I happened to be thinking back on my road trip to Indiana last year, when I went to the winter classic.  When thinking back I realized something I learned that was a pretty good metaphor for fitness, weight loss, pretty much success in general.  The small stuff matters but it's difficult for us to see in the short term, we only see success when we focus on doing the small things over a long period of time.  

We were following directions on a GPS of course, and remember thinking how crazy it was the time you chop off on a long road trip.  I didn't really put it together at the time but think about it, when you are going somewhere that's 100 miles away, you put it into your GPS at 10:00 am and it say you’ll be there at 11:30am (90 minutes).  So then you get in your car, and you get on the highway and instead of doing the speed limit of 65 miles per hour (what that gps is basing it taking you a half hour on) you do 75 mph. You do 10 miles per hour over the speed limit the course of the entire trip, expecting you’re going to shave a ton of time and when you pull in it's...wait for it...11:27...you went well over the speed limit for the entire trip just to arrive 3 minutes before when you thought you would.  

Now let's expand that, like I found with our road trip, to a thousand miles.  I was amazed at how going 10 MPH over the speed limit and just watching the arrival time drop, every couple of minutes the GPS shaved 5-10 minutes off until we had shaved off 2-3 hours of time (based on the GPS’s calculations of course, this isn't including stops, bathroom breaks, things like that).  In thinking back I realized a real life example of what compounding growth/success looks like laid out in a very helpful way. You won't see the impact from the small things over a short time, a day, a week, a month. Those small things add up though, so that over a year it ends up bringing much larger change.  That's why not only does doing the little things matter, but it also takes time for them to create major change. Just stick with it!

Coach Adam

The marketing for the Rock N Race has begun! This is always my warm and fuzzy reassurance that spring is coming! This race is such a special community event. This is a family friendly 5K that raises money for the Payson Center here in Concord. This is such an important cause and we are known to fill a team of 60 people or more. We all know someone who has been affected by cancer and this is an opportunity to get behind the center that sees it all. If you are a survivor or still fighting this is an opportunity to see and experience THOUSANDS of people who support you. If you have never done this race before it is the perfect intro to 5K. You can walk or run and there are bands throughout the course playing music. The community involvement will give you chills. It is like no other event I have seen in Concord. We invite you and your people to join our team ,Get Fit NH & Beat Cancer. The Rock N Race is Thursday, May 14th at 6pm. We close afternoon training to participate in this event so there is no reason not to join us! We will send the extended details as far as meet up and time when we get closer to the race date. Don't wait to sign up though! The early bird registration is only $25 and you will want to register early so you get a team shirt that says "Get Fit NH & Beat Cancer" on the back. Sign up here and join our team.

The next community event we are getting behind is the Best Buddies walk! This is a 1 mile walk that also starts on Statehouse lawn. This is a perfect walk for adults and kids. There is a lot of community engagement along the walk which has included food, face painting. bubbles and more! If you have grandchildren or young kids then this is a great opportunity to get them out there and encourage the importance of INCLUSION! I have not participated in the walk yet, but I have gone to Best Buddies events and they WILL steal your heart! Mark yourself BUSY on Saturday, May 9th at 10AM and join the Get FIt NH team here

We are excited to continue to support our community in 2020. Please join us for the fun!

Coach Meagan

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I was truly amazed at how many life lessons there were in the podcast I listened to that interviewed Colin O’Brady.  After racing for 6 years with the USA Triathlon Team, O’Brady decided he wanted to take on a new challenge which was crossing Antarctica.  O’Brady describes that the journey was extremely challenging because there are no opportunities to resupply food. He had to pack everything he needed for the journey on his sled which weighed 375lbs.  O’Brady’s desire was to step into something unknown because growth happens when you are outside of your comfort zone. O’Brady states that the journey broke him to his core. He walked 12 hours a day for over 50 days without taking a rest day.  Right before the finish line, O’Brady wanted to quit. On the 53rd day he realized he was only 77 miles from the finish.  O’Brady was broken physically and mentally but found a place inside himself that said he was stronger than ever.  He ended up walking the last 77 miles for 32 hours straight. O’Brady believes that everyone has the ability to push themselves, their body and their brain in ways they never thought possible.  When you can look back on something immensely difficult that you accomplished or achieved in the past, it can fuel you and be the motivations to get through your current challenge.

O’Brady believes that life experiences are on a continuum of 1-10, 1 being the worst day or the most pain and 10 being the best day.  He believes that most people are staying within the comfort zone of 4-6 because they are trying not to experience the 1’s. However, to experience the 10’s you also have to experience the 1’s.  You can learn many lessons from the 1’s that help you reach the 10’s. The definition of 1’s and 10’s may change throughout your life. Making it through hardships allows you to look at challenges differently.  You may think this is hard right now but remember you have made it through worse. For many years my 1 was having to go through shoulder surgeries and give up playing soccer. Fast forward 20 years and my new 1 was admitting I was in an incredibly dark place and spending 2 weeks in a hospital.  When I am faced with challenges now, such as the 21-day nutrition challenge, I am reminded that I was able to tackle and survive some huge challenges in my life. If I made it through that then I can make it through 21 days of giving up food that is not good for my body. What are your 1’s? Use the lessons from that time to remind yourself that you are stronger thank you think, and you can make it through any challenge you currently face.

