Archive for February, 2009

I haven't tried Maureen Hagan's Boot Camp Fitness - Week Six workout yet and we're already two days into Week Six. I have a load of excuses, and although they're all good ones, I still feel guilty for missing my workouts.

Sound familiar?

Yesterday, I was chatting with Dr. Mary Louise Adams who teaches in the School of Physical and Health Education at Queen's University. She told me that when it comes to guilt, we're darned if we do and darned if we don't.

"The guilt works either way,” she said. “We live in a culture that makes people feel guilty if they don’t exercise. But if you go to the gym, you feel guilty because you’re not home doing something with your kids or making a better dinner or cooking from scratch or whatever.”

Amen, I thought.

“But then if you don’t go to the gym,” she continued, “you’re going to feel guilty because we’re all supposed to take our health very seriously and we have somehow decided that going to the gym is part of being healthy. Women are bound to feel guilty no matter what. They’re in a real catch-22.”

Do you ever feel guilty when you miss a workout? Do you think it’s important to feel guilt because it motivates you to get your next workout in?

Have you ever felt guilty while you worked out because you thought that you should be doing something else, maybe something for your family?

How do you handle guilt?

Dr. Adams brought up a lot of thought-provoking points during our conversation yesterday, and I’ll be sharing some of them with you over the next few weeks.

Be sure to check in tomorrow when I’ll share what Biggest Loser trainer Bob Harper had to say in response to some of your questions from Day 29!

On Day 27, I introduced you to the impossibly perfect Melissa Hershberg and gave you a chance to win her book, The Hershberg Diet, just by Subscribing to This Blog.

Congratulations to our winners, 'chefgirl' and 'Debrah B'. Good luck to you (and your abs) on her plan!

Some are healthy, Boot Camp-friendly meals, some are treats to reward your hard work, all are Boot Campers' favourite recipes:

French Onion Soup

Spinach Ricotta-Stuffed Chicken Breasts

Ultimate Chocolate Layer Cake

Hearty Minestrone Soup

Spaghetti with Meat Sauce

Roasted Garlic Beef Stew

Prizewinning Apple Pie

Vegetarian Lasagna

Almond-crusted Chicken Breasts with Goat Cheese Filling

Roasted Cajun Swordfish

Apple Crumble Pie

Pickerel with Lemon Mushroom Sauce

Paprika-Roasted Parsnips and Carrots

Potluck Jambalaya

Potato Leek Soup

Vegetable Biryani

Beef and Broccoli Stir-Fry

Chili with the Cornbread

Lamb Chops with Orange Glaze

Stir-Fried Brussels Sprouts

You can find more fabulous recipes by using our Recipe Search.

Hiya Boot Campers,

On Day 25 we asked you for your fave Canadian Living recipes.

Here are your recommendations:

Turkey Black Bean Chili

Zucchini Meat Loaf Casserole

Rotini with Sun-Dried Tomatoes and Basil

Check back tomorrow for more of Boot Camper's favorite Canadian Living recipies!

Asparagus Cream Soup (Photography by Yvonne Duivenvoorden)

Congratulations to "ennsee" and "NicoleV" who have each won a copy of Weight Watchers in 20 Minutes — 250 Fresh Fast Recipes for telling us about their favourite Canadian Living recipes as part of our Day 25 contest.

ennsee says:
"After a day being outside in the snow, we love to come home to a big bowl of Canadian Living’s asparagus cream soup."

NicoleV told us:
"Beef Ragout with Penne Rigate - I love this recipe. I live near a place called Granville Island where I can buy all the ingredients fresh. When my boyfriend had to go out of town for a family emergency, and it

Beef Ragout with Penne Rigate (Photography by Yvonne Duivenvoorden)

was the first time we had ever been apart, I made this for him the night he came back. It is a warm, flavorful recipe, and he is worth the time and effort!"

Mmmmm . . . I know what I'm cooking this weekend.

CanadianLiving.com's Asparagus Cream Soup is a Boot Camp-friendly 92 calories per serving, with 6 grams of fat, 9 grams of carbs and 3 grams of fibre. Beef Ragout with Penne Rigate is a hearty weekend treat that's packed with protein. Each serving has 585 calories, 30 grams of protein, 14 grams of fat and 83 grams of carbs.

What will you whip up this weekend?

We all have our favourite weight loss celebrities who we love (or love to hate).

From Suzanne Sommers hawking her thighmaster to Valerie Bertinelli shilling for Jenny Craig, there are a tonne of celebrities who are known for their relationship with their weight or their commitment to healthy living.

But there is one celebrity that towers over all others in this regard.

It is the mighty 'O'.

Oprah's weight loss battles are legendary. We all tuned in on January 5 as she admitted to regaining 40 pounds and resolved to put herself back on her own 'to do' list and committed to living her best life, all with the help of her trusty trainer Bob Greene.

Oprah-approved.

