Avoid Cabin Fever This Winter with Active Elgin!

Being physically active is an important part of a balanced lifestyle. It is important not only for your physical and mental well-being, but also to help you lead a long and rewarding life. 

With the advent of a new year, resolutions are traditionally sparked for everything from 
becoming more active to learning new skills. 

There is no reason to suffer from cabin fever this winter with so much to enjoy in Elgin. With an abundance of recreational activities and high quality recreational facilities including fitness centres, community complexes and arenas, 

Elgin is the ideal place to stay fit while having fun. As the cold of winter settles across Ontario, Elgin County becomes a picturesque snow-covered haven for many traditional winter activities like snowshoeing, tobogganing and ice skating.  Trails at many of the area’s conservation areas are open year-round so don’t be afraid to bundle up and get some much needed exercise. 

Active Elgin (www.activeelgin.ca) provides a comprehensive listing of recreational facilities and activities available in Elgin County. Whether you join a sports team, take dance lessons or be creative in an art class, Active Elgin can help you find an activity that interests you and your family.

Let Georgina Blankenship Help You Be the Best You Can Be in 2015

Georgina Blankenship launched her fitness and nutrition business because she is passionate about helping people reach their personal fitness goals and be the best they can be.

Blankenship has been interested in health, nutrition and fitness as a hobby for 30 years. Ten years ago, after realizing the profound impact that fitness and nutrition have on people's lives, she decided to formally educate herself in order to help others.

"Health really comes down to what we put in our bodies and how we exercise," said Blankenship.

She is a certified personal trainer, culinary nutrition expert, sports nutrition advisor and 
instructor for The Buff Mom Bootcamp (www.thebuffmom.com) in  Aylmer.

Through her business, Blankenship offers a variety of fitness and nutrition services that can be tailored to meet the unique needs of clients regardless of their situation and fitness level.
Blankenship offers personal training services in the gym or in the client's home. These training sessions can be done one-on-one or, for those who prefer the fun of working out with friends, group pricing is available. Before the training sessions begin, a fitness assessment is done to gauge the overall health of the client. Blankenship also requires her clients to have a pre-workup done by their doctor to ensure that they can safely go ahead with the training program. This is then followed by goal-setting and finally the training sessions. Clients determine the frequency of the sessions, some meeting once a week and others only once a month.

“A Taste of Nutrition and Fitness” is a mini training program that she offers for those who are looking to make a lifestyle change but don't know where to start or are unsure if they want to commit to a longer personal training program. This mini program provides a health assessment, nutritional consulting and a few training sessions with a follow-up consultation to make sure the client is on the right path.

Moving the body regularly is only part of a holistic approach to health. What we put into our bodies is equally as important according to Blankenship. In addition to personal training programs, she offers clients a variety of completely customizable nutrition services.

"No one program is fit for everyone," says Blankenship. "Individualizing is important. I work with the client to determine what they want to focus on and go from there. They may want to learn about macronutrients and how to incorporate more into their diet, focus on eating breakfast regularly, get their blood sugar under control or increase their levels of hydration."

"What is in your Fridge, Pantry and Freezer?" is a service that helps clients to organize their cupboards so they can quickly prepare healthy, nutritious meals. Blankenship provides a 60 minute in-home consultation to help clients purge foods that are stopping them from reaching their goals.  Another service she provides is "Tour the Grocery Store". Blankenship accompanies the client on a shopping trip and explains how to navigate the grocery store to find the healthiest foods, read nutrition labels properly, save money, eat seasonally and identify and avoid unhealthy options. Detailed meal planning can be included with either of these services for an additional fee.

Blankenship wants her clients to know that health isn't about unattainable perfection, but about doing what is best for them and achieving their own unique definitions of success.
For more information about Blankenship’s services or to book a training session or nutritional consultation visit -www.geoginablankenship.com. 

Redding Designs – Beard Approved in Elgin County

In 2001, Rob Redding was part of a Christian band that was in need of a website. Being the industrious guy that he is, Rob purchased a book called “Learn HTML in 24 Hours”, and thus his career in website design began. The group went on to record an album in the studio and the studio asked Rob to build them a website as well – he charged only $100. Word spread about Rob’s skills and he was able to establish Redding Designs as a successful side business.

By 2011, he was working full-time at a trucking company and working all night building websites. It was clear to Rob that he couldn’t continue at this pace as it was exhausting and beginning to affect his time with his wife and children. That same year, he had acquired enough clients to cover his expenses and decided to make website design his full-time job with a business location in Aylmer.  By 2013 Redding Designs (www.reddingdesigns.com) had hired a graphic designer, a programmer and Rob’s wife Amanda was taking over administrative duties.

The business has come a long way since Rob coded his first website in Notepad in 2001. He now offers custom website design, wordpress design, graphic design for print materials, custom logo and brand design, business card design, website hosting services, e-mail hosting and support services, social media account management and Search Engine Optimization.

Redding Designs does not use templates when building websites. They create all the code themselves so that each client can have a 100% unique, fully-customized design.

“We are branding ourselves as a fun-loving group that has a good time but provides a high quality service,” said Rob.

Part of that fun-loving reputation is that all the websites Redding Designs develops must have “The Beard Seal of Approval.”

“All the staff at Redding Designs have beards, except of course Amanda,” laughed Rob. “The Beard Seal of Approval means having a modern design, being mobile friendly, easy to navigate, having an SEO marketing plan in place and having cool, in your face, pictures and graphics.”

Rob thrives off providing services to small businesses who are dealing with the same issues that his small business is. He has clients in Spain, England and California but his relationships with local clients are particularly special.

“We have a friendly community where you can interact without pretension,” said Rob. “We want to be the company that provides high quality professional websites at small town prices.”

Rob Redding, Owner of Redding Designs