Life is not a box of chocolates, it's a trainer. I realized this today.
First of all, I was telling a client about a plan of mine, but was on the fence. She asked what was holding me back, and I giggled "fear". She said: "if one of your clients said that to you, what would you say?"
Hm. Good point girlfriend.
After the session, on my way to the gym, I got some bad news. We all have bad years, and this past one has been mine. When you're scrambling to get on your feet, life can keep kicking and kicking and kicking. Do you A - tuck yourself in a ball and cry? Or B - work HARDER?
In the gym, I ran on the treadmill, uphill. And I got angry. I got angry at all the roundhouse kicks that life was smacking me with consistently (of course I'm not consumed with self-pity, we ALL get these roundhouse kicks in different forms). But it made me want to sweat more, climb higher and run faster. So I did.
I realized that life and these unfortunate instances are training me to kick its butt, to conquer it. Life is my trainer. Crying in a ball (what I truly wanted to do before getting on that treadmill) suddenly felt so blah. Nah - train me harder. I can take it.
As trainers, our goal is not to see our clients scrambling and to triumph in our power over their dismantling form... it is to present each person with their breaking point, and very carefully, however sometimes aggressively, urge and guide them to overcome it.
Today, a client gave me a taste of my own medicine. A client became my trainer. Life is my trainer, and my clients are in large part my life - how interesting.
So to hell with lemons. When life has you scrambling uphill enduring roundhouse kicks, wondering how bloody much more you can possibly stand before you collapse and give up and fall off track forever.... remember, it's training you to kick its butt and triumph. Keep going, keep going, keep going.
Thursday, June 24, 2010
Tuesday, June 22, 2010
Our Options in Life...
I mentioned in a past post that there are many things in life we can't choose, and can't control.
We can't control natural disasters (directly, anyway - that's a whole other blog entry AND blog), we can't control where we're born and what family we're born into. We can't control our genetics. We can't control the lives of other people, how they treat their pets, children, partners, and their own bodies.
We do constantly have choices with our own (bodies). If you have been living uncomfortably for the past five or ten years (or more), you've made that choice. If you decide to give up and accept your body's condition the way it is, that is your choice. If you want to take advantage and bring it to its full potential, you make that call as well. And then every day, you make a decision whether to slide backwards, to remain at a standstill, or to move forward in your own health and happiness.
I feel like quite often people forget about this switch that is either on or off in our heads. We are either actively pursuing satisfaction with our health and bodies, or we are lying passive in dissatisfaction and letting our physical fate be what it's going to be.
So let me remind you of your two options: make a bit of a time, emotional, physical and mental investment for an enormous transformation in how you feel every single day of your life - or don't do anything, remain passive in the passenger seat and complain / fret about 90% more often. One drains our lives, the other pumps it plump with pleasure and vitality.
So you can fall flat, or you can make the call, grab the reigns and live.
We can't control natural disasters (directly, anyway - that's a whole other blog entry AND blog), we can't control where we're born and what family we're born into. We can't control our genetics. We can't control the lives of other people, how they treat their pets, children, partners, and their own bodies.
We do constantly have choices with our own (bodies). If you have been living uncomfortably for the past five or ten years (or more), you've made that choice. If you decide to give up and accept your body's condition the way it is, that is your choice. If you want to take advantage and bring it to its full potential, you make that call as well. And then every day, you make a decision whether to slide backwards, to remain at a standstill, or to move forward in your own health and happiness.
I feel like quite often people forget about this switch that is either on or off in our heads. We are either actively pursuing satisfaction with our health and bodies, or we are lying passive in dissatisfaction and letting our physical fate be what it's going to be.
So let me remind you of your two options: make a bit of a time, emotional, physical and mental investment for an enormous transformation in how you feel every single day of your life - or don't do anything, remain passive in the passenger seat and complain / fret about 90% more often. One drains our lives, the other pumps it plump with pleasure and vitality.
So you can fall flat, or you can make the call, grab the reigns and live.
Sunday, June 13, 2010
Have Your Pizza... And Eat it Too!
Pizza is a favourite of most people, and really, it isn't a terrible food. The things you have to look out for are fat and salt, and disproportionate parts (too thick of a crust, too must cheese).
The tomato sauce offers the cancer fighting skills of lycopene, you get calcium and some protein from the cheese, and it is an opportunity to load vegetables onto something delicious.
