Profile of a Goal: T-13 Weeks from WBFF Competition

Every goal should start with a smile

Over the next few weeks, I’m going to share a little bit of my experience as I work toward one of my spring goals—competing in the World Body Fitness Federation (WBFF) show on April 14, 2012. It’s a little less than 13 weeks away!

This goal will be particularly challenging for me because I’m not used to the format of the WBFF shows, which are popular in Canada. I usually compete in the Organization of Competitive Bodybuilders (OCB), where I know exactly what to expect. I love the OCB, and I’ll compete in one of their shows just one week before the WBFF show.

Every show is an opportunity to learn something about myself so I can improve the way I compete in the future, and doing these shows a week apart will certainly give me some ideas on how my strengths and weaknesses tally up.

One of the things I’m doing to prepare for the WBFF show is driving to a four-hour workshop in Connecticut to learn more about walking and posing, among other things related to bodybuilding competing. I want to soak up as much information as possible so I can take it back home and weave it into my preparation and training over the next three months. It’s a 10-hour commute to attend the workshop—which in the past I would have thought this was crazy! But I’ve learned over the years that when it comes to setting goals, you need to figure out what it will take to connect the dots and find success in your competition. For me, that includes getting myself into environments where I can LEARN. A long commute is a small price to pay for gaining more insights and knowledge into my sport.

I don’t expect to come out on top in the WBFF show, but that’s not my priority. I am putting myself outside of my comfort zone in this show, by being part of a competition that I’m not familiar with. One of my personal goals in all of my shows is to improve my confidence on stage—what better way to do that than to actively put myself in situations where I am forced to “bring it” with the best competition I can find?  I want to start leaving my mark in this industry, and it starts with being brave enough to step into the unknown armed with personality, a smile, and the will to succeed. One of my long-term goals is to get my pro card in the OCB or other organizations.

So now you know where my mentality is as I prepare for this goal, but where is my body? As a full-time personal trainer, it can be challenging for me to find the time to get my own training done. That means I wake up to a 3:00AM alarm clock, so I can get started with my workout by 4:00AM.

It’s important for me to get things completed early in the day, because so much can happen as the day unfolds. It can be nearly impossible to stay faithful to a mid-day, afternoon, or evening workout when things out of my control arise. (Did I mention I’m a mom? The Holy Grail of the “unknown” factor!) Once my main workout for the day is completed, I can sneak in sets and circuits as time permits, and consider it all “bonus”!

I’ll be checking in on my blog with updates throughout this training season, as it encourages me to improve each day. Whether it’s improving my energy level, my diet, my workout, or my attitude—sharing this experience in a public forum will help keep me focused. In the past I’ve kept goals like this to myself, in part because I was afraid to fail—and afraid to “put it all out there” as I set my sights on certain things. But the real failure in this experience would be to not learn anything from it, and maybe there’s something that other people can learn from it too. I encourage my clients to take risks, set goals, and find a way to be accountable to their training. This is one of the ways I’m taking my own advice.

I’ll leave you with one of my favorite quotes, by Thomas Edison. “I haven’t failed. I’ve just found 10,000 ways that won’t work.”

Spiced Greek Raspberries—From the Client Recipe Box

Fruit can get a bad rap for being “boring” when it comes to grabbing a fun snack, or making a great dessert. But one of my clients figured out a way to transform one of my favorite fruits from dull to decadent in this recipe for Spiced Greek Raspberries.

Whether you’re looking for a special twist on breakfast, an afternoon pick-me-up or something to satisfy your sweet tooth after dinner, this recipe delivers good taste AND good health. To make, simply combine fresh or frozen raspberries in a bowl with a scoop of Greek yogurt, then sprinkle pumpkin spice over the top. Voila!

