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Avoid Weight Gain During the Holiday Season: 10 Easy Tips

Now that November is ending, it is that time of the year again.  When December hits the holidays soon begin.  If you are worried about gaining weight this holiday season, you're not alone.

The average North American will gain approximately 7 to 12 pounds of fat over the Christmas holidays. 

Follow these 8 simple tips to avoid super growth around the waist and look better, feel better.

1) Cut your portions. A portion is how much food you will put on your plate in one sitting. Do not fall victim to portion distortion and load your plate up. 

2) Determine the amount of servings you need as required by Using Canada's Food Guide (http://www.hc-sc.gc.ca/fn-an/food-guide-aliment/basics-base/quantit-eng.php)

3) Drink more water!  The general rule of thumb is to drink 6 to 8 glasses of water a day.  If you are active you should be drinking more as necessary.  Some people mistake thirst for hunger, learn to recognize the difference.

4) Make healthier food choices.  Try to cut out the junk food or limit your consumption.  Replace the soft drinks with water.  If you like to eat cake or pie try replacing it with yogurt and some fresh fruits.  If you eat too much fast food like Mc Donald's you will end up looking like Mcdonald's around the waist line.  Three words to live by: CUT IT OUT! I promise you will feel better.

5) Avoid eating high carb meals after 8pm.  The majority of the world will work a 9-5pm job.  It is tempting to eat late at night.  Late night snacking can be very dangerous with weight gain.  If you are hungry, try to substitute the late night eating with vegetables, soups (low in sodium), and a lean source of protein.

6) Ditch the processed food.  Processed foods like frozen dinners are usually loaded with alot of sodium and unneccessary junk.  Learn to cook real meals and real food.  Take the time and effort to learn and put healthy and nutritious fuel for your body.

7) Limit alcohol consumption.  The average beer will contain anywhere between 275 to 300 plus calories.  For males, alcohol decreases your testosterone levels and increases estrogen levels. 
Ever wonder why some males have saggy man-boobs?  Man-boobs and a beer belly often go hand-in-hand.

8) Learn to say "NO".  When we're at the holiday parties, we often don't want to seem like the holiday buzz-kill.  Learn to say "NO" politely.  "Everything was so delicious, but i'm stuffed I don't have room to eat another bite.  Thank you."

9) Always plan ahead.  Failing to plan is planning to fail.  Write a daily log of all the foods you are putting into your body.  By keeping a journal of what you eat, you will find that you will hold yourself more accountable and not leave it to guessing. 

10) I always save the best for last.  This should be number one of the list to me, but I'm going to hammer this point and leave it embedded in your mind.  Get ready this ain't no secret.  If you haven't already started yet, it is time to EXERCISE!!!  Make time to exercise and incorporate it into your daily life.  No short-cuts.  You will feel better, look better, and get healthier.

So while the majority of people make New Years Resolutions after the weight gain, I hope you are all working towards and being proactive at preventing the holiday weight gain.

Yours in Good Health,


Coach Corey

Training Is A Privilege: Make Health A Priority

Anyone that has ever had any serious injury, sickness, or disability that has prevented them from training will understand what I am about to say: Training is a privilege.  

Knock on wood, and I do wish everyone health and success, but if you are ever in that situation you really do not understand what you can take for granted when you have good health.

Health is one thing you might not be able to buy back with money.  You can have all the riches in the world, but when you suffer any serious injury, sickness, or disability it will completely change your perspective.  When we are healthy, we might become complacent and comfortable by automatically assuming that good health will always be there.  However, this is not the case.

Often we place health on the bottom of our priorities.  As a trainer, it is in my humble experience that most people tend to be reactive rather than being proactive with health matters.  Now I understand we all live very busy lives.  The majority of us have bills, debts, family to take care of.  

The truth of the matter is health matters.  I'm speaking from personal experience.  On July 1st, 2010 I suffered a very serious injury where from an accident.  I severed all the major tendons on my left ankle and needed 2 major surgeries.  As a personal trainer, my livelihood, depended on me being able to walk and train to pay the bills.  During my recovery, I could not work for 7 months.  I got very depressed, into financial trouble, became fat and out of shape.  I had to go through several months of physiotherapy to learn how to walk again.  The only thing that kept me motivated to recover was my clients.  I could not tell them about the dark mental space I was going through.

