It is no surprise that we are most often our worst critics.  Many of us battle the negative voice in our head that says “we aren’t good enough”.  That inner voice may lead you to believe that you are weak or a failure and will never achieve your goal.  

How do we fight the negative voices?  I believe that you have to acknowledge the negative thoughts and label them for what they are.  Rather than getting stuck in the thought process, acknowledge it and ask yourself if it is truth.  If your inner voice is telling you that you are weak, take a minute to assess the validity of the statement.  Have you made positive changes in you life? Are you more consistent with training or making better nutrition choices?  Those all require strength and therefore discounts the statement “you are weak”.

When attempting to remove negative thoughts, it is important to replace them with something positive.  Otherwise, the negative thoughts will just creep back into the empty space. There may be times in life when it might be more challenging to find the positive so keep it simple.  Celebrate and focus on even the small victories.

You are in control of your thoughts and whether they are negative or positive.  It takes time and practice but you can retrain your brain. We are here for you and always happy to remind you of the positives.  One Get Fit NH Family member reached out through email and shared her struggles and negative thoughts with us. I was so proud of her for acknowledging her struggling and letting us come along side of her.  She vented and vowed not to get stuck in the current thought process. We are in this together!

-Coach Erin

Our 4th annual Show up, Step up and Stick it up Challenge is coming up and this year has a new twist! We run this challenge to keep you honest as we head into a challenging time of year. The fall brings on back to school, sports and that leads us into the holidays and before you know it here comes January and we are motivated to get back on the wagon. 

But imagine how wonderful it would be if you never had to fall off the wagon! Imagine if you had some extra motivation (on top of your coach) to keep you going and keep you honest...

Well imagine no more! This challenge is for you and here is how it works:

Show up: There are 59 total training chances between the September 9th and December 20th to make it into training. To complete the show up portion we are asking that you make it a certain amount in that time being:

• 4 Training Days People: 50 Days
• 3 Training Days People: 40 Days
• 2 Training Days People: 25 Days

Step up: The Fit3D! On the backside of the card there will be a monthly spot to hit up the Fit3D. You want to talk about keeping you honest? Nothing better than the good ole "truth booth" to keep you on pace. The average weight gain between October and December is TEN POUNDS! It is a lot of work to get those pounds off so let's not fall into that category. We will help keep you honest.

Stick it up: This will also be a monthly spot on the backside of your card. This is for the goals board. Each month we put up a goals board. We strive for this to be apart of our culture and this will help you build that habit and keep you working toward the bigger picture. Each month you will need a coach to initial that verifying that you did in face "stick it up"

Share It: This is the NEW TWIST for this year! On the Back side of the card a new box will be added for you to share it that needs to be completed once a month. Here are some ways you could get this box checked off:

• Bring a friend to a fun friday or charity training
• Share a Get Fit NH video on social media
• Check in that you trained on Facebook
• Refer a friend to come train with us.
• Anyway you can share the greatness and fun we have and show proof to a coach

If you fill up your card with the needed amount of attendance checks, 4 (Sept, Oct, Nov, Dec) step ups, stick it ups, and share it ups then your card will go into the magic prize jar. We will pick THREE cards to win mega awesome prizes. 

1st card pulled earns- $300

2nd card pulled earns- $100

3rd card pulled earns- $50

We look forward to kicking this challenge off and finishing this year out strong! Let's make it happen,

The Get Fit NH Team

I feel so terrible bringing up FALL already! It always amazes me how fast summer zips by us. Halloween stuff is already out in stores- YUCK! With that, I just wanted to remind everyone that as summer comes to a close the traffic in the gym starts to pick back up. Schedules and routines start to become just that again which means many of you return the classes you were registered to all along. Summer time allows us room for a lot of flexibility. Fall, winter and spring...not so much!

While this is a great "problem" to have, I would ask that you please do your very best to attend the class you are registered to. ESPECIALLY avoiding 6:10AM and 4:15PM! Those classes tend to get way over crowded with drop ins and folk who we did not account for. We want to be sure that EVERYONE gets quality the coaching they love and deserve. We understand that schedule changes happen, we  just ask that if you are not registered to 6:10 or 4:15 that you avoid that unless asking a coach.

