It’s now February 2017 and for many of us the Near Year is the start of developing the New You. However often we set unattainable health-related goals. (Um, far too often) Which is one of the reasons I’m not signing up for a 10k race.  I’m trying hard to have goals I can achieve!!

Plus there’s competing information out there, which makes it difficult to understand how to be the healthiest version of yourself or to know where to start.

Heres’ some interesting stats:

• Half of Canadians find it difficult to maintain a healthy lifestyle yet 73 per cent wish they were healthier;
• 62 percent of Canadians make New Year’s Resolutions and the most common resolution, according to 80 per cent of the country, is to live a healthier lifestyle;
  Yet, the majority of the country (86 per cent) agree they never stick to their New Year’s resolutions and many do not even attempt making health related resolutions stating it is too hard to stay on track.
• Over one third (34 per cent) of Canadians are unaware of how to tackle resolutions

I’ve made an effort to use this Yoga App to help me improve my flexibility. I’m a disaster when it comes to flexibility and it’s time to address this issue.

I’m also enjoying this app because it has a calendar embedded in it so that I can keep track how many days I actually did the 10 exercises. Here’s what January looked like. Not bad eh? As you can see I started off strong and then got distracted with “vacation mode”.

I’m also aware that I need some vitamins in my life!! With nearly 100 years of experience, Jamieson’s team of experts have done the work for you and identified Multivitamin, Omega-3, Probiotics and Vitamin D as the four products Canadians should take every day as a foundation for healthier living.

These four essential supplements provide me with a perfect foundation to baseline health, which targets my digestive system, heart, bone and whole body health.

I’m a big believer in the whole picture; exercising regularly, good food choices (I’m trying), getting enough sleep, and taking Jamieson vitamins. 

I’m also a huge fan of meatless Mondays. There’s nothing like starting off your week with a lot of colourful healthy food.

Here’s wishing you a wonderful New Year that includes a Healthy New You and Jamieson Essentials too!

For more information on Jamieson Essentials visit jamiesonvitamins.com.

Disclosure: I was compensated for this blog post, however all opinions are my own

 

Many years ago, I bought a Garmin watch. Let’s just say I wasn’t impressed with my investment and actually blogged about how unhappy I was with it. I urge you to click here and read this blog  post that was written back in 2011.

Fast forward to 2016.

Fitness watches have changed. In. A. Big. Way.

First of all there is a huge range in fitness trackers and Best Buy carries a wide range of these fitness watches. Recently, I was lucky enough to check out the Garmin vivosmart HR Fitness Tracker with Heart Rate Monitor.

To be honest, I thought the best way to review this watch was to give it to a personal trainer at InsideOut Health and Fitness.

After wearing the watch for two weeks, I asked Weslely the following questions:

a) Did you like wearing the watch? What was the best feature?

Wesley: The best feature was the fact that you could track your heart rate throughout the day. Plus there’s a graph with your  average resting heart rate.
b) Have you ever worn a fitness watch before? How does this Garmin vivosmart compare?

Wesley: No, but I have a HR (heart rate) monitor watch. The vivosmart is much more convenient compared to the watch.  The HR is much more accessible compared to the watch’s press-hold-analyze for HR function.

c) Was it easy to figure out? i.e. was the watch USER friendly!

Wesley: Using the band itself is straightforward but using the connectivity functions w/ phone and Bluetooth and garmin activity app will require more tech knowledge

d) Would you recommend this watch to a friend or to any of your clients?

Wesley: The vivosmart is much better suited towards aerobic activity and it’s great to track and time your runs and bike rides. Its uses are limited in the gym environment as the lack of a stopwatch function means the client or trainer needs another means of precisely tracking times of rest or activity duration.

e) As a trainer, do you think these watches help your clients achieve their goals.

It really depends on the goals. HR (heart rate) is a good measure for intensity of aerobic activity. Using the measure of estimated max HR. one can gauge the intensity of their activity using their heart rate as a percentage of their max HR. The clients I would recommend this device to are ones who are looking to track and improve their aerobic/distance training, running, biking, marathons or participating in ironmans.

The vivosmart does have good functions for tracking aerobic exercise and calories burned when combined with their smartphone app. Users looking to lose weight and track their daily activities would also benefit from the vivosmart functions. There is also a neat function to remind users to engage in activity or exercise if they have been sedentary for too long. This will definitely keep some users more motivated.

I would like to thank Wesley for his amazing answers and for wearing the watch for two weeks!

Wish me luck on my journey to getting back into shape. I’m hoping the watch will help me. It’s my turn to wear it now!!  As you can see, Best Buy is a great source for fitness and hi tech trackers with lots of options available.

Website: www.BestBuy.ca

Twitter: @BestBuyCanada

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/BestBuyCanada/

Disclosure: I was compensated and provided product for the purpose of this blog, however all opinions are my own

I’ve been wearing the same running shoes since 2011 (here’s the blog post  that was written in Feb 2011 ). I can’t believe I haven’t bought running shoes since 2011. Can’t explain it. At. All.

So last week, I went to Sport Chek  (2529 Yonge St, 416 932 9604) to fix this problem! I was super excited to hear that there’s two hours of complimentary VALET Parking available at this particular location. Sweet.

I was also excited to try out their FREE GAIT ANALYSIS. I’ve never done this before but it involved running (barefoot) on a treadmill for a minute.

Then my gait was analyzed using fancy technology. See the green lines with numbers on it? This is useful information so that I can run more efficiently and determine the best pair of running shoes for my running style. (err..shuffling style)

After trying on three different brands, I finally decided on these new running shoes. (Asics – in the event you want to know the brand).

I also walked away with several exercises so that I can run more better and pointers so that I can run more efficiently.

Sport Chek is definitely worth visiting if you are in the market for a new pair or running shoes. Don’t forget them for your holiday shopping needs too!

For More Information:

Website: www.sportchek.com

Twitter: @sportchekcanada

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/SportChekOfficial

Disclosure: Sport Chek generously provided me with a pair of running shoes however all opinions are my own.