They say whatever doesn't kill you will make you stronger and I could have literally died that day when I had my accident.  Fortunately, I survived and it wasn't my time yet.  I managed to get back on my feet again and by January 1, 2011 I was back working at a gym as a personal trainer again.  

Fast forward to October 2012, I have my own bootcamps.  I became sick for about a week.  It felt like a common cold and I just sucked it up.  It took me a week to get better and within 3 days I became sick again.  I ignored it like the first time, and then I became violently ill.  For the whole month of October, I was in and out of the hospital.  What started off as bronchitis, spread throughout my lungs, infected my kidneys, and also my bladder.  Some other personal stuff I will keep private, but I was going through some serious health issues.  I was extremely ill for the whole month of October.  I had a business to run and all the hard work I had put in for training, I ended up losing all my muscle gains. I couldn't eat for weeks, I felt constantly ill.  Now, that I am well again, I am very blessed to be recovered, however I still have appointments to see a specialist.  What keeps me motivated is that I am incredibly inspired by my clients, and I am on the same road as them.  They always give me 120% when they train and it makes me that much more focused to improve and reach my goals as a trainer and also to get back into shape again.

Now that November is ending, I want to impart some personal wisdom to you.  If you are not placing health on top of your priority list, make sure that you do.  Set some time aside 20 minutes - 60 minutes a training session, at a minimum 3 times a week.  If you have family, remember that your family depends on your ability to provide.  At the end of the day, you can give all the excuses in the world about why you are too busy to exercise: not enough time, need time for the family, or how you need to pay bills.  Ultimately, You are  responsible for your own health and you either lead by example or you make excuses.

Remember, regular exercise will make you feel better, look better, have more confidence, help you sleep better, and most importantly of all improve your overall health.  Training is a privilege, never take it for granted!

Yours in Good Health,

Coach Corey

Equipment Checklist For Bedroom Workouts With Limited Floor Space

While working in membership sales at a gym, one of the first questions I would ask is
"Are you currently working out?'  More than likely the answer would be "No" (For obvious reasons or why else would they be looking in a gym?) however this was not always the case.
Some people that came to the gym actually were keeping active, however one of the main problems was what exercises they could do with limited floor space.

When you have limited floor space, the truth is, it will affect what kind of workouts you can do.
Especially when most workout equipment or machines takes up alot of floor space.
For this blogs purpose, we are going to assume that the basement is out of the equation, and we are going to go through my checklist of essential equipment that can be used for a bedroom workout.  The standard bedroom may range between 8'x8' to 16'x16' with a typical ceiling height of 8 ft.

This checklist of equipment should not take that much space, can be place aside, tucked away in a closet, or under your bed are:

1) Dumb bells
2) Resistance bands
3) Stability ball
4) Medicine ball
5) Yoga mat
6) Kettle bell (proceed with caution, can cause some serious damage to your room if not used properly)

This checklist of exercise equipment along with bodyweight can help you stay in relatively decent shape.  Remember to not fall into the trap of allowing your equipment to collect dust though.

If you need to take your fitness program to the next level you will need more floor space.  If the basement is not an option you may consider joining your local fitness center. 

** ATTENTION: Since I had an amazing Friday morning by having a great workout and pushing my morning bootcamp ladies to the max, I am going to offer the first five people that leave a comment on my blog, a customized program for for bedroom workouts you can do at home ...

ABSOLUTELY FREE. 

To take advantage of this awesomeness leave a comment on this blog, and Email me at bossfitness@live.com to claim your prize for the customized workout.

Yours In Good Health and Success,

Coach Corey

ZUMBA THE PERFECT LOW IMPACT CARDIO

Zumba is the perfect low impact cardio for people that want to be in an exercise program and still want to keep healthy and stay fit.  You see, low impact cardio is still a very good option for people that have different fitness goals.

Not everyone wants to push their bodies to the limit with a high intensity work out.  High impact cardio with jumping, plyometrics, and increasing your heart rate to 65%-80% of your heart rate max is just not a good fit for everyone.

