![\"\"](\"http:\/\/www.fitchicks.ca\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/11\/After-photo-223x300.jpg\" "\\"After")
<\/a>AFTER: 35lbs down & maintaining an awesome lifestyle!<\/p><\/div>\n
What made you decide to join FIT CHICKS and start on your fitness journey?<\/h3>\n
I work long hours and I have a hard time motivating myself to go to the
\ngym before or after work.\u00a0 It’s very easy to say “I’ll just work a
\nbit longer” and then be too tired to exercise.\u00a0 I knew I needed to<\/strong>
\n find something challenging and fun<\/strong> that would make me want to exercise after a
\nlong day at the office. Also, I love having a set time twice a week\u00a0that I<\/strong>
\n know I have to go to- there is no debate.<\/strong> Once its in the calendar, its
\nhard to ignore.<\/p>\nSome days it feels like a pain to have to go after work but the minute I’m there, I feel energized and the stresses of the day are forgotten- at least for that hour.<\/p>\n
I love the ever changing workouts of the bootcamp.<\/strong> I never get bored and I’m always\u00a0pushing my physical limits. <\/strong>Many of my friends belong to FIT CHICKS so I went online to see the times and locations.\u00a0 Once I saw\u00a0Tuesday\u00a0and\u00a0Thursday\u00a0classes at\u00a06:30\u00a0on the same street as my work, I knew it would be perfect for me.<\/strong><\/p>\nWhat have your results been like since starting on your healthy journey?<\/h3>\n
I’ve only been with FIT CHICKS since September but January 2012- March<\/strong>
\n 2012 I lost 35 pounds,<\/strong> which I’ve kept\u00a0 off through exercise and
\ndiet.\u00a0 In the last 3 years I’ve run 4 half marathons and taken 22 minutes<\/strong>
\n off my time!<\/strong><\/p>\nWhen I started working out, I could do 2 “man” pushups.\u00a0 At the time, I thought that was great. Now, I can do\u00a03 sets of\u00a015 “man” pushups and I am really proud of that.<\/strong> My goal one
\nday is to do a proper pull-up \ud83d\ude42<\/p>\nLivin la Vida FIT CHICK is based on 4 healthy principles. How do you incorporate them into your everyday life:<\/h3>\nPrinciple 1 \u2013 Fitness: Move Everyday\u2026makes it a conscious choice!<\/h3>\n
\nI try to get 3-4 structured workouts in a week, depending on my work
\nschedule.\u00a0 I\u00a0 have 2 dogs that require a lot of walking so
\nwhen\u00a0I have the time,\u00a0 I make it an extra long walk. Its good for all
\nof us!\u00a0At work,\u00a0I take the stairs instead of short elevator
\nrides.\u00a0 I walk instead of taking cabs if at all possible. When I go on
\nvacation, I suggest we rent bikes instead of taking the car everywhere.\u00a0 I
\nalways look for ways to incorporate fun with fitness.<\/p>\n
Principle 2 \u2013 Nutrition: Eat real, whole foods made with love.<\/h3>\n
As I mentioned, I have been fairly active the last few years but it
\nwasn’t until I really focused on my nutrition that I was able to lose 35
\npounds.\u00a0\u00a0Exercise is essential for a healthy life\u00a0and it toned
\nmy body but the nutrition was the key to dropping a significant amount of<\/strong>
\n weight.\u00a0 There really isn’t a lot of magic to it- lots of\u00a0lean protein, veggies and whole grains. <\/strong> I’m very diligent with portion sizes and I still weigh and measure much of what I eat.\u00a0 I remember hearing that you should only really shop the outer aisles of the grocery store<\/strong> and I always thought that was strange until about a year ago I realized I rarely ventured into the middle of the store anymore.<\/p>\nEating well takes a commitment- but it is totally worth it.<\/strong> I spend about an hour\u00a0on Sunday\u00a0washing and chopping my veggies for the week. I can go into my fridge at any time during the week and put together a huge salad in 5 minutes.<\/p>\nI will precook a few pieces of chicken or hard boil some eggs <\/strong>and I have salads and proteins ready for my lunches.\u00a0 I realized bringing my healthy lunches and snacks for the day was absolutely necessary.<\/strong> There is nothing worse than being hungry at\u00a03:00pm\u00a0at your desk and having to resist the cookies at the local Starbucks.\u00a0 Now I ensure that I have healthy snacks ready to go <\/strong>at any time.\u00a0\u00a0I joke that I arrive at work with a cooler of food.\u00a0 I eat more often, but weigh less. It’s great!<\/strong><\/p>\nPrinciple 3 \u2013 Wellness: Give yourself love<\/h3>\n
Its very easy to focus on work or chores around the house and let your
\nwellbeing slide.\u00a0 There may be days you absolutely can’t workout, but
\nthat’s okay. Every day is a new day and you need to find the time for your<\/strong>
\n health as much as possible<\/strong>. If you fall off the wagon, don’t beat yourself up.
