There is not a whole lot that infuriates me, but there is one thing that seriously gets under my skin and that is false advertisement. I was picking up a salad at Live Juice a few weeks ago and on the counter they had these cookies….

But wait let me back up...Live Juice is a great restaurant choice if you are out and about. The ingredients are whole and fresh and they will customize your order and not even look at you funny which is always a selling point for me. Most people know that when you go into Live Juice you have the ability to eat a nutritious and satisfying meal…

Okay, so knowing all of this is why this next part really grinds my gears. The cookies on the counter are advertised as gluten free, dairy free, egg free and non GMO…must be a healthy cookie, right?

Wrong. Read the ingredient label and there are 4, yes 4, different types of sugar in this cookie. The serving size of this normal sized saucer cookie was ½ a cookie and with that serving size there were 18 grams of sugar. I don’t know about you, but when I eat a cookie I eat the entire cookie so think about THAT for a minute. Of course there is sugar- IT’S A COOKIE! But DO NOT advertise as if this is a healthy thing to put in your body!

• There is no such thing as a healthy cookie
• Read your labels
• If you are going to splurge and eat a cookie, don’t fool yourself thinking one cookie is healthier than the other- just eating the stinkin’ cookie and get back to making good choices!

Rant over. Now make it happen!

-Coach Meagan

There is nothing fresher, tastier, and yes even more friendly to the environment than having local produce grown by local farmers. For those of us who don't have the time or talent to grow our own veggies, getting involved in a CSA is like gold! (CSA= Community Supported Agriculture)

This is where it gets exciting, Get Fit NH is sponsoring a pickup place for Brookford Farm's CSA. You will be able to pickup your veggies at Get Fit NH in Concord. Last summer we did this and it was fantastic. For those of you out in Epsom, Coach Nancy will bring your food to the Epsom gym for pickup there as well. I would say that's perfect for everyone!

Brookford Farms has an easy registration process. They have different packages to fit your family's needs. While registering simply check the box for Get Fit NH Concord as your pick up place. Your veggies start arriving on June 5th, 2017 to October 22rd, 2017.

This week’s student spotlight is a little different than normal. It features Lauren Sullivan who has been part of the family for a while now. In emailing her briefly over recovery week, she sent me an email back that I think everyone needs to read. I have cleared it with Lauren to share, so please take 5 minutes out of your day to read what she has to say.

Lauren is in the middle receiving her "I survived" shirt!

I saw Cherie at Sandy's the other day and we often do end up talking to each other about different things relating to and supporting one another after both losing our fathers, and this particular day I ended up talking about how Get Fit and also you, have made SUCH a difference in my life! We talked all about the fact that a lot of my reasons for continuing at Get Fit was because of your support and encouragement, as well as being inspired by you as a coach and a mentor. As you know, when I first came to Get Fit it was evident I hadn't worked out in years lol! But, that was a part of my fear, and because of you and the team, the fact that I hadn't worked out in forever never held me back from wanting to get better (which has been a factor in the past of not sticking with things I had tried)! I had 101 fears when I first started from things like not being accepted, or about being judged, feeling a lack of confidence in my ability, and even fearing I would I wouldn't stick with it based on my level of ability and hoping I wouldn't be ostracized by other members for it. As I'm sure you know, no member of Get Fit will ever have to worry about that- or any of those things for that matter! I love it at Get Fit, and so much of that is because of you and your support! I feel a part of a community, and I couldn't be more grateful for the experience I've had! I told Cherie that, and it made me think I should probably tell you, because your coaching has really impacted my journey here in a positive way! So, thank you very much! I appreciate it! This experience as a whole has made a huge difference in my life!"

It took a lot of guts to not only share this with me, but to also allow me to share it with all of you as well. Lauren deserves a big hand for doing so. I hope that Lauren's story can help you all in some way or another, I know it helps me!

-Coach Adam

March Madness Round 2 was a huge success in both Epsom and Concord!! We had a lot of hard working individuals working as a team for 4 weeks. While I am sad to say there can only be one winner for each gym location, you all did an amazing job!

For Concord, team Bow Ties took the crown this year. The team made up of Muriel Hall, Sue Pribis, Cristy Bresson, and Kara Hinck will be cutting down the nets in Concord this year. Congratulations to the winners, and thank you very much for everyone in Concord who competed in the Myzone Challenge! And the prize – a sweet custom Get Fit NH tee designed by the winning team! ​I can't wait to see it worn in the gym by these ladies.

March Madness at Get Fit NH Epsom was a battle of sled pusher against sled pusher. Each training time had a team in the challenge. Their goal was to push the sled the most laps per team member than all other training times. I was so proud of each who took the challenge. Lisa, from 9am, described pushing the sled as pushing a car out of the mud. It can feel like that although not as heavy as a stuck-in-the-mud car. While we had some veterans push the 135-pound sled, others pushed for the very first time. What a great feeling to drive that much weight down the length of the gym and back. 

Our teams pushed over 631,530 pounds throughout March Madness. While the 9am Ladies only crew had the most people pushing, and 6:15 had the highest one-person score, 6pm took home the prize. They pushed an average of 183.4 laps each in a month. The prize? Take home dinner cooked by Coach Nancy. With that number they would have pushed 315 Polar Bears (each weighing 2000 pounds) back and forth in the gym. Now that is Madness.

Congratulations to all! And enjoy your dinner 6pm!

