My journey with fitness.: Chocolate Protein Oatmeal Cookies. Yum!

My journey with fitness.: Chocolate Protein Oatmeal Cookies. Yum!: Last night I had a little time to myself after the gym and an awesome burger. It's not what you think. Of course I wanted a bun but I opted ...

Chocolate Protein Oatmeal Cookies. Yum!

Last night I had a little time to myself after the gym and an awesome burger. It's not what you think. Of course I wanted a bun but I opted for a lettuce wrap chicken breast and it was delicious. That is apart of the journey is making small healthy choices day by day. Meal by meal. #eatclean right?!

The thing I realized when debating the bun decision of 2012. To eat or not to eat. I thought about all the hard work and time I had been putting into my body to feel better and eating a juicy burger would only have temporary satisfaction. If I take care and put thought into each mean and each workout, the results will last forever! The forever is totally worth it! A moment on the lips of forever on the hips.

Anyways, I am a dessert or treat kind of girl and I have been doing really well lately that I wanted to make a healthy batch of protein cookies and I just bought this awesome Chocolate Protein (Vega Sport, Performance protein but I'm sure any kind would do). Here is what I tossed together, literally.

Grab a bowl and add in one by one:

1. 1 3/4 c. Oats

2. 4 scoops protein

3. 1/2 c. Unsweetened Apply Sauce

4. 1/2 c. Egg Whites

5. 1 tbsp Splenda

6. 1 tsp Olive Oil

7. 1 tsp Cinnamon to taste 

You can add nuts or raisins if you like.

Mix them up and then use an ice cream scoop to form balls and press down on a pan and put them in the oven. 325 F for 15 - 20 minutes. 

I had two for a snack and a litre of water and boy they filled me up. I had these with a 1/2 cup of blueberries. Great snack option! 

A girls got to have a lil chocolate every once in a while. I also deserved a little reward after the last month. I have been working very hard towards my goal of breaking 140 and keeping my scale hidden. Have you?! I am going to weigh myself tomorrow to see where I am at. The last month has gone well and I am getting into more of a routine with my food and going to the gym and have notice results which has been really motivating because I was in a real rut for a while. 

Lately I have been lifting more so inches at the end of the day are more important that the lb's but both would be a win-win. I will have to compare my inches and weight and give you an update soon. It's off to bed for this one. I hope you enjoy the recipe. Let me know what you think!

xoxo

Nic

Eat. Sleep. Train. Repeat!

Hide the SCALE!

For the last two weeks I have made great progress and feel good about my new routine. The one thing I was struggling with is two weekends coming up at the end of June where I will be in Vancouver for two parties and how it will affect my groove. Usually I would focus on the negative and subconsciously throw myself into a rut but not this time. I decided when I started writing this today that two things were going to change. One, I was no longer going to weigh myself for the next 30 days and two, I was going to keep with the plan and have a new plan for the weekends when I am gone. I will just front load my workouts so I have two rest days on the weekends I'm be gone and bam! I have a solution. Boy I can accomplish a lot before 8.

Let me tell you, going away can be tough if you think it will be tough. YOU and only you can decide whether you will make the best out of the situation and move forward or be miserable and complain. Let's be real. No one likes a negative Nancy. You may think I'm nuts worrying about two weekends away but for those of you who have found a groove, you can understand where I am coming from. It is hard because you are scared you won't be able to get back intoo a routine and their won't be healthy options. This is never the case.

Speaking from experience, I might have ruined one of the most amazing family vacations I've ever had the opportunity of going on. It was in September last year, 2 months before I was suppose to be on stage at the Sandra Wickham Fall Classic and I was going to Hawaii for a week with my family. I am 26 and the last time we went on a family get away of this magnitude was 14 years ago when my Mom and Dad surprised my sister and I with a cruise to Alaska. We did lots of small fun trips over the years together but life gets busy and this trip had been a big deal.

Looking back one of the main reasons I had been so crappy once I got there was due to my crazy work schedule that had me on the road for over two months and I didn't see the end in sight. Once I got to Hawaii, I was dying of heat and going to the gym twice a day wasn't my ideal situation and neither was prepping food. I thought I ruined the trip because I was always tired or a little cranking because the heat was getting to me and I was always coming or going to the YMCA. It was a 15 minute walk from our hotel and I was there 3 hours a day. The best part about going to the gym was when my dad would come with me for at least one of my workouts and do his own thing. I was proud of him for continuing his fitness while on vacation and two years later he has lost more than 40 lbs. He looks great. 

My point is...that if I can survive Hawaii and eating well and working out there is no reason I can't eat well and enjoy myself for two very special occasions. Life is not about living in the gym and being skinny. It is about feeling your best and doing what you can. My intention isn't to be skinny but to be healthy and find a balance. There are always options and when you get into a groove life happens and it is your chance to make the best of the situation. Things will always come up and if you can overcome and make a plan you will succeed and that is exactly what I plan on doing. 

As far as hiding the scale. It goes to echoing my earlier statement about being thin. My goal here, post competition and during the "off season" is not to be skinny. I just want to be healthy and be happy and that is why I have decided to put the scale away. It doesn't matter what number appears but that when my alarm goes off at 6, I get up and go to the gym. Its the dedication to your goals that matter and as long as you are committed and doing what it takes you will not only see results but feel them on the inside.  Life has enough pressure that you don't need to put even more on yourself to weigh a certain amount. It should be in your hands what you want and how you feel. I know I feel like a million bucks on my drive home from the gym. Once I get there I could stay there for hours! I know that wouldn't be productive and would tucker me out for the rest of the week but that is a whole different post for another time!