Tuesday’s Go-To Tuna-rugula Pasta—From the Client Recipe Box

Here’s a healthy recipe that one of my clients threw together following one of our regular Tuesday night sessions. After her 60-minute cycling class, Lisa joins me for an hour of personal training and looks for an easy and appetizing meal to enjoy when she arrives home around 8:30PM. After a random refrigerator raid to find some ingredients that could go together, she’s perfected her Tuesday night go-to dinner—Tuna-rugala Pasta. This is a light meal with a good balance of leafy greens, flavorful fruit (remember, tomatoes are not veggies!), lean protein, healthy fat, and soul-comforting pasta.

To make the recipe, gather the following ingredients:

Half a package of baby arugula, loosely chopped

10-12 cherry tomatoes halved, or use small gourmet tomatoes for added vibrance!

1/4 cup of pasta (use whatever you have, though the ingredients swirl together nicely around a longer noodle like linguini or angel hair)

2.6 ounces of light tuna packed in water

1/2 tbsp of olive oil

A dash of salt and pepper

Place the arugula, tomatoes and tuna in a large bowl while the pasta is cooking. When the pasta is done, drain it and place the noodles evenly over the mixture in the bowl. Drizzle the olive oil over the pasta and then immediately mix the ingredients together. Though the amount of olive oil is small, the hot pasta noodles will help to spread the oil over the other ingredients. Sprinkle with salt and pepper to finish, and enjoy!

The trick to this meal is the illusion it creates! The volume of food in the bowl makes the mind believe you’re having a robust meal—especially when you know there’s pasta in the mix! But the pasta serving is small (and portion-appropriate) compared to the other ingredients. The olive oil only brings 7 grams of fat to the mix, while the arugula brings big flavor. The tomatoes help to bring moisture to the mix with their fleshy interiors, and the tuna is packed with protein.

Enjoy with small glass of red or white wine—remember, one glass a day is actually good for you! ; )

The Working (Out) Mom

TRX straps go from "workout" to "playground" when my daughter is with me.

There’s a lot of content out there helping the “the working mom,” as she balances career with family, but I think it’s important to recognize the challenges that “working out” moms face too.

It can be tough to find time for cardio and strength training, but it’s not impossible. I’m lucky to have a great support system to help me with Sammi so I can find time to train, but like any other mom out there, sometimes things come up and I’ve got to change plans. I’ve been known to do push-ups with my daughter on my back, and just lifting her while I tend to things around the house is enough to tone up my arms…but the best part about being a working-out mom, is that I get to pass on the important understanding that being fit is about living a healthy lifestyle.

We’re lucky to have daycare in our gym, so Sammi comes to work with me a lot. I believe the gym environment creates a positive influence on her—and I love that she’s learning that mommy is a person who helps people. I’m proud of my profession and letting my daughter see the different ways that fitness can change people’s lives.

My advice to the other workout moms is to incorporate your children into some of your routines. Save part of your ab workout for the living room instead of the gym—get on the floor and make crunches a team exercise between you and your child. Simple stretching and yoga routines can easily feel like playtime with your children, while using the opportunity to show them how fitness can be fun. After a run or a cardio session, see if your child is up for a small walk around the block or down the road with you—it’s a cool down for you, and another opportunity for your child to see what working out is all about.

The main thing is to make sure you use your fitness as an opportunity to not only improve your overall wellness, but also the wellness of your child. With any luck, your child will grow up and continue engaging in fun and healthy ways to stay fit.

Turkey Two Ways

Turkey is a great food because it is super lean, full of protein, and versatile enough to satisfy your “bad food” cravings while making sure you’re staying good on your intention to eat healthy. These are two recipes that use ground turkey to recreate two of America’s great comfort foods—meatballs and burgers!

Rae’s So Good For You, It’s True…Meatballs!

Mix the following eight ingredients together in a large bowl. The serving size is about 10 meatballs, you can double the recipe for more.

2 tbs milk
1/2 tsp Lea & Perrins marinade for chicken (can use regular Worcestershire)
A couple drops of hot pepper sauce
1/2 cup oats (dry)
1tbs minced fresh parsley
1/4 tsp salt
1/8 tsp pepper
1/2 lb lean ground turkey

Arrange each meatball in a greased pie plate or a baking pan of your choice, then bake in the oven at 400 degrees for about 20 minutes (oven temps vary, may be a little less than 20 minutes).