We are happy to put you on a waiting list if you find your schedule changing. Ask as soon as you know because if I am being honest those lists are lengthy!

As always, we appreciate you and your choice to train with us. Look, I shot this video so you can see for yourself that this is totally a friendly reminder (which will start me with crazy eyes! Awkward!)

We have had an INSANE amount of fun handing out prizes over the last several months as we have kicked off a consistent referral challenge. So far we have given away a paddle board to Anne,  Nike ID shoes to Eric, a $200 gift card to EMS to Melissa and a $50 gift card to Under Armor to Melanie! When you share the good word, we reward you! Not only does EVERYONE get $50 just for referring to us, but now on top of that their name is added to a drawing to win some pretty cool stuff.

In August and September if you refer to us you will get your $50 cash and you will also get your name in a drawing to win a FREE night at Adventure Suites, Red Jacket Inn OR Great Wolf Lodge. I have stayed at all three of these hotels and they are SUPER fun for the family or with friends. 

Check out this video- at the end I'll give you some tips to get your friends in here! 

This is in some ways a follow-up blog to my why Wednesday video.  What does the phrase “an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure” mean?  It means that doing things to prevent a problem or issue in small parts preventatively is a lot easier than trying to make major changes after an issue has arisen.  As an example think of a credit card, an ounce of prevention would be things like using your credit card sparingly and paying it off monthly, or at least in a timely fashion.  Which is much much easier, and more manageable, than continually charging things you aren’t able to afford at the moment to a credit card and then trying to pay off high amounts of credit card debt.  For anyone that has experienced this you know how unbelievably difficult it can be.  

The same is true of the body, very simply the best way to stay active and moving, is to….you guessed it, stay active and moving, training, ect.  It's a lot easier to maintain an active lifestyle for 10 years, than it is letting yourself become sedentary for ten years and try to rewind the clock.  Realistically you could probably maintain a relative level of fitness and mobility with just being physically active for 15-20 minutes a day in a pinch.  That seems a lot less daunting than being 10 years older and trying to train 6 days a week to make up for lost time.  

With all that being said I fully realize that this is a hard thing to picture, this is maybe our most difficult thing as coaches to convey because people tend to have trouble understanding something they have yet to experience.  Myself included, it’s very hard to consider back pain prevention (most often hip mobility) as a priority, until you hurt your back. Pressing overhead doesn’t seem like a big deal right now, until you have to do months of PT and waiting for your frozen shoulder symptoms to go away.  This is just something you have to trust me/us on. Keep yourself healthy now, to be able to hold up when things get challenging down the road, the reverse is EXPONENTIALLY harder.

Having a presence and being active in our community is VERY important to us here at Get Fit NH. We know together we can make a big difference and that is why we choose to host a charity training each quarter. We are lucky enough to train some fine individuals who work hard for these non-profit organizations and Fellowship Housing Opportunities has an advocate right here at this gym! 

She asked us if we would be willing to host a charity training on their behalf and we were more than happy to make a difference for this amazing organization. 

We are going to shake up this charity training, though! We usually host these trainings in the morning on a Saturday, but this time, given the nature of this organization, we decided to do a sunset training and call it "Get Fit NH Helping Concord Get Out of the Darkness"

Mark your calendars for Saturday, August 3, 2019 at 8PM! This will (weather permitting) be an OUTDOOR training! Friends and Family are welcome and we would ask for a donation of $10.

Here is some more information about Fellowship Housing Opportunities for the advocate herself!

Fellowship Housing Opportunities Inc., founded in 1966, is a private nonprofit organization located in
downtown Concord, NH. We are dedicated to promoting recovery from mental illness as a provider of high quality, affordable housing and client-centered behavioral services. Our mission is to “Provide decent, safe, affordable housing with support to members of our community who live with a mental illness. We envision a community in which people with mental illness are able to manage daily lives, be good neighbors, access resources, and find acceptance”.

Fellowship Housing Opportunities owns and maintains and manages seven multi-family properties in Concord, NH all within walking distance of downtown. These seven properties allow us to provide needed housing for over 60 individuals. Three of our independent apartment properties are subsidized by the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) which allows our tenants to receive government assistance in paying their rent. Our tenants receive on average about $900 a month for their disability payments. Very difficult to live in Concord on $900 a month.

