FITMOM's Top 5 Tips to Help You Live Your Healthiest Life in 2016

As we approach the end of another year, we will reflect on how our year has gone and begin plans for making our next year even better. Often our plans might include some high level fitness related goals, such as:

• I want to be stronger in 2016
• I want to be more fit in 2016
• I want to run up stairs 2016
• I want to walk taller in 2016
• I want to touch my toes in 2016
• I want to run my first 5K race in 2016

Whatever your own goals may be, you'll need a solid plan to reach them! 

Here are FITMOM's top FIVE tips that you can use to help you live your healthiest life in 2016:

1. Find Something you LOVE

One of the most important gifts you can give to yourself is doing something you LOVE. If you don't love it, you won't do it. It's as simple as that. 

2. Schedule it and Book a Babysitter

Whether it's a weekly class that you love or an evening run with friends, you need to put it in your calendar and block off the time. It can be really hard when you have small children to get out of the house in the evening, especially if your partner travels or is a shift worker. One of the best things you can invest in is a neighbourhood babysitter. Ask around and you'll find lots of teenagers looking to earn some extra money through babysitting. Teach them the routine and have them try it out with you there first. You'll wonder why you didn't do it sooner!

3. Make it Social

Find some friends and join a fitness class together. It's a great way to stay in shape and keep up with each other! One of the biggest benefits of a FITMOM class is that, even if you join with a friend, you will always leave with many more. Knowing that you're meeting a friend helps keep you accountable and gives you incentive to get out the door, even when you don't want to.

4. Track your Progress

There are many ways you can measure your progress. If you're running you can track how far you're going and how fast you're going. If you're doing a bootcamp class, you can track how often you're attending and how long it takes to recover each week. If you're doing a yoga class, you can track how hard it is to do certain poses each week. You can also take measurements periodically. If you've set a goal that you would like to work out twice a week, writing it down in your calendar will help you identify whether you've met your goal or not.

5. Make it Achievable

It's never fun to fail at something, so when you set your fitness goals, keep in mind how your life is currently working. If your goal is to get out 5 times per week for 1 hour each day, but your job is very demanding and you tend to work many extra hours, this may not be realistic. Start by thinking about what you can realistically commit to. If it's only once per week for 45 minutes, that's a great start. It's always easier to add things one at a time than to add many chunks all at once without a good plan to achieve it.

We hope you find these tips helpful in developing your own fitness plan for 2016! Leave us a note on our Facebook page to let us know how you're planning to accomplish your fitness goals next year! And check out the FITMOM schedule to see if one of our classes fits your needs. We'd love to see you there!

FITMOMs are the best!

Why Fall is a Great Time to Get Fit

It feels like summer has just begun... and yet the fall starts creeping up on us so quickly! Summer is a great time of the year. The weather is hot and sunny, there's no school, everyone is going on some kind of vacation and it's a time where you just want to take it easy. But, summer is also a time that can wreak havoc on your fitness and nutrition plans as you enjoy your vacations, your time at the cottage, your outdoor activities or you just plain have fun. If this is the case for you, here are some great reasons why the fall is the perfect time to get fit:

1. Life becomes a little bit easier to schedule: The kids go back to school and summer vacations in the office are finished (you're no longer having to cover for your office mate while they're on vacation!). Routines are reintroduced and parents are feeling recharged after their summer holidays (hopefully!). Everyone is excited about the new and exciting things that are being planned for the upcoming year.
2. The weather is more cooperative: It's getting a bit cooler, but there's still some daylight in the early evening making outdoor activities quite pleasant. If you're exercising outdoors, you'll experience the beautiful fall colours as the leaves begin to change and you'll find breathing a bit easier with the cooler temperatures. If you're exercising indoors, the days are still long and it doesn't ever seem too late when there's still daylight!
3. You can build it into your routine: Now that your holidays are over, it's time to make fitness part of your weekly routine. This is easy when so many programs are starting up again! If you need a class to get you going, you can register for it and put it in your calendar. Once you start going, it takes about 30 days to make it a habit, so there's plenty of time before the next holiday (Thanksgiving!) rolls around. By the time the Christmas holidays arrive, your fitness habits will be fully integrated into your schedule, you'll be feeling great and there will be less risk of over indulging during the holidays.
4. It's the planning season: At many workplaces, fall is the time planning for the next calendar year gets into full swing. Budgets are made, performance metrics are created and both personal and corporate goals are set. Why not plan for your fitness needs at the same time?
5. It's never too late to start! Why not this fall? You can do it!

