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Yes You Can!

Body of Fitness Team — Sun, 29 Nov 2009 21:29:00 GMT

Thanksgiving weekend was just what I needed it to be. I was surrounded by good thoughts, people I love, humor, reflection and...of course...exercise.

I don't know about any of you, but the holidays used to fill me up with as much nervous energy as excitement. The excitement came from enjoying the lights, the smells and the festivities because they're all full of wonder to me. It's a time of year to celebrate being thankful for all we have and get just a little excited for any gifts we receive. The nervous energy however, was because I felt lousy about my body and I was afraid of the food I would overindulge in and all of the overcompensating I would have to endure after the New Year.

I know for me, the best gift I can give myself is year round exercise. It just makes everything else out there taste sweeter. The same goes for all of you as well...but I have a feeling I may know of at least one thing (other than the economy, which I'll discuss some other time Zzzzzzzzzz) that holds you back from making this commitment to yourself.

I'm talking about FEAR. Many people are afraid of fitness. They believe it means long and torturous hours spent doing things they hate while enduring plenty of pain and giving up everything they want to indulge in. They think that unless they convert to a lifestyle full of deprivation and unrealistic goals, they'll never get what they want.

FEAR will lead you to believe that you will suffer and fail. It will keep you in a comfort zone of the familiarity that doesn't seem so bad in comparison to the discomfort of the walking through the FEAR, even though every other waking minute is a constant, yet milder version of the unhappiness people live every day. FEAR can keep you sedentary, unhealthy and downright miserable. FEAR can make you honestly believe you can't (fill in the blank).

With this mind set... then yes, I'll have to agree that it would be unpleasant to attempt to be fit. However, there is a different perspective that I'd like to introduce to you that may make it easier to get you moving. It's called FAITH. Faith means that anything is possible. It means there is a way to get what you want. You want to feel good about your body right? FEAR will inhibit you from even trying. FAITH can actually illicit some excitement about the possibilities of the changes that lie ahead.

FAITH is a belief that there is a way to get what you want. It's a "Yes I Can" way of thinking. If what you want is to feel better about your body, then have FAITH that indeed you CAN do what it takes to get there. Of course you can get the body you want, or at least the best version of the one you already have. You have to remove the negative thoughts from your mind about what you don't like about your appearance and replace them with what makes you feel good. Putting efforts into a fitness routine can make you feel amazing about your body even way before reaching any set goals. It's the act itself along with the FAITH that constant energy applied at levels that are aligned with your likes and desires will get you results.

Remember back when you were a kid and you used to play outside? You probably used to run and skip and play hopscotch. These are things that can be incorporated into your fitness routine. Other than safety, there are no rules or limitations to how you get to exercise. It can be fun. Fitness can be full of laughter, silliness, competition, sports...you name it. The more you enjoy the process, the more likely you'll stick with it. Find ways to have fun and move at the same time. This action will allow FAITH to become the dominating force in your routine because you'll feel good about what you're doing. This leads to more advanced forms of fitness which in turn will lead to better results and more permanent lifestyle changes.

This is where magic happens! I promise it really does work this way.
Let me know what your fears are. Maybe I can quell them. I'd be willing to bet that I can help you change your thoughts about your body and therefore, change the reality of your physique.

Care to challenge me? Or are you afraid to even try?

Why Wait Until the New Year?

Body of Fitness Team — Thu, 19 Nov 2009 17:55:00 GMT

It's pretty common to believe life begins again after New Year's. This is when goals are set, promises are made and hopes are high.
I have my own belief system about this way of thinking and I want to share with you how changing my thoughts about resolutions have made a HUGE difference in actually sticking to the promises you make to yourself.

Like many people out there, when I was heavy ( over 200 pounds heavy ), I would tell myself how I would join the gym and "get real serious" as my New Year's resolution. I would actually DREAD the day that I was to start this new routine. It felt like a punishment. Every day leading up to it was an excuse to eat whatever I wanted and shrug off exercise because I had a solid "start date". I was gonna do this. It was fine to raid the box of chocolates, stuff myself silly at Thanksgiving and partake in every dish available at every holiday party I went to because my "New Year's Resolution" was gonna fix all of that when that time came.

