Aspire, Perspire, Nourish Yourself

Looking for a great outdoor or indoor workout?

Last Wednesday, it was a beautiful 12º C in Calgary. On these days it’s a time to celebrate and enjoy the outdoors since snow is always around the corner for us after such a beautiful day.

My good friend and running partner-in-crime, Joylin, convinced me to join her for a stairs workout. She is an avid stair climber and tries to get a bunch of us ladies out every week to climb with her. I always forget how good climbing stairs is for cardio and strength training. My calves have been sore since Wednesday evening and are finally starting to feel just tender to the touch rather than ready to seize up at any minute!

Stair Climbing: Killer workout!

These are the stairs we climbed. It was great to see a lot of other people there as well, including a mother with a young child.

Joylin encourages us to run up the stairs and then quickly walk/skip down. Some of the sets we climb two steps at a time to work on our quads. The two step ups are similar to lunges.

Typically we do about 10 sets and include a short run or longer run before or after the stairs.

Stair climbing is also something you can do indoors. In fact, we have run stairs at the gym and then run on the track. Of course, you don’t need to run. You might want to combine this leg workout with a series of upper body strength training exercises (e.g. push-ups) in between a few sets of stair climbing.

Running stairs indoors.

If you work in an office building or live in an apartment building, then climbing the stairs is also something you can incorporate into your workout routine. Maybe it’s just simply taking the stairs once a day!

Let us know what kind of workouts you’ve done using stairs or send us a picture of the stairs you climb.

Be sure to check out today’s Nourishing Tips & Recipes: Is your goal to eat more vegetables?

Let this Journey Begin

“The way to get started is to quit talking and begin doing.”

Walt Disney

Well, my sister and I have talked about starting a blog together for some time now. With 2700 km between us, we’ve chatted by phone, emailed and texted about ideas, shared our philosophies and learned together along the way. Each of us brings different knowledge and skills, some similar experiences and a whole lot of shared passion for mindful, fit and nutritious living.

Today is our day to seize the moment! So, welcome to Aspire, Perspire, Nourish Yourself. This blog is our way of spreading our knowledge and passion about motivation, fitness and nutrition for everyday living. It is also our forum for finding like-minded people from whom we can learn.

We want to emphasize here that this blog focuses on everyday living. That means that we ask ourselves, “What small things (or every day things) are we doing now or can we start doing to live well each day?” This is at the heart of the matter. Life is busy for all of us and if you have to fuss too much about how to live healthy and fit, then it won’t happen. In our view, living well is a state of mind, an ongoing habit and a joyful journey!

If you are sitting at your computer right now thinking, “Sounds good but who am I kidding? I’m overweight, overfed but undernourished, too busy to exercise, and frankly too tired to even think about it.” Then stop right there! Start with a clean slate; begin with your state of mind. Clear your brain of unhealthy thinking and get ready to begin your journey. We all have to start somewhere and at some moment in time. The first step is making the decision to live well. In Martin Luther King, Jr.’s words, “Take the first step in faith. You don’t have to see the whole staircase, just take the first step.” Every moment in every day is an opportunity to live well; you need to choose it and then follow through with it.

You might be saying, “Sure. That’s easy for you to say.’’ Well, as you get to know us through this blog, you’ll discover that ours have been life-long journeys that may have begun in very similar ways to yours–or maybe not! We grew up in a household in which food was a central focus for gatherings and where physical activity constituted moving from the dinner table to the living room couch. When our husbands, who are not Italian, first met the family they were amazed by the number of hours spent at the dinner table and how many meals could be prepared and consumed in one day!

Thankfully, we learned that there is an alternate lifestyle: a healthy, active one. We still love food so we’re constantly looking for ways to re-invent our mamma’s recipes. Fitness is also an important part of our lives. Living well is no longer something we hope to achieve; it’s what we do. We are here today because of the choices we made, the habits we practiced and thus the skills acquired along the way. We also had lots of support from our spouses, friends, and from each other. The key lesson we’d like to pass on is that if you want to live healthy, fit and nutritious lives, you can do it too! It is up to you. How badly do you want it?

Our hope for this blog is that it helps you Aspire, Perspire, and Nourish Yourself so that you “live the life you love AND love the life you live” (a wise quote from Bob Marley). I love that a friend has this quote tattooed on his arms! In return, we hope you share your thoughts, questions, and ideas with us as we continue the journey.

Till our next post, here are some small, doable tips to consider for living well:

Aspire – Feeling unmotivated to work out or stick to your healthier eating habits? Go for a brisk walk and think about what living well looks like for you and your family. Create a vivid, tangible image in your mind of what it looks like and feels like to live well. Record that image in whatever way you want: dictate it to yourself in your iPhone, write it down in your journal, draw it on a sheet of paper to post on your refrigerator! Do whatever works to remind you of your ideal living well life.

Perspire – Need a new workout or want to know how to get started? Check out Oxygen Magazine and their training articles. Their slideshows and articles have great instructions. http://www.oxygenmag.com/Training/Articles.aspx

Nourish – Want to cut your wheat intake? Next time you bake your favorite banana bread or other cake, substitute 1/2 to 3/4 of your all-purpose or whole-wheat flour with almond meal (flour). Almond meal is simply ground up almonds. Make your own or find it in your grocery store in the health food section or the oatmeal aisle (Bob’s Red Mill is a popular brand). You will find that the almond meal will make your breads and cakes moister and very tasty. See our no wheat Date Nut Ball Recipe.