Happy New Year!

Happy New Year! Time to reset your goals.

Hello and Happy New Year! Team Fit Barbie is wishing you all a happy, healthy, and prosperous 2015. We hope that you have set some goals (resolutions), stay accountable, and rock them this year! Did you know that the #1 resolution has to do with improving one’s health? According to Forbes, nearly 40% of North Americans want to improve themselves in some capacity, but only 8% stick to their resolution and achieve their goal. Honesty time. How many of you have stuck with your resolutions? We are now heading into the 3^rd week of January and the gyms are already seeming less busy than they were at the start of the month. The great thing about resolutions and goals is you can set them at any time! You don’t need to wait until next January first to make a change and reset your goals.

As a competitive athlete and goal oriented person I have had to set my fair share of goals throughout my life. I have accomplished so many great things and I attribute my success to setting goals, finding a coach or mentor to help guide me, creating a game plan to accomplish these goals, putting in some good old fashioned hard work, and having a great support network to help encourage me and keep me accountable to achieving my goals. My Grandma Leuszler, the first Canadian to ever swim the English Channel and my role model, always told me, “mind over matter”. You can accomplish anything you set out to do. You just have to believe that you can do it. Believing in yourself is probably half the battle. Once you have that believe, write it down to make it more real. Go public. Start sharing these goals with your friends or post it on your Facebook wall. This will help you keep accountable! Here are some other tips I use when setting my goals and creating a game plan. Please feel free to use these tips to help you stick to your resolutions!

Create a SMART Goal –Keep it simple, keep it measureable, don’t try to do an extreme makeover in one big overhaul. This will be extremely daunting for most people and their busy lives, and most won’t be able to keep up and succeed.

 A SMART goal is : Specific. Measureable. Attainable. Relevant. Timely 

Specific: Lots of people say they want to get in better shape, but that is not specific enough. Make sure it is well defined and focused.  Saying, “I want to lose 20lbs live a healthier lifestyle by eating healthier and going to the gym 3x per week” is more specific and meaningful.

Measureable: Make sure you have a way to track your progress. Set a specific weight loss goal with a defined number (or muscle gain goal). Don’t just weigh yourself on a scale. Use circumference measurements, skin fold tests, progress pictures, or even just noticing how the way your clothes are fitting better are good indicators of weight loss.

Attainable: Is your goal realistic or are you shooting for the stars? It is great to dream big, but you will find yourself discouraged if you keep failing. Set smaller, more realistic goals and reward yourself for achieving them, which will keep you motivated to accomplish your overall goal. For example, set smaller weight loss goals of 5lbs at a time and celebrate each 5lbs loss!

Relevant: Is this goal relevant to your life at the moment? If this goal does not really matter or fit in with your beliefs, it won’t be important to you and you will find yourself making excuses as opposed to creating new habits. Take a look at your goal and decide how important it is for you to achieve it. If it is worth achieving, then go for it!

Timely: Your goal needs to have an end date otherwise you won’t stay motivated to push yourself to accomplishing it in a timely manner. Goals should be challenging but not to the point that they will cause you to quit. Setting a goal to lose 20lbs in 90 days would be realistic. It would allow a healthy weight loss to occur by developing healthy habits and lifestyle changes, without seeming too long or too daunting to complete. Having an end date also makes you work hard so you make sure you complete your goal by the specified time.

Happy goal setting and please don’t hesitate to contact us if you would like any help setting up your goals or keeping you accountable to them!

Brains, Brawn, and Beauties!

Team Fit Barbies are not just brawny and beautiful – we have the smarts to back it up too! Just wanted to give a huge congratulations to Marianne Cottingham who just graduated with her Bachelor of Health Science from Thompson Rivers University, and is currently in the process of applying to Grad school! Marianne is also a Registered Massage Therapist and is training hard for the Leigh Brandt Muscle Classic in March so she has a full plate right now! Sydney Langston has started to pursue her passion of helping others through fitness and is attending the BCPTI for her personal training certification. Can’t wait to have another great personal trainer on board.

Featured Team Fit Barbie Athlete - Julie Wright, Fresno California

Q: Tell us a little bit about yourself. What are your future goals (personal and fitness)
I’m a small town girl through and through. I was born and raised in the small farming town of Kingsburg, CA where everyone really does know your name. I am a Physical Education Assistant for a middle school in Laton. I currently attend Fresno Pacific University, majoring in Social Work. My professional goal is to help put an end to sex trafficking and give the women rescued at least a piece of their self-worth and value back.
I love my Crossfit Välkommen family with all my heart. At 5am every morning, I can’t wait to laugh, sweat, grunt, and lift heavy iron with the men and women who continue to support me in more ways than they will ever know.
My current fitness goal is to kick butt at the Fresno Classic in April 2015. But overall, I strive to feel comfortable in my own skin every day. When I look at myself in the corner mirror every morning at Crossfit, I know I’m not as toned as I want to be by April, but I also smile because I have worked my butt off to get to where I am now.

