My homeboy “sun” has finally arrived and I’m doing the moonwalk as we speak (that’s how I usually celebrate!).  I’m praying to Mother Nature that he stays with us for the next 4 months without interruption.   This beautiful weather has me thinking that I need to vary my workouts and use the outdoors as my playground.

For the past few summers, my girlfriend Ginelle and I have been meeting two or three times a week, in a park by Rosedale station to workout. We always try to meet around 6:30 am, before work and before it gets really hot.  We motivate each other to push harder; I pretend that I am Tony Europe from The Last Ten pounds tv show (I’m really good at imitating his voice, ask Coco!).

You don’t need a gym membership to get a good workout. In fact, working out outdoors can give you a much harder workout, provided that you push yourself hard enough and give your muscles a varied challenge.  You don’t need to invest in expensive equipment either. Since Ginelle and I have been doing this for awhile now, we bought a few hand weights, a skipping rope, a medicine ball and a weighted vest (we think we are on the Biggest Losers). Aside from the weighted vest, these items were inexpensive.

If you are considering working out outdoors this summer (which I totally recommend), consider doing it with a friend or a group of friends that have the same fitness goals as you do.

Here are a few tips to get you started:

1-    Bring water along. When exercising outdoors (especially in summer), you are at a higher risk of suffering dehydration, heat stroke and other problems due to the influence of the elements. Also, if you are like Ginelle and I, you don’t like bugs so buy bug spray so the bees can leave you alone as you are exercising.

2-    Take advantage of your environment to exercise. Park benches can be used for pushups and triceps dips, stairs for cardio and monkey bars for pull-ups and back exercises. Adapt your exercise to use whatever is available around you. We workout in a park that is also home to a baseball field therefore, we use it to run around the field and do sprints too.

3-    Do lunges and squats to work your lower body. Not only are these the two most basic types of exercise, but they can adapted for use outdoors. For example, you can lunge using a park bench or stairs, or you can squat on the edge of a low wall for added difficulty (balancing and putting extra weight on your legs). Investing in inexpensive ankle weights or hand weights is a great idea.

4-    Use park benches for pushups and triceps dips. Using your own body weight is an excellent way to exercise your upper body without the need for equipment. Depending on your fitness level, you can modify the exercise to make it harder (elevate your feet) or easier (bend your knees for added support).

Is an outdoor workout something you would ever consider?  If you’ve worked out outside and enjoyed it, do you have any tips?

Bisous,

Winy

image via thedaybookblog.com

One of the best tips I have learned in the mindfulness meditation course is the concept of mindful eating.  Essentially, this means paying attention to your food, each bite, the flavors, the aroma, the texture and the taste.

This is an important aspect to mindfulness because it’s something many of us forget to do.  Staying conscious while you eat also forces you to slow down.

Before this course I stood while I ate breakfast, making a list of the things I needed to do that day, reading highlights from the newspaper with one eye on the clock.  I ate lunch answering emails, and working at my desk.  I never gave a moments notice to what I ate and dinner was often in front of the t.v.

Many times I ate too fast and suffered indigestion as a result.

Although I consider myself healthy and am very conscious about what types of food I put into my body, I have somehow gotten into the habit of “eating on the go.”  Mindful eating was an eye opener and something I continue to struggle with when running around.

10 years ago while studying in Paris I remember running into a café to get a coffee.  I was late for class and asked for a coffee to go – the waitress thought I was crazy.  I know she was wondering why this foreigner wouldn’t stop for two minutes to drink her coffee.  In my head I kept thinking that this was such an inconvenient element about Paris and they really needed a Starbucks!  I know things have changed since I lived there and Starbucks has invaded Paris but I now understand why the French enjoy their coffee in a café.

Maybe the speed at which we try and do everything is preventing us from enjoying the little things.  Why do we always have to multi-task?  Eat and work, walk and drink, watch t.v. and eat?

