Workout Wednesday- “The Pain/Pleasure Dynamic” September 30, 2009

I know I know…this was the title of yesterday’s post too. However, I talked about the profound Pain/Pleasure dynamic as it applies to Nutrition yesterday, and today I want to talk about how it applies to exercise. Now, the first I ever heard of this in this way, was in the book “Awaken the Giant Within,” by Tony Robbins, who is a brilliant man. He helped me put into words, something I have been describing to clients for a long time. That’s why I am sharing this with you…because it’s awesome!

So, if you haven’t already, please read yesterday’s post. As I explained in it, everything we do is based on pain or pleasure and how we associate things with both. For example, I know some people who HATE to exercise. They associate more pain with working out, than they do with feeling overweight and unhealthy. What they are typically doing is choosing what actions they take based on short-term pleasure rather than long-term pleasure. It may feel better in the moment for them to sit on their couch eating chips rather than go to the gym, but in a month when they have a reunion or a wedding to attend, they will suffer a lot of pain when they feel bad about themselves. So, ultimately, it comes down to what causes you more pain in the long run, unless you are fulfilled by the quick fix. I find most of us are never fulfilled by the quick fix. It just leaves us more and more empty and farther from what we truly desire. So, WHAT DO YOU WANT? Do you want short-term pleasure or long-term pleasure??? Personally I want long-term pleasure because I am seeking long-term happiness, not a quick fix.

So next time you are on the fence about working out, ask yourself these questions. “In the short-term, will it cause me more pain to work out or to sit here and watch TV?”  “In the long-term what will be more painful, to be fit, feeling great, and ready to show up for anything, or to be overweight, unhealthy and feeling embarrassed about my body?” “Which do I prefer, short-term pleasure or long-term pleasure?” Once you have answered these questions HONESTLY to yourself, you will know what to do.

So any questions for me? Please leave them here. Here’s To your Health!!!

Nutrition Tuesday- “The Pain/Pleasure Dynamic” September 29, 2009

Everything we do, all the choices that we make, are all based on whether or not something causes us pain or pleasure. Tony Robbins talks a lot about this in his book, “Awaken the Giant Within.” For example, those who procrastinate put things off because the doing of them registers as more painful than the not doing of them. It is only when putting things off becomes more painful than taking action, that a procrastinator finally decides to take care of business. This is the same for everyone and everything.

When it comes to diet, some people associate pushing desert away with pain, while others feel complete pleasure by saying no to dessert. The person who gets more pleasure out of eating the cookie, is choosing short term pleasure, and will most likely suffer later when they are over weight and frustrated with their health, where the one who resists dessert is choosing long term pleasure, even though they must pass on the delicious cookie in the moment. This is not to say that eating a cookie is always long-term pain, but if you are wanting to lose body fat, most likely it is not the best choice, unless it’s your cheat for the week.

What I am saying is that all it takes is a simple shift in our thinking about what causes us pain or pleasure. Being aware of this can act as a guide to making healthier, wiser decisions. If I want to maintain a lean, healthy body, then I understand there are certain things I just shouldn’t eat most of the time or ever. Therefore, if I find myself reaching for a brownie or a piece of pizza, I ask myself, “Will this cause me long-term pleasure or long-term pain?” My goal is to always choose long-term pleasure over short-term pleasure the majority of the time because I prefer long-term happiness.  Ultimately, for me,  no food tastes as good as thin feels. Even if something tastes amazing in the moment, after it’s gone, or when I wake up the next morning, I will not feel as good if I ate junk than I will if I ate clean. I know this as a fact now, so I have been able to link bad eating habits with pain instead of pleasure. This is a very helpful tool I suggest trying. First of all, set your goals and your intentions for what you want to achieve. Then, based on those goals and intentions ask yourself before each decision you make if what you are about to do is going to cause you long-term pleasure or long-term pain and you’ll then know what to do. Usually if it leads to short-term pleasure or instant gratification, that typically means you will pay for it later!!! Keep me posted on how this works for you in your life! Please post all questions and comments here for me on the blog. Here’s To Your Health!!!

See this video below to help make new pain/pleasure associations. It’s gross though, so beware!

Workout Wednesday- “Changing with the Seasons” September 23, 2009

As the seasons change, be aware of how you feel and change with them. We too, change with the seasons.

Hey everyone. How are you doing this week? I know I’ve been hearing a lot of people say they are a little low energy or feeling a bit off emotionally. I am experiencing something similar, but I do believe it’s all a part of the Summer ending and the Fall beginning. As the seasons change, so do we, and I think many of us are feeling the shift internally. Instead of sitting around moping, I think it’s a good time to get even more active. Throw yourself into your workout routine and really push the envelope.

