Blended Radio

Jason Davis joins Morgan for a conversation centered around how to establish small daily habits that lead to big changes in your health or in leading you towards your goals. Our coaches also touch on the importance of finding your why, both personally and professionally, so that you can build a truly happy life. The habit loop video that Jason referenced in the podcast is linked below.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z5PXTxIiWYM

Coach Darryl joins Morgan to share his insights on how mindfulness, physical well-being, and overall attitude impact one's mental health. Darryl shares some of his story about re-learning how to deal with stress and anxiety after serving 8 years in the US Marine Corps. 

Coach Danielle joins Morgan for a powerful conversation about mental health, wellness, and the positive impact of physical movement and community support when dealing with these issues. Danielle openly shares her experiences, past struggles, and how she’s been able to move through difficult times. The coaches also share some practical advice for dealing with mental health issues, especially during this uncertain time.

In today's episode of Coaches Corner, Morgan and Darryl further discuss Darryl's article on The Pain Teacher. We all have faced injuries at some point in our life, and let's face it, they suck. Taking time off is hard when you've been working your butt off trying to pursue your version of excellence, and now it feels like you've taken two steps in the wrong direction. 

Sometimes an injury is inevitable, but sometimes our body (The Pain Teacher) is telling us to slow down and we ignore the signs and make things worse.

"I called it the great Pain Teacher for a reason, because it teaches you about yourself. So, as long as you don't run from it and you approach pain with a curious mindset and wanting to understand more about your body, I think you'll learn something about yourself."

If you haven't read the article yet, I highly suggest you give it a read before you jump into the podcast. But without further ado, we hope you enjoy the episode, and if you have any questions about pain, mindfulness or meditation talk to Darryl at Blended Athletics. He doesn't have social media, but you can find him most days in The Loft. 

The Pain Teacher Article:

https://www.blendedathletics.com/journal-1/2021/3/5/the-great-pain-teacher-injuries-setbacks-and-new-opportunities-for-growth

*** New Episode ***

In this episode of Coaches Corner, Morgan sits down with Dave and talks about habits. The objective of creating habits is to be able to make small changes to your day-to-day life, that will end up creating a lasting impact over a long period of time.

Individuals often think that habits develop overnight, and I’m sure in some cases they do, but statically they take between 18 - 254 days to develop. On average, it takes 66 days! The next question individuals face is, “when should you start a habit?” - and that depends based on the person! For example, Christmas is normally a difficult time to start a habit, whereas now would be a great time to start, as March break is ending - but again, it's entirely up to the individual.

Here are some key points from the episode:

• If you want to start your journey towards health and wellness start with water.

• If your attempt to create a habit fails, try again

• If you are going to start a new habit, start now! It is the perfect time.

There are two books that Dave recommends if you want to learn more about habits: Atomic Habits by James Clear and The Power of Habit by Charles Duhigg. If you really want to make some changes in your life, pick up one of these books!

Thank you for tuning in for another episode of Coaches Corner!

In this special Blended TV episode, Dave Rafuse sits down with Dr. Nikole MacLellan (a.k.a Dr. Kokes) who is a naturopathic doctor at PROactive Health & Performance.⁠  ⁠

Dr. Kokes is also the host of The Offseason Podcast which is an exploration of athletic health, recovery, and performance told through the stories of the athletes and their medical & training teams. ⁠ ⁠ 

On top of that she has another passion project called The Glass Lion Project which is targeted towards helping young female athletes learn about their bodies, grow self value and get the best performance tips. ⁠ ⁠ 

Naturopathic doctor by day, virtual educator by night. A big shoutout to Dr. Kokes for taking the time to record this episode of Blended TV with us!⁠⁠

In this episode Morgan sits down and chats with Jason Ward about his newest project, Gaming & Gains.

Jason created Gaming & Gains to combine his two passions, gaming and fitness. The idea is to prescribe movements throughout the different events that happen when you are gaming. The programming can be completed during your gaming session or separate - it’s entirely up to the individual. Exercising has many benefits for gamers! Exercising can improve reaction time, mental clarity, quicker communication and posture!

If you are interested in learning more about Gaming & Gains you can reach out to Jason on instagram @wardswaytofitness and while you’re at it you can follow his twitch account @wardswaytofitness

We hope you enjoy the episode!

