Help NYC's Children Get Fit!
Showing posts with label Fit 4 Life. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Fit 4 Life. Show all posts
Saturday, April 20, 2013
Wednesday, July 13, 2011
Sneaky sneaky . . .
Woah, it's been awhile! How are you all doing? I've been swimming in blog post ideas but have had a difficult time trying to sit down and write!
Since the school year ended and E made an early return to NYC, Indio and I have been busy, busy, busy! You'd think with all this activity, my boy would be eating up a storm, but as many 2-year olds do, he seems to have lost his appetite, some days living on fruits and waffles.
In an effort to ensure he's getting as many nutrients as possible, my dad and I concocted a delicious smoothie that's perfect for these hot summer days. Indy calls it "Popeye" because I told him Popeye eats spinach. He doesn't even know who/what Popeye is! And yes, I said spinach. Don't worry, you can't even taste it!
I didn't calculate the nutritional info yet, but I can definitely say it's really good for you and I'm ok if that's all that Indio wants for dinner.
Popeye Smoothie
1 large banana
1 mango
1/2 cup raspberries
2 handfuls or more of baby spinach leaves
1.5 cups milk [whatever kind you like . . . I used 2% cow's milk because that's what we give Indio.]
ice
Put everything in a blender and hit "on". Voila!
Yields about 2.5-3 cups, depending on how much ice you use.
lending a handMonday, January 24, 2011
Fat Blaster? For real?
Remember that *resolution* I made to get my butt to the gym 3 times a week this month? Well, I have to admit, it hasn't been as easy as I thought.
My pass is only good during off-peak hours, so 7am-5pm, and I thought I would take advantage of Indio's naptime to get to the community centre, but that's much easier said than done.
I will say that I have kept up with 3 workouts each week for the past 2 weeks, though lately I've been relying on a set of DVDs that E has lying around called "Barry's Bootcamp". Yes, these are high on the cheese factor, but they are also high on the potency of the workouts. I've only been doing the 21-minute upper or lower body *Fat Blaster* workouts and I'm already feeling a difference.
I've said it before, I don't like exercise, and hardly have the motivation to do it alone at home, but if I can get in a decent workout in under half an hour, including stretching, I'm game. This week I doubt I'll be able to get to the gym at all, so I'm going to try to add the 12-min *Mission Specialist* ab workout to the end of my regular 21-min workout.
Any tips on how to stay motivated? And what about that whole thing called healthy eating? How do you stay on track? That's my next hurdle.
^viaMonday, January 10, 2011
Village on a Diet
As much as I dislike exercise, I love watching other people do it. E and I used to watch the Biggest Loser every Tuesday until the producers thought it would be a good idea to make the show 2 hours long each week and we quickly decided we had better things to do with our time! We had a quirky [secret, until now] routine of eating Taco Bell takeout while watching the BL participants trying to change their eating habits for the better.
Now Canada has its own version of a Biggest Loser-type show called Village on a Diet. It's about a small town in northern British Columbia where 60% of its inhabitants are overweight or obese. The entire town wants to get healthy and in the process, try to lose a collective 1 ton in 10 weeks! And health and fitness experts have been flown in to help them do just that.
We watched the first episode last week and the second tonight and I have to say, I'm hooked. Though there are moments that are a bit overly-dramatic [trainer being "tough" with trainee], this documentary-style show is done so well, giving viewers an inside look at the struggles and triumphs of an entire town.
Village on a Diet is definitely giving me motivation to stick to my own goals. Hopefully, the rest of the season won't disappoint.
If I write it down I have to do it
I'm not big on new year resolutions [I tend to make more around my birthday], but healthy living is always on my list, anytime of year. Exercise is definitely not my favourite thing to do and sweets top my list of sustenance, so this is a real challenge for me. Luckily, I married a fantastic fitness expert who helps keep me in line.
In November, I finally bit the bullet and joined the gym on a 3-month trial. I hadn't stepped foot inside a gym since the days of being pregnant with Indio! During November I was pretty good at getting to the gym, but December was a bust! First, we were in NYC, then I had strep and we had guests for the last 3 weeks. [I know the die-hard fitness buffs would call those "excuses".]
Well, it's now January and I am back on the wagon [or elliptical machine!]. I only went to the gym once last week, but I'm still hurting from that workout. My goal is to go 3 times a week before my pass runs out in February, so that's 12 times. Will you help me stay motivated?
I think I'm going to convince E to buy me a pair of Nike Free running shoes if I can keep up my gym routine until spring. What motivates you? What do you do for exercise? How do you stick with it and not lose steam?
Saturday, May 22, 2010
Secrets from the Chef
Emil has been gracious enough to share his recipe of the scrumptious chicken we had last week. The only thing he forgot to mention is that it's even better with some wine. :) Check out the Fit 4 Life NYC website and blog for more recipes and fitness tips to live a healthier, happier life.
Monday, April 19, 2010
Best Team Name: Keep On S'meylin!
