The Burns Fitness Podcast

In this episode I go back to the basics and do an information dump on the fundamental concepts of fat loss.  I talk all things calories, metabolism, macros, protein, carbs, fats and how it all works together to achieve fat loss. It's really quite a simple equation - or is it? I discuss why so many people struggle with fat loss and unpack a variety of less obvious factors that influence a person's...

Here we go again gang! Join me today as we take just a slight pit stop into the questions of WHY you want to lose body fat this fall, before we dive into, fat loss, as a topic, head first! In this episode I discuss the 2 main reasons people tend to want to lose body fat. I try to drive home the importance of knowing which bracket you fall into because it should impact the how, when and what we do...

Summer vibes are getting strong and are only going to get stronger! Let's ready our minds so we can tackle what may be one of the trickiest times of year to navigate health and fitness. Today I talk about intrinsic motivation - what it is and how it impacts the trajectory of our overall health and fitness goals. I give some practical tips on what we can do to build our intrinsic motivation and how...

To wrap up this series, we are going back to that magic pill we started things off with. The key to all the health benefits that we’ve talked about in this series is CONSISTENCY. The more consistent you are at “taking your pill” the more benefits your body will experience. Join me today as we discuss the secret ingredients that make consistency possible: balance, moderationg and mental flexibility...

The last piece of the fitness puzzle, the support beam that holds our twin pillars of cardio and strength together, the self care piece that allows us to live injury free and comfortable - today we are talking about the gospel of the "ility's". More specifically today we are focusing on stability, mobility and flexibility. Join me as we relearn how to move to prevent injury which is the heart and...

Who knew that muscle mass, muscle strength and grip strength were as great predictors of longevity, life span and health span as VO2Max? I did! And we're going to talk all about it in today's episode! Join me as we discuss the natural process our bodies follow as we age regarding muscle and bone density, specifically. We talk about the centenarian decathlon, what it is and why it can be such a hel...

Reflection is such an overlooked art in the journey of getting healthier. As important as goal setting and developing an action plan is, there is alot of benefit that comes from taking time to analyze how you're doing and making small tweaks to your plan to keep you on path. I call it calibrating. We make a plan, life happens, we try our best and then we learn from what unravels and apply that lea...

This is an exciting one folks! Join me today as we talk all things Cardio! What is cardio? What is V02max and why does it matter? How does cardio benefit our health anyways? Why should we focus on zone 2 and 5 and what even are the zones to begin with? All this and so much more! If you have ever wondered why people rant and rave of the importance of prioritizing cardio, look nor further. This epis...

Today we talk about exercise minutes, how important they are for long term health and how they are most easily achieved when we are doing things that we enjoy! Join me as I get practical in sharing the different milestones we can shoot for as far as our weekly exercise minutes are concerned. But more importantly as I discuss WHY getting those exercise minutes in is so important. I talk about the 4...

New series alert! FACING FITNESS! Join me today as I ramble about all of the benefits that exercise can add to your life and why we should really consider making fitness a higher priority in our lives. In this new series I will be taking you on a journey, week by week, as we face fitness together, hopefully guiding you on how to build a system / routine / exercise program that works exactly perfec...

Just a little pre-round interview to  get us motivated for spring! In this episode I do a live coaching call with my little brother, Joey Daigle. Join us as we talk about his goal of getting out of the 300s, his plan on how he will get there and the health obstacles we are tackling as he faces fitness head on. Often times when people set out to improve their health, they take on too much at once a...

Today I wrap up this series with talking about the impact of group and social dynamics on our goals and lifestyle changes that we are aiming for. Our surroundings and environment can really play a role in either influencing us for the better, in support of our goals or sadly, often for the worst, away from our goals. I discuss 3 angles of group change that you should consider and encourage everyon...

In this episode I am joined by one of my favorite people on this planet. This woman radiates joy and beauty in everything she does, not to mention compassion and strength. I have always had high respect for her and appreciate and admire so much of the way that she chooses to live her life. I am just delighted that she is willing to share her journey with us and that we get to learn from someone wh...