The trick is to choose thin crust, and multigrain / whole grain crust where available. If you really want to eat a healthier pizza (and probably actually enjoy it more) make it at home on either whole grain pitas or a whole grain crust from the grocery store (President's Choice Blue Menu makes a great one). Then, you can count on some fibre as well. Avoid most meats - sausages and pepperoni are just too high in fat to include in a meal that has so much cheese. Shrimp, tofu and chicken make great pizza toppings! Or, stick to just vegetables.
When I make pizza at home, I don't coat the crust in mozzarella. I prefer to sprinkle a light amount of feta or goat cheese, which has a stronger flavour and obviously saves a ton of calories and fat through using less.
When you order pizza, ask for half the cheese, thin and multigrain crust... and then here's the real trick... stick to TWO SLICES!
And suddenly this junk food fits into a healthy lifestyle.
The tomato sauce offers the cancer fighting skills of lycopene, you get calcium and some protein from the cheese, and it is an opportunity to load vegetables onto something delicious.
The trick is to choose thin crust, and multigrain / whole grain crust where available. If you really want to eat a healthier pizza (and probably actually enjoy it more) make it at home on either whole grain pitas or a whole grain crust from the grocery store (President's Choice Blue Menu makes a great one). Then, you can count on some fibre as well. Avoid most meats - sausages and pepperoni are just too high in fat to include in a meal that has so much cheese. Shrimp, tofu and chicken make great pizza toppings! Or, stick to just vegetables.
When I make pizza at home, I don't coat the crust in mozzarella. I prefer to sprinkle a light amount of feta or goat cheese, which has a stronger flavour and obviously saves a ton of calories and fat through using less.
When you order pizza, ask for half the cheese, thin and multigrain crust... and then here's the real trick... stick to TWO SLICES!
And suddenly this junk food fits into a healthy lifestyle.
Wednesday, June 9, 2010
When the Going Gets Tough....
Doing a massive wellness overhaul is one of the most difficult things to undertake in life, hands down. It involves busting an addiction to fake foods (almost all of us have this to some degree - it's difficult these days not to), re-organizing one's psychology to keep moving, to quiet some thoughts and illuminate others.
It requires so much mental strength, and the recruiting of all the physical strength to burst through the frustration of the psychological walls.
When you have a long weight loss journey ahead of you, giving up is incredibly easy. All you have to do is NOT put forth the effort to that one workout, instead hit the drive-thru window one more time, and the habits will snowball back to leaving you more lethargic and therefore less likely to counteract the pattern.
The less you do, the less you will do... until you are really doing nothing at all. And I don't only mean in fitness. When we are lethargic and over-fat (I don't like to use the word weight, because the thing that makes too much weight bad is fat), we stop taking advantage of life. We start avoiding it. We start avoiding being social, avoiding getting dressed to enjoy the days (rather dressing to get by as comfortably as possible), avoiding exercising life.
Is this an option? To spend the days avoiding and avoiding? It is wasteful. Life is full of so many amazing experiences and relationships, and it is in our immediate control whether we will waste or will grab it by the you-know-what and start living.
WHEN THE GOING GETS TOUGH, THE TOUGH GET GOING!
It isn't easy. It requires one rounding up all of the mental and psychological strength that their physicality houses and keeping it on the edge of their skin for as much of each day as they can muster.
When you feel motivated, you have to take advantage and jump into high-gear and love every minute of that high of accomplishment. Soon, you will crave that accomplishment, and you won't be able to settle for... settling. You will have to keep moving forward, because that is what life IS. We are here to re-invent, to improve, to prove our full potential to ourselves.
If today, you are unhappy with who you are, whether it be physically, mentally or otherwise, that's okay. Ideally, you will adore yourself every day. But if you are at the beginning of a journey to get to the place where you are living fully in the NOW, take your first step.
Your first step is this: Make each and every day a little bit more progressive than the day before it. And what do I mean by progressive? Eating foods that serve you well, that respect your body and teach you to respect your body by eating them. Move - in one way or another. Our bodies are designed to move. That is our purpose! Then start to think about how you're feeling. Your chemistry will be changing, your energy and happiness levels increase. Your opinion on what you can and cannot change will... CHANGE!
In a world of difficult situations that we cannot control, the devastation of our deteriorating health is one thing that more often than not, we CAN control. And changing the health changes absolutely every single minor detail of our existence...
