There is power in the word "don't".

When I "don't" do something, I am in control.

There is no rule that is forcing me, no obligation that I am under, nobody else telling me what to do.

Let's say you want to drop a few pounds and lean up, so you adopt a different eating strategy, for instance participate in "Sizzlin' Summer Slimdown".

Don't say you "can't" eat something on S3, because that is simply not true.

You CAN do whatever you want.

Think about it - the rules of fat loss did not change because you chose to get serious about it, they just came into clearer focus and become more important in the "now" to you. 

Most of us don't like "rules", (especially those of fat loss) but some of us sure need them - I am first in that line!

Here's an example; You decide that from this point on you are only going to eat 3 meals a day, with no snacking. That is your new "rule".

What do you say when you are offered popcorn during the movie you are watching?

What do you tell your own self when you want that last piece of pie in the fridge?

"I can't because I am on this stupid diet" makes you a victim, and we all like to play the victim.

"No thanks, I don't eat more than 3 meals because I am learning to control my hunger" demonstrates an exercise of free will that is a emotionally and psychologically very powerful. Jedi mind tricks if you will. YOU are in control because you made a decision, not because some diet guru made it for you.

And can we talk about that word "Decide"?

We use that word very flippantly.

The root is "cid" or "cis".

Homicide. Suicide. Scissors. Decide.

All the same root - "cid" or "cis" - "to cut or to kill".

What to wear to the gym or whether to drink Dunkins or Starbucks is making a choice, not deciding.

"Deciding" something means you cut off or kill all other options.

Did you really "Decide" to participate in Sizzlin' Summer Slimdown, or is it something you are merely choosing to do until the going gets tough?

If you truly made a decision than anything that is not part of S3 is off the table for you.

Do you understand the power of that?

There is no choice to be made anymore, and that is liberating, not restrictive.

You "don't" do it because YOU decided not to, and YOU matter.

Don't ever forget it.

Coach Dean

As I sat down to jot my thoughts down this morning, I couldn't help but get a little bit choked up. 

​Because while it is very exciting to be celebrating 9 years in business, it was even more impacting to take some time to go through the moments we have captured on our cameras, video recorders, and phones over the years.

It hasn't always been unicorns, roses and sunshine. Life never is. But what an amazing thing to see all the lives that have been impacted by this little experiment called "Get Fit NH". Not the least of all my own.

​When we started, the nine of us in my backyard on the cool morning on May 8, 2008, at 5:00am, there was no grandiose plan of 2 locations, multiple coaches, and state, regional and national recognition.

Then, as today, it was about a group of people bonding together for a common purpose - to be the best version of ourselves we could be, through the vehicle of pursuing better health and fitness.

​To look through those pictures I was reminded of this one truth; someday my career is going to be over, and the reigns of Get Fit NH will be passed to another caretaker. At that time I hope the focus is not on how good of a business we ran, or how good of coaches we were, or that the gyms were kept in good shape with the latest and greatest cool equipment.

My hope, my prayer, is not that we were looked upon as being great, but that we created something good, that made a lasting impact on our families, our team, our students, and our community.

Right now as I am writing my Facebook feed is blowing up with y'all putting up pictures of all the broccoli you are eating, a challenge from coach Meagan. Who woulda thunk? 🙂

I am so grateful for the team we have here; Nancy, Meagan, Adam, Cari, Lars and Stephanie.

They work SO hard every day, in so many ways, because they want to create good too. As we have grown the thing that is hardest for me is that I don't get to know and build relationships with all of our students like I used to. But knowing I have caring and compassionate coaches that can do it even better than I could is amazing. Thank-you team.

Thank-You. I don't know what else to say. If you are reading this then somehow Get Fit NH is on your radar. We get to coach you in some way; either in person at one of our training gyms, online in our nutrition programs, or even just reading our blog and doing what you can on your own. It is still mind blowing to me that anyone does any of those things. 

As I looked at those pictures this morning I thought maybe I'd put together a slide show of Get Fit NH through the years, but I think I'll wait until our 10th anniversary. I am going to need more time to put it all together. 🙂

Instead, throughout this post are scattered some of the iterations of our logo over the years, and even that was kind of fun. It reminds me how far we have come, but also that the work of improving is never over.

Thanks for taking the journey with me.

Coach Dean

One of the hardest things for us to do is to take a good hard look at ourselves. But maybe the hardest thing to do is to take a good hard look and then CHANGE what needs to be changed.

It's easier to not look.

That applies to more than our "inner" being though. There aren't a whole lot of us that like to step on the Fit3D very often either.