When it comes to the process of scaling habits, there are two general categories: habits that grow and habits that multiply. Join me as I compare cultivating our habits to that of cultivating a garden and discuss next steps in growing these tiny habits that we have been working on all winter. I also talk about 5 important things to consider as you contemplate in what ways you can grow you tiny hab...

The truth is, we kind of suck at being nice to ourselves, let alone going as far as actually encouraging ourselves. We're very quick to critisize ourselves or pick out all the little errors we see ourselves accumulate throughout the day. But what if I told you this way of thinking or being is not only hindering your ability to remain consistent with your tiny habits - it's also inhibiting you from...

The last letter in our B=MAP equation may very well be the most impactful. The key to rooting these tiny behaviours that we've talked about, into the very fibre of our lifestyles is in understanding the power of prompts. You may have chosen the perfect tiny habit, tweaked it to be doable and sustainable, and might be ready to implement and incorporate it into your day. But if you do not find a way...

B = MAP Today we look at the A in our behaviour change equation which is ABILITY. This is the letter that we have most control over and that we can manipulate to best suit our lifestyle. So how do we do that? Simplicity. We have to keep our tiny habits SIMPLE! When they are simple, we are more likely to adhere to them on a regular basis, especially during those lower motivation times when we don't...

Motivation is complex, unreliable and unpredictable at best but sadly most people believe motivation is the true engine of behavior change. Beceause of this belief, as soon as motivation vanishes, so do all of our efforts and action steps toward the goal we were aiming to achieve. This, my friends, is a recipe for frustration, defeat, struggle and angst. If you are on a health and fitness journey...

What we know is: tiny is mighty. But what you may not know is that there are three main variables that drive our tiny behaviors. A behavior happens when the three elements of MAP—Motivation, Ability, and Prompt—come together at the same moment. Motivation is your desire to do the behavior. Ability is your capacity to do the behavior. And Prompt is your cue to do the behavior. In this episode we'll...

Tiny is mighty. Let that sink in. All too often, in our attempt to change the way we do something, we start far too big and too extreme which becomes unsustainable and sadly, doesn't last. This way of goal setting is extremely defeating, discouraging, deflating and just down right frustrating. But not to fear, there is a better way! This winter we are going to focus our attention on tiny habits be...

In today's episode we talk about 5 common misconceptions about being in maintenance and counter them with a more balanced and realistic perspective of what true maintenance really looks and feels like. We discuss some practical take aways and guidelines to help you navigate being in a maintenance mindset and I give you some of my most handy tricks that I lean into for when I'm navigating through m...

This holiday season we are going to be talking about all things maintenance! Maintenance is not simply just for those that reach their weight goal, it is a powerful tool that we can use to help us stick to our goals long term! In this episode I talk about maintenance as a "gear" that we can shift down to during more hectic or stressful times (like December *hint hint - wink wink*). So many people...

Join me as I wrap up this fabulous series on restoring relationships. Today we're talking WOMANHOOD. Everything from periods to perimenopause and beyond. The reason I have this as the closing piece to our series on restoring our relationships is because restoring our relationship with womanhood involves taking a second glance at each relationship we’ve discussed so far and having a specific strate...

Sleep is kind of like the unsung hero in our health and fitness journey. Sadly, this hero flies under the radar for most of us but it really shouldn’t. Join me in this episode as I explain the different stages of sleep along with what happens to our bodies while we sleep, the symptoms and side effects of both short and long term sleep deprivation and lastly practical things we can do to create an...

TODAY mark's 50 pounds down for our very own Meagan MacPherson! And guess what? Meagan lost her first 10 pounds just by listening to this podcast! How cool? Join me in listening to her story on how she got here! We talk about motivation and how's she's kept it going so strong for over a year and a half now. We talk about "inner work" and how restoring our relationship with ourself is such a crucia...