COLOR

I came upon a site of inspirational value. Life is so much about color, sound and touch. We need to think less and perceive more. In your training, in your driving, in your touching, be aware.

Look at the sky:It's estimated that we do as much as 90% of our daily activities using matrices and patterns than we have adopted in the past, without much thought of reason, feeling or understanding. Putting awareness back into simple things is key to success in a life that moves faster than we do. Whether you want to be a better trainer, father, partner or manager, putting awareness back into simple daily tasks will bring you amazing insight, free you of the pressure of tasks and bring joy back.

My favorite awareness drills:

1. Looking for small detail, for example, checking out the patterns in floor tile and details in shoes.

2. Listening to your own breathing and being aware of the feeling of breath on your lips and in your nose while lifting weights.

3. Smelling minor smells

4. Listening for sounds that are covered up by louder sounds, like birds singing in the city

5. Listening to your heart before falling asleep

My favorite thing today is to look at color. For more color:
Whole site here!

I can do this!

We watched this video with my trainers this morning and while the sit up to stand looked terribly hard, I can do it! It's a great feeling to be fit enough to try and manage! Can you do it?

p.s. Get someone strong to hold on to you ;)

On self renewal - “The Turn of the Tide”

Sometimes you end up doing two things simultaneously that just fit together perfectly. I was listening to Norah Jones and at the same time I was reading the story below, it's a classic worth passing on!

“The Turn of the Tide” by Arthur Gordon

Arthur Gordon tells of a time in his life when he began to feel that everything was stale and flat. His enthusiasm had all but disappeared; his writing efforts were fruitless, and the situation was getting worse day by day.

Finally, he decided to get help from a medical doctor. Observing nothing physically wrong, the doctor asked him if he would be able to follow his instructions for one day. When Gordon replied that he could, the doctor told him to spend the following day in a place where he was the happiest as a child. He could take food, but he was not to talk to anyone or to read or write or listen to the radio. He then wrote out four prescriptions and told him to open one at nine, twelve, three, and six o’clock.

“Are you serious?” Gordon asked him.

“You won’t think I’m joking when you get my bill!” was the reply.

So the next morning, Gordon went to the beach. As he opened the first prescription, he read, “Listen carefully.” He thought the doctor was insane! How could he listen for three hours? Nevertheless, he had agreed to follow the doctor’s order, so he listened. He heard the usual sounds of the sea and the birds. After a while, he could hear the other sounds that weren’t so apparent at first. As he listened, he began to think of lessons the sea had taught him as a child—patience, respect, and an awareness of the interdependence of things. He began to listen to the sounds—and the silence—and to feel a growing peace deep within.

At noon, he opened the second slip of paper and read, “Try reaching back.” “Reaching back to what?” he wondered. Perhaps to childhood, perhaps to memories of joy. He tried to remember them with exactness, and in remembering, he found a growing warmth inside.

At three o’clock, he opened the third piece of paper. Until now, the prescriptions had been easy to take, but this one was different; it said, “Examine your motives.” At first he was defensive. He thought about what he wanted—success, security, recognition—and he justified them all. Yet then the thought occurred to him that those motives weren’t good enough. That perhaps therein was the answer to his stagnant situation. He considered his motives deeply and thought about past happiness, and at last, the answer came to him. In a flash of certainty, he wrote, “I saw that if one’s motives are wrong, nothing can be right. It makes no difference whether you are a mail carrier, a hairdresser, an insurance salesperson, a home-maker—whatever. As long as you feel you are serving others, you do the job well. When you are concerned only with helping yourself, you do it less well—a law as unrelenting as gravity.”

When six o’clock came, the fourth prescription didn’t take long to fill. “Write your worries on the sand,” it said. He knelt and wrote several words with a piece of broken shell; then he turned and walked away. He didn’t look back: he knew the tide would come in!

If you need to, take a day like that. If you don't have time to, make time, life is short.

A thought to start your day

Goethe taught, "Treat a man as he is and he will remain as he is. Treat a man as he can and should be and he will become as he can and should be."
As personal trainers and coaches, we work as problem solvers, so we tend to classify people. We live our professional lives very much like we live our social lives, we have our hidden fears, prejudices, ways to feel secure. We dissect, piece things up, find solutions and look for results. We are goal driven.
Today, take a minute a think what drives each person that you meet. How can you treat them as responsible, growing, learning and searching individuals, barring all prejudices and personal judgment. Look for their inner fire and don't put it out by being a problem solver.

Shaking things up!

I was just writing some shake recipes for a client and I though, why not publish them here!
To me, food is just one more way to experience the world, very much like music. Every now and then you hear a new song and you play it every day until it gets old. These shakes have had the exact same effect on me, that's why they are my favorites!