Well, as always, that time came. The day to start off with some fruit, hit the gym and say no to every food group I loved because I had an extra 10 pounds or so of holiday weight to take off along with the other goodies I abused throughout the previous year. The problem was that by New Year's, I still wasn't really into it. This was because it was foreign to me. Exercise and intelligent eating habits weren't the norm anyway, so how was this going to become so easy now that there was the pressure of this resolution? It didn't and within a few weeks...I, like most of you out there...gave up because I hated it.

I honestly believe that when we think of anything as punishment, we do our best to avoid it. Trying to begin something that we don't usually do in our every day lives on a given date set by society makes most of us look for ways to rebel. Most of us are creatures of routine and breaking that makes us feel out of place in our own lives. If we felt that we could eat what we wanted and do what we wanted on any given day, we'd all be a lot more relaxed.

So how does this relate to fitness and nutrition? For me, my resolution actually began one random day in March a couple of years ago. I had an opportunity to make fitness part of my life. There was no particular holiday or event coming up, so it was easy enough to ease into it without the pressure of a deadline. I simply began to add this new activity into my routine and it took off from there. Of course I had goals, but since there was no immediate time frame,, I was able to enjoy the process with a firm knowing that I would be where I wanted to be by the time some random event popped up. Fast forward to the next holiday season, I was already where I wanted to be and because it was a habit by this time, I wasn't tempted by "everything bad" that surrounded me. I didn't have to set a weight loss resolution for New Year's and life felt pretty good.

This is why I ask, "Why Wait?" If you begin your new lifestyle on any given day, especially before New Year's, you are already in the midst of your routine. The dreaded day of reckoning won't phase you because you'll feel so empowered by the fact that you already started. If fact, if you get started sooner, you probably won't even pack on the extra holiday pounds because you would have already burned them off. This changes the entire perspective of fitness. It's no longer a punishment. It becomes something that just makes sense in life and since you have nothing to prove to yourself in such an immediate time frame, you get to relax, progress into your new lifestyle safely, properly and with joy.

The way to get what you want is to change the way you view what you want. By making the changes before the pressure hits, you get the ability to change how you look at foods and exercise. When they take on a perspective viewed with enthusiasm, the journey becomes joyful and the pride that follows becomes priceless.

I no longer dread the holiday parties. I have no guilt during Thanksgiving dinner and New Year's Day has become a day I feel comfortable with. I'm there. I've done the work.. I expect to work-out on Thanksgiving morning since it's something I've already done before. I may allow myself some treats here and there over the holidays since I don't have any weight left to lose and my metabolism is higher from the work I've put into my daily routines. If it sounds like I'm bragging a little, well, I probably am...but not with a big head. I want this for you. I want you to to feel good. I want you to get your bragging rights. If anything I've written here makes sense, I have no doubt you'll be loving your body and won't need to bother with unrealistic resolutions ever again.

So again, why wait??

When Life Screws With You..Quit Bitching and Exercise!

Body of Fitness Team — Sun, 18 Oct 2009 16:48:00 GMT

Written by Dana

Yeah I know I know. Life sucks sometimes. The boss is a jackass, the house is worth about as much as a pack of chicklets and your kids just totaled your car because they were texting and driving. Most of us have been having it rough lately and honestly...unless Dionne and her psychic friends really do have a magic crystal ball, no one really knows when things will get better. Life has been screwing with many of us and I don't know about you...but I can say for sure that my faith has been tested on several different occasions within these last two years or so.

What does this have to do with fitness? A lot actually.

As it's been well documented, we as a society have become plagued with stress and obesity related diseases. Most of us are tired, broke and scared. Unfortunately, these feelings don't send out messages to The Universe to step in and save us. Sometimes we have to go through the tough times to become the strong, resilient and enlightened beings we are meant to become.

When things get tough, most of us have a tendency to become very lazy. After working longer shifts and getting paid less and less for our hard labor, it's easy to put off exercise and grab whatever's convenient at the next drive thru. This behavior creates a cycle of exactly what we really don't want. It's a feeling of helplessness. Of being a victim of life's circumstances. Life screws with us and we inadvertently take it out on ourselves by being unhealthy because we're tired.

