 I am pretty sure that I have the absolute best job in the world. I get a front row seat on a daily basis to see people's beautiful transformations. I am not talking about losing weight, toning up, and looking great in a bikini (yes – that does happen here and it's awesome!) I am talking honest to goodness transformation. Transformation from the inside out. Changing thought processes. Increased confidence, energy, and zest for life.  It is absolutely amazing and I absolutely love it. Recently, I had the opportunity to talk with one of our clients who had gone through our KickStart Program. This individual had gotten great results in our program and was going to continue on in a training program with us. She had tried many health and fitness programs in the past and nothing had ‘stuck’ for her. Now I know that you can have the best health and fitness program in the world, but if you don’t address what is going on with the mindset eventually, the client is going to fall off the wagon. In this conversation, I was pushing this individual to share with me her reasons WHY her healthy habits were going to ‘stick’ this time. Her reasons were so powerful – she was getting excited and talking fast. She had just completed a very focused 4-week program to establish healthy habits, had gotten great results, and was on a bit of a health and fitness ‘high’.  I knew this positive energy and her words needed to be captured – bottled up and saved for later. I asked that she write a letter to herself with WHY she wants to commit to healthy living for the rest of her life. This is a letter that she will be able to go back to when the going gets tough – and it will get tough. When she just isn’t feeling it and the couch is looking better than the gym and cookies are looking better than the salad. The purpose of this WHY letter is to help recenter and refocus her on what is most important in her life.  "Why did I begin this journey? Why am I doing this? How did I get here? I want to be strong, and be a better role model for my daughter. If she can go through what she has had to endure this year physically, and do it with such grace and strength and positivity, I must do better. NO MORE EXCUSES. I want to feel better, healthier, more capable. I don’t want to feel like I can't keep up with my family. I don’t want to sit on the sidelines anymore. When we went hiking and I could barely make it up and down the trail, I can’t ever go back to that. Knowing they were going slower than they wanted, waiting for me to catch up. Knowing my heart rate was probably too high for such a simple hike, and that meant I was more unhealthy than I ever wanted to admit. Watching my husband and daughter play soccer out back, and me feeling exhausted from doing absolutely nothing, knowing I cannot begin to keep up with them… I can’t go back. I won’t go back. I want to show my daughter what strength is, I want her to know and see her mom is healthy and strong. The days of feeling like “I can’t” to so many things have to be over. I want to feel proud of how I look, and know I am capable of doing anything. I want to be healthy inside and out. It’s only been 4 weeks, and I see and feel the changes. I am getting there. Slowly, day by day, week by week, I am getting there. It’s worth every meal cooked, every workout struggle, every dollar spent, every hour taken away from home, taking time for myself. I am doing it for my family and for a better quality of family life. I am doing it for me, for my health, for my self-worth, for my tomorrow." This letter is incredibly powerful. This individual is finally internalizing that she doesn’t go to the gym to lose weight or to look better. Healthy eating isn’t about getting that bikini body. It is about doing all of the things in life that you want to do without any limitations. It is never going to be easy -every workout struggle, prepping meals when you aren’t feeling it, and drinking all that water is HARD! But the reward on the back end is more than worth it in the long run. These short term sacrifices help you live the life you love. A life that sets your soul on fire.  This client is ‘in it’ right now. She is still just at the start and the start is so hard. Everything is new and those old habits can look so comforting and appealing. She is going to stick with it. And it will get easier. Workouts will become more enjoyable. She will begin to look forward to them. Eventually. And she will begin to: Enjoy the feeling of sweat on her body. Enjoy the feeling of breathing hard. Enjoy feeling strong and in control. And when the going gets tough, she can re-read this letter and remember why she started this in the first place. And recommit. When it feels like she is trading time for the gym for time at home she will remember that the time trade isn’t gym for family time. The time trade is gym for the life she wants to live. This client’s letter inspired me. This is my WHY: to help people realize that healthy living is about doing (and enjoying) all of the things you want to do in life without any limitations. Because I believe that when people are living their best life, the world will be a better place. And even if we can impact the lives of just a few people, the ripple effect that their transformation has created will impact many more. I hope that it has provided some inspiration for you today as well. Take Care, Paige Ready to start thinking about your WHY? Watch this: http://bit.ly/2pGylcO This 20-minute goal setting workshop has the potential to change everything! We will cover:
Gain confidence, increase your momentum and add more awesomeness to your life. Watch Here! Inspired to get started now? Download this free QuickStart Guide: http://www.wilcoxwellnessfitness.com/quickstart.html This free QuickStart Guide that has been used by many of our clients and is proven to increase your energy levels and help you feel great. This free QuickStart Guide includes a full 7 day whole foods based meal plan, a simple to implement exercise plan, 18 delicious whole foods based recipes, and daily encouragement from our trainer team to help you stick with the program. Want more support? Join our free Facebook Group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/WilcoxHealthyLiving/ Join our free private FaceBook Group - Healthy Living with Wilcox Wellness & Fitness to connect with us live. Daily we post all things healthy living - pro tips for healthy living, recipes, and weekly workouts for you to do at home. We will answer any question you post and we encourage you get involved in the discussion.
