Starting My Fitness Journey with Innovative Fitness

Dear Friends,

I wanted to share with you a new venture that I have started. I call this venture: longevity. It’s my journey to a healthy and balanced lifestyle and fitness regime.

Over the past 18 months I have concentrated on making some positive changes in my life. I started with making simple changes to my diet including: looking at portion size, eating more colours, and minimizing my love of all things processed and fast! 

The positive news is I went from 314 lbs pre-pandemic to 250 lbs as of today. I feel much better and now have a great appreciation for the indulgences one must have to stay balanced.

In August, I decided that I also needed proper training to ensure that I build and maintain healthy muscles and continue to reduce my body fat percentage. I did a ton of research and found an outstanding company: Innovative Fitness.

Innovative Fitness (IF) has multiple studios across the GVRD. I decided to train at IF Kitsilano located at 2080 West 10^th  just off Arbutus, near the Arbutus Greenway.

I reached out to my former colleague at Great Canadian Gaming, Penny Greening – now Director of Marketing at Innovative Fitness – and we set up a time to meet and discuss my apprehension from prior training experiences and my desire to increase my mobility, stamina, and general well being.

Penny was phenomenal. She had me meet with the Innovative Fitness Kits team where I was able to ask a ton of questions. They also asked me questions about what I want to achieve.

Fast-forward a week later… I met my coach – the most amazing trainer, Mel (who’s from South Africa). She and I have started a regime that involves 3 sessions per week including cardio, weight training, endurance, and balance. Mel is such a positive force and provides me with the perfect balance of discipline and encouragement as I start this new chapter in my life.

What I love about Innovative Fitness is that the sessions are intimate, the facility is top notch and the professional training coaches are some of the best anywhere! AND – new clients are always offered their first sessions at no cost so that one may decide if “IF” is right for them.

So why am I sharing this? For me, I have always been self-conscious of my weight and appearance when I am on stage and at the many events I attend and host /MC and Auctioneer at annually. I was never able to get my weight down and stay down. Since my weight loss started, I knew I would need to couple it with a smart fitness regime. A regime I could continue with for many years to come, and one that would provide me with the necessary tools to stay active and become healthier. One that would include further reduction in body fat, healthy heart, lungs, and overall balance.

I am so proud to announce that I am now an official ambassador to Innovative Fitness and that I will be blogging to share my new health journey. This will undoubtedly include highs and lows, and amazing benchmark moments that I will be able to share with you through my posts and video blogs (including actual sessions!) as we go.

I am doing this not only because I think Innovative Fitness and their outstanding team of professional training coaches are great, but as another means to stay on track and be accountable. This is a new chapter in LIFE that I intend to embrace for many years to come.

My uniquely tailored program also comes with Beyond Nutrition. My IF nutritionist (Ismael) will teach  me, virtually,  how to create a healthy food plan and lead a healthier lifestyle that will set me up for success as I look to reach an ideal weight of 203 lbs.

Beyond Nutritionis an exclusive service provided by Innovative Fitness that can be added on to any Personal Training package.

Please join me virtually on this journey, and reach out if you ever have questions or thoughts about this exciting new venture, or about Innovative Fitness.

Thank you to Penny and Adam and the whole crew at Innovative Fitness. Nothing comes easy… but I am ready, willing and able to meet this challenge head on and with the help of Mel and her teammates at Innovative Fitness!

Follow me on my new Innovative #FitnessFriday blog and on my social media Instagram, LinkedIn, and Facebook for updates.

– Howard Blank