We're excited to announce our new partnership with the Hollyburn Sailing Club! Located right on Ambleside Beach in West Vancouver, it's the perfect spot for Stand Up Paddling and beach workouts. We'll be holding classes here throughout the summer including our SUP Fitness Series that starts July 4th and a Paddle Into Fitness SUP Certification that takes place in August (see posters below for details). Click here to check out the class schedule from Ambleside! If you'd like to book a private class, lesson or group outside of class times, please email us! Don't forget to subscribe to our newsletter for outdoor fitness trips, recipes, and tips and tricks on everything Stand Up Paddle, & fitness.
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This hardy and tasty salad is loaded with healthy nutritiousness. The beets and apples make it sweet and juicy, complemented with a bit of savoury with feta cheese, and parsley. I always feel pretty healthy after eating this one! Ingredients: 2-3 medium sized beets 2 medium carrots 1 medium Apple 1 head of parsley 1/2 cup of pumpkin seeds Feta cheese (to taste) Vinaigrette: Olive oil Apple cider vinegar Dijon mustard Touch of maple syrup Salt and pepper to taste Instructions: 1. Use a food processor to grate the beets and carrots. Place in a big bowl. 2. Chop whole head of parsley and apple, mix in with beets and carrots. 3. Add pumpkin seeds, and feta cheese quantity to taste. 4. Top with vinaigrette and enjoy! Salad can live in fridge for up to 6 days. -Nikki To learn more about fitness, nutrition and a holistic approach to weight loss, visit the Fit Chicks Fitness & Nutrition Expert Program, and the Natural Weight Loss Coach program.
Don't forget to subscribe to our newsletter for outdoor fitness trips, recipes, and tips and tricks on everything Stand Up Paddle, & fitness. A lot of people have a hard time with breakfast. Either they don't like it, aren't hungry in the mornings, or have the same old, same old every morning. And it's no wonder why; we've been brought up on toast and cereal for breakfast. While these aren't necessarily bad options, they aren't very balanced meals; all carbs and no protein can lead our blood sugar levels to spike, leaving us "hangry" by mid-morning. Instead we recommend the "Complete in 3" rule at every meal: a healthy balance of protein, fibre/carbs and healthy fats. This is where the Breakfast Salad comes in. You can use the exact ingredients below or you can get creative and add other yummy goodies! Ingredients: 2 hard boiled eggs 6-8 grape tomatoes 1/4 avocado 6 grapes Sprinkle of Hemp Hearts Salt and pepper Other possible goodies might include: Roasted root veggies (beets, yams, carrots) Prosciutto Little bit of feta cheese Nuts and/or seeds Different fruit: berries, kiwi, Apple, pear Drizzle of olive oil Really the sky is the limit. The key is to hard boil a big batch of eggs on your food prep day so they are ready to go as the foundation or as the bread and butter of your Breakfast bowl, shall we say. Go ahead, get creative and eat the rainbow for breakfast! -Nikki To learn more about fitness, nutrition and a holistic approach to weight loss, visit the Fit Chicks Fitness & Nutrition Expert Program, and the Natural Weight Loss Coach program. Don't forget to subscribe to our newsletter for outdoor fitness trips, recipes, and tips and tricks on everything Stand Up Paddle, & fitness. We are really honoured to share this special guest post by Sea to Sky personal training client, Tara Crone. She is a local North Shore girl - intelligent and driven, with a heart of gold. She's worked really hard over the last year and a half to reach her fitness goals and has made substantial gains - both physically and mentally. In this post, she shares her fitness and body transformation journey with us - candidly sharing the story of her relationship with her body, and her renewed relationship to personal health, fitness and how it has now just become part of everyday life. She reminds us all of the importance of fitness for health and strength, for loving your body and for seeking balance in life.Thank you for sharing your story Tara! Like many women, when I made the decision to get serious about working out again, I was motivated by my negative body image. As a strong feminist woman, I knew that it should be about health and strength, but, to be honest, I just wanted to look like an Instagram fitness star! I had recently gained quite a bit of weight and was having trouble losing it. My weight, and body image, has been something that I have struggled with since I was in early high school. I have been on every diet and in every fitness class. I have had short term success in the past, but I have never found something that really stuck. This time, nothing seemed to be working, and I realised that I needed help. I knew that my fitness level was a large part of what was holding me back, so I started to do research on getting a personal trainer. I was initially overwhelmed by the number of trainers online and by the common presence of a “fat negative” rhetoric. I forced myself to ignore my apprehensions and I sent out a ton of emails and made a lot of phone calls. One of my emails was forwarded on to Nikki, at Sea to Sky Fitness. I met with a few people, including Nikki, and I quickly realised that a connection, with whomever I was going to be working with, was going to be important to my success. I was instantly attracted to Nikki’s laid back nature and comforting enthusiasm. I started working out with Nikki twice a week and my fitness level quickly improved, but the weight