For example, I have been really craving the gym lately, even more than usual, so I am going to capitalize on that. I am also eating quite a bit more, so I have some extra calories I need to burn, LOL. They have actually turned out to be a great source of fuel for my workouts. However, today it hit me. I’ve been doing the same amount of sets of my full body circuit, for about 4 months now. Even when I make the exercises harder, it only challenges me a little bit more. So in order for me to really crank it up, and make the most of where I am internally, I am going to add an extra set or two of my full body circuit. So on the days I do 2 sets, I’ll do 3 and on the days I do 3 sets, I’ll do 4!!! Yep, this should be interesting to see what happens. My body, mind and spirit seem to be really craving more of everything, so I am just going to trust that and go with it.

Where are you internally? Do you feel the shift of the seasons inside of you? Are you feeling a bit like you need to shift things in your life as a result? If so, let me know! I’d love to help you figure out a good way to compliment your life with a few good fitness tips. Please leave your questions and comments here for me on the blog! Here’s To Your Health!!!

Nutrition Tuesday- “Be Aware” September 22, 2009

When we are kids we learn to eat for comfort, celebration, happiness, as a reward, or something to sooth our pain.

Do you struggle with cravings? Do you ever find yourself over eating? Or maybe you stick to a certain diet for a good while, but then find it impossible to keep going and remain fulfilled longer than 3 or 4 months. Well, there is a reason for these things. I wanted to bring this to your attention because I am hoping to bring you some awareness about why you do what you do.

You see, if you are suffering from major cravings you cannot seem to curb, or over eating, or get burnt out nutritionally from any one specific diet you’re on too long, then you are most likely entering a transformative place in your life. There are our primary foods, and our secondary foods. Primary food includes, career, relationships, spirituality, and exercise. Secondary food is actual food. However, if we are not fed first and foremost by our primary food, we may feel hungry for something all the time, until such time we get that void filled. A lot of people confuse the hunger for a primary food or foods for being a craving for a secondary food. This is a big problem, because secondary food cannot and will not EVER fill the needs we have for primary food.

Therefore I encourage you to start asking yourself questions. When you feel hungry, try drinking some water. If you are craving sugar, try eating a piece of fruit. If these things don’t help, most likely you are emotionally hungry and should really begin the search for what primary food your soul is craving. Otherwise you may over eat or jump from diet to diet. Also, when you feel like eating something unhealthy, pause first. Maybe go and meditate for 5 minutes, and then re-assess. It’s important to differentiate where your hunger is coming from so you can be aware of it and know a better approach to satisfying what’s really going on in your body.

Please let me know if this resonates with you. This is really just a glimpse into cravings and hunger and why our minds get to thinking we are hungry for the wrong things. I welcome any questions or comments you have for me here on the blog. Here’s To Your Health!!!

Holistic Thursday- “First Thing’s First” September 18, 2009

I want to talk more about this topic with you next week. I am addressing the importance of making certain things the priority and letting go of other things that may not be as important in the NOW. It is not healthy, nor does it make us happy, when we are stressed out about all the things we cannot get done because something major requires our attention. Sometimes that major things is ALL that matters. I will be discussing how to know what is the priority for you, and how to let go of the rest so you can enjoy the journey, but for now…I gotta get back to something major:) I’ll be back on this topic next week! Please leave all your questions and comments for me here on the blog! Here’s To Your Mental, Physical, and Spiritual Health!!!

Workout Wednesday- “Self Myofascial Release” September 16, 2009

Myofascial means “fascia related to the muscles.” I have chosen this subject to write about because I am passionate about people knowing what it is and how to therapy and care for their own bodies. I am a big believer in preventative health care, and myofascial release can be helpful and sometimes necessary for those who are completely inactive, all the way to the super athlete.

First, you must know what fascia is. It is a strong connective tissue that surrounds the muscles, bones, and joints and provides support and protection to the body. It runs over and throughout the entire body from head to toe and has three layers, the superficial fascia, underneath the skin, the deep fascia, which covers the muscles and helps keep them divided and protected, and lastly the subserous fascia, which runs deep inside the body.

Many people suffer from aches and pains and injuries, that are a result of trigger points. Trigger points  can be defined as “areas of muscle that are painful to palpitation and are characterized by the presence of taut bands. Tissue can become thick, tough and knotted. They can occur in muscle, the muscle-tendon junctions, bursa, or fat pad. Sometimes, trigger points can be accompanied by inflammation and if they remain long enough, what was once healthy fascia is replaced with inelastic scar tissue.” Typically this is the result of repetitive movement, bad posture, body imbalances, trauma to the body, etc. If one does not care for their fascia by releasing it with trigger point therapy or myofascial release, they may suffer from a weakening, easily injured, and full of pain body.