Mindful Eating Instructions

Note: I have modified the instructions from class

Step 1 – Look at your food, notice the aroma of your food

Step 2 – Give a silent thank you for what’s on your plate

Step 3 – Notice your body’s anticipation of the food

Step 4 – Be aware of each bite, the flavors, the texture, the smell

Step 5 – Chew until the food is completely broken down

Step 6 – Swallow

Step 7 – Take a breath, maybe take a sip of water

Repeat steps 4-7

If you tend to eat dinner in front of the t.v. try this one night instead …  set the table (even if it’s for just for one) complete with candles, napkin, cutlery and glasses.  Eat a mindful dinner without the distraction of the t.v.  Notice if you’ve enjoyed your meal a little more than usual.  Notice how you feel afterwards.

Let me know what you think.

xo,

Rochelle

Hellooooooooooooooo [in my best Seinfeld voice LOL, love that episode!] I’ve been a bit MIA this week and last because of some training I’ve been doing for a new position, but I’m back and would love to share just a bit of what I learned with all of you =)

Beautiful ain’t it? Any type of sunshine .. whether its an hour or a day, most definitely peaks my interest! I absolutely love sunny weather and everything that follows with a ‘gorgeous’ day ..  bbq’s, patios, window shopping downtown, so on and so forth! The beauty training that I went through last week really opened my eyes to how naive majority of Canadians are to the S U N.

Mr. Golden Sun is a great guy and almost everyone loves him .. but getting heavily involved with this dude could lead to serious problems down the line if you do not protect yourself! The statistics were real and startling… did you know that the number one sign of aging is the Sun?! We use all these serums, creams, procedures and products to enhance our look, hide our wrinkles and rejuvenate our skin…but suggest Sunscreen to a fellow girlfriend and you get endless excuses .. “Oh I wanna get my dose of Vitamin D”, “It clogs my pores”, “It has a sticky film”, “I want to tan” etc etc. All of those reasons are somewhat valid…but what most women (and some men) don’t realize is that you’re trading a golden glow potentially for melanoma in the future.

Throughout my training and my own personal research, I realize how important Sunscreen really is for our skin and overall health .. the skin is the largest organ we have and it doesn’t want to be burnt in the name of beauty!

Next week, I’ll write more about the Sun and how all of your preconceived misconceptions are false and that they’re is protection from the sun for everyone =)

xox
SHAN

A few months ago I noticed that work and life were becoming very stressful and I wanted to handle things with a little more grace and a little less crazy so, I enrolled in a six-week mindfulness meditation course.  What is mindfulness?  According to Jon Kabat-Zin “mindfulness is moment-to-moment awareness.  It is cultivated by purposefully paying attention to things we ordinarily never give a moment’s thought to.”

According to Kabat-Zin without a practice, we can end up losing sight of important things in life – we get caught up in the urgency of doing and “it is easy to fall into a state of chronic tension and anxiety that continually drives our lives on automatic pilot.”

Class began this week.

My big mistake was to assume each class was two, not a three hours long.  Three hours of concentration after work is tough, no break during a three hour class is tougher, three meditations with readings and discussions is flipping brutal!!

This week’s theme was Intention. I like this concept – starting your practice with an intention, starting your day with an intention or starting a spin class with an intention really sets the tone for what happens next.

Other very important lessons from this week’s class was don’t confuse sleeping with meditation.  My instructor told me I could overcome my sleeping affliction by meditating with my eyes open or meditating standing up.  What?!

It wasn’t all bad. My instructor is lovely and many of the people in the class are in their thirties looking for an effective way to reduce stress.  I guess there’s some comfort in knowing that many others are in the same proverbial boat.

Just like everything else “practice is the best of all instructors” so that is my intention for this week.  I intend to practice daily, read my meditation text and avoid judging my practice no matter how bad it seems.

See you next week.

Xo

Rochelle

I had sushi for lunch today and on my tea cup was this message:

I love it!! Such a good reminder on little ways to maintain good health.

xoxo,

lowe