wasn’t falling off like I had hoped it would. I was blinded by my issues with body image and I couldn’t see all the progress that I was making. Nikki consistently gave me positive feedback and talked about how strong I was getting. She was enthusiastic about the inches I was losing, and continued to challenge me by changing up my workouts. She encouraged me to take progress photos so that I could see the changes in my body. I was eating healthy, loosing fat, meeting fitness goals and gaining muscle, but I still didn’t look like an Instagram fitness star! I knew that my way of thinking was unhealthy (and common!), but it was engrained in me and it was going to take time for it to change. I have been working out consistently, with Nikki and on my own, for about a year and a half now. A few months ago, I realised that I was starting to shift my thinking. Working out had become a part of my life and it was something I had started to really enjoy. I was able to keep up with my friends on hikes, and I had the confidence to ask the “Instagram fitness stars” at my gym if I could “work in”. I was lifting heavy weights, and felt pretty badass doing it. I started to see muscle definition and I was stoked about being strong. With the risk of sounding cliché, over the past year and half of my life, my relationship with myself has changed for the better. I am getting more comfortable in my own skin, I am excited about reaching new fitness goals, and most importantly, I feel good! I feel less groggy when I wake up in the morning, I have more energy throughout the day, and my mood has improved in a big way. It has been incredible to experience just how much CONSISTENT exercise has improved my mental well being. Don’t get me wrong, my body and I still have moments, and days, where we are at odds with each other, and I still wouldn’t mind rocking a bikini with a flat stomach, but it’s not the end goal. I don’t think I really have an END goal anymore. I want to meet my current goals and then set new ones. I want to get stronger and increase my endurance. I want to continue to work on my relationship with myself and be kind to my body. I want to be healthy! Nikki has been such an important part of this journey that I am on. She always has a positive attitude, she never seems to be worried about the number on the scale, and she is consistently celebrating my successes. I feel lucky to have found a trainer and friend like Nikki to check in with me each week. She is genuinely invested in my growth and in helping me reach any goal I set. I have become a strong believer in the power of body positivity, and over the last year and half I have witnessed the beneficial role that it has played in reaching my goals. I have all my new clients submit a food log when they first start working with me. Often, I see store bought protein bars as morning or afternoon snacks on their food log, often without a workout prior to the snack. I think sometimes people buy and eat protein bars with a false sense of how healthy they are. While some protein bars on the market are less processed and much better than others, more often than not they are candy in disguise. Bars like Cliff and Builder's Bar are probably better suited to long outdoor hiking, biking, climbing or skiing expeditions than to a regular afternoon snack.
So I'll often suggest to my clients that they try making their own, less processed version of a protein bar. These tasty homemade protein bars are a spin off the Oh She Glows recipe. Give credit where credit is due. Here is my variation below: Ingredients: 1.5 cups of oats 1/2 cup of vega oh natural protein powder 1/2 cup of Kamut puffs (cereal) 1/4-1/2 teaspoon of Himalayan sea salt 1/2 cup of nut or seed butter (peanut, almond, etc) 1/4 cup of maple syrup 1 banana 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract 4-5 ounces of unsweetened bakers chocolate Directions: 1. Mix all dry ingredients in a food processor: oats, kamut puffs, salt and protein powder. 2. Add nut butter, maple syrup, banana and vanilla to the mix. If consistency is too dry, add splash of milk and mix again. (Milk, almond milk, coconut milk - your choice). 3. Press mixture firmly into square pan and place in freezer for 10-15 minutes. 4. Melt bakers chocolate in sauce pan and drizzle overtop of bars. 5. Keep refrigerated or freeze in air tight container. Enjoy non-processed pre or post-workout protein bars! -Nikki To learn more about fitness, nutrition and a holistic approach to weight loss, visit the Fit Chicks Fitness & Nutrition Expert Program, and the Natural Weight Loss Coach program. Don't forget to subscribe to our newsletter for outdoor fitness trips, recipes, and tips and tricks on everything Stand Up Paddle, & fitness. This Green Smoothie Breakfast Bowl is the perfect way to get your morning started! I love smoothies, but I also love to actually eat and chew my food in the morning - otherwise I often feel unsatisfied.
So I've topped this green smoothie with local North Van Cascadia gluten-free granola, almonds, banana, chia and hemp hearts - but feel free to mix it up. Smoothie Ingredients:
Blend together and enjoy! -Nikki To learn more about fitness, nutrition and a holistic approach to weight loss, visit the Fit Chicks Fitness & Nutrition Expert Program, and the Natural Weight Loss Coach program. Don't forget to subscribe to our newsletter for outdoor fitness trips, recipes, and tips and tricks on everything Stand Up Paddle, & fitness. These breakfast cookies are really easy to make: two main ingredients are oats and bananas, then toss in whatever else you fancy.