In this episode of Coaches Corner, Morgan and Darryl sit down and talk about The Loft and how the lights and music play a part in your Loft experience. You might not realize, but our coaches take the time to strategically develop music playlists prior to coming into work for the day. 

In Darryl's case he plans his playlist based on the members that are in his class and changes them throughout the day. The lights play a huge role in the experience. For instance, Darryl turns down the light (when safe to do so) in order to draw the attention away from you and help you become more focused in your workout. The lights on the mirrors also play their role. The Loft coaches normally have a blue or green light during rest periods as it gives a relaxing vibe to the space whereas, red and yellow symbolizes high intensity work. 

A lot of thought and preparation goes into every class. We don't simply show up and run a class, we keep YOU, our members in mind prior to you arrival. This isn't only limited to The Loft either, we take the same amount of time to create that experience in Ground Zero also minus the fancy lights.

If you want to experience The Loft for yourself click the link below to sign up for a free consultation and tour around our facility. We hope you enjoy the episode!

*** New Episode of The Pursuit of Excellence ***

In this episode, Dave talks about happy moments and what he believes is the answer to achieving moments of happiness more frequently. Dave has a system that he follows as the foundation to achieve this. Ultimately it comes down to,

1. Sleep - We could spend an entire episode on sleep alone, but sleep is extremely important for your health and well-being. Make it a priority to get 7-8 hours a sleep - No exceptions!

2. Nutrition - For the vast majority of listeners you all know what you should and shouldn't be putting in your mouth. Eat more vegetables, consume more protein and more fruit, you know the drill.

3. Exercise - You need to find a way to elevate your heart rate for 150 minutes a week MINIMUM. This doesn't have to be in a gym, you just need to find a way to elevate your heart rate.

4. Vulnerability - Be vulnerable, try new things! Meet new people! We know this is hard to do during covid, but there are ways to do it safely. 

"Look after yourself, put yourself in vulnerable positions, try new things and you will find new moments of happiness and that is the pursuit of excellence. The pursuit of excellence is finding as many moments of happiness as you can." - Dave 

In this episode, Morgan and Chelsea talk about fad diets. A fad diet is something that is usually promoted and popular in social media, and is typically a way to have quick weight loss over a certain amount of time. For example, “Try this diet for 30 days and you will lose 15 pounds” They are quick fixes that are probably not sustainable in the long run. 

The most popular fad diets right now are keto and the carnivore diet. Chelsea dives into why these are hard to sustain in the long run and how it’s extremely important to get the calories you need to fuel your body. 

If you are ever wondering what your meals should consist of, try the plate method. A quarter of your plate should be some sort of protein source. The other quarter should be carbohydrates, or starchy vegetables, and then the remaining half would be vegetables. It is an easier way to create a meal rather than navigating Canada’s food guide.

If you are struggling with nutrition, work with someone who can support you and help you through that. At the same time, do your research, don’t settle for the first nutritionist that you find - find someone who is empathic and knowledgable that can help you along this journey to pursuing your excellence in nutrition. 

If you have questions about nutrition get in touch with Chelsea on Instagram @chelsweinkauf Also, big shoutout to Morgan for hosting her first podcast at Blended Athletics, looking forward to more great content.

In this episode of The Pursuit of Excellence, Dave talks about the 'Build Better Habits Challenge' and his MyZone performance. Dave worked on four habits over the month of January. Two were personal development; Dave wanted to read more consistently and meditate at least five minutes a day. The other two habits revolved around health and wellness. He wanted to eat more vegetables and less processed carbohydrates, and at the end of the month his in body scan showed that he dropped his body fat percentage by 2%!

This is Dave's take on using the build better habits challenge worksheet. It held him accountable, and improved his health and wellness, through his discipline to work on his habits. His advice to you is to have a tracking sheet and be honest with yourself. Build the habits that will take you one step closer to your excellence.

Enjoy the episode!

“Motivation is usually a byproduct of the work that we do, passion is something I’ve noticed that the best of the best whether it be in sports, business or any career of that sorts. Passion is often times can be seen in every area of life.”

“How do we create a mindset in order to unveil a specific amount of passion?”