High impact cardio should NOT be done if you're pregnant, have injuries to your joints, extremely overweight, or if you are a complete beginner to exercise.

So why Zumba?  Why is there such a Zumba craze?  If you have not tried a class you definitely need to try one to just understand why there is alot of ZUMBA-LOVE!

Zumba involves dance and aerobic elements.  Zumba's choreography incorporates hiphop, soca, samba, salsa, merengue, martial arts, and some belly dance moves.

According to Wikipedia, "Approximately 14 million people take weekly Zumba classes in over 140,000 locations across more than 150 countries"

Zumba is a very safe exercise program for people of all levels of fitness.  In addition, you can expect to burn anywhere from 400-800 plus calories in 45 minutes of Zumba action.

So what are you waiting for?  It's time to give Zumba a try.  If you are looking for a low-impact cardio exercise program that is guaranteed to burn calories, and will be incredibly fun at the same time, Zumba is the answer.

B.O.S.S Fit Zumba is currently offered at Ryouko Martial Arts (91 Rylander Blvd, Unit 1-21) every Wednesday nights at 8pm.  Contact us at bossfitness@live.com or 416-284-8861 and mention the promo code "ZUMBA B.O.S.S" and the first class is on us :)

Yours in Good Health,

Coach Corey

Motivation Mondays: The Power Of Action!

The power of action can be the greatest weapon you can have to goal achievement.  Every action begins with a thought, but not every thought leads to action.  Unfortunately, most of our greatest thoughts get buried into the backburner.

How many times have you thought to yourself,
"I'll get to cleaning the yard...."
"I'll get to writing a list of my tasks for the week..."
"I'll get to reading that book on personal development ..."
"I'll get to losing weight ..."
"I'll get to working out ... "

The list of "I'll get to" often leads to "I'll just hope that it happens".  The difference between successful people and those that just hope and wish for it is The Power Of Action.

Keep it simple.  Don't think ... but like Nike says "Just Do It!"

The power of action seperates the talkers from the doers.  The day when your life changes, is when you empower yourself to follow through with what you say.  It seperates the successful people from the average.  The goal oriented from the procrastinators. 

In order for you to get more out of life, you must raise your personal standards higher, make a list of goals you plan to tackle through, and follow through with commitment and action!

You might think to yourself, "We'll its easier said than done.  There's so much to do, so little time to accomplish anything, i mean some people are just damn lucky..."

To achieve all that you want out of life, there must be an attitude shift.  Nothing is handed to you in this world.  No one owes you anything.  The second you eliminate this mindshift of entitlement, is the second you free yourself from self-limiting beliefs that might be holding you back. 

No more, "I Deserve attitude."  If you want something out of life, you must work harder for it.
By harder I mean more dedication, more focus, and even putting in longer hours.

If you are overweight, have health issues, stop blaming poor genetics.  Empower yourself with education and if you need assistance seek advice from those who are qualified professionals to help you reach your goals.

So if you have a goal to get healthy and start into a fitness program, start today!  Even if you plan to go for a jog, set some time up for today and DO IT NOW! Not tomorrow, not one week from today.  DO IT NOW!

Just remember, what's hard in the beginning eventually becomes easy.

Dedicated To Your Success,

Coach Corey

Woman Fitness "Will I get BIG MUSCLES?"

Perhaps one of the most common question I get from female clients is "Will I get BIG BULKY MUSCLES if I start a training program?"

The answer all depends on what kind of training program you decide to choose. Woman face more difficulties when trying to increase their muscle size than men. In order to get bigger, puffier muscles, one must change their training specifically geared towards the hypertrophy stage.

This means that a woman must train for a high volume weight training program.

Woman can do the same training program as men, however they will not have enough hormones (testosterone) to stimulate big bulky muscle growth.

In order for a woman to get bigger bulkier muscles, a training program of four to five days is required. A woman is will have to spend alot of time in the gym pumping iron. Also, nutritional adjustments must be made and more calories must be consumed. 48 hours of rest between each muscle group will allow the muscles to grow.

Ok, so what if a woman does NOT want to get bigger bulkier muscles. In my experience, less than one percent of my female clients have a goal to get super muscular. The overwhelming majority of female clients I train just want to get leaner, more toned, lose weight, get healthier, and build more confidence.

