​For this post, I asked our trainer team to help me pull together a list of our favorite things that make healthy living just a little bit easier, nicer, and more enjoyable.  We are channeling our inner Oprah just in time for the holidays.  Here are a few of our favorite things….

Life is just so busy!  Hanniford-to-Go makes grocery shopping a snap.  Take a few minutes to build your order online (you can even save lists of items / staples you order on a regular basis) and select your pick up time.  When you pick up your order, you tell Hannaford what spot you are parked in.  One person comes out and takes your payment method and another starts loading your car with your groceries.  You're in and out in less than 10 minutes!  It's amazing! 

I love listening to podcasts and audiobooks when I am doing necessary tasks that are very time consuming.  Getting into a great audiobook will make your commute a snap – maybe even the best part of your day.  I also find that if I am out for a long run, I love running with a good book instead of music.  I find I can get lost in a story and run for much longer.

I am not a shopper.  I can think of a lot more fun ways to spend a Saturday than in Target for toilet paper and dish soap.  This is why I have all of our household staples – set up on auto delivery through Amazon Subscribe & Save.  Set it and forget it!  Monthly we receive all of our household necessities delivered for free and we even get 15% off the entire order for ordering more than 5 items at a time.  

We are so lucky in the greater Bangor area!  We have wonderful options for local organic vegetables, local high quality meats, and other great local healthy food options.  Here is the link to more information on the Bangor Region Farmers Markets:
http://bangorfarmersmarket.org/

There you have it!  Our favorite things…  What are your favorite things?
 
Until next time….

Paige

Life is just so busy.  It is difficult to prioritize our health and fitness when we have so many other responsibilities in both our professional and personal lives. Making the commitment to carve time out for our health and fitness has an incredible ROI and builds leverage in so many other aspects of our lives.  Get Active is our final Habit for Massive Impact. 

Getting active in your daily life will make all the things you love to do become so much more enjoyable.  Just like waking up each morning and brushing our teeth being active should be part of our weekly routine.   Being active on a weekly basis is attainable even with our busy schedule.  If you find a program that combines the 6 components for success: strength training, cardiovascular conditioning, mobility, flexibility, coaching, and nutrition you will be able to achieve your health and fitness goals with just 3 – 30 minute training sessions per week.  OK – being realistic, we need time to warm up and cool down so let’s call the training session one hour.  Let’s do the math on this one – we need 3 hours per week for training.  There are 168 hours in a week so training is just 1.8% of your week. 
 
Investing your time and energy training just three times a week is going to give you an incredible ROI and build leverage for you in all other aspects of your life.  When people commit to healthy living, they gain confidence, increase their energy levels, and overall outlook on life.  This shift permeates every other aspect of a person’s life.  They have better relationships, are able to advance at work faster, and feel happier overall.  Committing to getting active on a consistent basis is going to set you up for a lifestyle that provides happiness, energy, and strength in all facets of your life.
 
Taking the first step to an active life can be very difficult and overwhelming at first.  Before you let these feeling of overwhelm take over you, take the time to think about your goals and why these goals are important to you. Think about what you will gain in your life by committing to healthy living.  Think about what you want your life to look like in the future.  Visualize what your life will look like in 3 months, 1 year, 5 years, 10 years from now.  Think about what you have in life today that you don’t want.  Think about what you want in life that you don’t have.  Think about what obstacles could get in your way to reach your goals and come up with strategies proactively to overcome those obstacles. Taking this time to visualize your life will enhance your motivation and confidence as you are working towards achieving your goals. 
 
When designing your training program – consider training for the activities you enjoy outside the gym.  A functional training style prepares your body for everyday life and will give you the biggest bang for your buck in terms of results.  To maximize your time efficiency consider working compound movements into your workout.  Compound movements are exercises that involve more than one muscle group.  An example of a compound movement is a squat with an overhead press. Designing your workout with compound movements will make the most out of the time you have available to workout and will get you great results fast.
 
Proper form and technique is critical when working out.  You want to ensure that you are using proper form so that you won’t get injured and so that you are maximizing the results you get with each movement.
 
Ready to get started at home?  I had our trainer team design a highly effective 30 minute TABATA style workout using only your own bodyweight to get you started.  Practice this workout 3 times per week for a month and marvel at the results.  Download this workout here: http://www.wilcoxwellnessfitness.com/tabata.html.

​If you change the quality of your morning, you can change the quality of your life.  In Hal Elrods book, the Miracle Morning, he shares the SAVERS – a morning ritual to begin each day with intention in order to have more energy, motivation, and focus to take your life to the next level.  The SAVERS are: silence, affirmations, visualization, exercise, reading, and scribing.  This morning ritual has compelling stories of transforming the lives of tens of thousands of people around the world.   
 
The SAVERS can be completed in anywhere from 6 minutes to an hour and are designed to set you up for success.

​Starting your day with a morning ritual that works for you can have a HUGE impact on your day and on your life.  Make the commitment for 30 days to establish a new inspiring, energizing, and motivating morning routine and see the impact that it has on your life. 
 
For more information on forming morning rituals that will have massive impact on your life, check out the Morning Miracle from Hal Elrod.  

Good News!  Most people are not eating enough to give them the energy to get them through their day and we are going to encourage you to eat more (of the right stuff – whole foods only please)!  To maintain energy levels and keep your metabolism burning, it is important for you to be constantly fueled throughout the day.  This means starting your day with a wholesome breakfast within 30 minutes of waking up and then eating every 2-3 hours to keep the fires burning.  This is one of our Habits for Massive Impact – Eat Consistently Throughout the Day.  

​Diane Batty is amazing.  Diane started training with us in July.  She has made incredible progress building strength, endurance, and balance to do all the things she loves to do in life.  In her retirement years, these activities include building schools in Guatemala, travel, and intensely competitive games of pickle ball.  

​2 weeks ago Diane was playing Pickle Ball and went for net ball in the ‘kitchen’ she broke 2 bones in her wrist.  She had surgery to insert a plate and 8 screws in her wrist. 

Diane embraces a life filled with gratitude and looks for the positive in everything.  She is so grateful for the strength and balance that she has built over the past 4 months to be able to accomplish every day tasks with just one arm. 
 
Just 2 weeks after breaking her wrist, Diane is back at it – training one on one with Schaeffer to maintain and build strength as her wrist is healing.  Diane says, “my main job is to stay healthy.  I need to take care of myself so that I can keep up with my daily routine.”