EPIC Outdoors (Partner Workout)

1. BW Squats 

Katie & Coralyn

People generally have a stigma towards personal training. Many people are afraid of personal trainers. Popular thoughts are that they are drill sergeants who only count reps until you puke or are only satisfied when you are saturated in a pool of sweat and can’t get up. People refuse to open up about themselves because they think negative consequences will follow. I’m here to tell you that those ideas couldn’t be further from the truth. I understand that people have certain experiences with trainers, but I am blessed to be working with a group of inspiring trainers who really, truly want to help. Help in the form of coaching, guiding, motivating, listening, counseling and teaching. Whatever is needed to help you succeed. Now, I could write a whole article on what it means to succeed…maybe I will…but I digress. We help people in a very holistic sense, meaning: physically, emotionally, spiritually, socially, and intellectually. In order to live a balanced life, all of these things need to be taken into account and that’s exactly what our trainers do. If you think you are just in for a sweaty workout, you got another thing coming. We’re here to educate, to listen, to advise and to keep you accountable to your goals. So come drop into EPIC and meet us and see for yourself what personal training is all about.

Katie Spack

613 741 4348

Ingredients

1 cup mashed ripe banana
2 egg whites
1 tsp vanilla
1/4 cup coconut oil1 cup oats
2/3 cup ground almonds
1 cup hemp hearts
1/3 cup unsweetened coconut flakes
2 tsps cinnamon
1/2 tsp sea salt
1 tsp baking powder (gluten-free)
1/2 cup dark chocolate chips and walnuts

Directions

Preheat oven to 350 degrees
In large mixing bowl combine banana, egg, vanilla and oil
In another bowl combine dry ingredients: oats, ground almonds, hemp hearts,
baking powder, coconut and cinnamon and salt
Combine the dry with the wet ingredients
Add in chips and nuts

Drop the dough on to the greased cookie sheet in small rounds
Bake for 13 mins or until browned

Tumeric is a superfood that stimulates the metabolism.

This is gluten-free, wheat-free and dairy-free.  It is also high in protein if prepared with chicken.

Ingredients:

Already made brown/wild rice (1 cup)

• 1.5 cups chickpeas
• 2 large onions
• 1 large tomato
• 1 tsp of fennel seeds
• 1 tsp tumeric
• 1 tsp cumin seeds
• 1 tsp of minced garlic
• 1 tsp of minced ginger
• 1 small bunch of coriander leaves
• 1 tsp of red chilli powder
• 1 tbsp of coconut oil
• 1 tsp of salt
• 1/4 cup water
• 1/2 cup of chopped spinach

Directions:

Heat oil and add the onions and all seeds

Sauté until golden brown then add the ginger and garlic

Add the tomatoes, let everything simmer down and get soft

Add the chickpeas, spinach, chilli powder, salt and water. Bring to boil and simmer for a few mins

Add half of the mixture to a food processor or blender and blend

Add back to the mixture still in the pan, add tumeric, salt, chili powder and corriander

Serve warm atop a bed of brown or wild rice

ENJOY!

One of the biggest lessons I have learned as a trainer is that there are many different definitions of success.  Of course, every individual has a different take on what each measure may mean to them, but most often, I find clients are very focused on the number that appears on the scale. Of course, if your goal is to lose weight, this will be something important to consider, but it should never be all that is used to define success. Sometimes, when you are in the flow of everything, you lose track of the small baby steps you’ve taken along the way to get to where you are now. In reality, it is all those small baby steps that you need not neglect! What other ways are there to define success, you ask?

1. Personal Bests. These might include breaking out dumbbells you’ve never lifted before in your life, executing a difficult exercise perfectly, jumping higher, running faster, and crushing your own personal records at the gym. One thing to remember too is that you might have different “bests” on different days and that so long as you gave it your all, that is another “best” in and of itself. I always ask my clients : “remember what this exercise was like when we first started??” and most of them shake their head in disbelief of how far they’ve come since the beginning. Increased mobility, coordination, strength, power, speed, flexibility…everything! Even just going back to the notes I had taken during their initial movement assessment. Clients who could barely balance on one leg are now anterior reaching to three pylons, with little difficulty, and executing them like a charm! It really is the little things that add up!

2. Compliments from family and friends. Sometimes it’s hard to notice the small changes when we see ourselves every day. Sometimes it just takes one friend you haven’t seen in a few months to say “hey, you are looking great lately!” for it to really sink in. This leads to another way we define success…

3. Progress pictures. These are very key! Progress pictures remind you of your progress when your brain no longer remembers what you looked like a few months back. We humans have limited space in our short-term memory, and we may not be aware of just how different we really look. Perhaps now there is more visible muscle definition, less weight around the edges, and improved posture!  Not only looking at the pictures month to month, but also looking at the pictures since the very first session, can be a great motivation tool and a reminder of just how far you’ve come.