The perfect fit would be a cardio-conditioning endurance bootcamp style of workout. A good fit would be a bootcamp that targets weight loss, cardio-conditioning, and will focus on circuit training, along with some elements of strength training.

The B.O.S.S Fit Ladies program (Exclusive female bootcamp) that runs on Monday, Wednesday, Friday at Ryouko Martial Arts is 60 minutes of action packed training that focuses on stamina, speed, plyometrics, and cardio-conditioning. You will never have to worry about developing big bulky muscles with our results proven training style. The majority of my clients get results within the first month and end up losing bodyfat and inches off their waist. The high repetitions workout will leave you feeling more toned, more confident, and sexier. Come out and try a bootcamp work out and see for yourself.

 Dedicated to your success,

Coach Corey

Benefits of Morning Exercise

Early morning workouts provide numerous benefits for your health and your schedule.
I always tell my clients that working out in the mornings is always ideal and once you try it out, you will more than likely increase your chances for staying in a fitness progrm.

Why the early 6am workouts?  The first benefit is that it will regulate your sleeping cycle.
Whenever I have to workout in the early morning either 6am or 7am, I always discipline myself to sleep early.  It takes the human body approximately 2 weeks to adjust to any condition, so within a couple of weeks you will be used to waking up early to train.

Morning workouts will also raise your energy level for the day and keep you alert focused for the rest of the day.

Perhaps the most important reason of starting a fitness program in the morning is to have consistency as part of the plan!  While working as a trainer in a big corporate gym, I always noticed that the serious professionals would always be training from 6am-8am.  These tend to be doctors, lawyers, bankers, or any other serious professionals.  They understood the value of incorporating training into their daily lives.  Also, when you work out first thing in the morning you will be done for the rest of the day and make no excuses even when you have a long busy and tiring day at the office. When you are consistent, you will eventually notice results faster!  That is the key secret ingredient to making gains and making progress towards your fitness goals.

Finally, a big reason why it is beneficial to workout in the mornings is that your body will get better at burning calories.  You will rev up your metabolism and turn it into a fat burning machine, with the right fitness program that is.

If you're looking for a fun, energizing, and very intense bootcamp work out in the morning and you have limited time come check out the B.O.S.S Fit Express program on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday from 6am-6:37am.  This program is ideal for professionals that want some serious results while spending only a fraction of time working out.

Contact Coach Corey at 416-285-8861 or email bossfitness@live.com
Ryouko Martial Arts, 91 Rylander Blvd, Unit 1-21

Holiday Toy Drive 2012

Hello friends, we need your help to reach our goal of donating 100 new unwrapped toys for

THE SICK KIDS FOUNDATION

Being that time of the holiday season, there are many less fortunate kids that are in need.    
In exchange for your kind donation, B.O.S.S Fitness and Ryouko Martial Arts will be offering 2 weeks of unlimited Kids Taekwondo, Fitness Bootcamp, Zumba, or Kickboxing no strings attached ($100 value).
Please bring an unwrapped toy to Ryouko Martial Arts, 91 Rylander Blvd, Unit 1-21.

All toys must be donated by December 3^rd

Thank you for your help.

Please contact 416-284-8861 or bossfitness@live.com.

www.facebook.com/bossfitness, http://instagram.com/bossfit416 

Goal Setting The Key To Unlimited Success

Many people may feel as they are adrift in this world, working alot but not getting anywhere worthwhile.
A key reason they feel this way is they haven't spent enough time thinking about what they want.
When you are setting goals, you are planning for your ideal future, and motivating yourself for future success.

Let me ask you a question.  Would you plan a major road trip without planning a route and following a map to your ultimate destination?  You are more than likely to get lost, wander around aimlessly, and get frustrated along the way.

Similarly, many people do not take the time to plan for the future or what they want out of life.  They have either very vague goals in life, keep their goals in back of their minds (I'll get to it someday....), or hope by some stroke of luck opportunity will come their way.

