In the fall of 2019 I was feeling in a bit of a rut professionally. I had moved to a new country, on a new continent, with a different language, and very different daily responsibilities. I still had my marketing job from back home, and I still had this website and my Instagram page for Riri's Discoveries.

I knew that while I was living in Sweden, I would have a little more time on my hands to work on my online personal training business. In reality, I actually found myself struggling to juggle all of my responsibilities while also trying to experience and explore my new home. 

So one day I though to myself, people trust people with followers. If I can just get myself enough followers, spreading my message will be easier. I'll finally be able to reach the people I want to reach. 

So I shopped around and found a few websites that could deliver a few hundred followers here, a few hundred followers there. It was a rush to sign on to my Instagram after that and see all of the followers rolling in. Finally I would have the numbers that would make me legitimate in the eyes of passing Instagram-ers. 

But similar to The Mask above, it was all fake. And I knew that, but for a little while I was okay with it. For a little while even I was convinced of it, despite knowing that I had paid for inactive and ghost users to follow me.

This new year I have put a greater emphasis on honesty in my life. I work with kids right now and I am always telling them that it is better to be honest, even if you think you might get in trouble. 

So I've decided to use an Instagram cleaner service to remove all of the inactive and ghost users who follow my account. 

Knowing what I know about social media from the marketing work that I do, successful social media is about engagement, not just followers. If I am going to be putting myself out there and sharing my fitness journey with people on Instagram, I want those people to want to engage. After going through the cleaning process I could be left with 1000, 100, maybe even just 10 people, but if those people are actually seeing the posts and the stories, and they feel comfortable to engage with me and what I put out there, then I feel like I am actually staying true to my purpose.

I am really focused on using my social media, website, and now YouTube - for good. When I became a personal trainer I knew that I had something special to give to people. I know that it won't be helpful or useful to absolutely everyone, but that's okay.

So if you're one of the ones that are left after I purge the users who are inactive, or who follow but don't engage, then thank-you. I hope that moving forward I can put out the content that you want to see and that you find helpful.

Don't forget to do something good for your body today, friends. See you in the next one :)

x. Riley

p.s. I put out my first YouTube video this week to go with my blog post on habits. You can check it out below :)

At the beginning of 2020 I decided I wanted a learning goal for the year. Something to obsess over that would add value to my life personally and professionally. What I found myself gravitating towards was habits and habit formation.

When I was a PT in the gym I remember the hardest part of getting clients to commit to the gym and improving their food choices was always getting them to modify their current habits. I figured making habits my learning goal for this year would be perfect as it will not only improve my life, but will also contribute to my professional goal of helping my friends, family, and followers better understand themselves.

We have all felt these "autopilot" moments in our lives, and they are actually beneficial in some cases. But in the case of self-destructive habits, or habits that lead to unhealthy behaviours, like binge eating and being more sedentary than active, new habits are required to take their place in order to achieve a healthier lifestyle.

​This is why I want to learn everything there is to learn about habits, willpower, cravings, and everything else that goes along with it.

Habits and the neurological mechanisms that control them come from the ancient part of our brain. When life was more wild and our only priorities were to stay alive and procreate our brains created a system to ensure we could achieve those things without allocating too much energy or attention to them. Taking down prey was a dangerous task at times and so those who could do it without wasting time ended up being the most successful. 

Nowadays our habits help us ride bikes, drive cars, and in exceptional cases, help athletes like Michael Phelps win a gold medal despite his goggles being completely filled with water.

​Our brain creates habits so that we can get everyday tasks done without having to give much attention or energy to them. This gives us more energy to pay attention to new things we may encounter in our day to day lives. In this way habits are useful to us. 

Habits are created through something called a habit loop. We may not even realize we are creating habits, but new habits are being formed every day. Think about when you go to the door and have to put on your shoes. Which shoe do you put on first? If it has laces, do you bend down to tie your laces, or prop your shoe up on something. This is a task that most of us perform every day and therefore our brains created a habit to make it easier for us. 