If you need extra help - someone to listen, coach, push, guide, encourage and smile at you while you change your life, you can call me.
When you feel like giving up, simply think about someone in your life who you wanted to see succeed and take advantage of all that they could, rather than give up and live sadly. Think about how desperately you want that person to pick themselves up and move forward and shed the weight (figuratively) of being stuck feeling helpless.
Let's make the world better.... it starts with you. First.
It requires so much mental strength, and the recruiting of all the physical strength to burst through the frustration of the psychological walls.
When you have a long weight loss journey ahead of you, giving up is incredibly easy. All you have to do is NOT put forth the effort to that one workout, instead hit the drive-thru window one more time, and the habits will snowball back to leaving you more lethargic and therefore less likely to counteract the pattern.
The less you do, the less you will do... until you are really doing nothing at all. And I don't only mean in fitness. When we are lethargic and over-fat (I don't like to use the word weight, because the thing that makes too much weight bad is fat), we stop taking advantage of life. We start avoiding it. We start avoiding being social, avoiding getting dressed to enjoy the days (rather dressing to get by as comfortably as possible), avoiding exercising life.
Is this an option? To spend the days avoiding and avoiding? It is wasteful. Life is full of so many amazing experiences and relationships, and it is in our immediate control whether we will waste or will grab it by the you-know-what and start living.
WHEN THE GOING GETS TOUGH, THE TOUGH GET GOING!
It isn't easy. It requires one rounding up all of the mental and psychological strength that their physicality houses and keeping it on the edge of their skin for as much of each day as they can muster.
When you feel motivated, you have to take advantage and jump into high-gear and love every minute of that high of accomplishment. Soon, you will crave that accomplishment, and you won't be able to settle for... settling. You will have to keep moving forward, because that is what life IS. We are here to re-invent, to improve, to prove our full potential to ourselves.
If today, you are unhappy with who you are, whether it be physically, mentally or otherwise, that's okay. Ideally, you will adore yourself every day. But if you are at the beginning of a journey to get to the place where you are living fully in the NOW, take your first step.
Your first step is this: Make each and every day a little bit more progressive than the day before it. And what do I mean by progressive? Eating foods that serve you well, that respect your body and teach you to respect your body by eating them. Move - in one way or another. Our bodies are designed to move. That is our purpose! Then start to think about how you're feeling. Your chemistry will be changing, your energy and happiness levels increase. Your opinion on what you can and cannot change will... CHANGE!
In a world of difficult situations that we cannot control, the devastation of our deteriorating health is one thing that more often than not, we CAN control. And changing the health changes absolutely every single minor detail of our existence...
If you need extra help - someone to listen, coach, push, guide, encourage and smile at you while you change your life, you can call me.
When you feel like giving up, simply think about someone in your life who you wanted to see succeed and take advantage of all that they could, rather than give up and live sadly. Think about how desperately you want that person to pick themselves up and move forward and shed the weight (figuratively) of being stuck feeling helpless.
Let's make the world better.... it starts with you. First.
Wednesday, June 2, 2010
Beware the Yogurt Parfait
Many of the major fast food chains came out with a yogurt parfait as a healthier alternative.
First of all, let me de-bunk one major myth (to disappoint you all) - granola is rarely healthy. It is often very high in sugar and fat. If you make it yourself and control what's in it, that is another matter.
The yogurt parfaits in these restaurants and even grocery stores use artificially sweetened yogurt which has unnatural things in it and a ton of sugar, on top of its often "glazed" fruit (again higher in sugar than natural fruit) and then this high-fat, high-sugar granola. What do you have? A sugar high, an insulin nightmare... and therefore a begging for fat storage and energy lows.
A REAL healthier alternative:
Use 1-2% plain yogurt. It's real, with few to no additives, clean, and has active bacterial culture. Not only the brands that advertise having this culture do have it (I have a very strong distaste for Activia - marketing gods with little nutritional bang).
Use fresh or frozen raspberries or blueberries. Mmm. Natural sugars (fructose), FIBRE, antioxidants and no disgustingly concocted sugary glaze to go with.
A few tablespoons of walnuts, pieces or whole, to add some healthy fat and essential fatty acids (great for proper brain function, cell function, fat burning, shiny hair.........)
It's still delicious. It tastes REAL. Try it. And bypass the manipulative restaurant chains and eat some real food at home more often, in general. More bang for your buck, nutritionally and financially.
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