4. Decreased pain. Clients coming in with injuries, muscle imbalances, lack of mobility, and lack of flexibility is not uncommon. It is amazing how training (and specifically functional training) can alleviate pain you may have even been experiencing for years! If this pain is impeding on your activities of daily living and affecting your overall quality of life, having that pain alleviated can be one major success to celebrate!

5.  Clothes fitting differently. The changes in season often mean changes in wardrobe. It’s awesome when you whip out your summer clothes only to realize your shorts are falling right off you, or your shirts are now baggy. You may start to notice you are slowly making your way to the next whole on your belt. Or perhaps your glasses feel loose on your face?

Always remember that there are so many ways that you can define success and that each person may value certain measures of success more than others. I encourage you to keep a small diary or journal to reflect on your successes (big or small) and remind yourself how far you have come.

How do YOU define success? What measures of success do you find most personally gratifying?

Why is it exactly that some people start exercising, but still don’t seem to be losing weight?! Well, it could be many things, but there’s no one answer to this question. Every single person is unique and has their own way of functioning. Perhaps the lack of weight could be due to increased stress levels? Could it be lack of sleep? People start to wonder…”Am I not working hard enough in my workouts? What’s going on here?”. Most likely, you are working hard enough… especially if you have a trainer with you every step of the way constantly pushing you to your limit. It very well could be stress, sleep or nutrition-related weight gain, but there are also some interesting behaviours associated with new exercisers that may influence their relative success in a weight loss journey.

Typically, when someone begins a new fitness journey, whether they are new to exercise or not, an increase in physical activity levels tends to increase hunger cues. Suddenly, you’re hungry all the time!! And so, many people figure that eating more is okay since they are burning more calories at the gym. What to watch out for, however, is the over-compensation of feeding associated with increased physical activity levels. You can do all the calculations you want, but if calories in > calories out, you’re going to gain weight. This same reasoning applies to those who work-out at the gym, then say “well, I worked out hard, so now I will treat myself to a piece of cake”. If you burned 500 calories at the gym to eat a 500 calorie piece of cake, you have only broken even. You are not going to lose weight this way. Like they say, you can’t out-train a bad diet. Even if you’re eating relatively healthy foods, any excess food your body doesn’t use gets stored, contributing to weight gain. So be mindful of how much you’re eating. Listen to your body…are you really hungry, or are you only “eating with your eyes” or craving foods because they are appealing to you?

Now let’s get nerdy and break down how your body functions in terms of daily energy expenditure. Your total daily energy expenditure is broken up as follows: 60-70% of all your daily energy goes towards your resting metabolic rate (i.e. your lowest energy needs to keep you alive- these include the functioning of your heart, lungs, digestive organs, brain, etc.), 10-15% goes toward all processes involved in eating and what occurs following the ingestion of foods (i.e. absorption, metabolism and storage), and finally, 20-25% (although this percentage is highly variable and subject to change if you are either sedentary or highly active) goes towards physical activity energy expenditure. Now this physical activity energy expenditure can further be broken into two categories: structured physical activity time and non-structured physical activity time. Structured physical activity would include organized sports, training sessions, group classes, or anything that is done for the purpose of fitness or considered a “workout”. Now the flip-side of the coin, and the often neglected side of physical activity is the non-structured physical activity time which, when factored into our daily energy expenditure, is also referred to as NEAT (non-exercise activity thermogenesis), or the energy cost associated with activities of daily living. Such activities include walking around the office or house, biking to work, gardening, house cleaning, walking the dog, etc. Now, back to why people might have a hard time losing weight. Now what if you ARE consuming less calories than before AND you are working out three times a week but still haven’t seen changes? Perhaps then you are compensating by decreasing the amount of time spent in your daily activities. People start to rationalize to themselves that they no longer have to bike to work since they work out, so they drive instead. Or they will spend a whole evening lying on the couch and order in food instead of cooking standing up since they “worked hard enough at the gym today”. But, what’s most difficult  to notice is the cumulative effect of all this compensatory behaviour! Sure, maybe you’re working out more now, but if you are decreasing the amount of time and energy you’re putting towards everything else you do in a day, it’ll be a heck of a lot harder to lose weight!

So advice to those who are just starting an exercise regime, or even to those regular exercisers…watch out for the dreaded compensation that affects almost everyone who increases their physical activity levels- whether it is with regards to increased food intake or decreased time and energy spent on daily activities. Keep track of what you do already: do you walk to school instead of take the bus? Well then keep doing it! Or even improve on that and take the long way to school! Do you take your dog for a 30min walk every day? Keep doing that too! Don’t want to let down the poor pooch with a short walk just because you did a workout today. If you want to get the best results, you need to consider what you’re doing outside of the gym just as much as what you’re doing at the gym.