Coach Erin

Good Afternoon all,

We absolutely HATE closing, but the roads are already slick and the weather is supposed to turn to freezing rain at 5pm and continue through the evening. Your safety and my team's safety are precious so please drive carefully home and spend the extra time prepping a nutritious dinner and nutritious lunch for tomorrow! We will see you on Thursday!

Here is some at-home training to keep you moving! Warm-up as you have learned and then...

Complete this 4X

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XFdEDMfu_P4

And here is your finisher 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ek-w1x--Ucw&t=46s

I was recently listening to a podcast by Rachel Hollis and she was interviewing Colin O’Brady who walked across Antarctica.  O’Brady grew up being an athlete and found his identity in it. At the age of 22, O’Brady was in Thailand and saw some people on the beach jumping ropes that were on fire.  He decided to give it a try, but the rope got twisted around his leg and he was on fire all the way up to his neck. O’Brady spent months in the hospital in Thailand and the doctors told him that he would probably never walk the same again.  At that moment his identity as an athlete was ripped away. O’Brady’s mother stayed by his bedside and told him “Colin this is a bad situation, but this is not the end of your life, this too will pass, what do you want to do when you get out of here?”  O’Brady told his mother that he pictured himself crossing the line of a triathlon, which he had never done before. From that moment on O’Brady did everything he could to prepare himself. When O’Brady was back in the states he was still in a wheelchair.  His mother said “I know your big goal is to do a triathlon but today your goal is to take your first step. The incremental success towards your goal is you today somehow getting out of that wheelchair and taking your first step”. A year and a half later O’Brady completed and even won the Chicago Triathlon.  

We are all going to face hard times, that is inevitable but in those moments, we get to choose how we react.  O’Brady could have easily given up after his accident and listened to the doctors. Instead, he decided to follow his dream and work relentlessly at achieving it.  What are your dreams? How do you react to the hard times? I know that it is tempting to back down when the hard times come but if you do that, you will never achieve your dreams?  Your dream may be to lose a certain amount of weight. We all know that challenges will come. When you hit a plateau do you give up and think you will never achieve your weight loss goal?  I have been there, but I am reminded that I am in control and it is how I respond to the plateau that will dictate whether or not I achieve my goal. It is so important to focus on the incremental successes.  If you look at the big picture of your goal you will often get overwhelmed and be tempted to give up. Focus on what you can do today or even at the next meal. Those incremental successes will build up and give you the fuel to keep fighting.  We are on this journey together. Your dream may be different than someone else’s but we can work together to push through the hard times.

Coach Erin 

Throughout our lives and day to day endeavors we will make a lot of decisions and choices. Some may carry more weight and their impact will be felt immediately, while others may not seem so important but may affect us later down the road. Right now, I want to focus more on the little things and how they can sometimes have a bigger impact than we might think. 

For starters, when we decide to go to bed. If you’re like me, you may not give it much thought as to when you decide to hit the hay. You just know that you have to get up at a certain time. But sleep is very important to our health, and we need to make sure we get a good night's rest as much as possible. So, if we can make a conscious effort to set ourselves a bedtime, then we will be more energized throughout the day and function at a high level. 

Nutrition plays a huge role in our health. It can be the deciding factor in what gets you into the best shape of your life, or it can be the one thing that stops you. But I’m not going to talk about going on strict diets or anything like that, as it can be a big change. No, I’m talking about making small changes to our nutrition that we can do over time. For example, If you go out to eat, order water as your beverage. Next time you go shopping, pass up on all the little snacks or desserts that you may be tempted to buy. Or maybe try drinking tea with honey instead of coffee with sugar. That last one was mainly for me. It may seem like small choices, but over time those decisions can start having a lasting impact in the long run and help get you going in the right direction. 

And of course, training. You all have made a great decision to start exercising and working on your health. But now you have to be consistent. Now you have to make that choice to go on those days we may not feel like it. I get why we have a tough time getting into the gym some days, I do. Training can be difficult, exhausting, and push you. But let's be honest, nothing in life is rewarding if it comes easy. If you push through the hard work, you will be rewarded. You will truly feel accomplished and proud because of it. Then all those times you decided to go to the gym, will have paid off. Now it's up to you to start making that choice. 

"What happened?"

I figured I would write a quick blog to explain why you will see my a sling for the next two weeks in hopes to avoid the same question hundreds of times 🙂

Allow me to paint a picture for this...

So there I was on a snowy Friday afternoon working from home when I decided I would grab a quick workout before grabbing my kids from the nanny. I was my second set into a turkish get up with a 40 pound kettlebell when I lost the stability in my shoulder and the kettlebell went back....with my arm. I dislocated my shoulder and after about 20 seconds of agony shoved it back in place. 

After calling Erin (the shoulder queen) in a panic she (and Adam) made me go to ortho urgent care where they put me in a sling and said no lifting for two weeks (BOO!) and then a very gentle ease back in as the likeliness of doing it again is greater if you don't allow time for ligaments to heal and scar tissue to build up around the joint. 

So, that is what happened. It was a freak accident. When I am healed up I will be right back to turkish get ups, because it is still an amazing exercise. I will use this as a (frustrating) learning opportunity. I learned a lot about dislocation when I had my visit at ortho and I am sure my PT follow up will teach me even more that I can then use on the training floor. 

Happy weekend,

Meagan