Sometimes it just ain't pretty.

But avoiding a problem doesn't usually make it better.

​So it goes with the "Truth Booth". And it goes WAAAAAY deeper than how we look.

We are taking charge of our HEALTH when we monitor our progress regularly, and the Fit3D is a quick, easy way to start to take charge.

The tutorial below explains why image isn't everything, and why you need to "Fit3D" on a regular basis.

More questions? Comment below.​

Latest news from the Rock N' Race committee.

Please come support the Payson Center, as well as honor our friend Jim Knee and his late wife Catherine Dowd by joining our team!

Register Now and Save $5

The deadline to form a team of twelve or more individuals and receive customized team T shirts and/or a unique race day wicking shirt has been extended to Tuesday, April 18 at 8:00 am.

Register now. After May 15 the registration fee increases to $35, so sign up now and save!

All proceeds from the Merrimack County Savings Bank Rock ‘N Race are directed to Concord Hospital Payson Center for Cancer Care.

We look forward to seeing you at the starting line on Thursday, May 18 at 6:00pm.

The Rock ‘N Race Planning Committee

April 11, 2017 - Get Fit NH’s Smart Group Training is “Best of the Best” workout in New Hampshire. Get Fit NH voted “Best of the Best” Gym in NH for fifth straight year.

Get Fit NH, with locations in Concord and Epsom, won three awards in this year’s Hippo Press “Best of NH” voting. Voters have once again named Get Fit NH “Best of the Best” gym in all of New Hampshire as well as voting their “Smart Group Training” the “Best of the Best workout class” in the state. Coach Nancy Carlson earned the “Best of the Best” Fitness instructor award. This makes five “Best of the Best” nods in a row and eight “Best of…” overall for the popular training gym, well known for its unique high quality group training format. Coach Nancy’s “Best of the Best” Fitness Instructor in all of New Hampshire honor is her fourth straight and her sixth since 2010. “All of the coaches at Get Fit NH consistently work hard and take great pride in what we do for our clients. We never stop learning and finding new ways to make Get Fit NH and our clients better every day. We work hard to consistently offer the smartest and best training available so earning these awards year after year is especially gratifying to us and to our amazing team of coaches, who are deserving of all the credit we can give.” said Nancy.

Get Fit NH is built on the philosophy that if the training isn't fun, safe, and effective, clients won't come back. "Fitness technology is huge these days," Co-Founder Dean Carlson says. "It makes training interesting and helps both our clients and us see and track progress, as well as make quicker adjustments to the training program as needed." In the last few years, Get Fit NH has added new innovations at the gym such as BioForce HRV heart rate variability testing, which monitors readiness for exercise, Fit 3D body scanning for viewing and tracking progress over time, and MyZone, which allows coaches and clients to monitor degree of effort while training.

Get Fit NH is one of only a handful of gyms in the country to have earned Smart Group Training (SGT) certification. SGT is built around the Functional Movement Screen which allows personalization of the routine within a group setting to maximize each client’s results. Get Fit NH asks each new student to come in for a 2 week free tryout before joining to see if the gym, coaches and training are a good fit. These two weeks allow them the best chance to see for themselves what taking advantage of the innovative approach at Get Fit NH will do for them.

The success of Get Fit NH is due to their continuous drive to do what it takes to make their clients better. To this end they offer professional group fitness training, nutrition coaching, and seminars at two locations in Concord and Epsom. See their website at http://www.GetFitNH.com or call 344-2651 today.

Get a head start by registering today!

Man that snuck up on us FAST!

You are running (see what I did there) out of time to register for the 2017 Rock N' Race and get your custom "Get Fit NH & Beat Cancer" t-shirt. 

Do you really just want to have a plain t-shirt when you could get a sweet customized one?

Don't be that guy.

Seriously.

Click Here N.O.W. NOW and register!​

Please do your part and honor Jim, Catherine and ALL the deserving folks that need our help. The deadline is April 18th for your custom shirt!

P.S. - It's a BLAST!

P.S.S. - We shut down the gym for the race, so you might as well come! 🙂

To some of y'all it might seem strange that as a gym owner and physical prep coach that I would suggest you can get too MUCH exercise, but it's true. 

​With our next scheduled recovery week coming up, I want you to explore further with me the concept of "enough" in relation to exercise.

​It seems counterintuitive - do less, gain more? Well, as the answer to many exercise related questions;

It Depends.

