Fit Girl, Johanna Seier

I had the pleasure of sitting down with the bubbly girl-on-the-go, Johanna Seier. At 21, she’s already started her own personal training business, Aurea Fitness. We chatted over smoothies at Green Carrot about what inspired her to start her own business and her latest project– The Fit Girl Guide.

All photos courtesy of Pantel Photography

Johanna started Aurea Fitness after returning from a gap year trip to Australia.

“When I got back from Australia I had gained a lot of weight, I wasn’t feeling great about myself. It’s so silly that I spent time on this trip and there were times when I knew I wasn’t getting the most out of experiences because I was stressed about the way I felt about my body,” says Johanna.

She jokes about having an “a-ha” moment of realization, “I was on the plane and I was having a moment as I sat next to a mom and a screaming baby and I thought, ‘this is going to be different, I’m going to educate myself.”

And that’s exactly what she did. Like many other young females, Johanna had tried various fad diets. This time around, she decided to ditch the diet and focus on effective, healthy ways to get in shape.

Johanna has spent the last three years reading about different exercises and trying them out at home and at the gym. From there she started her business which offers personal one-on-one training, group training sessions, or group bootcamps.

“I want to help girls and women feel better about themselves and have balance in their lives, so that they can be proud and confident, but they’re not obsessed over things.”

Johanna believes that fitness, like most things in life, should be about balance. That’s why her workouts are designed to be intense, quick, and effective.

“I know during my bootcamps some people hate me in the moment, but they’re also fun. We blast some pretty hard rap music and work together as a community. Everyone supports eachother.”

Aurea Fitness has built a large community on social media. So when Johanna decided to start her current project, The Fit Girl Guide, she reached out to her followers on Instagram and Twitter to see if any females would be interested in trialling a ten-week fitness plan, completely free of charge.

“I didn’t know what the response would be and the messages were over-whelming, it was really exciting.”

She had originally wanted 4 girls to trial her fitness program and ended up having 6 because the response was so great.

Johanna has spent the last 8 months creating The Fit Girl Guide and all the exercises featured in the 10-week program she’s carefully curated from what has worked for her one-on-one and group fitness clients.

The Fit Girl Guide features dynamic exercises that are a combination of cardio, strength and plyometrics. All the workouts are around 30 minutes, so that they fit easily into your day.

“I believe in pushing yourself, I think that so many people want the results but don’t want to put in the effort. Unfortunately that’s not the way it works.”

The program is specifically designed for girls on-the-go. The workouts are short and intense. To do the program you’ll need very little equipment. And at around $50, The Fit Girl Guide packs a fitness punch at a great price point.

“I was broke from traveling but I wanted to get in shape. A lot of my friends were in the same predicament. We’re in our twenties, we don’t have a lot of money, or money to spend on a gym membership. We definitely don’t have money to see a personal trainer on a regular basis.”

Johanna notes that her personal training rates, bootcamps, and The Girl Guide are priced very competitively because she wants getting into shape to be accessible to a large demographic. She has meticulously designed The Fit Girl Guide so that even fitness newbies can easily complete the 10-week program. Each exercise has several photos to illustrate proper form. And minimal equipment is needed for the exercises– a mat, free weights, a weight bench, and a stability ball. All of these items are relatively inexpensive and Johanna says you can find them all at Canadian Tire.

The Fit Girl Guide also features smoothie recipes that are great on-the-go meals or post-workout snacks as well as a “healthy swap” section that has ways to health-ify certain foods.

“I’m not a nutritionist and I don’t claim to be… I don’t want to set up strict meal plans which can lead people to ‘cheating’ and I don’t really like that term… ‘what the hell are you cheating on?’”

She’s truly a girl after my own heart. I couldn’t agree more with Johanna’s health and fitness philosophy. There’s no cheating, there’s only eating. And there’s no cheating when you want to get in shape. You gotta put in the work!

I’m super excited to try our The Fit Girl Guide. The ebook will be available in late January through the Aurea Fitness website.

 

Go Get Ya Caffeine Fix

The first time I heard about bulletproof coffee was when I was in Chicago this May for my friend Jayne’s wedding. My group of friends are spread across Canada and the States and the wedding was an opportunity for all eight of us to be together, in one condo!!

At “family” breakfast we sat around the kitchen table and my friend Scott brought up bulletproof coffee, or as I referred to it, “butter coffee.” My first thought was, of course my Vancouverite friend would be into this weird butter coffee stuff.

Within the last couple of months I’ve been inundated with bulletproof coffee. It seems to be the newest health trend. I’ve also read a fair share of blog posts bashing bulletproof coffee and its apparently not-so-amazing benefits.

So, I decided I might as well give it a shot and see for myself what all the hype (and hate) is about.

Benefits of bulletproofing your coffee:

• Mental clarity and focus without the usually caffeine-fix crash
• A bounty of energy
• Weight loss via ketosis (a metabolic state that is trigged by lack of carbs that burns fat)*
• Helps fight cravings.

And there are some other benefits, too, but these are the biggest/most common perks of trading your everyday breakfast for this butter-coffee stuff.

