As the New Year starts, you’re probably toying with the idea of a resolution. Losing weight, eating healthier, exercising more — these are all excellent options, and I support anyone trying to change their life in a positive way.
 
But rather than a vague resolution, like “I want to lose weight,” try setting a specific goal and back it up with a plan. Knowing where you want to end up and how you get there makes all the difference.
 
Here are some tips to help you set a fitness goal and make a plan to achieve it.
 
Be Specific
So you want to lose weight. How much weight? By what date? How are you going to do it?
 
If you have benchmarks in place and a plan to back it up, all you have to do is execute. 
 
Start with the big dream. Say you want to lose 15 lbs by the time you go on your vacation to Mexico in April. That gives you roughly enough time to lose one pound per week, which is a healthy amount to lose (no crash diets here).
 
 
Execute Your Plan
The best way to lose weight is, you guessed it, a healthy diet and exercise.
 
How many times per week are you willing to exercise to lose one pound per week? Three to four? Great! Schedule those workouts into your calendar right now. Once they become a habit, you will crave it.
 
On to eating. What are some foods with “empty calories” you could cut out of your diet? For example, try cutting out sugary drinks, you may not miss them after a week or two.
 
If you try to change everything at once, you’re bound to fail. Start cutting back and making incremental change, and you’ll see results.
 
Next, what are you going to add in to your diet?  Start with a couple glasses of water in the morning, you’re dehydrated after all that sleeping.  Add in vegetables, lean protein, healthy fats (avocado, olive oil) and complex carbohydrates (brown rice, whole grain products)
 
And really, don’t forget the occasional treat; you’re only human. 
 
Accountability
Once you have your health and fitness goals set, and your plan is in place, you have the power to accomplish it. If you need help building a plan, setting goals or someone to be accountable to, please get in touch with a fitness professional to help you crush those 2017 goals. 

Over the past two years I’ve been taking courses, writing tests and studying all with one goal in mind: become a BCRPA certified Personal Trainer. Today, I’m proud to say that I have achieved my goal.  And I am proud to say that I am offering my services in Victoria. 
 
As part of maintaining this certification, I must continue to pursue education in the field, with a certain number of credits every year. This is great, because I love learning new and helpful things, and it means that I can offer my clients even more.
 
Part of becoming a Personal Trainer is to first gain a designation as a Weight Training Instructor. To this end, I’ve decided to further my knowledge of strength training. I’m dedicating myself to learning the Olympic lifts so that I can teach them properly and safely to my clients and offer a higher level of training. 
 
This week, I am taking an NCCP course (National Coaching Certification Program) for Road Running Instructors. This will allow me to offer road running clinics, for example, for the very popular TC10K in Victoria. Watch out in January for a running clinic!
 
My new long-term goal is to go back to school. In the next couple of years, I will be starting the Bachelor of Athletic and Exercise Therapy program at Camosun College. At the end of this four-year program, I will be an Athletic Therapist as well as a Strength and Conditioning Coach. Currently, this designation is about the highest level of education and training I can aspire to. I want to be able to help people through an entire process, from injury diagnosis and treatment all the way through to getting them back to their previous prowess and beyond. There is one minor hurdle in the way to this goal however: there are admission requirements, and my grade for Math 11 does not meet them. 
 
I barely passed Math 11 the first time (C-); this time around I will kick its butt. In high school, I would have told you that I was just not good at math and that it is not “my thing.” This time I don’t accept that, and I will succeed. I have been taking math courses online in my spare time and so far things are going really well. Many of the tests and assignments I’ve written are in the 90% neighbourhood. Full credit to my brother Nathan, the math genius, who has been helping me a lot. 
 
The truth is, I first looked into going back to school for this program two years ago. But even then my hang-ups about math kept me from doing it. I can’t do it, I told myself.  Well, I’m telling myself something different today. I can do it. I will do it. If I had started two years ago, I’d be further along now. But it’s never too late to start. So what else don’t I think I can do? What else am I holding back on? What will I kick myself for in two years for not starting now?
 
And how about you? What are you going to stand up and do today?

Firsts are always exciting. Like a first blog post. And sometimes scary. In the case of my first triathlon June 2015, it was both. 

This had been a dream of mine for a few years. How many I'm not really sure, because for a few years I did nothing about it, other than dream. I remember seeing the brochure at a local rec centre for the Subaru Western Triathlon Series. Races in Victoria, Vancouver, Shawnigan Lake, Banff and Saskatoon. How cool was that? Not just a race, but a series. I think I had only the vaguest idea of what triathlon even was, but I wanted to do it. It would be a first, it would be an accomplishment. Something to be proud of. One minor detail: I couldn't swim. 

Oh sure I'd taken lessons as a kid and got my starfish and salamander badges etc. I could get around in the pool and basically keep myself from drowning (for a while, anyway). But that was about it. Forget about putting my face in the water, bilateral breathing or having good "technique." So as I said, all I did was dream for the time being. But I tucked that image of the brochure, and the feeling of excitement that came with it, away in my subconscious for a while.

Until one day I decided to do something about that dream. By this time I had already caught the running bug and I had spent many afternoons riding my bike on the Galloping Goose and Lochside Trails. So what the heck? Why not sign up for some swimming lessons? And for those of you wondering, YES, they have lessons for adults. For me swimming is mostly about conquering fear. There are a lot things to distract you while you're swimming, if you let them. Little thoughts that creep into your mind. Like swimming into things, getting kicked in the head, kicking someone else in the head, wondering what exactly is in this lake because something just brushed against my leg. And behind all these unwanted thoughts is that lurking fear of sucking in a lung full of water and going under. It's very unlikely, but it could happen. The three biggest things I've learned about open water swimming are

1.  Get the wetsuit! Totally worth the money. NO way you're going under with that sucker on. It also decreases drag, helps buoyancy, and, if you're like me, helps keep your legs up.
2.  Relax. If you're uptight, fighting for each breath, and worrying the whole time, things will only get worse if you're tense. Practice pushing aside those fears.
3.  Learn to love it. I'm a runner who does triathlon. Not a swimmer who runs. So though it's my least favourite part of the race, it's a big personal challenge and through all the hours at the pool and lake I'm... starting to like it. (Don't tell the other runners.) 

So in 2015 (after recovering from a surgery), I signed up for my first sprint triathlon (750m swim, 20km bike, 5km run). Not only did I want to prove that I had recovered from my surgery, but that I could conquer new things and keep pushing my limits. I knew if I could get through the swim I could easily handle the other distances. At the time I signed up for the race I could not swim 750m. But being committed to the race now was a big motivator. All of a sudden I was at the pool three to four times a week and open-water swimming once a week. Challenge yourself. Sign up for something you can't do (yet), or don't think you can do (you can). You will surprise yourself.  

In the end, I swam my 750m in just a little over 19 minutes (I never said I was good at it) and finished my first triathlon a few days after my 30th birthday. And now that I've done that? This year I'm aiming for a standard distance triathlon (1500m swim, 40km bike, and 10km run). 2017?  Goal = Half Ironman. Fear? What fear?