Homemade Muesli Bars
Dry ingredients:
2C Nuts (Almonds Cashews, Walnuts, Brazil nuts)*
½ C Sunflower Seeds
½ C Pepitas
½ Sesame seeds
1C Rolled Oats
½ C Quick Oats
½ Wheat Germ
Wet ingredients:
1/3 Molassas
1/3 C Honey
1/3 C Olive oil
1/3 C milk
1 egg white beaten
Preheat oven to 160 and grease a 20x8cm baking dish. Mix together dry ingredients. In a saucepan on low heat combine wet ingredients and stir melted and mixed. Combine wet ingredients with dry ingredients. Press into a baking dish. Bake for 20-25 mins. Remove from oven and let them cool before cutting into desired portions, should make approx 12 bars.

You could also add ½ cup of dried fruit.
*To make it even simplier I used a seed and nut mix from “Aldi Supermarket” with all the nuts listed and Pepitas and Sunflower seeds

A great vegetarian snack. …..

Chickpea Lentil and Zucchini Patties
1x tin or 1 ½ Cups of Dried Chickpeas
1xtin or 1 Cup Dried Brown Lentials
1 Grated Zuchinni
1 Cup grated Pumpkin
1 Cup Wheat Germ
1 egg
If using dried chickpeas and lentils, cook in boiling water till soft. If using canned drain and rinse. Combine all ingredients. Roll into 7cm balls and squeeze off excess moisture. Spray a non stick frying pan with oil and put it on a high heat. Place each ball in frying pan and squash down with spatula. Cook for 4 mins on each side then put on a plate to cool. Dont worry if they fall apart a little…it wont effect the taste.

I like to have mine with a little bit of wasabi!!

Happy cooking
Sam

So is anyone else reeling at how fast this year has flown by? Well I certainly am!
I don’t care what you say  – deep down everyone wants to look and feel good about themselves when the festive season comes around – so many parties and functions, it’s not fun when you don’t feel good in your clothes!

Even as a Sunshine Coast Personal Trainer I go through periods where I struggle to stay committed to my training and nutrition goals. So here is what I did in the last week to stay accountable to my goals.

1. No More Excuses!
   

   Motivation tools - Oxygen Mag & Positive Thought Cards

You don’t want to look back on your life and say ‘I never achieved my ideal body and felt fabulous in my own skin because…(insert your most frequently used excuse here) I was too tired; I was too busy; etc etc. As a Sunshine Coast Personal Trainer, I love our Sculptlife motto “Live the life you want, Love the body you’re in!”

2. Get in the right head space.

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, ‘where your mind goes, your body will follow’. Get yourself in the righthead space, figure out what thought patterns or emotional roadblocks are stopping you from achieving your goals and work through them.
I went out and had some of my favourite Bodysculpting photos printed and put them up in the studio and added them to my vision board. (Click this link to Think Yourself Slim with a vision board)
Then I got out some of my favourite fitness mags to help keep me in the right frame of mind. I also got out some of my favourite Law of Attraction Thought cards to help me keep in a positive vibration. (Click this link to read how Bianca used Fat Melting Thoughts to get motivated again.)

3. Make a plan of attack
As a Sunshine Coast Personal Trainer I know it’s easier to work backwards from your ultimate goal, by setting smaller goals week by week, day by day. Just

4 Week Plan Of Attack

take it one day at a time, keep putting one foot in front of the other. I grabbed some of our Sculptlife 4 Week Plan of Attack Sheets and planned out my exercise for the week. I also rated myself on my training and nutrition too, the key here is to be honest with yourself, you’re only cheating yourself out of your ideal body if you’re not honest.

4 .Get moving!
We are running a FREE 8 week Your Best Body Challenge starting the end of this month – entry cost is a one time donation of $25 to go towards saving MoonBears through Animals Asia. What better way to get in shape for the New Year and leave your unwanted lumps and bumps in 2010! Check out www.suncoastchallenge.com to find out more!

People – there are only 10 weeks of 2010 left- finish it with a bang! Don’t let your figure and fitness goals for 2010 become another failed New Years Resolution, get into it!

To Your Best Life, in Your Best Body,

Sascha

Lead Trainer

Sculptlife Personal Training

Hi I am Sam and I am so excited to be a part of Sculpt life and personal training on the Sunshine Coast. I have just finished my first few weeks as part of the sculpt life team and loved it. It is so good to be promoting something I feel strongly about. Having the opportunity to help wonderful people accomplish their health and fitness goals is fantastic……if that isn’t enough I get to work all around the beautiful Sunshine Coast (and inland at Glasshouse Mountains).