Tenants in these apartments only pay 30% of their income for rent. Our three remaining independent properties are unsubsidized but housing vouchers (Section 8) are accepted and rents are below fair market value. Our seventh property is a 24-hour staffed, licensed community residence that is also subsidized by HUD. This residence houses twelve individuals who require 24-hour assistance in caring for themselves and managing their medications. Residents in this home are learning how to care for themselves and their home, how to shop for needed supplies and how to interact appropriately in public in the hopes that they will someday be able to move into one of our independent apartments where they can live with or without assistance from our staff.

Your donation to Fellowship Housing Opportunities will help us continue to provide affordable housing options to people in need in Concord and beyond. Our goal is to expand our reach in the next few years by purchasing additional properties so we will be able to help even more people.

We are so excited to bring Sarah Coulombe to Get Fit NH for a very personal and focused mobility class. Sarah is a Physical Therapist at our our favorite Chiropractic Office, Performance Health. She has helped many of our clients and Coach Adam battle some serious, chronic pain. I asked her to do a write up about the class she will be offering and her and Coach Adam took it one step further and included a video! This class will be held at Get Fit NH on Wednesday mornings from 7:30-8:30AM. Payment will be handled through Performance Health NOT Get Fit NH. So you can choose to call them and pay via credit card or write them a check directly! Here are the details from Sarah herself!

Body. Active. Mobility. B.A.M. Course

Do you wish you had more mobility and flexibility? Do you constantly feel stiff and immobile? Or do you feel very unsteady like you don’t have control over your own body? The purpose of this course is to increase body awareness through active mobility using body weight exercises and minimal equipment. Learn your joint limitations and how to best promote optimal movement and health of your joints. 

Come join Sarah Coulombe, a Physical Therapist from Performance Health as a guest instructor to bring you this unique 6-week body control class. The class is based on recent course work including Functional Range Control and Kinstretch. Due to her background as a Physical Therapist and Certified Functional Strength Coach, she can help you reach your goals!

A free introduction class will be taking place on July 24th from 7:30-8:30am at Get Fit NH. Each class builds on the previous.  If you would like to continue with the 6-week course, you will have the opportunity to register for the final 5 sessions on July 24th.  The classes will be held each Wednesday from 7:30-8:30am from July 31st - August 28th. Cost for the 6-week course is $130.  

Hey team,

Recently we sent out a survey to see how we are doing and the response was FABULOUS and overwhelming. We send out surveys on a quarterly basis to see what we can be doing better and to make sure you are happy. Without your honest feedback we can't get better and grow professionally. We appreciate you taking the time to tell us how you really feel!

I did a Facebook video the other week in response to the survey, but I know not everyone is on Facebook so I am going to hit up some of the questions and concerns right here! The tricky part about surveys is that they are anonymous so we can't respond to you individually. So we will just hope you are reading and of course if you say it then someone else is likely thinking it so let's talk about it! 

1.) More personal attention. 

Hey, you have our ears and our hearts. We hear you, we talked about it and we are on it! 

2.) More time for stretching.

We do our best to fit it in, but sometimes we definitely run out of time. Please know you are ALWAYS welcome to stay and stretch and we can give you stretches to do while you stay We will always respect the one hour rule, but know that there are 10-15 minutes before the next class begins and we will never kick you out for stretching!

3.) More trainings times.

Honestly, with 8 hours of coaching available on training days we have exhausted our coaching bandwidth. Our coaches all have very important pieces to the Get Fit NH team that keep us in business (what a beautiful thing!) Each coach spends 4-6 hours on the coaching floor as it is and that is the fun part for us! We did just hire another full time coach! You have each met Dylan. He is now a permanent member of the team! This was mostly so that our coaches can grow professionally in their specialities - like kettlebell for Brian and Athlete Academy and sport specific training for Adam. Our team is the bomb diggity and I have to protect them to keep them 🙂 

4.) Trainings I can do outside of the gym for when i can't make it!