Try them over rice, or with a serving of pasta of your choice!

Rae’s TB BURGER (Turkey & Broccoli)

I love these because my protein and veggy are all in one! I have an extremely demanding schedule so the less “work” it takes for me to eat between clients or after workouts the better!

Mix the following ingredients and form into four- to six-ounce patties. Cook on the stove until golden brown and cooked through.

1lb lean ground turkey
1tbs garlic powder (or use fresh garlic)
1.5 tsp hot sauce
1/2 cup oats
1 cup mostly-cooked to fully-cooked broccoli

Have fun with this recipe, add ingredients, use less or more of what is listed. This is just how I made them and they’re perfect for me. Even my two-year old loved them, and it’s very important to me that my child eats healthy (she doesn’t have to know that)!

The Top 5 “Healthy” New Year’s Resolutions, and Why They Often Fail

As a personal trainer for many years, I’ve seen a lot of “health-related” new year’s resolutions come and go. Not surprisingly, the top five resolutions that people often make for themselves this time of the year are to lose weight, eat better, get to the gym more, improve their overall wellness (by lowering stress, decreasing cholesterol levels, etc.) and the mack daddy resolution—to get in “the best shape of my life.”

Most people start off with good intentions to fulfill these resolutions, but more often than not, they end up abandoning them within a few months. Why? Because they fail to do these three things:

Make your goals specific

Think about the resolution “to eat better.” It’s such a vague statement—and that’s the problem. When your goal is that generic, your brain automatically feels there is “wiggle room” around the idea of eating better, and you will slowly drift from making healthier choices (like choosing fruit to snack on rather than potato chips) and ease your way back into old eating habits (having fruit as a snack once in a while, as opposed to every day). Protect your resolutions by phrasing them very specifically. So, “I want to eat better” becomes, “I will change my diet tomorrow in the following ways…” Then outline a series of small steps to make your goal more manageable.

Be realistic with your timeline

This is an exciting time of the year, and we feel a rush with the idea of setting and meeting our resolutions. When the resolution is to lose weight, we want to believe that our new-found determination and plan of attack can expedite the experience of changing our bodies. Rather than overshooting expectations with an unrealistic goal, such as “I want to lose 40 pounds by March,” rephrase the goal to align with what can realistically happen between now and March. A healthy weight loss is four to five pounds per month. So the goal becomes, “I want to lose four pounds each month until I’m happy with my body.”

Rally the right troops

One of the best ways to make your resolutions “real” is to tell someone about them. Something about saying the words of your resolution out loud to another person makes you feel immediately accountable for working toward your goals. The trouble is, we don’t always tell the RIGHT person about our plan. Naturally, your doctor or personal trainer is a person you will trust with your proclamation to get healthier…but when you only see this person once every so often, it’s easy to lose that sense of accountability. If you truly want daily support to carry you through your resolutions, talk about them to someone you will see every day. Friends, family, co-workers or perhaps a peer group that is working toward the same goal as you. This is not only important for you to feel that powerful sense of accountability, it’s also helpful in creating the support system you will need to stay on track. Significant others should be aware that dinner time might not consist of the “comfort foods” from the past—but instead be replaced with leaner, healthier options. It’s this kind of support at the dinner table that will help you meet your goals, not the weekly or monthly conversation you have with a personal trainer.

Resolutions always look good on paper, but too often old ways can set in and sabotage your success.

With a couple days left before we officially ring in 2012, you have some time to sit down and rewrite your New Year’s Resolutions in a way that will increase your chances of fulfilling them. List your resolutions and then ask yourself how they could be rephrased to be more specific and more realistic. Then figure out who you want to share them with—choose someone from home and from work, to help you stay focused on your quest to be a better you.

Rae’s TRXmas — 12 Days in 12 Minutes!