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We are excited to announce the addition to boxing to our training schedule starting December 4th. These sessions will be offered at 10:30 on Mondays and Fridays with Katie. Here is the description of the session:
Our Boxing sessions are fun, fast-paced and will allow you to blow off some steam. You will learn the key foundations of boxing while strengthing the entire body. Your strength, power, and conditioning will all be challenged as you build coordination and establish your athleticism!! We incorporate four main punches - the jab, cross, hook, and uppercut -allowing for some fun, effective combinations to keep clients on their toes. Our boxing sessions offer benefits that can be applied to other workouts and daily activities. If you do not have experience with boxing, no need to worry, these sessions are designed for all levels and experience. IT'S GOING TO BE AWESOME! This past weekend we hosted our 3rd annual Burpees for Turkeys event to help raise money to end food insecurity in Maine. Maine ranks 7th in the nation in terms of food insecurity. 1 in 5 children in Maine live with food insecurity meaning they lack the nutritious foods to live a healthy lifestyle.  As a mother, this is devastating to me. I can not imagine not having the resources to feed my child. And yes - I am that mother that carries snacks everywhere and my 3 year old knows how to hit me in the super soft spot. If he wants to delay the bedtime routine - he can say in a little voice with big eyes “but I am hungry.” I know that he is playing me but it turns me inside out every single time. Every. Single. Time. For a lot of families in our state, mothers are making the decision to keep the heat on or to feed their families. That must be an incredible struggle. Knowing that your child is truly hungry (not playing you) and not having the ability to fill their little bellies. I am so thankful for organizations like the Good Shepherd Food Bank whose mission is to end food insecurity in Maine. They are the hub that distributes the food to our local food pantries in Maine. The Good Shepherd Food Bank is doing an amazing job to help ensure these children and families have the food they need in order to live a healthy life. They have a huge focus of not only filling bellies but by providing nutritious food from local Maine Farms through their Mainers Feeding Mainers Program. Something that I am incredibly proud to support. The Good Shepherd Food Bank is able to leverage the money we raise through our Burpees for Turkeys event and stretch the dollars to do the most good. They can feed a hungry child for an entire week with just a $5 donation. Just $5 per week feeds a hungry child for an entire week. AMAZING! They can provide 4 meals to families in need with just a $1 donation. We are so proud to say that with this event, we have raised over $9,500. That is 38,097 meals for Maine families who otherwise would have been hungry. OR - enough to prevent 36 children from being hungry for an entire year. We are so thankful for the way that our community pulled together to create this kind of impact in our community. For our event this past Saturday, we had over 80 clients sign up to help raise money to end hunger in Maine. One of our clients, Tammy McLaughlin raised over $900 which translated to about 188 burpees. Now, if you don’t know what a burpee is… it can be summed up as everyone's least favorite exercise. 188 burpees is a lot of burpees. That didn’t stop Tammy from hitting the fundraising to end hunger in Maine hard, in her WABI 5 interview, she said “I am willing to do as many burpees as people will pay me to do.” She is a great sport and did an incredible job knocking out those burpees! It feels good to make an impact. Knowing that you have done something to make the world just a little bit better. I feel a strong connection towards helping end food insecurity in Maine which is why I have partnered with the Good Shepherd Food Bank.
If you don’t already, I would encourage you to find a cause that you connect with and go after it this holiday season. It could be as simple as volunteering a few hours of your time, or bringing awareness to the issue you are passionate about, or just donating a little bit of money - it can go a very long way! It is incredibly inspiring and uplifting to know that you have made a difference in the world and it is easier than you may think. You would be amazed out how much you can fill your spirit and IMPACT your community by supporting others who are in need. We have already started the planning process for Burpees for Turkeys next year and we are excited to have even more of an impact to help end hunger in Maine. Happy Thanksgiving, Paige Interested in learning more about Burpees for Turkeys? https://www.wilcoxwellnessfitness.com/burpeesforturkeys.html Learn more about the Good Shepherd Food Bank: https://www.gsfb.org/ Join our mailing list: http://www.wilcoxwellnessfitness.com/keep-in-touch.html  Join us for a Turkey Burner Workout on Thanksgiving and get ready to shake your tail feather. This 60 minute workout is free to the first 50 people who sign up via Pike13. We know that a lot of family will be in town so please feel free to bring a guest. If you are bringing a guest, please email [email protected] with their full name and email address. Guests must be at least 12 years old.