The habit loop includes 3 parts: Cue/Trigger, Routine, and Reward. In the case of the shoes, your cue is going to the door with the intention of leaving the house. The routine is putting on the shoes. The reward is having shoes on to protect your feet when you go outside. It is as simple as that.

Some habits are far more complex than this one, but for the sake of keeping this article simple, I'll just stick to the common habits you may encounter every day.

​If you want to create a new habit you need to first figure out what your cue will be. Once you have a cue that you can reproduce every time you want to activate this habit, then you need to create the routine that follows. Let's say you want to start going to the gym in the morning. Your cue would be waking up and maybe having a cup of coffee. Then you would get your gym gear ready and head off to the gym. There is your routine. The final piece is very important. The reward is what makes the habits stick. If your brain can experience something positive, like a rush of endorphins, then it will deem this a beneficial habit. For some, simply getting themselves to the gym is the reward. For others, they may need to incorporate something physical to reward themselves for going to the gym. This could be posting about it on social media and getting support from friends, or having their favourite protein shake after the gym. Anything that adds value and can behave as a reward after a desired routine is created will help to solidify the habit.

A bad habit will look different to every person. The way someone perceives something bad is subjective to their personal experiences, values, and ideas for what they want their life to look like. So if you want to change a "bad" habit in your life it is important to know that the brain is pretty tough to change, but not impossible.

Knowing that habits are created via the habit loop (cue, routine, reward), if you can identify the cue for a bad habit, then you can interrupt the habit before it begins to play out. In this case you will need a little help from 2 friends - belief and willpower.

Willpower, as observed by many studies, is a finite resource that we can train to become stronger. Every day we are provided with the amount of willpower we have trained ourselves to use on a regular basis. If we wish to have more willpower than we have now, then we have to put our willpower on a training program, slowly adding more and more instances of willpower into our lives. 

The second friend, belief, is sometimes a tough friend to count on. Your ability to believe in yourself is based on a lifetime of others believing in you (or not), and your own individual practice of believing in yourself.

If you can get belief and willpower on your side, then changing a habit is much easier. All you need to do is identify the cue for the bad habit, then interrupt it with a new routine. For example, let's say you have a cue of every day on your way home from work you stop by a coffee shop and pick up a coffee and cookie. After months of doing this, those cookies are starting to add up and your bank account isn't loving those regular expenses. So your cue is driving home from work. To change the routine you can do something like take a different exit and take a new route home. You could even go to the coffee shop and get just a coffee, but no cookie. This last option is the least disruptive but will require more willpower. You could even offer to have a carpool with a colleague, creating a new environment in the car when you are going home that would likely distract you from even thinking about the coffee and cookie. 

​For the final piece, there needs to be a reward to make this habit change worth it to your brain. So when you get home, maybe you make your own cup of coffee. You could prep a different snack to have when you get home, or treat yourself to some relaxation time with Netflix or some music. Whatever the case may be, just make sure the reward is worth it.

Don't overwhelm yourself. You may have a number of habits you would like to create for yourself, and that's great! But the mind can only handle so much change at one time. Be patient, and try to only tackle 1 or 2 habits at a time. 

If it is any motivation to you to take things slowly, research has found that when individuals start to change just 1 habit in their life, the probability of them beginning to naturally and unconsciously change other habits increases. 

They call these keystone habits. They are the habits that once created/changed create a ripple effect through all of our habits and can change our lives in so many more ways than we originally thought. 

