I am blessed. Thank you, everyone, for being in my
life. My family, my friends, my
clients, you all bring me so much joy.
May this day and all your days be full of good things.
Thursday, November 24, 2016
Wednesday, November 23, 2016
Do it anyway!
When we are in the midst of
holiday preparations or traveling, it is a challenge to fit in our
workouts. We need to do it anyway.
For one thing, we need to
remember that we are important, too.
Taking care of ourselves is a prerequisite for taking care of other
people. It gives us an opportunity
to set a good example for our kids (or maybe the other adults around us who
could use a little nudge in a good direction).
Additionally, we will have more
energy and sharpness to use as we work and play on the holiday. Who doesn’t want that? Cardio will help us sleep better and
manage our stress. Weights will
help us keep our metabolisms on track.
Pilates and yoga will help us stay centered and peaceful.
We can do this!
Tuesday, November 22, 2016
How to Holiday
This week, for most adults,
begins the onslaught of holiday food (those of us who started at Halloween got
a head start). If we do not want
to end up in January wondering what the heck happened, we have to have a
plan. Here are some suggestions.
Don’t contribute to the problem. We like to give food gifts, but we can choose healthier
ones, like spice mixes or pickles or whole grain muffins instead of cookies and
candy. When we bring something for
the big dinner, we can choose to bring vegetables or salad without the super
fatty and sugary touches. Don’t
push seconds. Choose small
plates. Freeze the leftovers right
away so they are not there, lurking in the fridge for that moment of boredom.
Manage emotions. This
is easier said than done when we mix crazy relatives and high expectations. However, it is always a good idea to
take a walk, or play some backyard football, or take the kids to the park. Movement does wonders. Making sure to take care of ourselves
also helps; if we need to hop in a hot bath and tell no one to bug us unless
things are on fire, so be it.
Have a taste, unless that is a trigger. If Aunt Mildrid made that special pie you have loved since
you were tiny just for you, it is all right to have a little. We work on our fitness in order to
enjoy life, so enjoy that small piece.
Unless, of course, that piece acts like a gateway drug and suddenly you
are shooting up powdered sugar in the kitchen at midnight.
Laugh. These are
holidays, after all. Find the good
parts and savor them.
Monday, November 21, 2016
Monday Workout: Thankful for our bodies!
This week’s workout has some
good-for-us compound exercises to keep our heart rate up and our whole body working. If you do not have a medicine ball, you
can do the lunge twists with a dumbbell.
If you do not have a kettle bell, you can use a dumbbell for the over
yets as well. (See here for how to
do over yets). Three rounds!
step up to press
|
30
|
ball flies
|
20
|
pushups
|
10
|
|
|
med ball lunge twists
|
30
|
ball bench press
|
20
|
over yets
|
10
|
|
|
plyojacks
|
30
|
curls
|
20
|
lateral raises
|
10
|
Friday, November 18, 2016
Friday Book Report: Emotional Intelligence
Daniel Goleman’s book Emotional Intelligence has been around
for a while, but I didn’t get around to reading it until now. In some ways, this is a meta-book,
drawing together information from a lot of different researchers, some of whose
work I have read in other contexts.
Perhaps it is because the ideas
have already seeped out into the culture or perhaps because they seem
intuitive, but I didn’t think there was that much exciting in the book. Essentially, knowing how to recognize
and manage our emotions allows us to function in society to the best of our
other abilities; we unlock our other intelligences by using our emotional
intelligence.
From a fitness perspective, this
concept speaks to engaging the mind-body connection. We recognize our emotions in part through how they feel in
our bodies. Tuning into our bodies
and using our bodies to enhance or soothe our emotional state will create a
better starting point for our other activities in life.
Thursday, November 17, 2016
Door number 1
Time for a list of things that
induce happiness, which reduces stress, which increases health. Ten things!
1. Going
outside!
2. Singing
along with the radio, in the shower, or with friends.
3. Hot
water. May combine with tea and
consume, or bubbles and soak.
4. Bubbles. Blowing them compels breathing, which
is always good.
5. Hugs.
6. Knock
knock jokes. Or puns. Or banana peels. Whatever it takes to make laughter.
7. Babies,
human or animal.
8. Art,
visual, performance, textual, etc.
Make it or check it out.
9. Sweat. If achieved through chores/yardwork,
bonus points for achievement. If
achieved through exercise, bonus points for health. If achieved through sex, double bonus points that require no
explanation.
10. Gratitude. If things could be worse, that means
there are things to be grateful for, and things could always be worse.
Wednesday, November 16, 2016
Pits!
Sometimes when we work out, we
fall into pits. Not literally,
unless we are doing some sort of extreme obstacle course training, in which
case I am not part of the we we are discussing! Metaphorical pits are just as dangerous to our fitness goals
as literal ones.
Not surprisingly, the most common
pits are at opposite ends of a spectrum.
When in doubt, choose the middle road.
One end might best be described
as the pit of despair. We can’t do
anything right. We will never
achieve our goals. We pretty much
suck at everything we are doing.
Everyone else in the entire universe is better, stronger, faster, more
coordinated, and cuter. Nope. Not true. We can always improve.
When we work hard, good things will happen. True, the first thing that happens may be that we develop
some extreme patience, but that is a good thing. When we fall into the pit of despair, we need to use the
Ladder of Doing Something.
Anything we do is better than nothing, because the bottom of the pit is
a depressing place to be. Walk
five minutes. Do one pushup. Do a forward bend and try to reach your
knees (no, not your toes; that’s for a day when you are not in the pit.).
The other end is the pit of
comfort. It’s nice there. We are nice. We recognize that we are so nice that we don’t feel like we
have to do much of anything. This
pit is sneaky. We may not even
recognize that we are in it because it is so cozy there, doing the same easy
exercises over and over again. The
way out of this pit is the Ladder of One More and One Higher. Do the extra rep. Add a pound or two or five to the
weight. Try the advanced version
of the exercise.
We are both awesome and terrible
at the same time. We can offer
solace through effort to our terrible selves and motivation through striving to
our awesome selves.
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