Do you have 30 minutes?

If the answer is yes, take off your shoes and do the following set of exercises.  Try not to rest between sets until the entire program is complete.  Then rest, rehydrate and complete two more times.

10 lunges each leg
30 upper cuts with 10 lb weights (increase or decrease weight as needed)
15-20 jumping jacks
15-20 pushups with hands on dumbbells
16-20 plank rows with 10 lb weights
10 mountain climbers with sumo deadlift using 10lb weights (hold into dumbbells, step back with R leg, then L leg into plank.  Step forward with R leg then L leg, stand up still holding onto weights. Repeat 9 times.)

Repeat above.

And by the way, if the answer is no, then find a way to make the answer yes.  You must find 30 minutes a day to exercise.  Move to live.

Be well.

Becoming Fearless

Have you ever felt like the universe was trying to tell you something?  Like, you were thinking of traveling to a remote location and then all of the sudden you see articles about it everywhere and then an email appears advertising a special promotion to that exact location. Or you had a family member diagnosed with a rare condition and then the New York Times runs a week-long series on the disease and Oprah has a special episode to discuss it?

Ok, well those things didn’t happen to me, but I’ll tell you what did.

I’ve been thinking a lot about what it is that is holding me back from achieving my fitness goals.  Of course, I’m continuing to exercise 5-6 times a week but not quite as hard as I could be.  And my eating habits are good but I could be better about making sure that I fit in healthy snacks and water.  But, there’s something else.  Something that’s keeping me from really pushing forward.

I talked to a couple of trusted friends with the hope of teasing out the issue.  But besides stepping up my exercise intensity and adding more whole foods, I couldn’t come up with much.

And then I went to a meditation session for children and their parents.

The meditation facilitator read a children’s book called Peaceful Piggy Meditation about the benefits of meditation in this increasingly hectic world.  Instead of human characters, there were anthropomorphized piggies running from one activity (ballet) to the next (soccer) with everything in between (homework.)  So, how is a little Piggy to manage all of this?  Meditation.

And then she read this one page, with a little pig jumping off a diving board.  The page read, “When we are at peace, we are fearless.”

Bam!  It was like I was being hit over the head.

Fear. That’s it.  I’m afraid.  Afraid of success? perhaps?  Afraid of failure? More likely.  What if I can’t reach my goal?  What if I do?  So, it’s the what ifs that are keeping me from taking the plunge.

But then I thought a bit more.  About everything that I have achieved on my fitness journey.  The pounds lost, the lower body fat, the strength gained, the new career path, the overall sense of well-being and I realized that fear had no place in my life.  Fear needs to go.

I must become fearless.  I need to practice mindfulness and be at peace.

And so I decided to enlist the help of my favorite person, my husband. I asked him to give me 30 minutes of listening.  And he did, and he smiled and nodded and said I could do anything.  And that he would support me.  That there was nothing to fear.

And then, if that wasn’t enough, this article showed up in my inbox from Whole Living on fearlessness.  Really, I’m not kidding.

Bam, like a club on my head again.

And so, I’m setting new goals, knowing that I can achieve them.  I put my heart rate monitor back on and started pushing myself harder at the gym.  I focus on eating all my fruits and veggies and healthy snacks such as nuts.  Another triathlon is in my future as well as additional advanced fitness certification.  I’ve started to meditate 5-10 minutes each day.

And when I feel doubtful, I say to myself, “I’m at peace.  I’m fearless.”

And guess what, it’s working

Be well.  Be fearless.

Mapping out a healthy diet

I came across the article by Jane Brody.  I think she does a wonderful job of summarizing the new dietary guidelines.  But what is particularly good about her article is that she suggests keeping a food diary.   So many times we jump into a new diet regimen without really assessing what we've been doing well and what could use some adjustments.  By taking the time to write down your eating, you will be able to recognize patterns and make small modifications over time rather than sweeping changes that may be difficult to maintain.

And, her muffin recipe looks yummy too.  Try adding some flax seeds for added fiber!

Be well.

Developing a Successful Fitness Program

We all know the recommendations: exercise most days of the week. To take it a step further, experts recommend doing cardio training 3-4 times a week for 30-45 minutes and strength training 2-3 times per week for 30-45 minutes.  But that’s really not going to help you put these guidelines into place.  A bit more prep work is needed.

In order to set up a program, you must first do an assessment.  You wouldn’t institute a program in the community or at work without first assessing the needs of the organization and ensuring that the infrastructure is in place for your program to be successful.  So, let’s start by asking and answering the following questions:

1. What are your goals?
2. Are these goals realistic?
3. How will you measure your progress?
4. What is your support system?
5. What are your time constraints?
6. What have you done in the past - what worked, what didn’t?
7. What do you like to do?
8. How will you be accountable?
9. How will you reward yourself? 

Be honest.  Write down everything that comes to you.  Your personal fitness is important and deserving of your attention and time.  

I’ll give you an example.  

Mary is a 55 y.o. woman who recently found out that her cholesterol was elevated.  Her doctor recommended that she lose weight and exercise.  Mary works 4 days a week and has one teenager at home and another child in college.  She is usually too tired to exercise

Now, let’s work through the questions:

1. Goal: Lower cholesterol by 20 points
2. Realistic: Probably
3. Measurement: Repeat blood work in 6 months
4. Support: not much, husband is also overweight.  a few coworkers are supportive
5. Time: Works 35 hours/per week.  Not able to workout during the day. weekends are open
6. Past: Weight Watchers 
7. Likes: classes, walking
8. Accountable to physician and SELF (this is very important)
9. Reward: new shoes

We learn from this assessment that Mary needs to develop a larger support network, that she will need to be creative about how to get her exercise scheduled and that she probably needs to broaden her exercise options.  And of course, I would recommend that she have a personal trainer. :)

Now, this is just an example but it gives you a basic idea of the process.  I would recommend that Mary consider adding the following goals: lose weight, decrease body fat, increase energy, exercise regularly.  The reason: it’s important to have multiple ways to measure your progress so that if one goal hits an impasse, you won’t give up!

Of course, as you achieve your goals, you will change and will need to reassess yourself.  

Next step, implementation.  More on that in another post.


Be well