The process of setting goals helps you get you to where you want to be in life.  By having a plan, you can formulate a strategy, and focus your efforts to achieving your goal.  Let's face it.  Life gets tough, and we can easily be distracted by day-to-day things that come up, and we live in a society where it is incredibly fast pace.  It is important to set goals, so when we get caught up by distractions, we can begin to focus back to what's important --  Our goals!

Why do you want to achieve your goals?  The answer to that question has power.  It will motivate and drive you.  It is the motivation that can help you get up at 5am in the morning and make you work longer and harder to achieve the goals we set out.

Now we can all have different goals in our life areas:

• Spiritual
• Personal development
• Leisure time
• Professional
• Family
• Education
• Financial
• Health and physical well being

 Consider the following list of obstacles that could block you from accomplishing your goals:

• I need to feel secure
• I may fail
• I doubt my skills
• Changing things I always do things is not easy
• I have too many things to do

Remember, all of those obstacles are limitations we impose on ourselves.  We put mental blocks and barriers immediately when we begin to have a negative mind set.  The pessimist will always see obstacles.  However, the optimist will always see an opportunity whenever there are obstacles and challenges.

 "Whether you think you can or can't, you are right." Henry Ford

Whatever you choose to put your focus on, it will increasingly become your reality.  So, if you set yourself personal limitations and think "I can't, I won't, I've never done it before, what if I fail?"  Chances are you will fail.

Let's focus on some strategies that will help you brush negativity away and increase our chances of attaining our goals.

When setting goals, use the S.M.A.R.T. formula.  Some of the questions you might ask are:
Specific - What do I want to accomplish? Purpose or benefit of achieving goals.
Measurable - How much, How many?
Attainable - How can the goal be accomplished?
Relevent - Does this seem worthwhile?  Does this match our needs?
Time - What can I do today?  What can I accomplish in 6 months?

Another area that will help you achieve your goals is breaking down your goals into periods of time blocks.

Short term goals (example: 3 months or less)
Medium term goals (example: under 1 year)
Long term goals (example: anywhere from 5-10 years)

So what do I want you to do today?  I want you to go home, write down a personal list of goals that you want to achieve.  Remember, whatever that is in writing will help you visualize your success and increase the chances of you reaching your goals.  

Review your list of goals every night before you go to bed.  Finally, the most important part of goal achieving is ACTION.  So get motivated, set some goals, and get to it!

Yours in good health,

Coach Corey

Squats The Ultimate Exercise

In training, the squat is a full body compound exercise that trains primarily the muscles of the thighs, hips, and glutes, quads, hamstrings, core, as well as strengthening the bones, ligaments and insertion of the tendons throughout the lower body.

Squats are great for anyone wanting to add more functionality into their lives because it mimics the movements we do each time we stand up or sit down.  If you want to pick up heavy objects from the ground, you can also apply the squatting technique to avoid putting all the weight on your back and causing possible injury.

To perform the squat, the movement is initiated by moving the hips back and bending the knees and hips to lower the torso and accompanying weight, then returning to the upright position. The squat can continue to a number of depths, but a correct squat should be at least to parallel 90 degrees (where the hips have descended to the same level as the knees, so that a line between the knee and hip joints would be parallel with the floor). Squatting below parallel qualifies a squat as deep and should only be performed if you have the proper flexibility, range of motion, and experience in training.

A few common errors when squatting are:

• Descending too quickly 
• not engaging the hips which ultimately causes you to flex your torso forwards.  This in turn, will shift your body weight forward and put pressure on your knees. 
•  As a general rule of thumb, you should not squat with your knees past your toes for safety.

So why is the squat the ultimate exercise?  In my opinion, the leg workout are the toughest days.  Your leg muscles are the largest muscle group in the body and when you squat, you're metabolism will increase and burn more calories.

At my B.O.S.S Fit Bootcamps we incorporate squats weekly into the program.  Squats are my favourite exercise and I have always made it a part of any of my clients programs.  Most of my bootcamp recruits, know how tough a leg day is but they know the importance of it being part of the program. 

So if you are not adding squats into your program, your program is definitely incomplete!  Time to ditch the 365 day track pants in the gym, put in work, chicken legs are not cool, and time to show off those leg muscles :)

Yours in good health,

Coach Corey