​So take it easy on yourself and try changing just 1 habit in the next month using the cue, routine, and reward loop as your guide. ​

I am sticking to my 2020 goals of committing time to this website again. My first act has been a few more blogs on the website, but my second is far more exciting! 
​If you go to my Fitness Page you'll now find 2 freebies on that page. Each freebie targets a different area of the body and provides you with 5 new workouts to add to your routine. The workouts are complete with a warm-up, a couple sets of exercises, cardio, and core exercises. 
I really want to make fitness accessible to as many people as possible this year and I can't think of a better way than to offer workouts that are completely free for you to try!
If you go to the Fitness page you will also another exciting announcement. The next step for me to make fitness accessible is to upload a series of at-home workouts. These will for a minimal cost as they will require more time and production on my side of things, but they will still be great value for your money (no more than $10!). 
I understand that gym memberships can be expensive and the gym can be an intimidating place. By creating workout videos for mini-workouts you can do at home, you will now have a chance to get moving without breaking the bank, or putting yourself in a situation you aren't yet comfortable with.

Looking forward to all of the exciting things I hope to offer you in this coming new year!

​x. Riley

Ladies and Gentlemen it has been a minute. 
I used to love coming onto this website and putting out a new blog every Sunday that allowed me to research fun topics about health and fitness and to feed that curiosity. Although I still get the bill for the domain name and the website, I have left this website to fade into the background. No longer did I have my medium to share interesting fitness news with friends and family.

To be honest, it was because I took on more and more projects after starting this one. I started a full time job, which then turned into writing articles for them, which eventually evolved into the position of Director of Social Media.
I also started dog walking, which was fun but time consuming. 
I just took on a lot and let me first passion project take a back seat. It felt like a job and I already had enough of those so I let the one with the least amount of accountability fade into the background.

As many of us do at the end of the year, I have taken some time to reflect. I have had a fair amount of time to reflect due to the fact that I got a bad throat infection just shortly after Christmas. It was the results of pushing myself too hard and not have any real boundaries for myself, despite knowing better. 
The idea of boundaries feels like an ongoing issue with them. I rarely know when to say no, sometimes I overstep my boundaries, and I let people overstep my boundaries far too easily. I worked way too much for what I was making in the past. I hardly had time for friends or family, and I always felt like I had to rush through interactions, work, and workouts.
For 2020 I'd like to put that in the past and focus on a future where I can balance work, family, and my social life. I want to be payed what I am worth, so I can pay of debts, and enjoy holidays with friends and family more often. I want to have projects that I enjoy doing, and nothing more than that. I also need to learn to take on only what I can realistically handle.

A new year can be about setting new goals and new intentions, and I intend to do both. This time I don't want to feel superficial or forced with those goals or intentions. I'd love to continue offering personal training, but in a more limited way and a way that is more realistic with what I can handle. I will eventually be opening up a section on this website where you'll be able to find free and cheap workout plans and programs. This achieves my goal of bringing fitness and education to more people at a more affordable price, but also separates me from the more time-intensive stresses of hands-on personal training. As much as I loved being a personal trainer, it doesn't make sense for me to have 15 online clients, while also carrying my marketing job, and my responsibilities here in Sweden.

What I would like to accomplish this year is a sense of stability. Stability in finances, in relationships, and in my own mental health. 
Life dealt some pretty heavy cards these last few years and I can see now that I have found a few unhelpful crutches to help me out. I'd like to use fewer of these crutches and develop healthier coping mechanisms. Because staying out late, isolating myself with a bag of candy, and spending time with people who I know don't make me a better person are simply not what I imagined for myself when I was a kid dreaming of how cool it would be to be a grown up.

They say that your 20's are the best years of your life. Well I intend to make the 2020's much better than the last few years of my life. It feels cheesy to say it because everyone hopes for that whenever a new year begins, but f*ck it, I am going for it. Even if I have to tattoo it somewhere on my body to remind myself, I plan on committing to a great new decade.

Cheers to 2020.
​x. RIri

Hey!

Long time no see. Well I promise it is for good reason. I have moved to Stockholm, Sweden to become an au pair for a year. I needed a break from the hustle and bustle of full-time personal trainer life, and felt like moving away from Canada for a year could be a great experience as a 25 year old. 

I have been having a great time while I am here and although it is tempting to write about all of my fun adventures here on this blog, I want to try and focus this space on my personal training and coaching efforts. 

Which brings me to my updates!

