Are YOU a Summertime Priority?

We had a motivation tip last week that read,

“Needs – sleep, exercise, eat well. Plan your life around those things, not the other way around.”

As we enter the summer months those words are important to remember. Your body needs this treatment consistently, as in 12 months a year.  Please note- there is only one end date when it comes to training (and nutrition and sleep too!) and I think you know where I am headed with that. It is continuous. It is necessary to thrive.

Yes, summertime is when we take time off. We go away. We spend time with family and friends. We enjoy the weather. I get it! Believe me, I am no snow owl. When it’s warm out I gotta get outside. So where am I going with this??

You see, there is common thread going around in SOME gyms that shall remain unnamed – taking the summer off – but that is not the Get Fit NH way.

Is that acceptable? No, and let me tell you why

• For starters allow me to clarify…In my previous blog I spoke about the training floor being our classroom. Our classroom does not take summers off 😉 (Ok I figured I start with a lame joke….but now that I have your attention I’ll move on)

• Are you in a training program or do you have a gym membership? I hope that doesn’t sting too much, but let’s get real. Our goal is for you to be IN this training program. Like ALL IN. We have a purposeful plan for you 12 months out of the year (no, not 9-10 months- 12 months!)

• Our training is designed to progressively challenge you throughout the sessions. We have a specific training focus on Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, and Friday.

You cannot expect to train 9-10 months out of the year and expect to lose fat, build muscle, and feel good. Believe me when I say I understand how great it feels to get outside and walk or run, play golf, cycle, etc. but what you have to know and understand is that those active hobbies/sports are not training. You need your strength training. If you take 2 months off at a time you can expect to get hit with a major setback when you return.

Your coaches want to see you succeed. We want you to reach your goals. We want to get all your oars rowing in the same direction. It makes it nearly impossible to help you succeed if you are not here working toward success.

As Coach Dean said earlier this week, “If you want to change the way you look or the way you feel then you have to change something you’re doing to achieve it.”

Are you really going to spend 7 days per week at your lake house and not work for the entire summer? Does is make sense to turn your back and quit on how far you came just because you have 2 weeks of vacation scheduled this summer?

Think about these things. Set your priorities. If you want it only you can go get it. We’re here to encourage and educate along the way.

Don’t Just Wait For It.

Make it Happen,

Coach Meagan

Butter Spray vs. Real Butter

Rock Star Naomi recently posted this on the Six Week Sprint to Summer Facebook page. It was so good and so well explained and researched I wanted all of the Get Fit NH family to benefit from her work. I know you will be surprised by the conclusions she found.

“Excuse the long rant but I thought I’d share this. I was interested to know what was in this spray butter that we use (I stopped using it during the cleanse). As you know, it claims to be “0” Calorie and “0” Fat.

1.These are the ingredients in the “butter spray”: Water, Soybean Oil, Buttermilk, Salt, Soy Lecithin And Polyglycerol Esters Of Fatty Acids (Emulsifiers), Xanthan Gum, Potassium Sorbate And Sodium Benzoate (To Preserve Freshness), Lactic Acid (Acidulant), Artificial Flavor, Colored With Beta Carotene (Source Of Vitamin A), Vitamin A Palmitate.

2. Ignore the long list of preservatives (some of which are potential carcinogens) and emulsifiers and focus on the second and third: soybean oil and buttermilk. It doesn’t take a food scientist to realize there is fat in both of those ingredients.

3. ConAgra (owner of the Parkay brand) confirmed “ There are .8 calories in 1 spray and 4.0 calories in 5 sprays. Fat content is .085grams in 1 spray, .4grams in 5 sprays” That means that in the entire bottle there are 813 total calories from 90 grams of fat.

4. Why it is they can list it as 0 calories? The FDA labeling law says that if there’s less than 1/2 gram of fat in a serving, a food can be labeled “Fat-Free.” The catch is, nobody regulates what the food companies refer to as a serving size.

5. Bottom line: A stick of butter has less calories (810) and the same amount of fat (91) than a bottle of this stuff. I’m stickin with natural oils: butter, ghee, peanut oil, avocado oil, coconut oil, olive oil. They are natural and contain no carcinogens.”

Based on the facts that Naomi dug up, what are you going to use in your kitchen?

Coach Nancy

A Work In Progress

Today is the beginning of week 5 of our “Six Week Sprint to Summer”. It’s time to turn your second set of cards in.

Have you been perfect?

No?

Well that’s a GOOD thing!

Because we are looking for progress, not perfection.

Coach Vince Gabriel put it this way “When you get half way up the mountain you can look at how far you have to go or you can focus on how far you have come.”