Just remember that different things work for different people but at the end of the day, life is important and you can't push everything and everyone out to look a certain way. You will be miserable. Set small goals and find balance. It will lead to a more enjoyable time and you'll love the way you look and feel!

Have an awesome Tuesday and get rid of your scales with me for awhile! Lets see if we can make it. Like this if your in it with me.

Train. Eat. Work. Sleep. Repeat!

xoxox

Nic

Once I found fitness, I found my voice.

Ever since I was little, I was a free spirit. Not a care in the world. I was creative and the world was my oyster. Then it happened. High School. I remember it starting earlier, but didn't realize what was happening until high school. Either way, bullying was there and happened a lot. No kid or teen should ever be affected or no want to be themselves because other kids are picking on them. It is no way to live. I remember going home and crying to my mom and not wanting to go back because the girls were so mean. My mom always told me that all I had to do was get through high school and life would be different. No that I look back, it is so frustrating to me that bullying even happens in the first place and with technology it is getting worse. One of the greatest outlets that so many people use in a positive way, can also be a way that kids or teens get targeted. 
My experience being teased and bullied for living to my own drum and wearing things I sewed or made, wearing my hair in different ways was not something accepted by my class mates and caused me to quit sports teams and not want to join clubs. The girls that were the worse probably don't realize how bad they made my life and the worse girls were the ones that caused me to sacrifice basketball. I sport I loved and really enjoyed. They made me so miserable that I quit. Basketball was in my genetics and my sister excelled at basketball to a varsity level and my grandpa was the first white man to play for the Harlem Globe Trotters. It was in my blood but they took that away from me. 
As grade 12 finally came, my mom said, you've made it and things will be different and soon enough the summer passed and I was in college. There were so many different types of people from so many different places and no one gave a shit what I was wearing or what my hair looked like. They liked me for me. After the first few weeks I went home one day and cried for a completely different reason. I could be myself. After years of hiding under baggy sweatshirts and jeans and being plain. I could do what ever I wanted and it felt good. This is where I first got a taste of freedom but the confidence came much later. I was so comfortable in who I was and really liked the new me. It was freeing. 
After college and starting my 2nd job life was so much better. My whole life I struggled with confidence and finding the strength to be my own person with out the permission of others. I had always been around school sports teams and leagues but once I found fitness, I found my voice. 
At the ripe age of 23 I started reading Oxygen Magazine and Women's Fitness and copying the workouts I found in the magazines. I loved it. At that time I was working at the Richmond Olympic Oval leading up to the Olympics and I was surrounded by athletes and I got the bug. Addicted to training that it. After an opportunity came up while I was working at the Oval, I decided to move onto a job as an advertising coordinator at an auctioneering company and it went from walking around all day at the Oval and working out to being in an office. It was sure different. After a few months the company I was working for moved into a brand new building with a 3,000sq ft gym. It was spectacular. 
I remember the day like yesterday. A mass email I sent out to all 300+ employees that if anyone was interested in working out at lunch and doing an ab class to meet downstairs on Monday. The people that worked around me popped up out of their cubicals and the critizism and negativity was in their voices. You are doing an ab class??? Do you think people will show??? Laughter...It reminded me of high school all over again and a wave of embassasement flushed over me and then it was gone. I didn't care what they thought and on Monday, 10 people showed up to my class and the following week 16! After classes I would recieve the best emails about how awesome the class was or how good they felt and that, felt really good.
Those 2, 30 minute classes every week were the best part of my day and week. People loved coming and always had nice things to say. I felt like the popular kid around the office because it brought together so many different people from different departments. It was a great sense and feeling of community. It wasn't until 2 years later that I met Natalie Waples and was inspired to compete in my first competition which led me to compeleting my personal training certification. Ever since I began training, I realized it was something only I could control and no one could take away from me. I wanted to share this feeling with others. It's amazing how powerful living a healthy lifestyle and working out can be.  

The Sexy Fam!

The latest people to be affected by this bug are my own parents! After years of bugging my dad about his weight, him and my mom joined a Healthy Winner program at the local community centre and they have come so far. My dad retired almost two years ago and I always feared for his health due to poor eating and a lack of acutal excercise. He now hits the gym 6 times a week and my mom and him love yoga and my mom took up pole walking. This is all in addition to their weekly boot camp classes. I went home a few weeks ago and was speechless when I saw my dad. He was SKINNY!!!! No more beer belly or balancing cereal bowls on his stomach. He was trim and did it the healthy way. I went downstairs to see my mom and she has lost weight too! I didn't notice it the last time I was home because she was in a sweat-shirt. She has lost a bunch of weight too. It was great to see they had, in their own time, commit to their own journey with fitness. 
For me, it took leading one class at work and for my parents, months but we are all hooked! Fitness is a lifestyle and once you find it, you'll find happiness. It takes will power and discipline, but it is SO WORTH IT and so are you. It takes small changes but over time those changes become habits. 
I know it's in each of us. Some of us find it at 23, some at 61. GO find it!


Train. Eat. Sleep. Repeat! xo


Nic