We did those a while back! Here is an example. If you follow our vimeo you can find even more. Check it out here

5.) One on one time with a coach to talk about injuries, aches and pains

Ask and you shall receive. We don't offer that verbally, but if you need us we are ALWAYS here for you. We also refer out to Performance Health for those consistent aches and pains. If you have never been to them and you have pain then boy are you missing out! They specialize in Active Release Therapy. Check them out here. Every PT and Chiropractor is unbelievable. We also offer gentle yoga and a mobility class with Nicole Detellis. She also specializes in pain management and moving through a pain free range of motion. She also offers 1:1 sessions every Wednesday. We have her business cards at the gym! She is fabulous. 

6.) Follow through on various programs like bands and goals 

We will definitely be better about this , you are heard. We still do Functional Movement Rescreens every 4 months. In fact the next one is when we return from recovery week. We will discuss as a team how we can do better on goals boards!

7.) More Community Involvement

I am definitely working on this! We do Rock N Race every year as our big race and charity trainings once a quarter to support our community. We are now working on getting Autism Fitness up and running which is an exciting project and a HUGE project. We also sponsored Soup Fest this year and gave away over $600 worth of free training to local school raffles. We can't do it all, but we certainly want to be involved! Maybe we just need to be more vocal about what we do 🙂

Thank you so much for your feedback, keep it coming!

Coach Meagan 

It is my absolute pleasure to introduce Mae Lynn and her son Henry to you. Mae Lynn came to me a few months ago confessing her hopes and dreams to change the community of adults with Autism. Her passion and drive is truly inspiring and contagious, I just couldn't say no! I am going to let Mae Lynn share in her words the really exciting news...

My full time job for decades has been to make the best life I can for my son, Henry, 23. Because there is seemingly no place in the real world for those with autism once they leave school, his life is a lonely one, and I know he isn’t the only one. So I’ve been working hard to try to think of ways to include adults with autism in the community. I’ve discovered since Henry left the school system that there is a very big difference between being “in the community” and “included in the community.” Henry and I are out and about all the time. But there might as well be a giant bubble around us for all we are actually part of anything.

My dream is to eventually create a place where people like Henry can feel included. My gym, Get Fit NH, has always been that for me: a home away from home where people know me, look forward to seeing me, and genuinely care about me. Wouldn’t it be wonderful if Henry and others like him could have the same experience?

I believe that people with autism cannot be included if their fundamental differences are not understood and accounted for. I’m happy and proud to say that I became a Certified Autism Fitness Professional this past November. This means that I am qualified to develop and provide fitness programs that are appropriate and empowering for individuals on the autism spectrum. The Autism Fitness approach uniquely takes into account the physical, adaptive, and cognitive deficits present in ASD. 

Fitness and physical activity should be fun, accessible, effective, and not overwhelming. I have learned that there are concepts and activities that work enormously well for athletes with autism. I’m thrilled to announce that the first step to making my dream happen is in the works. On November 2 at 9am at Get Fit NH I will be presenting “Try This @ Home” - a workshop for parents and caregivers of individuals on the Autism Spectrum. This workshop will be an introduction to the unique ABA-based Autism Fitness approach. At this workshop, proactive parents and caregivers can learn how to set up an environment for their athlete to achieve success in physical fitness. Believe me, your athlete will surprise you! I have been working with Henry for a few months now and his swim coach and physical therapist both commented on how much stronger he is.

As if that isn’t exciting enough, in January 2020, Eric Chessen himself, founder of Autism Fitness, will present a weekend-long Autism Fitness Level 1 Certification right here at Get Fit NH. This training is for fitness professionals, physical therapists, educators, anyone who is currently bringing physical fitness to the autism population. Autism Fitness education provides adaptive programming solutions that will enable support professionals to deliver fitness programming to anyone with developmental deficits to create powerful daily living outcomes that last a lifetime. 

Join us! We are going to build a team of professionals first here at Get Fit NH and hopefully all over our state who “get” athletes with autism. The lives of those with autism and their families, as well as the community in general, will be better for it.

To register, click the links below.

Free Try This @ Home Workshop November 2, 2019 9am-12pm - Click here to register

Autism Fitness Level 1 Certification January 18-19, 2020 9:30am-5:30pm - Click here to register