I am not originally from the Sunshine Coast I grew up in Armidale NSW which is known for being freezing cold.  I started playing hockey when I was 5 and was disappointed to miss a season when I was 7 because of a broken leg (I also broken my arm when I was 9 but that didn’t stop me playing).  My mum would always come to watch me play hockey and other parents would say to her “I thought Samantha was such a shy little timid girl …….until I saw her play hockey”. I also followed my older brother Matt and played soccer. My first year was in an all girls team coached by my Dad. I travelled all over the state playing in school and representative teams. I loved sport and was my school sports captain. When it came time to decide what to do when I finished school my mum gave me some great advise “do something you are interested in….something you are going to enjoy”.  What was I interested in….. Sport the only subject I liked at school was PDH- Personal Development and Health and PE- Physical development. So I applied for a Bachelor Science-Sport and exercise science and it was at Sunshine Coast so even better somewhere warm!

I had a year off after school and worked then moved to the Sunshine Coast not knowing anyone and starting a long distance relationship with my boyfriend Nick. My degree started off a little boring with lots of basic science but got better and better. My mums advise really paid off when I saw other people quitting or deferring  there degrees that they started purely to  pursue high paying job, and I was going to the gym to prepare for an assignment or going for a run to apply what I had learnt.  I played hockey for the first season while I was here. Then decided to have a year off hockey and save my money to go skiing in New Zealand my first time out of the country!!

In my third year I got accepted to go on an exchange semester to Germany at the Deutch Sporthoschule (which translates to German Sports school).  It was an amazing school where I got to play sports like pistol shooting, gymnastics, tennis and rugby for class! I travelled a lot (I have now been to 13 countries). When I came back I weighed more than I ever had. Even though I was playing a lot of sport it was not enough to balance out the German bakery food chocolate and beer!



I only got slight hints from people like Nick saying “you must have really enjoyed yourself did you try a lot of food?”.  I didn’t mid so much about the number on the scale but I just didn’t feel like me. I couldn’t afford to play hockey I joined the gym but it was hard to get motivated as my old gym buddies had all moved away. Before I went overseas I had ran in a few fun runs with friends but the longest distance I had ever ran was 10km. I needed a goal to get motivated again. I decided to train for the Gold Coast Half Marathon, I made sure that I entered as soon as the registration opened so I was committed and couldn’t pull out.  I loved having something to work for but still found it hard doing the long runs by myself. I joined a running group because I needed that extra bit of push, and needed to have a time and set place to train so I couldn’t make excuses and get out of it! Two of my friends from Brisbane also trained and ran the race with me. I ran the race in well under the time I had set myself and it felt so amazing to reach my goal. I was so happy. Now I want to keep going I want to run some more half marathons and am going to do either the Gold coast or Melbourne full marathon next year.

Now I am working for Sculpt life personal training I am so excited to help others work towards their goals- no matter how big or small. It is going to be amazing!

I would also really like to start playing hockey again next year….anyone know who I can play for?

Gossip mags talk about 'toned' bodies

This time of year there are plenty of gossip magazines on the shelf plastered with celebrity bikini bodies. I remember being a teenager, flicking through magazines like these wishing I had a body like the celebs splashed across its pages.  Nowadays, being a Sunshine Coast Personal Trainer, it seems really strange to me that this type of body is what the general population calls ‘toned’ because the media calls it so.

Sunshine Coast Personal Trainers have a great appreciation for muscle, I understand that it’s not for everybody but there are so many people out there, especially females, who really don’t know what they’re missing out on. Let me tell you the things I love about muscle.

1. Muscle will shape and sculpt the body you dream about! This is what it means to be a ‘body sculptor’! It cracks me up when I hear celebs and the general population doing excessive amounts of cardio and eating no carb diets. All this will achieve is a smaller version of your bigger, flabbier shape and Sculptlife Sunshine Coast Personal Trainers know this for a fact!
2. Muscle will give you sexy capped shoulders which will make your waist look smaller; muscle will lift your butt and make it look smaller and perkier; muscle will make your thighs tighter, slimmer and firmer – the list goes on!
3. The more lean muscle mass you have, the more calories you burn at rest! This means your metabolism is cranking when you’re doing nothing at all! (which in turn means getting away with your favourite treats more often because you don’t have to work as hard to burn it off, your muscles do it for you   )
4. Muscle will not make a female look bulky! Ladies, don’t be afraid that you’re going to turn into the she-hulk if you so much as lift a weight! We just don’t have the testosterone in our bodies to put on mass like guys do. Even if you tried to- you’d need to be eating like a horse and training like a demon on steroids to get the kind of mass women are so afraid of.
   