Self-myofascial release is a great and pretty easy way  to alleviate pain by releasing trigger points. There are the basic pieces that one needs to do this, such as a foam roller or pipe roller, a piriformis release ball, a psoas release ball, and a tennis ball for in between the shoulder blades and to release the traps (at the top of shoulders and at the bottom of the neck). You can buy the foam rollers at Perform Better.com by clicking here. For more information on what to buy, where to buy it, and how to use it…please feel free to leave all questions and comments here for me on the blog! I am happy to help you. Also, if you are in the Los Angeles area, I teach a myofascial release class that is awesome, so check it out here!  Here’s to Your Health.

This is a video I’ve used before in a previous post about “rolling out.” I’ve posted it again for those of you who heaven’t seen it yet, in order to teach you all how to do this.

 

Nutrition Tuesday- “I LOVE Food!” September 15, 2009

Yep, that’s correct…I LOVE FOOD! I use to think this was a bad thing, but I have learned that there is a reason for that:) Last week I enrolled in Nutrition School at New York’s Institute for Integrative Nutrition. This school is absolutely amazing, and will teach me all about food and how we can use food to improve the quality of our lives.

You see, ever since I was a child, I have always loved food. It makes me happy. I like eating it, being around it, and cooking it for myself and others. I LOVE to feed people! I am absolutely fascinated by food, especially the more I learn about it, how it affects us, and how we can literally heal ourselves if we eat it correctly. I don’t know about you, but I like to feel good, and if I can find a way to eat healthy and feel good, and have all my cravings satisfied, then I just may believe I’ve died and gone to heaven LOL! Well, that’s precisely what I intend to do, even more so than I already have. This is why I’ve decided to further my education and knowledge by enrolling in such an innovative school. It not only focuses on food, but also, how to feed our bodies with things like spirituality, relationships, work, and exercise. If we are not fed in all of these areas, than we will always feel hungry and may mistake that for needing to eat food when we don’t, hence the growing rate of obesity.

I love food, and I love to feel good and help others feel good. I look forward to sharing with you everything that I will learn on my journey. I assure you there will be lots of good information for you to take with you in your tool box for life. I wish you well. Please leave all your questions or comments here for me on the blog. Here’s To Your Health!!!

Holistic Thursday- “Living a Fit Life” September 10, 2009

I hope you all know just how much I truly enjoy writing to you and sharing my life with you. This blog is an outlet for me to do something that I love a lot. I am such a believer in people doing what they love in life. It is so important, and is a main ingredient to living a fit life. Fitness comes through exercise, eating healthy, and making choices that honor every part of ourselves. I’m talking about  following that voice within, that urges us to try new things and take chances even when we are scared or don’t know how.

You see, working out and eating in a way that respects your emotional, mental, and spiritual well being is a piece of living a fit life. The other piece is exercising your ability to evolve, grow into the best version of yourself, and experience a happy, joyous, and free life. We need all of it if we want to be living a fit life.

A dear friend of mine, and colleague, Margalit Ward and her partner Shannon Bindler, run a company they call Get Up Girl, which is a women’s coaching group. They “offer inspirational programs, such as, coaching, workshops, and retreats, that help women create an ideal vision for their personal and professional lives. These dynamic group and individual settings encourage participants to honor themselves, remove obstacles, and create a clear action plan for achieving success.” (Don’t worry guys…if you are interested in this kind of support, let me know and I can direct you to the right people:)

I am a big fan of Get Up  Girl,because I am a big fan of YOU. We all need help sometimes, getting to where we know and feel in our hearts we want to be. That is what I do. I help you get closer to living a fit life, as the highest, most authentic you. Working with people like Margalit and Shannon brings me tremendous joy because together we can truly make a difference in each others lives. (Yes…you help us as well, as we all learn from each other:)  

If you are feeling a bit lost, or need a change in direction in life, or are feeling blocked from achieving your goals and dreams, I strongly suggest signing up for one of Get Up Girl’s workshops or events. They even have a free workshop tonight at 7pm-9pm and next Thursday at 7pm-9pm, called “Take Charge of Your Success.” Check them out on their amazing web site for more details: @ www.GetUpGirl.org.  Make sure to read their rock’n blog too 🙂 They can truly help you shape your life into a Fit Life! Please leave all questions and comments for me here on the blog. Here’s To Your Health!