As an au pair my time is pretty much my own, with the exception of drop-off and pick-up from school. So I have had a lot of time to work on my own workout program, I have been getting to the gym really regularly, and I am even getting some good workout videos in progress pictures in again. (You can check those out on my instagram or tik tok!)

I have mentioned before that I am using an online training platform to reach the clients that I can no longer train in person. My plan for trainerize is to develop a program that is specific to teaching young women how to lift properly and get them feeling comfortable and strong in the gym.

On top of that I have started to work on a PDF format workout program that would be delivered through this website that would be better suited to working professionals. So if you are low on time, are travelling a lot, and can't always have the same routine, from week to week, then this will be the program for you. I will have more on that later.

Lastly, now that I have been living in Sweden for a month I feel like I have a better handle on my schedule and the time that I have available to me so I will be able to update the blog more regularly, and deliver more content to you on a regular basis. 

Make sure you are subscribed to all of my social media channels so you can stay up to date on all of the fitness content, and know when the new programs are launching.

Don't forget to do something good for your body today!

x. Riri

Before leaving for Sweden I really wanted to make sure I was able to spend some quality time with friends and family. For some people this is as easy as inviting the family over for dinner on Sunday, but for me this means driving over 1000kms, to multiple cities, across 6 days.
Immediately after my final day at Free Form Fitness, I hoofed it over to the nearest Avis car rental agency, picked up a spiffy Volkswagen Jetta, and was on my way.

First stop was Peterborough to visit my sister, Lizzie, and my brother in-law, Kyle. Most importantly I had to see the family dog, Isla. She has been having an extended sleepover at their place with her cousin, Finn. I love visiting the dogs. 
Visiting Liz and Kyle is also always a good time. They have a lovely relaxed feeling to their place. We sat in the backyard, enjoyed coolers, and finished the evening off inside watching Netflix.
I woke up the next morning (whenever I h*eckin' wanted to!) and did a quick lower body workout in their basement gym. Lizzie spoiled me with eggs benedict outside in the garden and then it was off to the next stop on the tour!

Some of you may know that I went away for school, many times, but specifically for college. I had the most amazing college experience in Barrie, ON. My very first friend from my program was Courtney. I actually met her in the elevator on the way down to orientation. One of those serendipitous moments. Courtney and I remained friends throughout school and we actually ended up living together in second year.
Since school ended Courtney joined the military as a personal support personel... that may not be the right term, but she essentialy provides support to the troops on base by offering personal training and fitness classes to help with their fitness and overall wellbeing on base. Courtney has always been a go-getter and she recently was told that she'd be sent to Kuwait to run the fitness center there for 6 months! So I had to pay her and the old college stomping grounds a visit.
It was just a quick visit but worth it. We had such a good time, I didn't manage to get any pictures of her, but I did get a picture of the statue by the waterfront. It was the nicest thing to have that waterfront available to me when I was in college. It was a great escape.

After dinner I hit highway 400 and drove south to Grandma's place. As a little Swedish language lesson, maternal grandmother is mormor. Paternal grandmother is farmor. But for me, my maternal grandma is grandma, while my paternal grandmother is Nan. 
Both of my grandmothers are the best hostesses. Their homes have always been the center of the family gatherings and this is something I was sort of counting on. On Sunday we had the classic big family dinner around grandma's dinner table. We told stories, shared good food, and got caught up on all of the shenanigans of my young cousins.

Monday took me and my eldest cousin on my mom's side to the Ripley's Aquarium. Spoiler alert: heading to a major tourist attraction in the middle of July will mean that there's a lot of tourists. So we saw what we wanted to see but it was a bit rushed because we didn't want to take up any of the precious tourist space (very Canadia of us - we know​).