I'm not a regular viewer, I'm a sometimes viewer, but it seems that every time I flip on the O Show, Greene is on there. And he looks younger every time. (It's a weird celebrity thing.)

Turns out Oprah is crazy about Greene, who is an exercise physiologist and certified personal trainer. She wrote the forward to his best selling book, The Best Life Diet. She was even the 'best woman' at his 2005 wedding (more celebrity weirdness).

Who are your fave weight loss celebrities and what have you learned from them? Maybe J-Lo helped you to love your curves. Perhaps Jessica Simpson inspired you to aim for a string bikini (or, more likely, shocked you into retiring your mom jeans). Did Queen Latifah show you how to ignore the scale and focus on your health goals?

Let us know, and Subscribe To This Blog, and you'll have a chance to WIN three books from Bob Green: The Best Life Diet, The Best Life Diet Cookbook and The Best Life Diet Daily Journal. You have until Thursday, February 12 to let us know. I'll announce the winner here on Friday, February 13 (turns out it's a lucky day after all).

I am drooling as I write this.

Since we started Boot Camping, I've been cooking at home a lot more and I really enjoy preparing healthy meals.

But I do miss eating at restaurants. And it's not just the food I miss. (Although I do miss the food . . . and the beer.) I mostly miss the act of going out to eat.

Even if you're in the habit of going out a few times a week, eating at a restaurant still feels like a special occasion. And since it's a special occasion, why not order a side of gravy for your fries?

So I miss it. I miss catching up with friends over a drink while we wait for our big fat meals to magically appear. It makes me happy, and in the short, cold days of February, this is no small feat.

How do you replicate this 'special occasion' feel — but without saddling up to the trough? How do you find comfort and happiness — hold the fries?

Let us know — and Subscribe To This Blog — and you’ll be eligible for a chance to WIN a Spectro HydraCare Simple, Smart Skin Care Prize Pack valued at over $250! New and existing email and RSS subscribers who respond to my question above will be eligible to WIN.

It's easy to Subscribe To This Blog — just use the button on the left. (It’s free and it means you’ll receive the Health & Wellness Club blog right in your inbox!)

You have until Tuesday, February 17 to enter. I'll announce the winning subscriber here on Wednesday, February 18.

Spectro-tastic!

The Spectro HydraCare Simple, Smart Skin Care Prize Pack contains three new gentle, non-irritating Spectro HydraCare facial moisturizers and matching Spectro Cleansers. The prize pack also includes a magnifying make-up mirror, Goody hair elastics, an eye gel mask, a Lulu Lemon hairband, a super soft washcloth and a $100 gift certificate to WaySpa.com for a professional facial.

What a great mid-winter pick-me-up for a devoted Boot Camper!

Can you believe it's Day 30 already? Just 12 more days to go.

On Day 22, we asked how you find the right balance between healthy living and living it up. Boot Camper 'Kat D' told us:

"I have become a reformed perfectionist. Almost my entire life I have demanded perfection of and from myself. It’s a recipe for failure! I have learned to strive for excellence, NOT perfection. This means not being so hard on myself and being patient with myself. It doesn’t include forgiving myself because nothing that I do or don’t do requires forgiveness because - I’m not perfect and that is finally OK with me!"

Kat D wins a copy of Kirsten Hartvig's book The Healthy Diet Calorie Counter, and to balance it out, a copy of Daisy Westmoor's It Doesn't Count if . . . it's the Last One — and 204 More Reasons Why You Can Eat That.

Thanks for inspiring us to shoot for excellence as we continue Boot Camping through the next 12 days!

Remember waaay back on Day 8 when we ran the contest to win Biggest Loser trainer Bob Harper's book Are You Ready!?

Well, your overwhelming response to the contest made me realize that you're as big of a Bob fan as I am.

And if you're like me, you've got a lot of things you'd like to ask Bob, like how does he motivate his team members on the Biggest Loser, what his exercise routine is like, and what it's like to be a handsome TV star with a cute accent.

Okay . . . maybe I wouldn't have the nerve to ask him that last question. But what would you ask him if you had the chance?

Post a reply with your question for Bob. I'll pick the best two questions and I'll pose them to Bob when I talk to him next Tuesday. Check back here on Wednesday, February 11 to see if I asked Bob your question and to find out what advice he has for us Boot Campers.

If you're like me, Boot Camp has inspired you to not just take better care of yourself by eating right, exercising and improving your attitude towards healthy living, but also by paying more attention to your appearance.

My friends and colleagues won't be surprised to hear that I have been slathering on the self-tanner since Boot Camp started.

I've also taken up shaving, which is not usually a winter habit of mine.

And yesterday, I went to a fancy-pants hair salon (a change from my regular pilgrimage to Magicuts) and, inspired by our Boot Camp Playlist, I had the stylist cut my hair like Pink's.

The result of all these small, sustained changes are adding up. Have you been paying more attention to your appearance since Boot Camp started? What have you been doing to take care of how you look?