If you're hungry before a workout, these would also make great pre-workout snacks; carbohydrates for quick energy. You could also bring them along for long hikes, bike rides or on a ski day. Interestingly enough, the only time our bodies need fuel for energy to be used right away is during long duration exercise - as in long distance runs, bike rides, hikes, etc.. That's why triathletes, marathon runners, iron men, etc, will bring along quick release chews and other forms of carbohydrates to fuel the rest of their activity. Most of the time, during a one hour workout, our bodies are actually using stored fuel from previous meals - not fuel that we have just consumed 30-60 minutes prior. In any case, these are tasty, and can be healthy little treats depending on what you choose to add to them: Ingredients: 2 bananas 2 cups of oats 1 tsp vanilla Possible add ons: Trail mix Pumpkin seeds Sunflower seeds Dried cranberries, raisins or other dried fruit Slivered almonds Chocolate chips Unsweetened Coconut shreds Chia seeds Hemp seeds Cacao nibs Cocoa powder Instructions: 1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees 2. Mash bananas in bowl, add oats. Use blender to mix. 3. Add vanilla. Mix. 4. Toss in "add ons" of your choice. Mix with spoon. 5. Roll Into balls with your hands and place on cookie sheet. Gently press balls flat-ish. 6. Bake for 9-12 minutes. 7. Let cool on rack. Enjoy! - Nikki To learn more about fitness, nutrition and a holistic approach to weight loss, visit the Fit Chicks Fitness & Nutrition Expert Program, and the Natural Weight Loss Coach program. Don't forget to subscribe to our newsletter for outdoor fitness trips, recipes, and tips and tricks on everything Stand Up Paddle, & fitness. Chocolate cravings are ubiquitous. Cravings can occur for a variety of reasons: nutritional deficiencies, emotional triggers (including stress and boredom), digestive issues and others.
But chocolate is by far the most common craving and nutritional challenge that I hear from my clients. To some, chocolate is comforting - it releases those happy serotonin hormones. But dark chocolate and cacao is also a natural source of magnesium - a natural muscle relaxant. So sometimes we crave chocolate to ease stress and help our bodies relax. The only problem is we might reach for sugar-filled milk chocolate rather than a pure form of chocolate, that is sugar free. Try this Cacao Chia pudding to satisfy those chocolate cravings without the added sugar. Ingredients: Chia seeds Raw cacao nibs Almond milk Banana (or any fruit to top your pudding) Unsweetened shredded coconut Cinnamon to taste Instructions: 1. Take a small glass, fill 1/4 with chia seeds, top with 1-2 teaspoons of cacao. 2. Pour almond milk to top of mixture, and mix chia and cacao nibs well. 3. Top with banana, berries or fruit of your choice. (For no sugar, don't add fruit). 4. Sprinkle with coconut shreds and cinnamon. Enjoy! - Nikki To learn more about fitness, nutrition and a holistic approach to weight loss, visit the Fit Chicks Fitness & Nutrition Expert Program, and the Natural Weight Loss Coach program. Don't forget to subscribe to our newsletter for outdoor fitness trips, recipes, and tips and tricks on everything Stand Up Paddle, & fitness. Quite simply, sweet potato toast is a breakfast miracle. No pre-cooking, just a tiny bit of slicing and toaster popping. Everyone can handle making this. I have been enjoying Sweet Potato Toast with my morning eggs and spinach 2-3 mornings a week, satisfying the "Complete in 3" rule that I follow for all my meals. My plate will always contain protein, fibre (the sweet potato) and healthy fats to keep me satisfied and balance my blood sugar levels throughout the morning. Literally, this is all you need to do to make sweet potato toast your morning miracle too: 1. Purchase sweet potato, preferably a smaller sized one. 2. Slice length-wise into long slices less than 1 cm thick. 3. Pop your slice of Sweet Potato in your toaster, and toast it three times. 4. Eat alongside eggs and spinach, or with avocado and cottage cheese, the possibilities are endless. Disclaimer: For step 3, depending on your toaster, you may have to toast it more than 3 times. However, if you find it is still not ready after 3 toasts, consider trying to slice each piece a little bit thinner. You're welcome. After much contemplation and consultation with our closest clients, we have decided to make a slight business name change. Moving forward, we will be operating as "Sea to Sky Fitness", dropping "SUP, Yoga" from the original name, "Sea to Sky SUP, Yoga & Fitness." After a few years in business, we've received a lot of positive and constructive feedback on our brand and business name. In the interest of simplicity, we've decided to keep it short and sweet - Sea to Sky Fitness - a little easier to say and a little easier to remember. But just because our name has changed doesn't mean that our services have. "Fitness" will remain an umbrella term for the services we offer: personal training, online nutrition coaching, Stand Up Paddle lessons and classes, as well as workplace yoga. While many in the Yoga community would decry that Yoga is NOT fitness - (and we would tend to agree) - our definition of the true meaning of fitness is a much more holistic one - one that encompasses all parts of the self. We remain committed to our fitness philosophy of offering a holistic fitness experience - one that offers services and support that nurtures all aspects of personal health and wellness - mind, body and spirit - both indoors and out. After all, true fitness is so much more than body fat percentage and shredded abs - it is a state of mind, of happiness, of wellness, of having fun, of feeling fulfilled in life. Most importantly, true fitness is about being able to enjoy life in the body you were given, and being comfortable, accepting and happy in your own skin. Thanks to all our closest clients for their insight into this decision, and we look forwards to many more years of working with you, and to many more years of being active, by nature! - Nikki |
AuthorNikki Johnston Beaudoin is an outdoorsy Mountain Mermaid, and the Founder of Sea to Sky Fitness. Categories
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