One of my newer clients wrote me a new review on Yelp! I have to admit, the first time I read it I almost teared up.
You can check it out here:
http://www.yelp.ca/biz/kko-fitness-toronto#hrid:frwKmZC_TNuVHdUEUJZFsw
New review on Yelp
One of my clients wrote me a new review on Yelp!
Check it out here: http://www.yelp.ca/biz/kko-fitness-toronto
Baked Eggs in a Turkey Basket
Baked Eggs in a Turkey Basket I was going to start this recipe with one of a dozen or so awful egg puns I had thought up, instead I'll skip the fowl humour and get straight to business.
Do you enjoy hard boiled eggs? Does their perfect protein packed oval shape please you? Do you also like turkey? What about green things?
These little guys are a great portable snack or on-the-go breakfast option.
Meet your new best friend:
What you need:
- several slices (200-300 grams worth) roasted turkey
- 6 eggs
- leftover cooked veggies of your choice
- muffin tin
What you do:
- heat oven to 350°
- lightly brush muffin tin with olive oil
- place sliced turkey in muffin tin to form a turkey basket
- add 1 tablespoon cooked veggies
- crack egg in each turkey basket (don't worry if it seems to break through the turkey, they will harden in the oven
- season with salt and pepper
- bake for 20-30 minutes depending on your egg done-ness preference
- ENJOY!
What is Fascial Stretch Therapy?
Fascial Stretch Therapy (FST) is a unique system of assisted stretching that leads to dramatic increases in mobility, reduced pain, and improved athletic performance. FST is performed on a massage table by a certified Fascial Stretch Therapist. Therapists apply slight traction to joints before introducing strategic stretches for your whole body. FST works to correct dysfunctional movement patterns, and increases flexibility and range of motion; imagine a cross between massage, yoga and assisted stretching. It is a great tool to alleviate mental and physical stress while improving performance, sleep and reducing chronic pain. What is fascia?
- Fascia is a connective tissue that surrounds muscles
- The daily activities of living cause fascia to become tight and shortened; this is worsened by poor posture, lack of exercise, injury, or over-training.
- Restricted fascia increases the likelihood for strains and tears, scar tissue formation, and injury inducing dysfunctional movement patterns.
How can FST help me?
- Reduce pain due to trigger points, scar tissue, and tendonitis.
- Speed up recovery time from injury. Avoid future injury.
- Improve low back pain.
- Improve posture.
- Improve athletic performance.
Big Batch Bison Chicken Sliders
Big Batch Bison and Chicken Sliders Nothing makes me happier than large batch cooking. Exhausted and stressed at the end of the day? Feel your hunger transforming into hanger; that dreaded combination of low blood sugar and high emotion? Fear not, large batch cooking will save your life. Good quality, hormone and antibiotic free ground meats from your local butcher are an inexpensive and easy way to get your protein fill. Here is my favourite bison-chicken combination of late.
Prep time: 20 minutes. Cook time: 30 minutes.
Things you need:
- 3 lb ground meats best quality you can afford (I chose 2lb bison and 1lb chicken)
- Package of mushrooms
- Half a large red onion
- Half a large bell pepper
- 1 tablespoon organic butter
- Half a lime
- Handful of spinach
- Chipotle peppers in adobo
- 1 egg
Step 1)
First things first compile your ingredients and preheat the oven to 375 F. Next chop your bell pepper, mushrooms and onion.
Step 2)
Sauté onion, pepper and mushrooms over medium heat in butter until translucent. Add handful of spinach and squeeze lime juice into spinach. Cook until wilted. Set aside and let cool slightly.
Step 3)
Plonk your ground meats in a large bowl. Season with salt and pepper (really important other wise your sliders will be bland.) Add cooked veggies and egg. Now it’s time to get your hands dirty.
Mix everything together until well combined. Form into patties or a loaf and bake until golden brown.
And enjoy!
Fitness myths I would like to see permanently put to rest
So, as a "health and fitness professional" I get asked a lot of questions regarding health and fitness. A lot of these questions come from well-intentioned curiosity and a lot of these questions are a by-product of the relentless stream of "health-fat-loss-fitness-toning-trouble-spots-low-carb-bootcamp-Jillian-Michaels "nonsense that constantly bombards us on TV, in magazines, and on the interweb. "My Nike Trainer app tells me I should be doing 20-30 reps of everything?"
"If I lift heavy weights, I'll bulk up and look like Arnold in the 70s."
"Cardio and salad are the best way to get ready for summer."
"Really, it's the healthiest diet I've ever been on. I only eat things from a straw." (the-horrible-new-diet-that-totally-stinks)
Sound familiar?
Here are the top fitness myths I would like to see die, forever.
1. Women should not lift weights heavier than 12 pounds. Further, women should abstain from: deadlifts, Olympic lifts, barbell squats, bench pressing etc.
This is the biggest crock ever.
Reasons why weight training is in everyone's (but especially women's) best interest:
-
According to Tufts University, the two leading predictors of lifespan are: How much leanbody mass you maintain over the course of your lifetime. How strong you are.
- The more muscle you have, the more calories you burn at rest. It is estimated that for every pound of muscle you gain you burn an extra 50 calories a day. People that means you get to EAT MORE.
- Weight training improves insulin sensitivity. Let me break that down for you: the food (blood sugar) you ingest can be stored either in your liver and muscles as glycogen or creep into fat cells increasing their fattiness and size significantly. Fat cells have a pretty much limitless capacity to keep growing. If you weight train hard enough and frequently enough blood sugar is required in your muscle cells to recover from all the activity you have performed. Your body will become more efficient at utilising the food you consume, you will loose fat. It’s simple really. Running won't give you the same hormonal response.
2. Cardio is the best way to lose fat. In fact, running gets you fit.
- Lies, lies, lies.
- To paraphrase Charles Poliquin, "Humans are meant to either sprint or walk long distances."
- In my experience, running gets you: injured, complacent, and weak. But don't take my word for it. Start any marathon training program you find online with no resistance training and see how you feel in a month.
- Furthermore, Less Muscle = Lower Metabolism.
3. If you fall of the wagon of your (no-carb, no sugar, no solid food, all grapefruit) super restrictive diet, you are a bad person and your body is broken.
- Health is about balance. The fat loss you're so desperately after will never come if you spend more time stressing and punishing yourself over a minor weekend nutrition slip than taking time to understand that finding your own personal feeling of balance and wellness is extremely important.
- Being good to yourself, and this includes having compassion for yourself, is the first step towards health.
4.But I want to lengthen and tone my muscles, not bulk up.
All genders are guilty of this irrational fear mongering. When people tell me they want to "tone or lengthen" I sigh internally and try to explain what they're looking for is fat loss, not toning. Strong and lean = healthy, functional and less disease prone.
The best way to get lean is to get strong. And we do that by lifting weights. Properly, with respect for the generations of strength coaches and athletes that came before us.