Regardless of why you decide to kick start your fitness regime this fall, always remember the way you feel post workout and use that as your motivation to keep going each week!

FIVE Reasons why FITMOM's Unlimited Promotion is the best thing you can do this Summer!

Spring is finally coming! We've had a glimpse of warm weather and it looks like we'll FINALLY see more this week. And, each year when spring comes, FITMOM's Get FIT for Summer with Unlimited Classes Promotion comes with it! It's the time of year when all fitness providers are working hard to convince you to join their classes/gym, so you're likely trying to figure out: WHY should I join FITMOM and register for this promotion?

Here are my top FIVE reasons:

1. Working out more than once a week has tons of benefits

Seeing results more quickly is one of the biggest benefits of being active more than once a week. It's well known that it takes four weeks for you to notice differences in yourself, eight weeks for friends and family to notice and twelve weeks for everyone else to notice. Committing to our Get FIT for Summer Promotion is a great way to show everyone else how hard you've worked!

Also, it's well documented that you'll begin to see dramatic improvements in your aerobic fitness and cardiorespiratory health when you are consistently exercising between two and four times per week.

With seven classes on the schedule from Monday to Friday, I've made it easier to get out to two or three classes each week!

2. You get to bring your baby/older children to class with you (or not!)

How great is it that you get to workout using your baby as resistance? As your baby grows, you'll use her weight to help you become stronger!

FITMOM at Westboro Beach

I know many moms who took FITMOM classes with their first baby and are excited to come back when they have their second (or third) baby, but either don't have care for their older children or school is out and kids are at home for the summer. Don't worry, you're welcome to bring your older children to class with you. Snacks and toys are a big help to keep them busy, but often big brothers and sisters want to just "workout" alongside (or on top of) their mommies!

You're also welcome to attend any of the daytime classes solo, if that's what works best for your schedule.

FITMOM Stroller Strength at Rockcliffe Park

3. We're exercising in the great outdoors

Ottawa can have some long and cold winters, making it nearly impossible to get outside with our wee ones, so as the days get longer and the weather becomes warmer, most of us want to be outside enjoying every moment we can! Classes run in the sun and the rain, but lucky for us, all three of our FITMOM Stroller Strength locations have lots of shade to keep your babies cool and some form of covered area to protect your babies from the rain.



4. You'll meet a great community of women

One of the BEST things to come out of my maternity leave all those years ago, was the friends I
made. It was this community of moms that taught me so much about family, babies and parenting, all in a very ad hoc way. When I had questions or concerns, these were the friends I turned to then, and still do today. I'm still hanging out with these moms and we're still bouncing advice off one another (although our questions and concerns have changed quite a bit from fifteen years ago!). I've seen many new friendships "born" at FITMOM classes!

FITMOM & Baby at NECTAR

5. The price is right (but I won't be asking you to "Come on Down!"*)

Our spring/summer schedule has SEVEN classes to choose from. The more often you can attend classes in a week, the lower your cost per class is. There are FITMOM Stroller Strength and FITWOMAN Bootcamp classes offered every day from Monday to Friday, so you could attend up to five classes each week, if you wanted:)

(*A little side humour from my mat leave days where I spent many mornings listening to Bob Barker on The Price is Right, while nursing my babies!)

Register today on our FITMOM Ottawa website!