Workshops

The X-Weighted Connect event day will include 4 amazing and interactive sessions:

Doctor On Call

Diets don’t work. Our bodies are built to like and want food, and to think about how to get food and eat food above almost all other behaviours. And we can build a “Greatest Hits playlist” of thoughts permitting us to do so. Calories equal survival. So how do we manage our million year old DNA , which is programmed for food scarcity, in the face of a food abundant environment? Dr. David Macklin reveals the 10 most common risk settings. By learning our patterns and habits we can understand the underlying reasons why we over-eat, and the methods we can use to overcome the battle. You’ll discover the truth behind “hyper-palatable” foods, why we’re physiologically conditioned to crave them and what we need to do to avoid them. Volunteers from the audience will be invited to join Dr. Macklin on stage to explore their risk settings and discover the solutions to managing weight.

Food Fight

Join Dr. David Macklin and Paul Plakas in this entertaining game-show session as they share tips and debunk myths about the foods we eat and the ones we shouldn’t. Audience can volunteer to participate and win prizes in the following games:

1. Sticker Shock - Guess the true caloric costs of some of our most popular food items.

2. Pick the Grain – Chew through the gluten and show us the dough: are all grains bad? Test your skills and guess which grain products make the cut and which fall short.

3. Make My Day – What’s a 1300, 1500, 1800, 2000 calorie meal plan look like? Volunteer to organize the menu for your daily allowance.

Connecting the Dots

The willingness to be ‘UN COM FORTA BLY comfortable’ is a very personal, simple (not easy) yet powerful place to live from. The developed world has created a belief that seeking ‘balance and comfort’ is a primary need in life. So when things seem off balance and uncomfortable we tend to run back to the familiar instead of ‘turning to face the strange’ (David Bowie).

Steffany Hanlen will guide you to connect with The Change (or Strange). To know it, embrace it, and fearlessly step into it. To witness how really small the change can be, and how BIG the stories have become around it in our daily lives. Anyone who has ever achieved a goal, however big or small, has been UN COM - FORTA BLE during the process. Think: giving birth, winning a Medal, moving cities, changing jobs, starting or leaving relationships….managing weight is exactly the same. Success in anything is grounded in embracing the change, not putting up a barrier- and then taking it step by step, and most importantly - not doing it alone. The paradox in all of this is that in order to be ‘in balance’, one has to be OFF balance (think: skating), and to be comfortable one has to embrace change which can be and is UN COM FORTA BLE, until it’s not.

Get a Move-On!

Paul Plakas has been known to cut through the baloney and get to the heart of the matter. When it comes to physical fitness, he has heard every excuse, seen every mistake and experienced the wrath of many individuals pushing through their personal levels of agony to reach the thrill of victory. Paul will share the 5 most common mistakes he has seen people make when they get active, whether as beginners or athletes. He will demonstrate the moves that generate the best results and have the most effective impact on physical conditioning. Paul will also address the question: what do we need to do to keep physical activity interesting and a part of our everyday lives?

And much more!