\nJust get up the next day and start again.<\/p>\nMy whole life I’ve wanted to be <\/strong>thinner and I’ve hated every picture of myself.\u00a0 When I looked back, I <\/strong>realized I had been very hard on myself at times<\/strong>.\u00a0 Now when I think about how much thinner I would like to be, I remind myself that I live a healthy, <\/strong>well balanced life and I am strong.<\/strong><\/p>\nPrinciple 4 \u2013 Pay it forward: Spread the healthy love to those around you.<\/h3>\n
It’s\u00a0a great motivator to sign up for an event<\/strong>– something to focus your training on and work towards. Over the years I’ve succeeded in getting friends to participate with me for each of my 4 half marathons, a few 10K’s and the Mud Hero<\/strong>. It is much more fun to work towards a goal together and my friends were great motivators for me.\u00a0 If they were out training and I was on the couch, I would usually get my butt out the door as well.\u00a0 On race day, they always cursed my name, but once it was done they would say “what’s next?” \ud83d\ude42<\/strong><\/p>\nWhat\u2019s your fave FIT CHICKS workout and why?<\/h3>\n
I love them all! I love that the class is always changing and I don’t know what’s coming next. <\/strong> I love that Francesca always gives us different options of the levels <\/strong>of exercise so that we can push ourselves.<\/p>\nCHICK SERGEANT SHOUT OUT:<\/h3>\n
![\"\"](\"http:\/\/www.fitchicks.ca\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/11\/295.jpg\" "\\"295\\"")
<\/a><\/a>You kick so much butt in bootcamp and it shows. Your strength and conditioning has gone through the roof in improvement (those push-ups are fierce!) and the way you push through every burning rep keeps the other chicks motivated too! AMAZING – keep it up!!<\/em><\/p>\n <\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Amazing job chick…can’t wait to sweat up a storm again with you next month!<\/p>\n
FIT CHICKS XO<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
NOV CHICK OF THE MONTH We are heading into our final\u00a0stretch of 2013 (where the heck did the year go?!) and we are still rocking & rolling at The Coop.\u00a0 Our Dec 2wk Holiday Xpress […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[10,35],"tags":[],"yoast_head":"\n
35lbs down & always taking on a new challenge: Jill's weight loss & fitness journey! — FIT CHICKS BLOG<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"http:\/\/www.fitchicks.ca\/blog\/2013\/11\/35lbs-down-always-taking-on-a-new-challenge-jills-weight-loss-fitness-journey\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"35lbs down & always taking on a new challenge: Jill's weight loss & fitness journey! — FIT CHICKS BLOG\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"NOV CHICK OF THE MONTH We are heading into our final\u00a0stretch of 2013 (where the heck did the year go?!) and we are still rocking & rolling at The Coop.\u00a0 Our Dec 2wk Holiday Xpress […]\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"http:\/\/www.fitchicks.ca\/blog\/2013\/11\/35lbs-down-always-taking-on-a-new-challenge-jills-weight-loss-fitness-journey\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"FIT CHICKS BLOG\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/FITCHICKSBOOTCAMP\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2013-11-26T05:49:09+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2017-08-28T01:38:39+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"http:\/\/www.fitchicks.ca\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/11\/Before-Photo-300x225.jpg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@fitchicks\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@fitchicks\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"margaret\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"6 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.fitchicks.ca\/blog\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.fitchicks.ca\/blog\/\",\"name\":\"FIT CHICKS BLOG\",\"description\":\"Inspiring women to create the body, health & life they deserve - inside & out\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.fitchicks.ca\/blog\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"@id\":\"http:\/\/www.fitchicks.ca\/blog\/2013\/11\/35lbs-down-always-taking-on-a-new-challenge-jills-weight-loss-fitness-journey\/#primaryimage\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"url\":\"http:\/\/www.fitchicks.ca\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/11\/Before-Photo-300x225.