^even Cassius got in on the actionSunday was the perfect day to go for a walk, and that we did! As part of team Keep On S'myelin we spent the morning in Pickering at the Multiple Sclerosis walk. For his very first charity walk, Indy slept in his stroller, while we completed the 5km course around the neighbourhood.
It was an honour to walk with Paula in support of MS research. There was something so wonderful to see so many participants in Keep On S'myelin t-shirts. We even won an award for *Best Team Name*! I'm looking forward to this becoming a yearly tradition for our family.
^the teamWednesday, April 7, 2010
What I loved in March...
With all the traveling, birthdays and chaos last month, March has come and gone so quickly that I almost forgot my *What I loved...* list! A little late, but here it is:
1. NYC. Amidst all the craziness, our week-long stay in March was full of reunions with loved ones, the most precious possession we had to leave behind.
2. My one and only, E. He's part of the list every month, but this month is special because it was his birthday and he relaunched his shiny new website, Fit4LifeNYC.
[Sharing a birthday moment with Indy.]
3. Dark chocolate covered raisins. A sweet treat with healthy benefits of antioxidants and iron. Mmm...
^via
4. Contigo Autoseal water bottle...I bought a 3-pack on a recent visit to Costco with P and was hooked the instant I filled it for the first time! No leaks, no mess! Just pure hydration goodness!
^via
6. Australian Wool Duvet. Another Costco find. I can't begin to tell you how cozy this is! And even on the warmer days we've been having, it's been super-comfortable.
Wednesday, March 24, 2010
Fit 4 Life NYC goes live!
I'm giddy with excitement to announce that my wonderful husband, Emil has launched his very new, very shiny, completely fabulous Fit 4 Life NYC website! And what better day to celebrate this than on his birthday? [Happy birthday, my love!]
Just a few years ago, Fit 4 Life NYC was a dream for Emil. He was working a regular 9-5 job but was dismayed by the lack of physical activity and healthy eating not only in the lives of NYC's adults, but also its children. He tried to develop programs within the organizations he worked in to promote healthy living for the children they served. He began email newsletters for his coworkers to help them get a hold of their fitness and nutrition. But he wanted to do more.
That's when Fit 4 Life NYC was born. It began as a program in East New York, Brooklyn for children who weren't receiving any sort of physical activity at school. A few hours every Saturday, Emil and a group of volunteers he had recruited, went out to East New York to mentor these children. Half the time was spent doing fun fitness games and exercises while the other half was used to educate the children and adults on tasty, healthy snacks. It was an act of love on the part of Emil and the volunteers. There was no funding.
Emil's passion for healthy living was quickly transferred to the adults in his life. People wanted to know what they could do to become healthier, lose weight, gain confidence...the list was endless. Emil began training a few friends and eventually began his Boot Camp and SlimDown classes. The success stories of the participants are so motivating...they are what kept me going to classes, even when I was pregnant and oh-so-tired.
Emil and his team have been working around the clock for the last couple of months tweaking every aspect of the site so that it reflects the core values of F4L, which embody balancing a healthy lifestyle into our already busy lives.
He expanded the Fit 4 Life Kids pages with more information on how to get the F4LKids program in your school. [He currently serves several New York City schools with a variety of fitness programs for grades K-9.]
I'm so proud of everything Emil has done. His determination to change the course of our population from becoming bigger and more unhealthy is inspiring enough to make people want to change. We deserve to live long, healthy lives. And Fit 4 Life NYC has the tools to help us do just that!
Check out Emil's blog and Facebook Fan Page: NYC and Kids.
Monday, August 31, 2009
The grass is greener
As we prepared to leave our beloved Brooklyn for our new home in Toronto, E and I often talked about how great it was going to be to have lots of open space for Cassius and Indio to run and play.
In Brooklyn, we spent many hours in Fort Greene Park, just steps from our apartment. We used to walk Cassius in the park a few times a day, I would meet up with my mommy group, and E still runs his Boot Camp classes there. It was a great place to meet friends for a picnic or a walk. I even went running there...once.
Our only complaint was that it was crowded. Being the only large-ish green space in our 'hood, we weren't the only ones who wanted to take advantage of it, especially when the weather was nice.
Now that we are in Toronto, we live close to a large park where we take Cassius for his daily walks. It's not technically an off-leash park, so we are very mindful of the other patrons in the park, though compared to Brooklyn, there are only a handful of people out at any given time. This weekend while at my parents house in the 'burbs, I took Cassius out to play in the school park nearby. It was kind of eery because I was the only person out in this vast open space in the middle of a beautiful August day. No one else was around! All I could think of was, "These people don't know what a jewel they have in their neighbourhood: a clean, safe, well-maintained park with 2 playgrounds, a soccer field, 2 baseball diamonds and enough blacktop to enjoy a game of 3-on-3, handball, or hopscotch."
Wonder what they would think if they lived in NYC where we used to clamour over everyone else for a patch of grass.
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