“Do you have any dumbbells in stock?” That may be the quintessential question of 2020, at least for retailers of home fitness equipment like us. But why aren't there any dumbbells to be found, at our store and globally? And when will that situation change? This is the story of how a pandemic and worldwide factors caused a shortage of such a popular piece of equipment.

If you feel stressed out far too often, you are not alone. From the pressures of rising living costs, a tough job market, or a situation involving a loved one, there can be any number of stressors on an individual that contribute to a chronic state of stress and anxiety. To minimize far-reaching consequences, it’s critical to actively develop and maintain positive, healthy stress management habits like the ones below.

Now, I have been running for (gulp) over 15 years. When I first started running I was too nervous to run outside in colder temperatures. I get that adapting to different temperatures can be tricky, especially for newbie runners. I have been there, done that. The lesson I learned is not to be intimidated by the cold.

Well it came and went, and as always the day was crazy amazing at TSC.

My first show was at 6:00 am our time and I had a new host I hadn't had before and a new model. That first 10 minutes on air I am always most nervous.

To catch you up, Finding Your Fit is "A Compassionate Trainer's Guide to Making Fitness a Lifelong Habit: it provides readers with practical tools that will allow them to connect the dots between wanting to make a health and fitness change and actually making it. Finding Your Fit is the "anti–Biggest Loser" handbook for realistic, lifelong health: a motivational handbook with realistic strategies and practical information to help readers initiate and then follow through and adopt a long-term healthy lifestyle."

So, I wrote a book! It is called Finding Your Fit. Needless to say, I am pretty excited! The book hits stores October 1st, 2016. I feel like a kid getting ready for Christmas; I am counting down the days until I can walk into Indigo and say "Where would I find Kathleen Trotter's new book?" I am assuming the answer will be "In the health and wellness section," but maybe I will get lucky and it will be on one of the "staff recommendation" tables. Fingers crossed!

If I had to pick the most important thing I've learned over the past couple of years, it would be, "No matter how good, how accessible, or how cheap a piece of fitness equipment is, if a person does not 'start' or 'want to start,' then nothing happens. I've even wirtten about it here "

This is why I love a new book to be released this October by Canada's fitness information leader - Kathleen Trotter – as it addresses this very issue.It is entitled, "Finding Your Fit; A Compassionate Trainer's Guide to Making Fitness a Lifelong Habit."

A recent exercise and weight study revealed that young rats prone to obesity (there really is a strain that are like this) are much less likely to become obese if they run during adolescence than if they don't run.Not that this is stunning.

But, here's the interesting part, they also were metabolically healthier, and had different stomach microbes, than rats that keep the weight off by cutting back on food (and not running).

Sort of a diet alone vs. exercise test.

In essence, the runners, while weighing the same as the dieters at the end of the study, seemed better set up to avoid weight gain in the future.

We got an update from Dave Gibbs!!! here it is . . . .

Hey Guys !!

Training is going great, currently just under 6 weeks out now from Toronto provincials.

As an update from my last blog . . .

I never in a 100 years would have thought people would respond to my story like this, that someone would say things like 'your an inspiration' or that you could 'have results like me'. I really don't have words, it's so honouring and humbling.

I always say it, to me I'm a super average person. I am awkward and silly and even a touch outrageous sometimes. I don't look like a fitness model or pretend to be one, but I do just love telling people about this machine because for what it did for me and if people can relate to me that is something that I will never find words for because it's so amazing and surreal to me.