to make a habit and you have just 5 things you want to change, you are looking at over 100 days before you even line everything up, assuming you have no setbacks! Most people want to do it all right out of the gate, and for some this may work. For the majority this is going to fail and fail big time. My advice to you, make one simple change a month. Don’t overwhelm yourself with change. I want you to become an absolute expert at your one change before you move on to the next one. Take this non-sexy approach and you will get exactly where you want to go, one step at a time. Slow change is lasting change as you figure out how to balance everything you want to do to get towards your goal. If you have questions about this approach and how to move forward, shoot me a message, I am here to help

Happy Thanksgiving everyone from my family to yours.

I ran into a situation with a client a couple weeks ago and frankly it is a situation that comes up a lot. We were reviewing what their goal was and what things they can take on to get themselves to that spot. One of their goals was to get on the treadmill in the morning and make sure they get their walk in before they start the day; the problem is that this goal went off the rails. When I asked what they could do to get back into that routine, I got answer I get often: If I... can just do it once then I will be fine and be back on track. Have you ever said this to yourself before? If it was so easy to do it once, then would we not ever get off track? Hope is not a strategy. Repeat that line to yourself right now if you have navigated off your path. If you’re hoping one day to wake up and do it, you’re going to struggle removing yourself from the rut. Your superior approach is going to be in specifics. If you think doing it once is the magic trick, that is great, but how are we going to back it up? It sounds simple, but plan it out. My clients who have the greatest success are the ones who have their personal formula figured out. If you want to run on the treadmill, lift weights, read books, study, whatever it is. you are going to have to work it out by asking these questions. #1What day/days am I going to do this? #2 What time am I going to do this? #3 What strategies do I have in place to remind myself to do this? (Alarms, post it notes, gym buddies) #4 What is my specific goal for that time period I have set? (Walk for 20 min, read 30 pages, 30 min weight training circuits). I promise you if you make time to plan, your plan will make time for you. Don’t wait for hope to take action, get after it!