In this episode of The Pursuit of Excellence Dave talks about passion and motivation. Dave notices that in the month of January people tend to be more passionate and, in turn, become more motivated with the goals they are setting. Branching off from the last episode, Dave dives into treating every month as a fresh start, and the benefits of doing this.

“What if the start of every month represented the start of the new year?”

January is usually a productive month, we make new goals and life changes. It’s all great until about the third week of January when you start to question yourself,

“Do I really want to do this?”

When you question yourself like this go back to your “why”. Why did you start this habit? Did you do it because everyone else was doing it or was actually something you wanted to do? Listen to the full episode of The Pursuit of Excellence with Dave Rafuse to dive more into the topic of discovering your motive.

In this episode of Coaches Corner Jason and Darryl sit down and talk about losing your “fitness mojo”. You might think that coaches always have motivation to workout, but that’s not the case. For Jason and Darryl, they lost their fitness mojo around the time that their children were born. At the end of their days, they would rather use whatever energy they had left in spending time with their family.

So how did they get their fitness mojo back? And how do you regain your mojo?

Listen to the episode to find out!

Throughout the Podcast we mention "The Loft" and "Ground Zero". For the new listeners out there we wanted to clarify the difference. Ground Zero is where we focus on functional movement with a goal of building strength. The Loft is a multi-functional high intensity training space. Strength is still an evident goal in The Loft, but conditioning is the foundation to this program.⁠

In this episode, Ground Zero coaches Danielle and Cody sat down to share their tips to help you get more out of your class experience to better your life outside of the gym. If you're ready to jump into your first classes, these tips will help you to get started on the right foot and if you're one of our more experienced members, these tips will help you to continue seeing positive results from the classes that you love. 

If you have any questions about the topics covered in this episode, connect with Danielle and Cody on Instagram: 

@daniellejo18 

@coachcodyb

"What is going to make you happy?" 

In Episode 11 of The Pursuit of Excellence Dave walks you through how to develop your goals around what is going to make you happy and how to execute them.⁠

In this special episode Dave Rafuse sits down with MLA for the Timberlea – Prospect region Iain Rankin who is in the running to be the next leader of the Nova Scotia Liberal Party and Premier of Nova Scotia.

Iain talks about how he wants to focus more attention on preventative health and wellness measures for all Nova Scotians. He also highlights the importance of revamping the economy, investing in our long-term care facilities, Nova Scotia’s part in climate control, and building a stronger education system.

Join us and listen to Iain’s story and vision for the Province of Nova Scotia.

Blended Athletics owner & CEO Dave Rafuse and coach Jason Ward share their insights on wearable fitness technology. They discuss their personal experiences using wearable tech to enhance their training, who would, and wouldn't, benefit from these devices, and how to use the data provided to make changes in your routine. 

Coaches Maggie and Danielle reflect on their first experiences at Blended and share some of their favourite memories so far with the Blended Athletics community.

Coaches Darryl and Cody sat down to discuss their shared passion for strength. Although they approach strength training in very different ways, they both agree that strength is essential for maintaining quality of life in the long run. Darryl and Cody also discuss different ways to measure strength and some general principles on how to build and progress strength. 

Some of our full-time coaches discuss how and why they chose to pursue a coaching career. In the second half of this episode, they talk about why coaching has been a fulfilling occupation for them.

Darryl and Jason discuss being proactive versus reactive in regards to maintaining your health. They share their tips for staying motivated to manage your health, becoming aware of the signals your body is giving you, and using positive reinforcement to your advantage while building healthy habits.

Kim, Jason, and Darryl share their insights and experiences on being present, managing distractions, and dealing with discomfort in order to grow personally. 

In this episode, Morgan, Darryl, Jason, and Cody discuss what it means to be active vs to be training, the potential downfalls of pursuing high performance over health, staying fit and active without access to gyms, and the value of reflecting on the reasons you exercise. 

In this episode, coaches Morgan and Jason discuss plant-based diets. Morgan has been plant-based for over 10 years and Jason has experimented with this approach. In their conversation, they cover their experiences, different plant-based approaches, protein intake, supplementation, and more.

Jason is a Precision Nutrition L1 coach and is currently completing L2. 

In this episode, Darryl and Cody discuss the importance of sleep, sleep hygiene tips, and their nighttime winddown routines. 