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"http:\/\/www.fitchicks.ca\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/11\/Before-Photo-300x225.jpg\"},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"http:\/\/www.fitchicks.ca\/blog\/2013\/11\/35lbs-down-always-taking-on-a-new-challenge-jills-weight-loss-fitness-journey\/#webpage\",\"url\":\"http:\/\/www.fitchicks.ca\/blog\/2013\/11\/35lbs-down-always-taking-on-a-new-challenge-jills-weight-loss-fitness-journey\/\",\"name\":\"35lbs down & always taking on a new challenge: Jill's weight loss & fitness journey! — FIT CHICKS BLOG\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.fitchicks.ca\/blog\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"http:\/\/www.fitchicks.ca\/blog\/2013\/11\/35lbs-down-always-taking-on-a-new-challenge-jills-weight-loss-fitness-journey\/#primaryimage\"},\"datePublished\":\"2013-11-26T05:49:09+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2017-08-28T01:38:39+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.fitchicks.ca\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/9da38f7ac342d2abe83efc30df0364d5\"},\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"http:\/\/www.fitchicks.ca\/blog\/2013\/11\/35lbs-down-always-taking-on-a-new-challenge-jills-weight-loss-fitness-journey\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"http:\/\/www.fitchicks.ca\/blog\/2013\/11\/35lbs-down-always-taking-on-a-new-challenge-jills-weight-loss-fitness-journey\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"http:\/\/www.fitchicks.ca\/blog\/2013\/11\/35lbs-down-always-taking-on-a-new-challenge-jills-weight-loss-fitness-journey\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"http:\/\/www.fitchicks.ca\/blog\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"35lbs down & always taking on a new challenge: Jill’s weight loss & fitness journey!\"}]},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.fitchicks.ca\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/9da38f7ac342d2abe83efc30df0364d5\",\"name\":\"margaret\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.fitchicks.ca\/blog\/#personlogo\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/10f29a4e3aa653d6998fd5793f026973?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/10f29a4e3aa653d6998fd5793f026973?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"margaret\"},\"sameAs\":[\"http:\/\/margreffell.com\"],\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.fitchicks.ca\/blog\/author\/margaret\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"35lbs down & always taking on a new challenge: Jill's weight loss & fitness journey! — FIT CHICKS BLOG","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"http:\/\/www.fitchicks.ca\/blog\/2013\/11\/35lbs-down-always-taking-on-a-new-challenge-jills-weight-loss-fitness-journey\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"35lbs down & always taking on a new challenge: Jill's weight loss & fitness journey! — FIT CHICKS BLOG","og_description":"NOV CHICK OF THE MONTH We are heading into our final\u00a0stretch of 2013 (where the heck did the year go?!) and we are still rocking & rolling at The Coop.\u00a0 Our Dec 2wk Holiday Xpress […]","og_url":"http:\/\/www.fitchicks.ca\/blog\/2013\/11\/35lbs-down-always-taking-on-a-new-challenge-jills-weight-loss-fitness-journey\/","og_site_name":"FIT CHICKS BLOG","article_publisher":"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/FITCHICKSBOOTCAMP","article_published_time":"2013-11-26T05:49:09+00:00","article_modified_time":"2017-08-28T01:38:39+00:00","og_image":[{"url":"http:\/\/www.fitchicks.ca\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/11\/Before-Photo-300x225.jpg"}],"twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_creator":"@fitchicks","twitter_site":"@fitchicks","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"margaret","Est. reading time":"6 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.fitchicks.ca\/blog\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.fitchicks.ca\/blog\/","name":"FIT