 One of the best and easiest ways to take care of your body is by staying hydrated. Water makes up roughly 60% of your body and is essential for every one of your cells to function. If the water content in your body drops by even 2%, your mind starts to lose alertness and your body will begin to feel fatigued. A loss of 10% of the body's water can cause physical and mental deterioration, and a loss of 15% - 25% can cause death. Most people know how important staying hydrated is, yet some studies have indicated that 75% of Americans are functioning in a chronic state of dehydration. Symptoms of chronic dehydration include:
This article from foodmatters.com is worth a read if you want to learn more about the symptoms of dehydration We are so lucky to live in a country where we have fresh, clean, drinking water flowing from the tap. We just don’t know how lucky we are to have this available to us. Earlier this year, I took a trip to India to visit my brother. This trip was incredibly eye opening for me. You can not drink the water in India. You can not brush your teeth with the water out of the tap in India. India is incredibly hot and dry. It was about 100 degrees every day I was there. I drank a lot of water. In our travels I noticed women walking along the side of the road carrying huge loads.  I took this photo on the way to an organic spice farm in Goa, India. It was 108º F that day and dry. Just look at the load this woman was carrying. This was on the side of a very busy road where dirt bikes, rickshaws, cars, and livestock were zipping around. I have this photo saved in my favorites on my iPhone. Anytime I think I have it bad or I am having a hard day, I bring up this photo and get instant perspective. I learned that the task of retrieving water on a daily basis for some women living in rural India is a constant challenge. The Water Project reports that nearly 1 billion people in the developing world don’t have access to clean, safe drinking water. Water is the fountain of life and today, all around the world, people are spending the entire day searching for it. The Water Project Reports: “Indian women can take up to six trips a day to gather and transport water. These walks in rural regions can average ten miles a day, carrying up to fifteen liters every trip. The women load jars or buckets on their heads to carry water. The pressure, added with the distance to water sources, creates back, feet, and posture problems. The heat increases their exhaustion, and the chore itself takes away much needed time for other duties. It is a great loss for these women to spend their days fetching water; they are removed from being able to make an income, better care for their children, or in a younger girl's circumstance, be able to get a proper education. It is common for girls in rural India to drop out of school, so as to help carry out the burden of moving water.” How is that for perspective? What is the obstacle that is getting in your way of being properly hydrated? Is it because you are worried about the inconvenience of more frequent bathroom breaks? Don’t like the taste? Would rather drink coffee or soda? It is time to get over these obstacles and commit to getting yourself properly hydrated. Your body is about 60% water… and just a small 2% decrease can significantly impair performance and the way you feel. Our recommendation is to drink at least half of your body weight in ounces each day. This is critically important. If you are not already drinking this amount of water, make the commitment today. Example: If you weigh 200 pounds, you should be drinking a minimum of 100 ounces of water each day. Need motivation to drink more water? Download our strategies here.  Water should be the main drink you consume on a daily basis. We want you to avoid alcohol, sugary juices, and soda because those beverages do nothing to serve you. Not only that, they’re loaded with sugar that will spike your insulin. It places a heavy load on your body to detoxify from it, which is the exact opposite of what we’re trying to achieve with proper hydration. Hope this helps provide you with a little perspective and tools and resources to commit to proper hydration. Cheers! Paige Download our habits tracker here: www.wilcoxwellnessfitness.com/habitstracker Enter your contact information to receive some free tools and resources to support your habits for massive impact. Visit the link above to sign up to receive more support from us. We will send you information via email to help support your habits for massive impact including a printable habits tracker that you can use to measure your progress within the next 21 days. Join our Healthy Living FaceBook Group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/WilcoxHealthyLiving/ Join our free private FaceBook Group - Healthy Living with Wilcox Wellness & Fitness to connect with us live. Daily we post all things healthy living - pro tips for healthy living, recipes, and weekly workouts for you to do at home. We will answer any question you post and we encourage you get involved in the discussion. Join Wilcox Wellness & Fitness’ mailing list: http://www.wilcoxwellnessfitness.com/keep-in-touch.html Last week was a rough one for many Mainers. The governor declared a state of emergency due to the incredible tropical storm winds that disrupted power for over half a million Mainers. Last weeks storm caused even more destruction than the infamous Ice Storm of '98.