All you need is a blender and 30 seconds :)

Coffee Delight
1/2 cup cold coffee
½ cup milk or 1 scoop vanilla protein powder
½ pear
1 tbsp walnuts
dash of cinnamon

Green tea rise and shine
1 cup strong green tea - cold
4 cubes of ice
1 scoop protein powder
1/2 apple

Berry Burst
1 cup yogurt
1 dash vanilla extract
1 tsp sweetener (Stevia)
½ cup frozen berries
1/3 cup ricotta cheese

Mint lemon shake
1 cup yogurt
Zest of 1/3 lemon
1 tbsp mint leaves
½ cup ricotta or cottage cheese
1 tsp Stevia

Strawberry and protein bar shake
1/2 protein bar (chocolate)
1 cup strawberries
1 cup yogurt

Enjoy shaking things up :)

THE HEALTHY FOOD BANK

I am both happy and touched by the new initiative that John Berardi and the PN team have started. The least I can do, is spread the word!

Yesterday I ate 7 meals and 4,500 calories.

Yet millions of people in the US and Canada didn't eat one.

What a contrast!

And trust me, the irony isn't lost on this big eater.

Most people think of hunger as something that only affects
remote areas of the world, or the homeless you see living on
the streets.

Call me a slow learner, but I recently realized that this
is FAR from the truth.

Recently, I learned that tons (millions, in fact) of
everyday people, especially children, single parents, and
the elderly, go hungry each day right here in our own states
and provinces.

The amazing thing is that these children are kids we know,
these parents include some we hang out with, and these
elderly are your peers, your parent's peers, and your
grandparent's peers.

Sure, they hide it well. But that doesn't make them any
less hungry.

Learning all this, and being touched personally by hunger,
inspired me to take action.

As a result, for the last year, the entire Precision
Nutrition team and I have spent a lot of time thinking about
how we can help bridge "the gap."

What gap?

>>The gap between those who buy and eat the best
>>foods . . .

>>. . . and those who can barely afford to buy any
>>food at all.

In the end, we came up with something we're very proud of:

>>The Healthy Food Bank.

And although we've been working hard behind the scenes for
nearly a year on this project, this month we're officially
spreading the word.

So, what's the Healthy Food Bank?

>>The Healthy Food Bank is a registered charity that
>>purchases nutritious staples - good food - for local
>>food banks and shelters around North America.

And today, I'd like to send you to our new web site:

http://www.healthyfoodbank.com

In doing so, we'd like you to know about the new project
and we'd also like to give you access to some food articles
we think you'll find very interesting.

Further, we'd like to announce something special.

>>For the next 45 days, if you purchase a copy of our
>>highly acclaimed Gourmet Nutrition cookbook, 10% of
>>the sale will go directly to the Healthy Food Bank.

What this means is that by boosting the health quotient of
your own food, you'll also be helping to boost the health
quotient of the kids, the single parents and the elderly in
your own city who can't afford to eat tonight.

Hey, I hate clichés, but if there ever was such as thing as
a "win-win," this is it.

So pick up a copy of Gourmet Nutrition today, and let's help
do some good for a lot of people in need.

http://www.gourmetnutrition.com

What to do with a whole salmon?

Why eat salmon? For me, it combines almost everything I need out of a meal: high quality protein, sufficient fats (hopefully most of the Omega 3 stay after cooking), high satiety and less fishy taste than most other fish. Cooking it is clean and easy and leaves your kitchen smelling good, unlike other types of fish.

It seems like a waste to just bake a whole salmon. First, I don't see 6 lbs of meat go in one day, because we are a one fish eater household, second, there is something to steamed salmon fillets that I just love. So there I had it in front of me, shiny, cold and ready to go.

I found a great link that shows how to cut salmon fillets.
I took it a step further, and cut a couple of cutlets, too. Once you get to the thickest part of the fish, you can cut beautiful cutlets, and save the rest for fillets.

What I had left in the end was 4 cutlets, 6 fillets, two smaller fillets from around the head and the spine, tail and head. The last three are turning to soup in a few hours and all the rest went in ziplocks to be frozen for easy cooking during the week.

I usually cook all my meals the night before, so here are two simple steamed one person salmon recipes:

Ginger salmon

Put the fillet in steamer, cover and steam for 12-15 minutes. You can do this directly with frozen fillets, and it takes a few minutes longer. While the fish is steaming, prepare the sauce:

1/2 cup pineapple (chopped up)
2 tbsp fresh ginger (chopped up)
2 tbsp coconut milk
1 tbsp butter (or ghi)

Melt the butter and quickly stir in the pineapple and ginger. Simmer with the coconut milk for 2-3 minutes on medium heat, occasionally stirring.

Rosemary salmon

Put the fillet in steamer and cover with fresh or dried rosemary leaves on top and bottom. Steam for 7 minutes. Open, cover with 2 tbsp of sour cream, sprinkle some black pepper on top and cover again to cook for another 5-7 minutes.

I intend to cook my mother's fish soup later, that includes carrots, peeled tomatoes, onions and celery, depending on the outcome, I will be posting the recipe here later :)