The final evening with Grandma went well and before we knew it it was time for bed and I was getting myself ready to for the next leg of the trip. 
Next Stop: Kingston!
Probably my least favourite part of driving between my grandmother's houses is the 401 highway. I asked my relatives in Toronto when the best time would be to leave, and to be fair, they gave me the perfect time. Although it was busy on the highway, I had no trouble getting to where I needed to go and there weren't too many crazies on the highway.
I took a quick pit stop in Port Hope to stretch my legs. I am not sure if this is a consequence of working on my feet for a year and a half, but being seated for too long makes me really antsy and I swear I feel my hips tightening. So getting out to walk to and from the pit stop building was just enough. 
Within about an hour and a bit I was in Kingston and out on my Nan's balcony having a salad, cheese, crackers, and some lovely conversation. We kept things pretty low key that day and just enjoyed the lovely weather.

The final full day of the trip my Nan and I had planned to do the 1000 islands cruise out of Ganonoque. Unfortunately when we woke up it was pouring rain and they were calling for thunderstorms. SO, we had to improvise and thankfully Kingston is home to Queens University where the Agnes Etherington Arts Center has its home (literally - this place was someone's home). So off we went to the Arts center.
There were some... interesting... exhibits there. It made me think of the scene in Wine Country when the women go to a 20-something year old's art show and everyone at the show is making these annoying, contrived assessments of the art. So we quickly moved through the first two exhibits before getting to the Rembrandt exhibit and the Indigenous stone printing exhibit. 
Fun fact: Queens has original Rembrandts that were donated by alumni. Perks of going to Queens, I guess.
Either way it was a beautiful exhibit. 

As I mentioned before, my grandmother's are the center of all of the family gatherings - true matriarchs, if you will. That evening 2 of my aunts, an uncle, and a cousin's daughter (not sure what that makes her to me... second cousin??) came for a really nice pork dinner. The little one was an absolute peach. She's just a little over 3 and full of beans. 
Before we knew it dinner was over and we had to say goodbye to everyone, but not before a quick walk with the dogs by the waterfront in Kingston (one of the many charms of Kingston). 

I had to return my rental pretty early in the morning on Thursday so I had a quick cup of coffee with my Nan and was on my way. 
I do feel very fortunate that I was able to find a way to see my family before leaving. Having one more meal with everyone and catch up before taking off on a new adventure helps to ground me and take some of the nerves away. To hear how excited and proud my family is of me for taking this on was something I didn't realize I needed but turns out I did.
I did go for walks and found a way to workout everyday while I was away. Nothing life changing, but as I always say - you just have to do something good for your body every day. 
Next stop: Tomorrowland!

​Riley x.

It is impossible to truly describe the magic of Tomorrowland. I come back every year feeling like a crazy person because I talk about this place as if I have been taken away to some magical land that is so wonderful, it's hard to believe it even exists. 
But yet again, for the third year in a row, this place has left me feeling changed for life. 

I caught a flight directly out of Ottawa to London a few hours before my sister. In hindsight, this was a bad idea because not only did I get next to no sleep on the flight, but then I had to wait 6 hours in Heathrow for Adrienne to arrive.
The first few hours were fine. I grabbed a coffee, watched Lord of the Rings on my tablet, and enjoyed some quality people watching.
Within about an hour of Adrienne arriving I started to get that over-tired crazy feeling. I was eating random food to try and give myself more energy or just think of something else besides how tired I was.
The arrivals screen announced that Adie's flight had arrived to so I (foolishly) went to the arrivals area. While waiting there I was sneezed on by a kid and overheard a very angry phone call between someone and a very patient baggage claim guy. 
Stress levels are rising and patience is wearing thin at this point.
Finally Adrienne walks through the arrival doors and we found our way to the underground to make our way to St. Pancras international train station.

It should be noted that as I am writing this I am getting goosebumps just remembering those few hours before the festival.
Anyways - We found our way to St. Pancras, and were off to our hostel. I don't know how this happens every time we are in London, but we always manage to be there during the heatwave. This year was no exception.
We got ourselves cleaned up, picked up some dinner, and watched The Great British Bake Off, as you do when you are in London.
Being that it was a heat wave, the room was quite warm when we arrived. But given that they squished 6 beds into essentially a college dorm room, the body heat of the 6 of us really started to become evident. 
It was pretty impossible to sleep, so Adie and I tossed and turned, watched a few more episodes of The Great British Bake Off, had minor meltdowns, but eventually found ways to get a few hours of sleep. 
My strategy: dampen a towel and fall asleep under that. Works like a charm!