There are two sides to the story. On the one hand some of us don't have the skill (and sometimes will) to push ourselves hard enough to make progress. Skill? How hard can it be to sweat? When I speak of skill I mean being able to cleanly move through an exercise pattern with proper form. You know what I mean. You get a lot more "bang for your buck" when you can do a full range squat than just a little "halfsy" right? That's why we ​work on cleaning up your movements; so you can do them safely and with maximum effectiveness.

On the other hand some people are just exercise junkies. Seriously. Strenuous exercise releases endorphins, which are chemicals that make us feel good. Endorphins are why we can feel so good even though we just got our butts kicked. The downside is they can literally become our "drug". Pushing our bodies to the limit is a high we start to seek.

​But too much of a good thing is a bad thing. There is a point of diminishing returns. There comes a point when excessive exercise along with too low of calories will become a vicious cycle of fatigue, injury and even weight gain. UGHHH! 

Learning to push harder is good. Exercising hard and pushing it to the max, every so often, is a very beneficial thing to do as we seek to hit new goals and discover what we are capable of.

But there are limits on both the intensity of exercise and the frequency of exercise.

We've talked about the "hierarchy of training" before.

In other words, which type of exercise will give me the most bang for my buck, depending on the number of hours I have to allocate per week?

I absolutely love this graphic from our partners over at Precision Nutrition. It perfectly illustrates this concept.

MORE isn't better, BETTER is better.

Here's the focus points I want you to get.

• Resistance Training comes first
• Intervals or Sprints come second
• Active recovery (swimming, yoga, walking, mobility work) is important, but not above the first two.
• Leave time to do the fun stuff you enjoy.
• There is an upper limit to how much actual training you should do, no matter how many total hours you choose to be active.

We structure our training in the gym around these principles. The big rock is going to be strength training. You see that manifested in dedicated strength training days, and also on other days where we do "metabolic resistance training" - training that uses resistance (all the tools; dumbbells, kettlebells, bands, suspension trainers, etc.) but where we move at a faster pace. Our finishers revolve around the interval and sprint work, and we also get some mobility and flexibility work in there as well, which is part of your active recovery.

And then there is recovery. Training hard and under-recovering is bad mojo. Eventually there is going to be one too many straws on the camels back.

​That's why we schedule Recovery Weeks as part of our Training Program. They are not willy-nilly, random, or unnecessary. They are an integral part of each training cycle. (You read last Tuesday's post, right?)

Recovery. It's up to YOU to Make It Happen!

Coach Dean​

Sizzlin' Summer Slimdown "Clean and Lean" 2017 IS Here!

Sign Up Now. Registration Closes April 26th! 

The Earlier You Sign Up, The Better. Instant Access to all your materials, get your initial Fit3D scan done early, and get a great head start on your prep work. 

What is the Sizzlin' Summer Slimdown "Lean and Clean 2017" Challenge?

S3 is our annual "Summer Is Coming" transformation contest. This is a great opportunity to focus in, stay accountable and get some work done. We have done different kinds of S3 challenges over the years and what we have learned is that we work better on a team. Last year we had record breaking results and a fantastic celebration at the end. We plan to break last year's records and have an ever bigger celebration!

Here's What You Get

Before I go any further I want to whet your appetite, so here's a rundown of what you get when you signup:

10 Brand New 1-Page Challenge Guides for you to download, print and keep forever. Details below!

Exclusive Downloadable Sizzlin' Summer Slimdown Handbook (.pdf), which includes:

• Super Simple Daily Meal Plan
• Chart Your Own Course Meal Plan
• Coach Nancy's Sample Weekly Meal Plan
• Meal Plan Templates
• Grocery List
• Breakfast, Lunch and Dinner Recipes
• Super Shake Guide

7 weeks of nutrition accountability, education and coaching using Habit Catalyst

"New": Pinterest page with bonus healthy and tasty recipes​

7+ weeks of Private Facebook support

How Much For All This Awesomeness You Ask?​

Only $39 for Get Fit NH Clients!​

Not a current Get Fit NH Client?

We got you covered!

For the first time ever we are offering two options for non-clients to play - sweet!

Option #2: Friends and Family $77

You get all the same great support, accountability and tools that our clients are using, plus you get to experience all that Get Fit NH Awsomeness for a crazy low price!

Option #3: 6-Weeks Training  for $367

We are opening up three of our training times, one in Epsom and two in Concord*, so you can experience Get Fit NH's award winning Smart Group Training during the contest! You will receive all the care and attention our training clients receive, as well as all the great S3 tools.

S3 + Training = Awesome Results!

*7:25am/6:45pm Concord

9:00am Ladies Only in Epsom

Here's How It Works (Please read and follow carefully)

Once again this year we are doing the S3 Partner Challenge. You will need to find a partner, but if you don't have one, don't worry!