On the twelfth day of TRXmas, my trainer gave to me, a 12-minute circuit, piking pine-tree push-ups, snow ball power pull-ups, side-lunge leaping reindeer, gift-wrapped-rippin’ shoulders, present-peeking push-ups, tree-topping twisters, snow angel core strength, snow scooping side swipes, an early-morning rising, a tummy-tone toboggan, and a sleigh ride on Santa’s knee…

Today’s the day! We’re combining all of the exercises from the 12 Days of TRXmas into one big circuit, clocking in just under 12 minutes long. The number of reps varies from one exercise to the next, and you can adjust how many reps you want to do based on your level of fitness. Watch the video below if you want to follow along with me. This is a great circuit because it hits all of the major muscle groups in the body while getting the heart rate up at the same time. That means you’re burning calories, getting toned, and consistently engaging that core through the whole routine.

Rae’s TRXmas — Piking Pine-Tree Push-Ups

On the eleventh day of TRXmas, my trainer gave to me, piking pine-tree push-ups, snow ball power pull-ups, side-lunge leaping reindeer, gift-wrapped-rippin’ shoulders, present-peeking push-ups, tree-topping twisters, snow angel core strength, snow scooping side swipes, an early-morning rising, a tummy-tone toboggan, and a sleigh ride on Santa’s knee…

Here we go with our last TRXmas exercise, before we combine all 12 days of TRXmas into one big circuit for tomorrow’s finale. Today we’ll be doing a similar exercise to the present-peeking push-ups you did earlier in the series, only this time we’ll be focusing our attention a little higher up the tree. Get in the same starting position as you did before, only now we use our core to push the bum up, so that our bodies look like the triangular shape of the ol’ Christmas pine tree. It’s fine to do 10 reps of this exercise and then rest before completing two additional sets, OR give yourself a challenge and see how many you can complete before having to stop. Watch the video below for a demo, and be sure to come back tomorrow morning for the full 12 Days of TRXmas circuit!

Rae’s TRXmas — Snow Ball Power Pull-Ups

On the tenth day of TRXmas, my trainer gave to me, snow ball power pull-ups, side-lunge leaping reindeer, gift-wrapped-rippin’ shoulders, present-peeking push-ups, tree-topping twisters, snow angel core strength, snow scooping side swipes, an early-morning rising, a tummy-tone toboggan, and a sleigh ride on Santa’s knee…

This powerful pull-up exercise isolates the work to one side of the body at a time, combining a bit of a shoulder row with a dash of bicep curl (and of course, the omnipresent ab work, courtesy of the twist as you lower and heighten the body during the exercise). To bring the holiday spirit to life here, let’s imagine we’re using one hand to hang on to a tree branch to support our weight as we twist behind us using the other hand to scoop up a hefty ball of snow during a friendly snow-ball fight with the neighbors. Watch the video below for a demo. Aim for 10 reps on each side, repeat the set 3 times.

As we near the end of our TRXmas countdown, don’t forget to check back on this blog to see me go through all 12 days of TRXmas. Want a refresher on the previous 9 days? Check out the link to my YouTube channel from the menu on the right side of this page.

Rae’s TRXmas — Side Lunge-Leaping Reindeer

On the ninth day of TRXmas, my trainer gave to me, side-lunge leaping reindeer, gift-wrapped-rippin’ shoulders, present-peeking push-ups, tree-topping twisters, snow angel core strength, snow scooping side swipes, an early-morning rising, a tummy-tone toboggan, and a sleigh ride on Santa’s knee…

It takes a lot of time to cavort around the world with Santa’s sleigh behind you, which could get old after a while! To make the voyage a bit more festive, we’re going to bring a little merriment to Rudolph’s gait by adding some side lunges and hops to our movement. This exercise works the legs, but it’s actually a cardio workout in disguise thanks to the jump in between lunges (come on now, did you think reindeer could schlep all those gifts about without a little cardio in the mix to stay fit?). Watch the video below for a demo, and aim for 10 reps on each side, three sets total. Tip: The bigger the jump, the more cardio you’ll get out of this.