No one ever said life was fair. Sometimes it is, most often it isn't. There is, however, a strategy to dealing with this. It's called exercise. Any amount of effort you put into making yourself stronger in the physical sense feeds the same energy into your emotional and mental capacity. By getting out of your own way and exercising through tough times, you are telling yourself, your surroundings and The Universe that no matter what...you come first. Exercise makes your muscles stronger and therefore, your shape, metabolism and ability to move around are enhanced. This in itself creates inner pride but it doesn't stop there. Exercise delivers oxygen to the brain which allows you to handle stress in a more productive manner. People I know have always commented to me that they've done their best problem solving while in the midst of their fitness regimen. Exercise delivers more oxygen to the rest of the body which helps organs and tissues function at their peak levels and as a result, this creates a greater demand for the body to build more structures for even more oxygen delivery to even more structures which basically means that you are turning your body into a powerhouse of optimal function. Exercise tells your body that you are LIVING and anything you do that tells your own consciousness, your surroundings and The Universe itself that you are LIVING in spite of how badly life is screwing with you is a form of power.

When life feels bad it's common to not know what to do to fix it. If there was an easy solution to life's problems then none of would ever fall into a rut for any length of time. Most often, life gets difficult and the feeling of helplessness comes along with it. Sometimes there really is no quick fix for whatever happens to be going wrong in our lives...but haven't you noticed that most of the time we look for something to do about it? We look for a fix of some sort. We comb the classifieds for job issues, a counselor for relationship issues and a drink for everything else. This tells us that when feeling down we often look to take action. Exercise is an action that is also a solution. When feeling helpless during bad times, fitness is always an action to take. It's a way of physically putting something into motion. It makes you feel like you're being proactive and being proactive makes you feel stronger. Strength gets us out of ruts. Laziness...otherwise known as weakness...keep us there.

Do you now see where I'm coming from? Exercise in the presence of stress is your way of giving up a victim mentality. It's your way to create some of your own fate. There's always a time to sit around and feel bad. Sometimes we need to allow ourselves that quiet time to just feel like crap because life sucks sometimes. But don't stay there too long. Feel it, get up and get moving because when life treats you poorly, it's your responsibility to treat yourself better than life currently is.

Exercise is a way to set aside that time for you and only you. It doesn't have to be fancy or choreographed. It just has to be movement in any form you enjoy. The energy, the act itself of taking that time to strengthen and care for your body is magic. Aside from the physiological aspects of fitness that I mentioned a few minutes ago, the pride you feel when you look good also gives life a special flavor when you're feeling down and out. Think about it...aren't bad things worse when you hate the way you look? I don't mean this to be superficial at all. I'm just pointing out the obvious since most of us are motivated by vanity to exercise. It's bad enough when things aren't going your way, but it's even worse when you look as bad as you feel. This just feeds the misery. We all deserve to be loved and respected regardless of our physiques, but we present ourselves differently when we're in shape and this tends to manifest different outcomes in situations. When we feel good about ourselves in the physical sense it shows. It oozes out of us and makes us more attractive for opportunities to go our way. Besides, when life sucks, hating the way you look in anything makes it suck even more. No sense in denying this. It's the absolute truth.

Things have been tough for me too. I'm tired from working two jobs, going to school, training clients and still having financial let downs. Sometimes, despite my best efforts, I feel like life is screwing with me. Do I feel like getting my work-out done in the middle of the day in between my jobs? Nope. I'd rather sit on my ass and watch Iron Chef America or something. I get my work-out in anyway though because it's my responsibility to treat myself better than my circumstances are. It makes me feel better. It makes me feel stronger and it makes me feel as though I'm commanding a form of respect from myself because I'm doing what's best for me instead of what's easiest. And damnit...it's hot outside. Shorts are my friends right now and I'm not letting life screw with me enough to not look good in my shorts in ninety degree weather.

Again...when life screws with you, quit bitching and exercise. Make sense?

Welcome!

Body of Fitness Team — Thu, 05 Mar 2009 19:43:00 GMT

Welcome to our blog!!! This is an opportunity to share thoughts, feelings, education and strategies about health and fitness.
We created this out of sheer passion for the fitness industry and our desire to help other people learn to love exercise in safe, realistic and attainable ways.
Our society is becoming dangerously obese and sedentary. The health issues associated with nutritional deficiencies and physical inactivity are reaching record numbers and it's impossible to ignore. It's common sense to understand that when we don't eat right and aren't physically active, we simply do not function properly. We'll get into the specifics on how the body reacts to these situations in detail later on.
For now, we want you to know we're here. It's our pleasure to provide you with insight, education, motivation and a place to share your thoughts. No judgements here. None of us are perfect and that isn't what we are about anyway. We're about helping you be the best you can be and be held accountable for the choices you make that directly affect your health and your lives.
Again, welcome!!