THIS IS IMPORTANT EITHER WAY: After you register you will receive an email with a link to the "Team" form. Just type in "need a partner (or N/A)" when you fill out that form and we will find you someone to buddy up with. If you do have a partner then you will fill in their name and your team name. (My favorite one from last year was "Thelma and Louise") 

This contest is all about teamwork, lifting each other up and helping each other out. You can only win the contest if both partners give it all they got!

This Years Contest Tools

Manual and Guides

This year we are adding 10 Brand New one page guides for you to download, print and keep forever! These handy guides cover everything from weekly menu planning to creating the ultimate breakfast. The Challenge Checklist is a handy reference to help you eat clean and track your progress. You will also get a copy of our famous Sizzlin' Summer Slimdown guide and cookbook, full of tasty and easy to make recipes. 

Habit Catalyst

Habit Catalyst is our nutrition education and accountability tool. Every day you will receive an email asking you this one question "Yesterday, did you eat ONLY real foods?" along with a lesson to help you do just that. Around 50% of the scoring for the contest will depend on you checking in daily and get the habits done. You can go back and read the lessons at any time, but you cannot go back to check off your habit.

This year we are also including a bonus "Prep Week" to help set you up for maximum success, so you are actually getting a full seven weeks of professional nutrition coaching - BONUS!

Fit3D

Fit3D is an innovative 3D body scanner that captures a 3D, 360° image of the human body and extracts the most commonly used measurements tracked for fitness progress, all with just a 40 second scan. You will be using Fit3D three times during the contest to measure your waist and hips; once before the contest, once at the mid-point, and at the end. The more you lose off your waist and hips, the more points you score!

How Does My Team Win?

Scoring Habit Points

You earn points for your team based on your percentage of daily habit tracking compliance using Habit Catalyst. Each team members score will be calculated, and then the team will be awarded the average. Here's the scale:

• 90% or greater compliance = 100 points
• 80 - 89% = 80 points
• ​70 - 79% = 70 points
• ​60 - 69% = 60 points
• 50 - 59% = 50 points
• <50% = 0 points

Here's an example:

Thelma achieves a compliance score of 92%  = 100 points

Louise achieves a compliance score of 78% = 70 points

The team would score the average = 85 points​

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Scoring Results Points

This one is really simple. You earn 10 points for each % average that you lose off your waist and hips. Each team members score will be calculated and added to the team total.

Here's an example:

Bruce loses 4% off his waist and Wayne loses 6%. The average is 5%, so the team earns 50 points.

Bruce loses 3.5% off his hips and Wayne loses 1%, so the average would be 2.25%, or 22.5 points.

The team total "Results Points" would be 77.5 - easy peasy!​

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Bonus Points

Your team will earn and additional 10 points each by completing the mid-contest Fit3D scan by May 27th. Those 20 points could be huge, so don't miss them!

Double Bonus!

Every week we will be sending you a brief (3 or 4 question) Check-In survey. You will earn another 10 points when you fill out 5 out of 6 of those. That could be another critical 20 points total.

---

So what would team "In It All The Way" Final Score be? 85 habit points + 77.5 results points + 40 bonus points (they were really on top of things) = 202.5 total points. Can you beat that? 🙂

And yes, there will be CASH prizes!

This year we are going to split the pie up a bit, and offer cash prizes to the Top Three Teams!

Like last year, we are going to split the entry fees, with the winners getting 50% of the entry fees, and the remaining going toward expenses for running the contest and the HUGE party we will have at the end!

Here's the breakdown:

• 1st Place Team splits 25% of the Pool (last year that would have been a couple grand - true story!)
• 2nd Place Team splits 15% of the pool
• 3rd Place team splits 10% of the Pool

Are coaches eligible to win? I think I am going to enter a team myself. CHA-CHING!

Key Dates To Remember:

• Monday April 3rd:    Sign ups open
• Wednesday April 26th:   Sign up cutoff
• Saturday April 29th @ 10:00 AM:  Kickoff meeting, First scan due, and Meals Made Easy workshop at Get Fit NH Concord
• Monday May 1st:   S3 begins with "Prep Week"
• Saturday May 27th:   Halfway scans due. We will be open 8-10 AM. You can also do them during regular hours anytime that week. Count for 10 points per teammate.
• Saturday June 17th:   S3 ends and we are open 8-10 AM to get final scans done
• ​Tuesday June 20th:   Last scan due by 7:45 PM
• Saturday June 24th:   Reveal Party @ 10:00 AM in Concord