In this episode Dave talks about some key strategies to help you get through the physical distancing days of COVID. 

In this episode Dave reveals the two most important factors in determining what's really important to you. The big question is what will you do once you find out?

Simple does not mean easy! In this episode Dave outlines hoe to find, set and crush your goals.

Injuries are almost unavoidable throughout our lives and are one of the most frustrating parts of training! 

Coach Darryl also opens up about his experience serving 8 years as a US Marine. He also talks about his own struggles with mental health coming out of the marines and how he used his life experiences to shape his mindset.

Being self aware of why you feel depressed is important and specialist all around the world have talked about why next week may be one of the hardest weeks of 2020. Why you may ask? Well for one the time goes back 1hr meaning we lose an hour of sleep which is tough both physically and mentally. To top it off if you follow national and global news then you are fully aware that there are a number of heavy news topics so hopefully these three tips help you to prepare for the uncontrollable!!

Batting .700 in baseball would make you the best hitter in the history of the game, but 70% compliance in the foundations of your health and fitness is not cutting it! Putting it another way if you are looking at your 7 day week from a 30,000ft view and you are only compliant in your habits Monday to Friday your compliance is 70%. It needs to be 85%+ to see progress otherwise at best you are just in maintenance. If you aren’t making progress then track your weeks and be real with yourself the only one who is really being effected by you cheating is yourself!

Good communication skills are key to success in work, relationships and your health/fitness. To convey our thoughts, intentions and objectives is a vulnerable process. Typically the real reasons you are struggling is not obvious to your coach. You spend 5 hours a week with your coach. The 163 hours you spend away from your coach is often a bigger piece to the puzzle and as a coach, the more insights and data we have, the better job we can do to guide you along the journey that will help you reach your goals.

This episode unpacks one of the hottest topics in our economy today…Real-Estate! David’s guests include Anne Da Silva and Scott Leverman who have a combined experience of over 25 years in Real-Estate.

Anne has been a REALTOR® and a Broker for 17 years. She is currently the Broker of Keller Williams Select Realty where she supervises and trains nearly 200 agents in their businesses. Anne is also the Past President of the Nova Scotia Association of REALTORS® and former Chair of the Professional Standards Committee for REALTORS ® in Nova Scotia.

Scott grew up in HRM Scott has strong ties to the community in which he is proud to call home and do business. A lifetime of working in his family’s roofing and construction business, Scott has utilized his strong construction and sales background to help clients obtain their real estate goals

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Thank you for tuning into BlendedTV, if you enjoyed this episode please rate it, review it and share it. There are no paid ads on BlendedTV, all we ask is if you like like it leave a review and maybe tell a friend.

Welcome back to a new season of Blended TV. We wanted to kick off our first episode with someone very near and dear to our hearts! Melanie Clarke.  Mel is the Chief heart officer at Blended Athletics and founder of Mel Clarke Consulting. Mel's consulting company is built from grass roots movements to help business owners and the general public become more educated on systemic racism and anti racism.  

 "Most business owners and individuals want to help this movement but don't know how... the first step is acknowledging that the systems we are a part of are founded from systemically racist principles.. You may not be to blame for this but understanding we are all apart of it is the first step"  

Tough conversations will always arise when it comes to talking about racial tensions and racism but Mel is here to help guide you and prepare you for those conversations. Part of her business is also helping leaders develop best practice guidelines for hiring and creating a more inclusive workplace.  

If you enjoyed this episode please like it, share it and subscribe to our channel. There are no paid ads on BlendedTV, all we ask is if you like like it leave a review and maybe tell a friend.  

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Contact Mel: melaniesclarke5@gmail.com

Nearly a year after we dropped our affiliate with Crossfit HQ due to a disconnect between our vision and the direction of Crossfit gym owners are faced with a really tough decision. After racially insensitive comment made by former Crossfit CEO, gym owner are looking for new alignment, clarity and deciding whether or not they want to keep their affiliation.

CEO of Blended Athletics and Marketing Director Jason Davis tackle the difficult conversation of "What's Next"? We offer our support to all gym owners seeking guidance in these tough times, our experience was full of ups and downs but we came out swinging. Enjoy the insights and if you need any guidance please feel free to reach out to Jason@blendedathletics.com