Then the day came. Thursday, July 25th. 
Again, it should be noted that my heart has started to flutter thinking about that morning.
Adie and I were both very tired, and I have to admit I was finding it tricky to be my perky-self. But we made it to the train station, and found our check-in line. I cannot really describe the magical feeling of getting the Tomorrowland goodie bags. Knowing that this is the first step of getting yourself to the festival.
The day prior to Adie and I taking our train to Belgium, the Eurostars were all being cancelled because they could not handle the heat, and so systems on the trains were breaking down. 
Thankfully, our train was early the day, so we didn't really run into any issues, besides having to slow the train down a bit before arriving in Belgium.
While on the train we tried to contain our excitement but even that was becoming increasingly difficult, despite being so tired.
So we went to the train bar and grabbed the very last mini-wine bottles, and a gin and tonic and got the party started.

Once we were in Brussels, it was a quick walk through Brussels Midi station to a Tomorrowland shuttle bus.
Again, I have to let you know that as I remember this moment I am getting goosebumps all over.
So here we were, on the bus to Dreamville, the official Tomorrowland campsite. It was definitely hot, but that was no match for our excitement.

​We arrived in Boom, Belgium, and were greeted by the usual residents of Boom who seem to all be just as excited as we are about the festival. They all have Tomorrowland flags in their windows, have set up shops with ice, and are playing their music while sitting outside and watching the excitement unfold.

Adrienne and I arrive at the gates of Dreamville and It. Is. Hot. Without humidex, it was 40 degrees celsius, the hottest day on record for Belgium. Even though we get that kind of heat in Ottawa, this was different because we had no escape to an air conditioned home. We were fully exposed to the heat. 
With a little Canadian innovation, Adrienne and I were able to shade ourselves and get ready for The Gathering. 

The Gathering is the pre-party for the all of the campers. They typically invite Belgian DJ's to this and then close out the evening with surprise guests. This year was Sunnery James & Ryan Marciano, followed by W&W. It was hectic but fun. 

We were also blessed with some surprise rain as well! Out of nowhere it began to rain and it was the break from the heat we all needed. 
Adrienne and I were waiting on a few friends from Britain that we had met the year before, but their train was later and so they ran into some of the heat issues that I spoke about earlier. 
They did eventually arrive and it was SO nice to see them again. The friends that we make at this festival every year are so special to us. We literally see them once a year but their friendships are more precious to us than some of our longest friendships back home.

The next 3 days went by way too quickly. From the first pre-drink with the guys, to coming the mainstage hill to have the most beautiful and intricate stage be revealed, to the amazing DJ's we saw.

I saw the stages ahead of time on social media but it really never does the in-person experience justice. The size of the mainstage, all of the little details they work into it... you'd never be able to take it all in from the livestream or the pictures online.
The grounds are huge and take about 15 minutes to walk through, but it is never a dull moment walking through the grounds.
Maybe you're passing another very cool stage, or you pass by a bunch of Aussie's doing the Aussie chant, or you meet some of the characters from Tomorrowland. Every moment is part of an immersive experience.

Our very first year of Tomorrowland we met a few lovely Belgians and while walking home from the festival he made the perfect comment "The whole festival has all of these little details. They don't have to do it... but they do." It kind of became our mantra for the next 3 years when we would see something amazing.
They literally print a newspaper for every camper, every morning after the festival that is filled with pictures and stories from the day before.

When we come home and go to festivals afterwards we just feel like we're being cheated by the other festivals. No other festival puts in this kind of effort to create a constant environment. While you are at Dreamville or on The Holy Grounds of Tomorrowland, you are living and breathing the story. You become a person of Tomorrow.