We humans can be such difficult creatures to get along with.

“I only lost 2 pounds of fat last month!!!” and frustration sets it.

I bet if you lose 24 pounds of fat this year you would be pretty happy about about it though. You will need a whole new wardrobe, and you know how much you love to shop.

Well you can’t lose the 24 without losing the 2.

So stop trying to be perfect all the time and be happy when you take that next step, when you make just a little more progress.

And if you haven’t started yet, what are you waiting for?

Progress not perfection.

Make It Happen,

Coach Dean

Secure Your Mask

If you’ve been on a plane, you’ve heard that famous safety announcement, preparing each passenger for potential danger.  When I was a teenager, a particular portion stood out to me:

In the event of a decompression, an oxygen mask will automatically appear in front of you…if you are travelling with a child or someone who requires assistance, secure your mask on first, and then assist the other person.

I was shocked.  How selfish is that?!  My parents trained me well and taught me the value of putting others’ needs before my own.  I thought to myself, “I’d rather die trying to help everyone else than to put on my mask before them!”

It wasn’t until a few years later, when that announcement came to my attention again, that I realized the significance of that notion.  If I have a desire to help others, I must have the physical, emotional, and spiritual strength to do so.  I simply cannot sustain a 100% selfless lifestyle because eventually, I’m going to burn out.

The notion of sacrificing something to help another person is sometimes a good quality with great results, while other times, the risk is too high.  For example, let’s talk about what I like to call, “mom guilt.”  Moms are great and they work hard (as do dads, I know!), but what I’ve found in the fitness industry is the unfortunate occurrence of moms who put their children before them so much that they suffer for it.  I’m going to be blunt here.  If you really love your child and want the best for him/her, you absolutely must do what it takes to stay healthy.  The time you invest in your health is time invested in their well being.

I know it can be tough to find the time for “X,” but if you don’t make the time, you’ll lose your time.

It’s ok to care for yourself; don’t ever forget that you are worth it!

So I encourage you to secure your mask on first, and then assist the other person.  It’s a win-win for both.

Make it Happen!
Coach Sarah

Thank-You for a Wonderful Morning!

What a fantastic Saturday morning!

As usual the Get Fit NH family stepped up big time for our “Training for a Cause” this morning, and subsequently raised over $1100 dollars 🙂 for the Boston Children’s Hospital “Mighty Metabolites” in support of the Leung Family.

Howie, Colleen (and Kai) wanted to make sure you all know how thankful they were for your generosity and willingness to share both your time and money. You guys rock!

Wanted to share some photos from this morning’s event – it was a blast!

Recovery Week and July 4th Schedule Reminder

“Train the athlete as much as necessary, not as much as possible” – Henk Kraaijenof

Good Morning Team!

Just wanted to give you a heads up on some goings on around here over the next couple weeks.

This Saturday June 14th we will be having a fundraiser to benefit Boston Children’s Hospital “Might Metabolites” and the Leung Family. You can read all about it here. We would be very grateful if you would share some of your time with us this Saturday!

June 23 – 27 is our next recovery week (Stifle all the moans and groans). This is part of your training program, and is a necessary deload to keep you healthy and moving forward. Those who follow the training plan, including this part of it, are the ones who make the most progress. Those who ignore it are much more likely to get injured and not be at their best. I have seen it over and over again. Deload is a necessary part of the training cycle.  Take some time, read these articles, and remind yourself why. You’re welcome! 🙂

Recovery, Deload, and Getting Better

“I HATE Recovery Weeks!”

Minimum Effective Dose

Recovery Is Where The Magic Happens

Rest, Recover and Regenerate, It’s Not Optional

Last but not least you will want to note our schedule change for Friday July 4th. We are going to be having an “all family” training session at Get Fit NH Concord from 8:00am to 9:30am. This will be our only training time of the day, so come on in, get an incredible training session in, and then enjoy the day and weekend with your family.

That’s it for now guys.

You want it, you gotta Make It Happen!

Coach Dean

What Do You Expect?

What Do You Expect?

The other day you should have seen a post about The Get Fit NH Difference. If you missed it check it out here. I started thinking more about how we are different and thought I’d let you in on what’s been stirring up inside my head.

• I’m sure you already knew this, but we’re more than a gym membership. We’re a training facility with a purposeful training program written for all levels of athleticism. Expect to be held accountable. We will notice if you’re not here 🙂

• When you walk in the door you should expect to be greeted with your name not “what’s your member number?”

• You hired coaches to help you meet your goals. Expect to get what you asked for

• We do not have members, we have students. The training floor is our classroom. Expect to learn and do not expect to always get it on the first try.

What I am trying to say is that we expect you to have high expectations and we want to exceed them!