   muscle = shape, tone & definition

5. Take a look at the pics here, the girl on the left is a celebrity whose figure tells me that if she does exercise, she is doing a lot of cardio and not much weight training. She is quite straight up and down and ‘soft’ looking. The girl on the right is a Sportsmodel from a bodybuilding competition I went to on the weekend. She has strong shapely shoulders, trim toned tummy, a round perky butt and shapely legs with muscle definition. Does she look like a ‘she-hulk’? No way! In my opinion she looks far more toned and fit than the celebrity whose figure has often been called ‘toned’ by media and the general population. Call me crazy but I’d much prefer real muscle tone to general thinness.

Sculptlife Personal Trainers on the Sunshine Coast work hard to help our clients achieve their ideal bodies and a big part of shaping these bodies is resistance training. Check out one of our latest success stories – Vikki, her transformation is incredible! And guess what? She’s got plenty of muscle!

Trust me, you don’t miss out on shaping your best body ever because you’re afraid of building muscle, so come on – get liftin’!

Yours In health & Fitness

Sascha
Lead Trainer
Sculptlife Personal Training

My Sunshine Coast Personal Trainer - Audi the Doberman !

 I have been meaning to blog for a while, but running an award winning team of  Sunshine Coast Personal Trainers has taken it’s toll on me a bit. I’ve found that I’ve been making the same mistakes that many of our clients do, skipping meals, taking the fast option rather than the best option food wise, and I have seen the results of it in the  uncomfortabe tug on my waistband, afternoon energy slumps and black circles around my eyes.  

 I have only recently been studying the Law of Attraction and it resonates with me a lot, as I know that I am always quite analytical and sometimes focus too much  on what I could have done better instead of just accepting things at face value and focusing on what I want things to be like. I call it “”The Curse of The OverAchiever!” – and I know a lot of you suffer from it too!  

So, now with this amazing weather I am back on my path to keeping a good balance between my figure and fitness and my business and I thought I’d offer you a few quotes of insight from Esther and Jerry Hicks and the Law of Attraction.   

The Great Sunshine Coast Outdoors !

“ Once you identify a desire for wellness, or for a specific bodily condition, you will never be able to focus upon the lack of it again without feeling negative emotion. Whenever you feel negative emotion, stop what you are doing or thinking and say, What is it that I DO want ? Because you have turned your attention to what you do want, the negative feeling will be replaced by a positive feeling and the negative attraction will be replaced by positive attraction – and you will be right back on track.   

 There is no right or wrong way to tell your improved story. It can be about your past, present, or future experiences. The only criterion that is important is that you be conscious of your intent to tell a better feeling, improved version of your story. Telling many good-feeling short stories throughout your day will change your point of attraction. Just remember that the story you tell is the basis of your life. So tell it the way you want it to be .”   

Even as a Sunshine Coast Personal Trainer, I need insights like this to keep me on track – so I interpret this as I could either   

-          feel horrified at the extra kilos that have crept on, mentally berate myself for being so weak and then the only motivation I will feel will be to go and sit down on the couch and eat tim tams   

or I could   

-          focus on the changes I imagine are happening to my body on a meal by meal basis and immediately feel myself in a better frame of mind, inspired to make healthy choices and increase my daily activity through my Sunshine Coast Personal Training program.   

Audi and I interval running along Lake Kawana

 So now I think of how great I feel knowing that I am on my way to my leanest and most sculpted body ever, and I find myself actually enjoying the journey, instead of feeling “deprived” . Now when I  think about fat melting off my body when I go for a run, I immediately set forth on a path of inspired action – and go faster ! When I look in the mirror every morning and instead of feeling woeful that I see I am still 5 kilos away from where I want to be, I notice the change in my jawline which has already slimmed down and the sunkissed and toned shoulders I see now after spending more time outdoors.   

Now that I am “telling an improved story” I am inspired and motivated to take slow and progressive steps towards my ideal healthy body. Regardless of all the technical knowledge that I have, I am very aware that one of the most powerful tools on sticking to your Sunshine Coast health and fitness journey is enlisting the support and accountability from your friends and family or a  coach, such as a Sunshine Coast Personal Trainer.      