Workout Wednesday- “The Fountain of Youth” September 9, 2009

 

We all talk about the benefits of working out to look good, feel better, strengthen our muscles, keep our hearts healthy, etc, but not many people talk about the importance of resistance training for bone density maintenance. I have to wonder…is this because they don’t know???

One of the first things I tell new clients over the age of 30, is how weight/resistance training (not cardio) contributes to overall health in more ways than just the obvious. At the age of about 21 for girls, and 25 for guys, we all naturally begin to lose muscle. In fact, we can lose up to 5% per year if we are not working out. What does this mean? Well, since 1 lb of muscle burns 50-100 calories at rest, then what it means is a seriously slow metabolism and an atrophied body with really bad posture by the time you’re in your 50’s…if you are lucky to last that long even. We need  to maintain a certain amount of muscle to avoid “shrinking,” “hunching over,” and having hip replacements and the like.

When we loose our muscle, aside from the fact of losing the ability to burn fat, we run the risk of loosing bone density. Our bodies literally begin to deteriorate. Therefore, we must build a certain amount of new muscle tissue each year just to counteract what we are losing naturally. If we don’t, then after our muscle has withered away, the deterioration will then move into the next level…our bones!!! Resistance training has been proven to contribute to the building and strengthening of new bone density in people with and without Osteoporosis. Osteoporosis is real and it tends to be more active in females, but females also have a lot less muscle then men just genetically. In my opinion, both genders are equally at risk in different ways, and both need to nurture their bodies against the deteriorating effects of aging.

I like to call excercise the Fountain of Youth, because it really is one of the only ways we can keep ourselves young. We will all get older, and age, but why not do what we can along the way to age gracefully, peacefully, and joyfully. I welcome any of your questions and/or comments here for me on the blog. Here’s To Your Health!!!

NutritionTuesday- “Eating to Feel Good”

WHAT’S YOUR BASKET FULL OF???

Well, hope you had a great Labor Day weekend and wore all the white in your closet just one last time LOL 🙂 I actually got confused by the holiday yesterday and was thinking today was Monday, and therefore am just now getting this post up at 7:45 pm Tuesday. Sorry, I’m a bit late but at least it’s up!

Lately I have been researching all different kinds of diets, and philosophies because I have been very aware of the importance in eating the right foods for my individual body. One persons food is another persons poison. Also, certain diets such as Macrobiotic or Raw, as amazing as they are and as much as I recommend them, are just not good to do year round, for most people. I find that cycling these different theories based on bio-individuality, is the best solution for health and vigor.

For me, I am intuitively able to tell when my body needs me to be eating more protein, or when I am requiring lots of fruit or none at all. I go through phases of being really hungry all the time, and then there are times when I barely think of food. So it has been very helpful for me to learn how to keep a healthy diet throughout every phase my body’s cycle is in.

I am also becoming more and more aware of the quality of food I put into my system, and the energetic difference it makes on my daily life. Whole and/or Organic foods have a lasting effect on how good I feel overall, where foods that are somewhat processed can make me feel good for a little while, but eventually begin to drain me of my positive energy. For the most part I avoid eating meat because it is hard on the digestive system and it is a very low energy food. Let’s face it, meat is something that is DEAD, so you take on that DEAD ENERGY when you eat it. It’s not that I never eat it, just rarely. I choose to eat fish for my animal protein when I do, because it’s a little easier to process, but it tends to be high in mercury. It’s best to eat as much live foods (from sprouted grains, raw fruit, veggies, nuts, etc) as you can each meal, and we all need a certain amount of protein to sustain our strength, but again, the combination of these foods considered to be beneficial, vary for the individual. Every body has different needs.

I still eat a big steak every now and then, when my body tells me to. I have gotten my instrument so clean, that I am able to tell what my body needs and when, based on the cravings I am having. I also have learned to pay close attention to my cravings in order to differentiate from the things I think I’m craving vs. what I am actually craving.

The bottom line is, eat food to feel good. If you want to feel good for a few minutes or and hour or so, and that’s it…well, then go for the foods that do that for you. I personally like to feel good all day every day, and therefore choose to eat the foods that do that for me. Of course I am not perfect and therefore basically stick to a 90/10 rule, eating good energy foods 90% of the time and whatever I want for the other 10% 🙂 Luckily for me I typically WANT to eat what make me feel good!

I know learning how to eat better can feel very overwhelming, but if you want a better life, you gotta start somewhere. Why not start with what you eat??? Eating clean will lead to an overall better life! I am happy to help you on your journey. Please leave all your questions and comments here for me on the blog. Here’s To Your Health!!!