Alannah

1. Stop negative thoughts about yourself – immediately!  Any time a thought comes in about you not being good enough, not smart enough, not fit enough, stop it in its tracks – this also includes making jokes about yourself to others.  Just simply cut it out – seriously, this will make a difference.
2. MOVE – do something for 1 hour every day.  Walk, do yoga, go for a run/walk, workout with your trainer, swim, hike.  Don’t have an hour? Do 6 intervals of 10 minutes throughout the day – complete a couple of these workouts in the EPIC Living with Stephanie series – http://www.youtube.com/user/EpicFitnessOttawa?feature=
3. Remove all dairy and all wheat from your diet and replace with chia seeds and quinoa.  Dairy causes inflammation, even if you do not get immediate adverse reactions to it.  Wheat also causes inflammation.  Inflammation causes damage, mental fog and fatigue and arguably is the reason behind most diseases.  Cut those out and you will feel a difference overnight.
4. Increase hydration and only drink water – at least 1.5 litres every day.  Get rid of all liquid that is not water; pop, juice, energy drinks and coffee.  Depending on your addiction to caffeine, you may want to ease off this to decrease the shock to the system, but nevertheless get rid of it throughout the 7 days.
5. Remove salt.  First, replace all the table salt in your house for sea salt since it is less refined, less processed and actually has trace minerals that can benefit your body and then….for 1 week cut it out.  Also, cut out foods with high sodium in them like frozen food, pickles and condiments.

It is that simple, you will feel lighter, more energized and less bloated.  Really want to feel better?  Do these 5 things!

You have to make these bars, they make a great healthy snack and an even better treat substitute.

If you would like help in making them, check out our video at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jdB063LI1M0

2 cups dry roasted almonds
1/2 cup unsweetened coconut
2 tbsp. cocoa
1/4 cup ground flaxseed
3 scoops of Ergogenics, New Zealand chocolate whey protein
1 cup of dates (pitted)
4 tbsps. all natural peanut butter
1/4 cup of water

Blend all ingredients in a food processor, leaving the almonds chunky.
Square off into bars, wrap in saran wrap and store in the fridge or freezer!

Trainers Training Trainers

Hello Faithful Followers,

I hope you’ve all been enjoying the first couple of weeks of spring…even though the weather has been bi polar. No worries, beach weather is just around the corner. With that in mind, my personal fitness journey has been going great and I have made a few changes that have made a HUGE difference.

The first change I have made was with my diet. Even though I was not eating poorly and have made big changes up until last month, I knew I could take the next step. Even more important, I was mentally ready for it. We have been experimenting here at the gym with blood type diets with the idea in mind that certain blood types react differently to certain kinds of food. Me being an O blood type, I lucked out because I get to eat protein like a carnivore. The only down side was that I had to basically cut out all dairy and wheat products (Carbs are an O’s worst enemy). NO CHEESE/BREAD….HOW WILL I SURVIVE?! The first few days were really tough to plan my diet and stick with it, but just like quitting smoking, after that first week things got easier. If I eat dairy and bread now, my body shuts down and I feel like 10 pounds of crap in a 5 pound bag. I can see myself eating like this for the rest of my life because I am seeing great results but on top of that I am feeling great.

The second change I have made is that I now have my very own personal trainer. I know, I am a personal trainer and I have all the knowledge to make my own program and fix my own diet but I needed something more. Training by myself has been great. Slowly getting myself back into shape has been quite the journey, but again, it was time to take the next step. Enter Morgan, he is a fellow trainer here at EPIC and a great friend. We decided to train each other and hold each other accountable to the goals we want to achieve for ourselves. We work together to create great programs that are going to get results, but on top of that, we are pushing one another each and every workout. Just having someone pushing me through those last reps has made a huge difference. Before, when I would get tired after 8 reps, I would just save my energy for the next set. Not with Morgan, he makes sure I fully exert myself on every single set and my form is 100% perfect. Even though I hate him during the workouts, I still love him because I know that working together like this WE CAN NOT FAIL. The comfort and confidence I get from having my own personal trainer that is dedicated to getting the results I want is a big weight off my mind…and body

The results I have gotten from training with Morgan in just a month are MIND BLOWING!! I dropped my weight from 223.4lbs to 213.4lbs. TEN POUNDS!!! That is more than my new baby cousin Lily (congrats Mark and Chloe!!!). On top of that, my body fat percentage has dropped from %20.5 to %17.3. I have also lost a total of six and a half inches off my body. That is A LOT of change in one month. If things keep changing at this rate I am going to beach ready by June instead of July/August!!!

Photo day is at the end of the month…..CAN’T WAIT 

Cheers
Case