Q: Why did you choose Team Fit Barbie?
I chose Team Fit Barbie for a couple different reasons. As I talked to Kristin on the phone for the first time, she was so down to earth and knowledgeable. Not only did I feel like she knew exactly what she was talking about and would be able to help me reach my physical goals, but also seemed like she would support me like a big sister. And I was right.
The other huge reason as to why I picked Team Fit Barbie is because Kristin ensured me that starving myself and taking large amounts of supplements would not be part of my diet. As I searched for a coach, I emphasized that I wanted to train for this competition as naturally and healthy as possible, and Kristin was the only one who supported that choice right away.

Q: What is your favourite training day?
My favorite training day is Quads and butt. I really love squats…front squats, back squats, overhead squats…if the workout says “Squats” I always smile. I love trying to stand up from my desk at school and my peers asking, “Jules, what happened to you?!” And I always respond with a smile as I grunt, “Leg day!”

Q: Do you have any fitness role models?
My fitness role models are the men and women that show up every morning at Crossfit. They are parents, spouses, and real people who not only value their physical fitness but also support and build each other up on a daily basis. To me a fitness role model is not only about the physical attributes of one’s body, but also their mental dedication and mindset that keeps them striving and pushing towards their own goals every day.

Q: Words to live by:
The current word plastered across my phone screen is, “Focus” It’s a small word with great weight for me. My workout and Tough Mudder buddy, Chris, started saying it to me a few weeks ago when I first told him that I was training for a bikini competition. When I want to eat the whole jar of eat peanut butter, or sleep in past 4:30am, or when I don’t push as hard as I could at the gym, the word ‘focus’ either comes to mind, or is yelled at me by Chris.
No one said this training was going to be easy. If it were easy, everyone would do it. I have to remain focused and remember my goals, especially when the first thing that comes to mind is to quit.

Personal Training

Anyone else feel like this after the holidays? Would you like to look like a Fit Barbie (or just a better, healthier version of yourself)? We offer personal training packages which specialize in weight loss, muscle building, strength and endurance, sport specific training, and general lifestyle improvement. Check out our website for more information about our philosophy and training packages at www.bombshellfitness.ca

New shows added to the BCABBA 2015 line up!

This just in from the BCABBA official website. There have been a few new shows added to the 2015 line up! This is super exciting and Team Fit Barbie would love to welcome anyone thinking of doing a fitness competition to the team. Please email us at teamfitbarbie@gmail.com if you have any questions about competing in the future. Here is the updated list of shows as seen on the BCABBA website:

UPDATED BCABBA CONTEST 2015 SCHEDULE 
2015 BCABBA, CBBF & IFBB Amateur Show Dates so far…
1. March 14th Muscle Classic in New Westminster
2. May 9th Western Canadian DRUG TESTED in Kelowna
3. May 16th Northern Classic in Fort St John
4. May 23rd BC Championships in Vancouver
5. July 25 th Vancouver Pro-Am DRUG TESTED AMATEUR SHOW
6. August 15th Victoria Cup in Victoria, Vancouver Island
7. Sept 5th Knight of Champions in Surrey 
8. Oct 3rd Iron Ore in Prince George
9. Nov 7th Popeye's Fall Classic in Coquitlam

CBBF National Show Dates
1. July 11th Bodybuilding Nationals in Edmonton
2. July 18th Fig, Fit, Bik, Phys Nationals in Halifax
3. Aug 22nd World Qualifier Drug Tested Nationals in Toronto

IFBB Amateur Show Dates
1. March 5-8 Arnold Class in Columbus, OH
2. Sept 3, 4, 5 IFBB North Americans in Pittsburgh, PA

Please note you must enter BCABBA prior to 1 month out of the show or a $500 late fee will apply.

Team Fit Barbie Updates

Contest prep season for the spring shows are in full swing right now and our girls are working hard to bring their best package to the stage. We would like to wish Marianne Cotthingham and Dana Maternick luck with their prep for the Leigh Brandt Muscle Classic in March, Julie Wright as she preps for the Fresno Classic in California in April, Christina Mastandrea and Sydney Langston as they prep for the Western Canadian Championships in Kelowna, and Nichole Scott and Sydney Langston as they prep for the BC Championships in Vancouver in May. We would also like to extend a huge welcome to our fellow posing teammates from Team Genetx as they practicing polishing off their posing with us for the Muscle Classic and Western Canadians!

Happy prep to all the athletes and good luck to the rest of you on your fitness journeys.

Keep shining,

Fit Barbie Kristin