Fun Fitness: Rock Climbing!!!

Sometimes, when you think exercise, it's with a sort of excited dread where the results are definitely what you want, but the means may not be all that exciting. I've gone through that time and time again.

Now I want to redefine my fitness regiment. It's SUPPOSED to be fun, exciting and addictive. It should be thought of as a time in your day where you get all worked up to face an awesome challenge where pushing yourself to new levels is accomplishing goals and getting you to be proud of yourself.

For some people, going to the gym does that. I've been that person once or twice. 

For many others, that just doesn't cut it.

Well let's change our attitudes and find something that gets your heart pumping and makes you happy AND fit!

I have a few activities that do this for me, one of the newest is....

ROCK CLIMBING!!!

I am seriously addicted.

The pics are actually from my first time at a rock gym, in Toronto. I absolutely love going there and have yet to find an equivalent here in Ottawa, but I am definitely working on it. 

I have this tendency to prefer activities that use my lower body strength  and even though legs are definitely used in rock climbing (apparently I don't use them enough, working on it!), it does require quite a bit of upper body strength. The soreness the next day is quite satisfying!

I've been top roping mostly, which does require a partner. But even if you don't have someone to go with you can go bouldering. Bouldering, which I've only really tried once, is just as awesome and in my opinion more difficult than top roping. It's a killer workout and has you concentrating much more on technique from the get go. 

I seriously recommend going to try it out, who knows, you might get as addicted as I am!!

80/10/10: The Raw Food "Bible"

My first introduction to the raw food lifestyle was from the well=known and popular 30bananasaday.com crew. AS much as they're forum is absolutely amazing for newbies and veterans of the lifestyle alike, I found that it really was essential for me to read the book that cemented it all. Besides being a wealth of information on why choosing this way of eating is the best, it's a great guide on how to transition, what to eat and how to succeed long term.

I call it the "Bible" of raw foods beause it really breaks down the lifestyle to the basics and explains in easy to understand terms how our bodies work and why a carbohydrate based diets works best for the human body.

As much as it advocates being a raw food fruit based vegan is the ultimate way to fuel our bodies and minds, it isn't strictly advocating it. The secret lies in the ratios of macro nutrients over time of 80% or more carbohydrates, 10% or less protein and fats.

After having experimented with this lifestyle for the past 2 and a half years, I can definitely say that I feel the best I ever have following that macro nutrient intake, even better when it's high or completely raw foods based.

The book comes with a high recommendation not only from me and the 30bananasaday.com crew, but from most of the raw community as well as the author of "The China Study" (another recommended read of mine of which I'll talk about in another post). It has basically everything you need to get started on thsi path to amazing health, along with the many online resources that are growing every day written by advocates of the lifestyle. 

I volunteer my personal copy to anyone who wants to check it out!

New Year, New Beginnings.

When a New Year comes around, I have a tradition of setting up new goals to accomplish for the year. They  could be seen as resolutions, however I don't see them as such because they usually don't fall into the same categories as what most people would set as new year's resolutions. 

One of my goals this year is to be much more consistent with blogging, as this last year has definitely been an on and off habit. I've learned to be more fluid with it but at the same time have learned how exactly I can attain my goal without getting too rigid about it, since I used to set myself to a specific schedule of when I was going to post and how many times a month, etc. Now I just want to flow with my inspiration but still keep myself accountable to writing often.

Another one of my goals is to accomplish 90 days straight raw, using my own variation of the 80/10/10 lifestyle. I've been flowing with this lifestyle on and off for 2 and a half years now, succeeding at many 30 day stints. I find that I need to take it to the next level and committing myself to a much longer time period. I feel amazing after 30 days and want to find out exactly how awesome I will feel after 3 times that amount of time. 

My other goals include: completing my University degree, becoming a certified personal trainer, beginning my registered holistic nutritionist course,  completing a 10 day Vippassana meditation retreat and starting a YouTube channel. There are more that are more personal and don't really relate to this blog. 

I use the New Year as a reference time point to set myself new goals for the future. However I do think that taking the time at any point during the year to set goals and reassess old ones help me stay on track for what I want to accomplish is paramount to my successful completion of them. 

Here's to a great year to come!