Fit For Life - March 2011

FIT FOR LIFE

just work it out

Bringing a pet into your life needn’t cramp your workout style

Plus: How to be berry creative with snacks photo courtesy jason lu/yoga tree

Toronto’s leading natural health product experts for over 30 years! .\ROLF )RUPXOD

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MARCH 2011 TORONTO TODAY 13

FitForLife

A shared ACHIEVE OPTIMAL HEALTH AND A LASTING CAREER The Canadian School of Natural Nutrition...

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LOCAL NEWS

www.MyTownCrier.ca

14 TORONTO TODAY MARCH 2011

LOCAL VIEWS

francis crescia/toronto today

FITNESS WITH FIDO: Sal Sloan turned her solution to the problem of what to do with the dog during workout time into a business.

workout

T

By Kelly Gadzala

he dog changed her life.

The canine in question: a loveable, fluffy-looking mutt named Chewy, who was rescued from the Toronto Humane Society.

The young lady: an advertising career girl who wondered if she couldn’t combine her boot camp workout with her new pooch’s exercise regime.

That was almost three years ago. Still a dog lover, Sal Sloan has just completed her first season as a new business owner.

Fetching, which launched in the Beach area last fall, provides dog owners with a boot camp style workout they can bring their dogs to.

“It didn’t make sense to me,” says Sloan, who describes her early days with Chewy and the demands of walking him several times a day and then doing her own boot camp workout. “I wished I could just bring Chewy to my boot camp.”

The concept evolved slowly, she says, starting with a germ of an idea involving fitness, dogs and lifestyle.

Then, after inviting some local dog owner pals over to her place, she conducted an informal focus group by tossing out the question, “Dogs and exercise — what do you think?”.

What came out of that exercise, Sloan says, was that many people felt they didn’t have enough time to spend with their dogs.

After that, she went home to her native Vancouver and really started solidifying the concept.

To get the business up and running, she obtained her CanFit Pro personal trainer certification — she’s always been into fitness, she says — and hired a dog trainer. Her classes alternate between the personal and dog trainer teaching different exercises and drills.

There are other companies that combine dog workouts with boot camp fitness, Sloan says, but what’s different about Fetching is that sessions incorporate agility training and obedience training for dogs.

Many people just don’t have time to work on their dog’s obedience, she says.

A Richard Ivey Business School grad from Western University, Sloan says she always wanted to be an entrepreneur, but never had a business idea before Fetching.

There have been fast lessons along the way. Initially she offered drop-in classes so people could try out classes before committing to an entire two-month session. But the drop-in component disrupted the flow of the class for those who were there for the entire session.

That said, Sloan says she’s open to working with drop-ins and also offers private and semi-private classes.

Classes were initially held outdoors in the fall, but the feedback from clients was that it was too cold. In January sessions moved inside. They will shift to outdoor locations again in the warmer months.

The response so far has been so positive that Sloan has already expanded to the Annex area and to Leaside. She’s also hoping to hire another dog trainer and personal trainer.

As for her quality of life, Sloan says she’s a totally different person since launching the biz. The advertising world wasn’t very rewarding, she says.

“Chewy effectively changed the entire direction of my career.”

As for Chewy, he’s always at the sessions when Sloan is teaching — granted, on the sidelines — but Sloan says she’ll often run him through the agility obstacle course after the class is done.

“He’s always there with me.”

Session schedules can be found at www.fetching.ca. TT MARCH 2011 TORONTO TODAY 15

It’s all in the blend

I

By LIZ CAMPBELL

t’s mid-afternoon. Lunch is long gone and dinner seems a long way off. It’s the time most of us take a coffee or tea break and we probably down a cookie or other sweet baked goodie with it.

It’s 8 o’clock and you’re watching TV. Wouldn’t some popcorn or peanuts taste good about now?

Better yet, when the energy is low or the tummy is craving a snack, how about a smoothie?

A smoothie is healthy, and because it’s made with real fruit it’s full of fibre and vitamins. It fills the void and can actually make you feel good. And because there is no single way to make a smoothie, you can make a different concoction each time.

The idea is to blend one or more fruits with liquid at high speed in order to create a thick, richly flavoured drink. Best of all, it feels like a real indulgence but doesn’t have to be loaded with calories.

A true smoothie should contain whole fruit and a liquid to blend this in. After that, the rest is up to you. The liquid could be water or juice, yogurt or soy milk or regular milk. Soy milk is popular because of recent evidence of the health benefits of soy consumption. And while many of us find soy milk less than appealing, adding it to fruit in a smoothie makes it creamy and delicious.

Another healthy addition is a teaspoon of ground flax meal, which provides lots of minerals and anti-inflammatory omega-3 fatty acid.

One trick that ensures a drink that’s as rich as a milkshake with a quarter of the calories is to freeze the fruit. For example, when bananas start to get soft, cut them into pieces and freeze.

You can also buy bags of frozen fruit pieces. The sweetness in the fruit can be brought out by adding a little honey to the mixture. And I like to add fruit juice as well as low-fat yogurt. Apricot juice works really well, but so does plain old orange juice. Want to go really tropical? Try mango juice as the base. It’s delicious.

Once you’ve tried these creamy drinks, you’ll never go back to unhealthy snacks. So take out your blender or processor and try some recipes. TT

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Tropical Trio 1⁄2 cup pieces of pineapple (fresh or frozen) 1⁄2 banana, (fresh or frozen) 1⁄2 cup frozen mango pieces (fresh or frozen) 1⁄2 cup low fat yogurt (optional, but it makes it creamier) 1⁄2 cup pineapple juice or water 1 tbsp. honey Blend until very smooth. Add a little more juice if required. Pour and enjoy with a thick straw.

Health Blend 1 cup frozen berries (strawberries, raspberries, blueberries) 1⁄2 banana cut into pieces (fresh or frozen) 1⁄4 cup soy milk 3⁄4 cup strawberry or cranberry juice 1 tbsp. maple syrup 1 tbsp. wheat germ Blend the first five ingredients until smooth. Add the wheat germ and blend for another 15 seconds. Serve.

Cold-combating Concoction 1 whole orange cut into pieces and frozen 1⁄2 cup melon pieces (I pull these out of the frozen fruit blend) 1⁄2 cup pineapple pieces 3⁄4 cup orange juice 1⁄2 cup low fat yogurt 1 tbsp. honey Blend these together and serve. Note that you can add some Echinacea to the blend for extra flu-fighting power.