Motivation

Motivation

What motivates us? What drives us to change? What pushes us to move forward rather than stay in the quicksand of life?

Some of us are motivated by negativity. Such as; take a before picture and stand naked in front of the bathroom mirror and jump up and down (I refer to this as the Jell-O- test) no jiggle ; it’s a good thing).

I myself don’t believe in negatively motivated change. It tends to have an adverse effect that transfers through to all the positives that you are doing towards your health. As in “Yeah, I’m going to the gym---I have to! Now how can that attitude be helpful towards reaching one’s goals?

What we need to remember is that motivation is the spark. It’s the start. Your life WILL get in the way. Your child will get sick, tough times will happen, work pressures will happen, financial stress will happen and it doesn’t happen to just you; it’s called life. The spark will not always be lit on the tough days. Just remember it’s always easier to NOT. It’s always easier to buy packaged food, it’s always easier to sleep in, and it’s always easier to wait until tomorrow.

Sometimes you need to just do! There will be days that you have just barely made it to the gym. There will be days that you need to cut your work-out short. There will be days that you feel like a slug but you are here! GOOD FOR YOU!!! Remember fitness is a “life”style not a season. Fitness is what you need to do to stay healthy. Three times a week is a basic health requirement. Make it happen. Don’t rely on a burst of energy and/or enthusiasm every time to get you to the gym – that is not reality. Do we get excited about making dinner each nigh?! Heck no! But we do it. Get yourself into the habit of planning your week and workouts and then make it happen.

Put one foot in front of the other each and every day. Don’t wait until Monday, don’t wait until tomorrow because you’ve already “blown the diet” today --- start NOW, this minute! This is your life. Make it count, and do something towards your health each and every day.


Lori Nicholls
BCRPA Certified Personal Trainer
Delta Personal Training
(604) 721 8792

Healthy Recipe Alterations - By Lori Nicholls

Healthy Recipe Alterations - by Lori Nicholls, of Delta Personal Training

The first time I read about altering a recipe I couldn't believe that a normal average Joe like me could do such a thing! I'm not a chef! I cook, I eat, but I am certainly not an expert on what a certain ingredient will or will not do.

Like many families, Sunday breakfasts tend to be a tradition of breaking from the norm and doing something special. During the week we're all very busy, I work on Saturdays too, so once I get home on Sunday morning from the gym (yes I'm there when the doors open) a breakfast feast starts.

Some time ago, I was inspired after reading some recipes from the Figure and Fitness Models/Competitors and well, in an effort to inflict a little additional "health" on our family, I thought I would alter things a bit... let me share an experience with you.

On this particular Sunday, I was going to make pancakes with my Home Made Blueberry Sauce... it is a family favorite. All the sauce is fruit, with about a tablespoon of lemon juice and depending on the fruit 1-2 tablespoons of sugar, heat it all up on a low temperature and mush it to a sauce.

VERY YUMMY !! (**be careful it can have some hot patches)

But this is where it went very WRONG...

The recipe for the pancakes was from a fitness magazine and instead of flour you take rolled oats and use your blender, blend the oats until they are a fine powder and it becomes your flour. My whole family didn't just dislike my pancakes... they hated them! This was over a year ago and they still remind me of my cardboard pancakes!!!

The above is not altering a recipe - it was an absolute mutilation of one!

Let's face it if the family won't/can't eat it-it's not worth the energy.

Now I use 1/2 white flour, and the remaining 1/2 I divide it with wheat germ and brown flour... It's healthier and everyone eats it!

Just today I made carrot cake and instead of 1 cup oil, I did 1/2 cup oil and 1/2 cup water. Instead of two cups white flour I did 1 cup white flour, 1/2 cup brown flour, 1/4 cup wheat germ and 1/4 cup rolled oats.

Everyone really, really loved it, and no-one was questioning what was in there??!?!?

Here is a tip to implementing healthy recipe alterations...

When you are just starting a healthier approach with your family - start off slow. Don't go from Homogenized Milk to Skim Milk, try going to 2% first, then 1%; make the changes gradually. I use Skim Milk in my Macaroni and Cheese recipe - again everyone loves it.

I have a better understanding of cooking than I once did.

After all, recipes come from someone goofing around (or goofing up) in the kitchen. Recipes get altered all the time, quite often because we're half-way through making something and realize that we're out of eggs or whatever.

Deciding to eat more healthy is an awesome choice! But unless your doctor has given you a very strict, stern talk, like, "Alter Your Diet NOW Or You'll Die", just try altering recipes slowly.

Adjust them and then alter them to be slightly healthier again, again and again.

There is a chef in all of us, and with having a family, you usually have at least one critic at the table at all times. So go slow and make it stick - but not like my cardboard pancakes did to the roof of our mouths!

Bon Appetite!

For more healthy lifestyle choices and some recipes that I have successfully altered, visit my website at www.DeltaPersonalTraining.com

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