*I’m personally not interested in bulletproof coffee for the third benefit listed. I’ve done my research on the ketosis diet and I’m not a huge fan of the concept. Well, I’m not a diet supporter at all; it’s all about making lifestyle changes. Also, I’m not agreeing that these are all proven benefits.

Anyways…

I trolled through all corners of the Internet looking for recipes for this miraculous coffee bevy. To be honest, I did pick and choose a bit between the recipes I found. Bulletproof coffee is basically three things– coffee, butter, and oil. The key to making legit bulletproof coffee is to use special coffee beans that are free of mycotoxins (essentially fungi and mold), butter made from grass-fed, organic cow’s milk, and MTC (medium-chain triglyceride) oil. I used coconut oil as my MTC oil because I’m not willing to shell out money for the fancy stuff that is marketed exclusively for making this bevy. Another confession, I didn’t use fancy coffee beans. So shoot me!

At the upper end of the butter scale, you can put 6-8 Tbsp of grass-fed butter in your bulletproof blend. Does anyone else think that sounds a little, uh, crazy? I opted for a starter’s variation. Maybe I’ll work my way up the butter scale, one day.

Here’s what I used:
1 Tbsp unsalted grass-fed butter
1 Tsp coconut oil
1 Cup coffee

Directions:
1) Pour freshly brewed coffee into a blender.
2) Add in butter and coconut oil.
3) Blend until it’s a light caramel colour.

It should also have a layer of buttery-coconutty froth on top.

My verdict:
I’m currently on day three of (possibly) seven of bulletproofing my morning bevy, but I have a pretty solid opinion formed already. Some sources told me I should give it at least 10 days because I might not notice any benefits before that.

I don’t know if I can make it to day 10.

I’ll give bulletproof coffee a few pros, but I think there are definitely some inherent cons, for me at least.

Pros:
• It tastes pretty decent.
• Zero caffeine crash (I don’t usually notice this after my morning coffee though)
• I did notice I had more energy than I do when I drink regular coffee with almond milk.
• It was moderately filling. Maybe this was a psychological thing, though.
• I felt more alert, albeit for short time, first thing in the morning.

Cons:
• I’ve missed the sensation of sinking my teeth into actual breakfast food.
• On day two, I did get a bit hangry by lunch time…
• I don’t think it’s helping to keep things moving/flowing in my system.
• Greasy teeth. Enough said.

I don’t think this is a health fad I’ll be continuing in the long term. I like eating, not drinking, my breakfast. But in desperate situations, I would recommend trying bulletproof coffee over guzzling an energy drink. Don’t get me started on energy drinks, though. That’s a whole other blog post.

Have you tried bulletproof coffee? Let me know your thoughts, DM on Instagram @thelifeof_lucky, or send me an email– breanne.thelifeoflucky@gmail.com

Back to Bloggin’ and… Eating for Pleasure?

Back to bloggin’, and all things CreComm and IPP-related. No more frolicking in sunflower fields for this girl. Adieu summer, see ya next year!

Throughout the last three years working at a salon, one thing has become evident to me – hairstylists do much more than simply cut, colour, and style hair. They’re confidants, advice-givers, and very often (under-paid) therapists. And because many clients are comfortable divulging intimate details with their stylist, I’ve been privy to some pretty juicy gossip.

A few weeks ago, I was at the coffee bar when I heard one stylist and their client talking about something that piqued my interest – dieting. Diets, cleanses, and fitness routines are topics that are frequently discussed at the salon. Perhaps working in the beauty industry makes us more image-conscious than those in other industries. But what caught my attention about this conversation was one simple phrase “you should eat for pleasure only once a week.”

What!? Eat for pleasure ONLY once a week? The stylist and client both agreed that “you should eat purely for nutrition and have one cheat meal a week, or have one ‘cheat’ day.”

Why can’t eating healthy be pleasurable? I think it can! With that being said, I think there’s an assumption that healthy eating requires certain food/food groups to be off limits. I’ve made a conscious effort over the last couple of years to not demonize any food/food groups. However, I avoid certain dairy products because I’m lactose-intolerant. 😥

This conversation made me think about the idealized notion of what it means to be “healthy.” I don’t think healthy eating should revolve around any sort of restriction. Moderation and balance are two concepts I try to always keep in mind. Adhering too much to an idealized version of health can lead to orthorexia, the obsession with eating food that fits into a preconceived paradigm of health. I’ve definitely had my issues with restrictive eating, but until recently I didn’t know that it was a recognized eating disorder; I just thought I was a health-nut.

I’m currently working on creating a e-cookbook of healthy recipes–for those of you who didn’t already know–and I’m struggling about how to position and market it. I want to stray away from representing it as something that idealizes what a healthy breakfast should be. I don’t eat only foods that will be included in my e-cookbook. Sometimes, if a girl wants bacon and pancakes, a girl has gotta eat just that. It’s not a cheat/dirty meal; It’s just a meal.

On Saturday afternoon while I was microwaving a frozen burrito, a coworker asked me, “why are you eating that if you have a health and fitness Instagram account?”

My response: “Because, moderation. If I don’t eat what I want, I know I’ll just binge at some point.”

I don’t think it really got through to her. I guess, I should have just said, “Oh, this? This is my cheat meal…”

PS. follow me on my ~new~ health and fitness Insta account – @thelifeof_lucky