CHICKS BLOG","description":"Inspiring women to create the body, health & life they deserve - inside & out","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.fitchicks.ca\/blog\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"ImageObject","@id":"http:\/\/www.fitchicks.ca\/blog\/2013\/11\/35lbs-down-always-taking-on-a-new-challenge-jills-weight-loss-fitness-journey\/#primaryimage","inLanguage":"en-US","url":"http:\/\/www.fitchicks.ca\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/11\/Before-Photo-300x225.jpg","contentUrl":"http:\/\/www.fitchicks.ca\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/11\/Before-Photo-300x225.jpg"},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"http:\/\/www.fitchicks.ca\/blog\/2013\/11\/35lbs-down-always-taking-on-a-new-challenge-jills-weight-loss-fitness-journey\/#webpage","url":"http:\/\/www.fitchicks.ca\/blog\/2013\/11\/35lbs-down-always-taking-on-a-new-challenge-jills-weight-loss-fitness-journey\/","name":"35lbs down & always taking on a new challenge: Jill's weight loss & fitness journey! — FIT CHICKS BLOG","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.fitchicks.ca\/blog\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"http:\/\/www.fitchicks.ca\/blog\/2013\/11\/35lbs-down-always-taking-on-a-new-challenge-jills-weight-loss-fitness-journey\/#primaryimage"},"datePublished":"2013-11-26T05:49:09+00:00","dateModified":"2017-08-28T01:38:39+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.fitchicks.ca\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/9da38f7ac342d2abe83efc30df0364d5"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"http:\/\/www.fitchicks.ca\/blog\/2013\/11\/35lbs-down-always-taking-on-a-new-challenge-jills-weight-loss-fitness-journey\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["http:\/\/www.fitchicks.ca\/blog\/2013\/11\/35lbs-down-always-taking-on-a-new-challenge-jills-weight-loss-fitness-journey\/"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"http:\/\/www.fitchicks.ca\/blog\/2013\/11\/35lbs-down-always-taking-on-a-new-challenge-jills-weight-loss-fitness-journey\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"http:\/\/www.fitchicks.ca\/blog\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"35lbs down & always taking on a new challenge: Jill’s weight loss & fitness journey!"}]},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.fitchicks.ca\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/9da38f7ac342d2abe83efc30df0364d5","name":"margaret","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","@id":"https:\/\/www.fitchicks.ca\/blog\/#personlogo","inLanguage":"en-US","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/10f29a4e3aa653d6998fd5793f026973?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/10f29a4e3aa653d6998fd5793f026973?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"margaret"},"sameAs":["http:\/\/margreffell.com"],"url":"https:\/\/www.fitchicks.ca\/blog\/author\/margaret\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fitchicks.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5294"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fitchicks.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fitchicks.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fitchicks.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fitchicks.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5294"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.fitchicks.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5294\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9490,"href":"https:\/\/www.fitchicks.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5294\/revisions\/9490"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fitchicks.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5294"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fitchicks.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5294"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fitchicks.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5294"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
![\"weight](\"http:\/\/www.fitchicks.ca\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/11\/Before-Photo-300x225.jpg\" "\\"Before")
<\/a>