Let me tell you something that will unequivocally always be the case…if you do not believe you can do it, you won’t. It’s that simple. You may have more talent and more ability than you yourself even realize, it is just sitting dormant waiting for you to recognize it. You need to want it, and furthermore, you need to believe you can do it.

If you think you are the world’s fastest sprinter but you never work hard in the gym or at practice and tune out everything your coach says, then most likely when its time to take off from the starting blocks you are going to find yourself chasing. Sure, everyone can survive on God given talent for a time, but only those who really work hard and practice their craft will continue to advance. For every one athlete who becomes a professional, or competes at the highest stage, there are 10 others who had the ability but never put in the time or effort to achieve it.

This does work the other way, however, every person who excels at the highest level has one major thing in common, that killer instinct. They want the ball with the game on the line and 3 seconds left on the clock. They want to guard the best player on the other team. They don’t shy away from a challenge on the floor or in life.

One of my most vivid examples of this was Jeff Green, for those of you who don’t know or don’t remember, he played for the Celtics several years ago now. I watched a game where he scored 45 points against the Miami Heat at the height of their power. It, to this day, is one of the most dominating performances I have ever seen. You would have had to watch the game to know what I mean. He wanted the ball and he put it in the basket over and over and over, not from downtown, but the hard way by going into the paint. However, even with all the talent he possessed and the type of dominant game he had the potential for, he never reached his full potential because he didn’t have that instinct.

All in all, the important thing to remember is that it takes two sides to the same coin to achieve greatness. The work and time put in (the physical ability to do it) AND the mental ability to believe that you can. Make no mistake, you cannot have one without the other

-Coach Adam

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.​

Here is another blog by request for you! The question: Why Myzone over Fitbit? How does it make a difference in my training?

Fitbit features:

• Measures steps, calories and distance
• Floors climbed
• Clock/time
• Sleep tracking
• Some have GPS capability
• PurePulse Heart Rate - Fitbit brands their heart rate tech as PurePulse—calling it “the only heart rate technology to offer automatic, continuous wrist based tracking for all-day health insights and workout intensity".
• Ability to challenge friends

Myzone features:

• Measures real life beats per minute
• Measures effort (% of maximum heart rate)
• Logs time spent in each zone
• Picture food logging
• Trend graph after each training, right down to the minute
• Emailed training synopsis after each workout with graph, average effort, peak heart rate, average heart rate and time in zones
• A fantastic app to review history and progress
• Ability to challenge friends
• Data in the gym and bluetooth compatible to see effort outside of the gym
• Measurable points to challenge yourself each month

I obviously know more about Myzone from experience than I do about Fitbit. The Fitbit features were gathered straight from their website.

I am a firm believer in Myzone, or heart rate straps in general, over watches. With wrist watches you need to wear the band correctly and tight enough for the lights to be touching your skin, and intense exercise can throw off the measurements. Fitbit also suggests wearing their trackers higher on your wrist to get more reliable readings. The heart rate straps are not measuring your pulse. They are recording your actual heartbeat.

One great thing that Fitbit does that Myzone doesn’t is measure steps. That is great way to keep you moving throughout the day. HOWEVER, for training purposes that doesn’t matter. Myzone measures the percent of your maximum heart rate. Fitbit cannot show you hard you are working. Myzone not only tells you how hard you were working, but it logs and emails you how hard you were working in each zone and for how long you were working in each zone. It also provides you a graph which shows you your training trends. The graph shows you when your heart rate started to pick up and your recovery between sets. Fitbit cannot show you that important information. Myzone gives you immediate, easy to read feedback while training whereas Fitbit is just showing you a potentially flawed heartbeat.

I realize this may sound a tad biased. I don’t think Fitbits are pointless. I think they are a fantastic tool to make sure you are moving and to measure your steps, but for training purposes I do not think they serve an effective purpose.

I hope that answers the question!
Coach Meagan

​Robie has survived much more than her first month at Get Fit NH. She is just earned Hall of Fame Status in March. Congratulations and thank you, Robie.

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

Let’s talk about menopause, ladies. This blog is coming to you by request. I know it is probably a little strange to have a 27-year-old woman write about this topic, but it is an important topic that no one else is talking about!

If you are still reading, I will assume this matter applies to you. Allow me to encourage you before I really get going. I sit down with literally hundreds of students just like you. I would go as far to say that the number 1 thing I hear when I sit down with a woman in a success session is that they hit menopause and all of a sudden life changed- FAST! Weight gain, mood swings, exhaustion, etc. All of these things make them self-conscious, depressed, stressed, anxious, mad…you name it. The cool part is that they came to us to make a change. So here is a little education and how training and nutrition play a critical role in how you cope.

Menopause is part of life, right? There is absolutely no dodging it, ladies. Whether you a pre-menopausal, in the fire or almost at the end let’s talk about what happens...

Estrogen. It is an important hormone for many reasons, but one reason you may not think about until it drops is that it helps regulate metabolism. With menopause comes an estrogen dive, which means what? If you were used to eating anything and everything and living a sedentary life with a comfortable weight, you can kiss that life goodbye. Or maybe you have the training piece in your toolbox already, but you have not fully committed to that other important part (nutrition!) – now would be the time to hop on board!

You know what else estrogen does? It helps prevent bone loss and works together with calcium, vitamin D and other hormones and minerals to build bones. Thus, after menopause, your body breaks down more bone than it rebuilds. In the years immediately after menopause, women may lose as much as 20% of their bone mass. With that being said, don’t ya think a smart training program and proper nutrition can help you? Hello- osteoporosis?

I am here for you!
Coach Meagan