We want you to be all in. What do I mean by that?

• We want you to hit your goals
• We want you to push yourself and accept a challenge. Whether that is on the training floor or in the kitchen.
• We want you to fuel your body with nutritious food
• We want you to keep learning. We offer seminars and workshops monthly to help you get even better.
• We want you to measure success.  Get your body composition monitored regularly.

There is always room to improve. Your coaches don’t have it all figured out, you know?

I go to Coach Nancy’s nutrition seminars and I learn something new every time! Something helpful that I can apply to my routine. I train in the afternoon and guess what? I get coached and often challenged! We don’t have it all figured out. Each of your coaches has room to improve and so do you. We are all in this together to lose fat, build muscle, and feel better!

Make it happen,

Coach Meagan

The Get Fit NH Difference

What makes Get Fit NH different? There are a bunch of training facilities in the Concord area, so why us?

We get this question a lot and it is important to us that you know and understand how we are different. As a coach I am passionate about educating my students about fitness and health and to warn against potentially harmful exercise practice.

Allow me to go a little deeper…

Olympic and power lifts are not meant to be done in sets of 30 or for time. They are highly skilled movement patterns and are meant to be explosive and powerful over short periods of time with plenty of rest. Subjecting your muscles to extremely high stress repetitively is not always appropriate, and  can set you up for injury.

As I am sure many of you have noticed, we are form sticklers here at Get Fit NH. We take coaching very seriously and our entire staff hold several certifications. We are required to and also take pride in constantly continuing our education. Our number one rule is to keep you safe during your hour. If you get hurt that often means you will not be able to train and while you are not able to train you are not able to effectively work toward your goals. The Functional Movement Screen is our extra preventative measure to keep you safe and training hard.

Everything we do has a purpose! As one of our mentors Martin Rooney says, “We don’t do something for nothing.” There is a reason and functional translation behind everything we do. When programming your training we take into consideration what is called risk versus reward benefit. Is the risk of injury greater than the intended benefit of the exercise? That is yet another preventative measure we consider to keep you safe and training hard.

At Get Fit NH we do appreciate competitive nature, but we are more concerned with your competition within yourself. We want you to be the best you can be, not necessarily try and  keep up with the person next to you and risk getting hurt and having poor form.

I sincerely hope you found this blog informative and helpful. If you have questions about how we are different we would be more than happy to go into more detail with you. It is important to us that you know and understand the training you have committed to.

Make it Happen,

Coach Meagan

Mirror Mirror on the Wall

Did you ever consider the usefulness of that mirror you have hanging on the bathroom wall?

I mean it has the potential to save us from some pretty big embarrassments! That big smudge on the side of your face, or the spinach stuck between your teeth.

But what if you ignore what you see?  Yup it’s there, but it’s no big deal, right?

I am sure we would all agree that to see a problem in the mirror and ignore it would be silly. And even worse? We don’t like what we see to the extent we actually throw the mirror away! Who would actually do that?

Well I am afraid you might.

Here is what I mean.

We are just finishing up the first couple weeks of our Six Week Sprint to Summer. You have diligently recorded the habits and added up the scorecard, and oops, you only scored 70% (or 65 or 50). Not what you wanted at all.

There are two primary reactions you can have to getting less than you wanted.

The first (which I recommend) is to evaluate where you did well, where your challenge points are, and look to get just 1% better next week. If you got 50%, get 51% next week. Short term or defeatist thinking (eg – I didn’t do well this week so I probably won’t next week) does you no good at all.

The second reaction is to throw away the mirror. That is exactly what you are doing when you stop recording your habits because you don’t like what you see. If you don’t record the habits, you don’t have to face reality. But putting a hammer through the mirror doesn’t fix your messy hair, now does it?

As long as you have breath you have the opportunity to get better.

Are you going to take it?

Or are you going to toss the mirror?

You are responsible for the choice.

Let us help.

Coach Dean

Summer Salads and Sides

I love hot weather and the food associated with it. A bowl full of fresh picked veggies from the garden makes me smile. While salads are a summer food, you’ll find you bring the recipes from this workshop out all year round.

In “Six Week Sprint to Summer” we eat vegetables at every meal. The variety of veggies you can pack into a salad will delight the taste buds and keep your menu from getting boring.

Get Fit NH Epsom will host our “Summer Salads & Sides” workshop on June 4th from 6-7:30. I’m looking forward to spritzing up your menu with salads that make a meal and side dishes that make the plate tantalizing.

Summer Salads & Sides
Date: Wednesday June 4, 2014
Time: 6:00pm to 7:30pm
Place: Get Fit NH Epsom