To share every story from Tomorrowland would take ages. There's just so much to go through, but I do have to mention that every year, the best reminder we get from Tomorrowland is that all of the political drama that exists in the world doesn't have to exist. At the gathering there were Israeli flags beside Palestinian flags. Mexicans, Americans, and Chinese flags all flew together. 
One of the moments that brings me to tears every year is when a DJ at the mainstage, with 150,000 people from around the world, plays a song and everyone sings along. Everyone's hands are up, and there are 150,000 smiles in the crowd. 
You cannot experience that anywhere else in the world, and in that moment I feel more connected to the world than ever. All anyone wants at Tomorrowland is to enjoy the music, maybe make a few friends, and have the best 3 days of their summer.

Monday morning is always tough. It's crazy to think that that'll be the last time waking up at Tomorrowland. For my sister and I we always had the promise of going back but after this third year, and with me moving away and my financial situation changing, we've decided this was our last for a while.
We feel incredibly grateful that we have even been given the opportunity to experience Tomorrowland 3 times, but it is still sad to say goodbye.
The 4 British boys we were with were also the best people. They took good care of us, and loved that we took care of them. There was no drama, just 6 people who had an awesome weekend. 

I am still feeling a bit fragile after leaving Tomorrowland. On my morning walks I have been listening to Tomorrowland livesets and when the DJ says "How are you feeling Tomorrowland" I get a little choked up.
I do have a pretty exciting adventure coming up in a few days though, so its time for me to turn my sights towards Sweden. 
Actually, by being on that side of the ocean, it will be much easier to visit my friends from Tomorrowland, and I'll be even closer to the european dance music scene, which I am very excited about.
The good times just keep on rolling... :)
​Riley x.

Riri's Discoveries has always been about me connecting with more people and sharing my love for human health with the masses. Since I started this website the world of working online has changed so much. In some ways it has become overcrowded with dropshipping bathing suit companies, in other ways innovations have been introduced that allow myself as a trainer to actually work it more of you!

That's right! I have gotten myself registered with an online training program called Trainerize. Trainerize allows me to build workout plans, meal plans, and track your progress in real time via a desktop dashboard as well as an app.

So far I have a few friends, family, and clients signed registered to work with me and I think everyone is loving it! The way it works is I get asked by a client, friend, or family for a program. I ask a few questions to figure out what their goals are, what equipment they are familiar with, and how many times a week they expect they'll be able to workout. 
From there I build a workout plan for them. Trainerize is great because they have a massive workout library. When I build a workout plan the client can actually watch a video of the exercise to ensure they are doing the exercise correctly. Clients can also take down notes and comments on the workout, and record real-time weights and times that they performed for an exercise. If you progress, the app with let you know that you have hit a new personal record and the whole thing ends up feeling really rewarding and motivating.

One of the only drawbacks to this app is that I am currently limited to the number of clients I am allowed to train via the app and give them all of the support features that the app provides.  At the time of writing this blog I only have 6 spots left, so if you would like to start training with me and seeing the potential power of a personal program you can follow these links for either a 1-month custom program, a 3-month contract, or a 6-month contract.

If I end up running out of spots for personal training clients - have no fear! I have found a way to offer more generalized programs to more people! These programs will come at a discounted rate to the regular personal training programs because you get access to the app, and there will be less access to me for that one-on-one support that the app users will receive. With that said, you can always email me at ririsdiscoveries@outlook.com should you have any questions. You can find these programs in the shop on this website.

If you decide to become a client of mine, know that I feel honoured every time someone trusts me with their health and wellness journey. I promise you I won't make you do anything unreasonable and my aim with all of my programs and with my nutrition ebook is to help you realize that working out and feeding yourself is about longevity and internal happiness. You will realize that you love working out and eating the foods you love because it actually makes you feel amazing from the inside out!

Are protein Ice Creams really worth the hype? I have mentioned on my website before that I like to try things - gadgets, foods, workouts - I'll try it all and keep what is great, and ditch the gimmicky stuff.
Last blog was about BCAA gummies, and this time I want to melt away all confusion about "healthy" ice cream - or "frozen desserts" as most of them are called.