This storm also brought to our attention that our business, Wilcox Wellness & Fitness, and our home are on the same power grid. Talk about having all your eggs in one basket. We were without power from 8:30am Monday morning to Thursday afternoon around 2pm. Last week reaffirmed many things for us both personally and in our business. #1: Everything happens for a reason While we were closed last week, a man with a gun holed himself up in an apartment building on 3rd street - adjacent to our gym. Police and SWAT teams used the empty parking lot of our facility as a command post. If this were an ordinary week, we would likely have 30+ people coming and going from our facility for training sessions. We have full confidence that if we were open everyone would have been very safe. The amazing Bangor police team had the incident well under control and it ended peacefully. We definitely would have all been inconvenienced and and probably shaken up a bit - the businesses across the street were locked down with no one coming or going. Fortunately, we were without power so our community was not impacted by this scene. Everything happens for a reason. #2: People are good It is the challenging times that really demonstrate what people are made of and pull communities together. In our business, we saw our community pulling together with people offering others a place for a hot shower, internet, and power. Our clients joked that they were getting their workout on by doing ‘pick up stick burpees.’ And neighbors were checking on neighbors. Even though our business was closed due to the power outage as business owners we still needed to keep powering on. We feel so thankful to have been welcomed by CoVort, a local coworking space and the Bangor Region Chamber of Commerce for the use of their internet and power (even though we may have smelled a little funny…) This truly was #theworstvacationever for our trainers and for most people and businesses impacted by the storm. Even though our trainers are hourly employees, we have decided to compensate them for their unexpected time off. It is the right thing to do. People are good. #3: Perspective This week has given us an incredible amount of perspective in regards to what is going on in the rest of the United States with wildfires, hurricanes, and in particular the ongoing power outage in Puerto Rico going on day 40+. You never know how incredibly lucky you are to have food, water, shelter, power, internet, heat, etc… until you live without if for a few days. Perspective changes everything... Those are lessons from last week. I would love to hear from you. What did you learn? How were you impacted by the storm? Until next time - Happy Training! Paige Many people ask what our trainers eat in a day. Katie Norwood is our senior trainer, and is an amazing athlete and person. Since January of this year, Katie has already run over 1,300 miles! She has also completed four Ironmans and run the Boston Marathon. Besides being a great athlete, Katie also loves helping others fall in love with fitness. She is often seen munching on healthy snacks here and there between her training sessions at the gym.  This is from Katie - what she eats in a day. Being a personal trainer, I am on my feet all day and am constantly in-between clients trying to scarf some food down! At work, I know that I get one chance to show people that working out can be the best part of their day so I constantly need to be ON POINT. A lot of people have been asking lately what I eat in a day with my busy schedule. The key for me is to prepare and plan my meals and snacks so that I can nourish myself throughout the day. 4:30 am // Wake up call! 4:35 am // I drink 16 oz of water. 5:00 am // Overnight oats - this is filled with healthy carbs and protein. This keeps me going and energized until my mid-morning snack! Check out our recipe here: www.wilcoxwellnessfitness.com/overnight-oats 8:00am // Apple with peanut butter I also make small snacks that I can eat if I am busy in-between clients so I always have SOMETHING to nosh on. Grapes or some sort of nuts. 11:30 am // Berries/Watermelon  1:00 pm // Lunch is a salad loaded with veggies, avocado, and chicken or tuna. The protein gives me fuel and energy. 4:30 pm // Rx bar - very filling and satisfying - also made from whole foods with very few ingredients 7:30 pm // Steak and sweet potato with onions and peppers. 8:30 pm// Popcorn- either Boom chica pop or Skinny pop I have popcorn EVERY NIGHT. It satisfies my sweet tooth and has healthy carbs in it! Everyday: a gallon of water and 12oz of green tea or Kombucha! There you have it - what our senior trainer, Katie eats in a day. Katie eats very well so that she can perform at her best both in life and in her athletic pursuits. She follows our Habits for Massive Impact in terms of nutrition. Here they are:  It is also important to note that as long as you are on point following these guidelines 80% of the time the other 20% of the time you can really enjoy yourself and indulge in your favorite foods and activities. Enjoy! Paige & Katie Download our Overnight Oats Recipe www.wilcoxwellnessfitness.com/overnight-oats.html Get Inspired by our Favorite Recipes https://www.wilcoxwellnessfitness.com/nourish.html Join our Healthy Living FaceBook Group https://www.facebook.com/groups/WilcoxHealthyLiving/ Join our free private FaceBook Group - Healthy Living with Wilcox Wellness & Fitness to connect with us live. Daily we post all things healthy living - pro tips for healthy living, recipes, and weekly workouts for you to do at home. We will answer any question you post and we encourage you get involved in the discussion. |