Audi and I doing some weights !

Joyous Exhaustion !

Enlist the knowledge and guidance of a certified Sunshine Coast Fitness Professional to give you the right information and hold you accountable to your goals, dont’ waste your money on something you know in your heart it sounds too good to be true.  Our programs are 100% money back guaranteed and combine ALL the components you need for your success: the right exercise, nutrition and holding you accountable to your goals. We have our next nutritional coaching challenge coming up soon, check it out and the amazing testimonials at www.suncoastbodybalance.com, everyone who has completed the challenge have absolutely changed their life for the better.   

So what are you waiting for – fill in the details at www.suncoastbodybalance.com and start thinking better thoughts and living a better life TODAY !

Unfortunately, there can be an unpleasant side to peoples’ comments when embarking on your own health and fitness regime. I’ve often had to tell my clients to be wary of the people around them and how these people respond to their health and fitness regime.

Hopefully most of them will be like your personal cheer squad – the type of people who support you no matter what. They are there praising and encouraging you when things are going well and pick up your spirits and help you back on track when things get tougher. ( Being a Sunshine Coast Personal Trainer means I’m  a 1 person cheer squad too!)

Then there are the people who appear supportive and believe they are being supportive but they may say things or behave in ways that lead you off your track or discourage you.
These people are the unconscious saboteurs of your weight loss journey and are more than likely people close to you, such as your family, friends and colleagues. They don’t intentionally go out of their way to sabotage you but act out of habit or what they think is right.

This happened to me once when I lost quite a bit of weight. I went to a party where there were people I hadn’t seen in a while, I bought a new outfit and I was looking forward to seeing their reactions to the changes I’d made.
The funny thing was I could tell they had noticed I was leaner – they’d look me up and down or out of the corner of their eyes – but no one made a comment what-so ever! It was confusing and a bit discouraging.
It happened again with the same group of people a few times over several months as I kept slimming down. I finally figured out that my success was confronting to them in some way. Instead of letting it get to me, I decided that if these people made no comment about my trimmer figure – I knew that I was looking good!

The people in your life may not be so subtle. Perhaps you know people who are conscious saboteurs – people who intentionally try to stop you from achieving your goals by behaving in certain ways or putting obstacles in your way. They might appear to be supportive but are actually thinking of ways to foil your success. Keep your eye out for these people as they are often those close to you, friends, family, colleagues or acquaintances and can be difficult to spot.

So while you are on your way to a slimmer, healthier, happier you – be aware of the people around you. How many are genuinely happy for you and your progress and how many are confronted or threatened by your success?
At the end of the day, remember that you are your own person and you are working towards your own betterment and personal development.  Don’t let someone else’s issues affect your own journey.

Live the life you want & love the body you’re in!

Yours In Health & Fitness,

Sascha Aiono

Sculptlife Personal Training

Do YOU want to be proud of your body ?
- Are you confused about the BEST exercises to lean down your legs ?
- Are you scared about bulking up ?
- Have you tried everything to lose that stubborn lower body fat but nothing seems to work ?
You can find out all the answers and more in the first of my dvd series “From Fat 2 Fitness Model Transformation Package”

After releasing my Fat 2 Fitness Model DVD’s a few months ago, i’ve had loads of customers telling me how great they’re feeling and how much a difference my DVD’s are making to their health and wellbeing.

“Hi Bianca, sorry it’s been a while since I last emailed you. I’ve been busy working out with your Dvds, going to the gym, personal training etc. I’ve even taken up tennis. You’ve been a great inspiration. The minute I read about you and your experience, I decided to follow suit and change my life. I’m happy to say I’ve lost 7 kilos since your DVDs and program,  I also do vibragym, eat healthy and I get the family to eat healthy too. I’ve lost lots of inches and I look forward to working out everyday. I have one or two bad days every so often but the difference now is I get back on the healthy eating and exercise plan straight away. So I thank you for helping me believe that i can do it and I also thank vibragym but you really started it all for me. You really made me believe. I hope to keep going and lose more kilos. I’ll keep you upto date. By the way, I’m getting lots of compliments from Friends and that is such a great feeling.
I thank you and best wishes,
Angela x.

Check out our Fat 2 Fitness Model Transformation Package at http://www.fat2fitnessmodel.com/