When Halo Top was first introduced to local groceries stores there was a bit of a frenzy. I had personally seen many American fitness influencers talk about this great ice cream that you could enjoy the whole container because it was low cal, low sugar, and high-ish in protein.

Once Halo Top took off then a number of other protein options came to the market. Cool Way and Good North are two that come to mind right away and are easily found in major grocery stores.

The thing is ... they really aren't as great as they are advertised. For starters they are a frozen dessert, so don't expect them to taste like your favourite hagendaz or Ben & Jerry's flavours. There's a flakey-ness to the "frozen dessert" and when it melts you get more watery, milky, melted liquid instead of that soft-serve ice cream texture that you'd get with regular ice cream.

My main issue with these products is that they are trying to position themselves as healthier alternatives to regular ice cream. Although they may have more protein, and they do a darn good job of advertising that on their containers, they are still quite high in sugars. These could be regular sugars or sugar alcohols. If there is one thing I have learned from my keto research it is that although sugar alcohols do not affect our insulin levels, they can disrupt the gut and leave our gut microbiome worse for ware. 

I think that if you want to have ice cream just get the good stuff - that stuff that is made from some heavy cream churned in an ice cream maker, and served with your favourite toppings. All of these "healthy" alternatives are just giving us excuses to eat entire containers of stuff that isn't that much better for us, when we could just go for the real stuff and satisfy our real cravings.

Will I likely be buying a protein ice cream again, probably not. Moving forward if I am having a real craving for ice cream I'll probably just go for my absolute favourite - Chapman's French Vanilla. You can't mess with an original flavour like that!

I have always enjoyed trying the latest trends in the fitness industry. I can remember buying the 2nd generation Fitbit flex for my Dad when it first came out.

I had MyFitnessPal before UnderArmour bought it, and even gave the Jaybird fitness tracker a try for its heart rate variability capabilities (no longer being made because it didn't work).

So when Revolution came out with BCAA gummies I had to try them. They combine BCAA's (branched chain amino acids) and gummies so it seemed like a pretty sweet deal to me.

Since I first came across them I have tried every flavour that the local bulk barn offers - red berries, gummy bears, and a fuzzy peach dupe.

If anyone has ever tried a fitness version of a candy or chocolate then you will know it never tastes the same. The texture might be close, but even then it is still a bit foreign. This is VERY true of the BCAA gummies.

I don't think they taste that bad, but there is definitely a sugar-alcohol after taste. These gummies use maltitol as sweetener and if you didn't know already, maltitol has laxative effects if consumed in large enough quantities. Even from 1 small bag, I would get a slight stomach ache. Nothing serious or urgent, but definitely noticeable.

There is also a lingering chalky-ness in your mouth after eating them.

The real kicker for me is the carbohydrate content. BCAA's, when consumed as a powder in water can be found with very low carbohydrate quantities, especially if you get flavourless BCAA's.

These little gummies have 22g of carbohydrates per bag. So if you were on a keto diet this would take up your entire allowance for carbs, leaving no room for the important carbs from vegetables.

​I think for $5 a bag, you'd be better off buying the powder version of BCAA's if you truly want the supplement. You can also make your own BCAA and preworkout gummies with gelatin and then you control the sugar content.

Sometimes the fitness industry nails it with supplement creations, but I have to say that these are a miss for me. I have a great BCAA supplement powder that is effective and provides me with the benefits of taking BCAA's without the added maltitol to give me an upset stomach, or chalky mouth feeling. You can find it at MyProtein.ca. My personal favourite flavour is blue raspberry but they have a ton of other options! If you follow that link you will also get 30% off of a $35 order!

As a final note I have to reiterate that supplements are not necessary to achieve your health and wellness goals. I only ever really recommend them when I feel like someone needs an added edge, or a little boost in their workouts. Besides that you should be just fine with a balanced diet and regular physical activity!