Most clients who come to see me are hoping to ultimately lose weight. Yet once that goal has been discussed, the deeper longing rises up, and what bubbles to the surface is a hunger for more energy and confidence.
Saturday, May 7th at 8am, I am hosting a Restoring Strength hike at Marshall Mesa Trail in Boulder (I am keeping my fingers and toes crossed that the weather will be nice and the trail will be less muddy!) to energize your body with a little technique you can do every day, and to help you revive your “Fun Flair for Self-Care”. The hike is about 3 miles, and I’ll be there with snacks and beverages to boost your self-care love while you get to walk some amazing Colorado ground with other inspiring women. Don’t miss the fun.
After 9 years in private practice as a personal trainer, and over 17 years working in health and wellness… I can tell you that it takes strength to get stronger.
Weight loss isn’t easy for many people who lead busy lives and who are dealing with hormonal issues. And isn’t that most of us?
What I see time and time again, is that the dividing factor between those who gain the energy they need to keep pursuing the habits that lead to weight loss, and those who give up, is the strength and resolve a person has to stick with their intentions.
Inside of each of us is a well spring of child-like energy that stems from times before we held limiting beliefs.
Children don’t often care about the outcome, they care about having fun.
They get curious about how much they can lift at once.
They dance around because they feel like it.
They sprint to entice you to a game of chase (because that’s a really fun way to feel loved).
It’s actually really really simple. We just make it hard because we’re adults.
No matter how tired or un-motivated you are, to cure the blah's in your movement get curious about what feels like play to you.
Balance on one foot, Strike a funny pose and hold it; See how far you can jump; dance around to a silly song. The endorphins from the smiles and laughter alone will be worth the effort!
And if you are in need of some consistent energy to get the get-up-and-go desire for play, check out my "Consistent Energy to Strengthen Your Body" Video Series to learn how to rise up and move.
Are you feeling rushed with shopping, partying, packaging, baking, cooking, planning, and...oh yeah, keeping up with your "normal" life?
Imagine! But here's a little secret. These little blips of movement add up to more than you think- and I will testify that one of the primary reasons Erica and I can stay in the shape that we do is because we have lots of little bouts of lifting, moving, carrying, stretching, and rushing in our days. It's the perk of being in fitness, yes, but you can create this for yourself too. All it takes is a little creativity.
A study completed in 2000 showed that subjects who stood and fidgeted burned 81% more calories than those who stood still, and those who sat and fidgeted burned about 50% more than those who sat motionless. Ah-ha.
Here's our top 6 list for Creative Fitness Fit-Ins for the Holidays...
Above all- move. It matters.
P.S. We are partnering with a phenomenal nutrition coach to lead a 21 day Health Transformation support group for January. Stay tuned for more info!!
It's been one of those days. You know, where you start off feeling like you are conquering the world, and then one thing leads to another, and all of the sudden you wanna hide under a rock and stay there for a few days because you can't get your sh*t together.
Or so it seems.
You spill your coffee all over your shoes, you forget your phone, you lose your keys, you get a call from the sitter that she needs to leave early, you have an 'emergency' at work, you're out of cash and they don't take credit, you burn dinner...or all of the above.
Suffice it to say, we have all had those days where everything seems off. The bad news is that some of us see these days as tragic failures on
our part and we require 2-3 days beyond them to recover our self-esteem. What's worse, is that many of you aren't getting your act together when it comes to your health, your activity, and/or your nutrition. Unfortunately it is all too easy to let workouts and eating right slip by the wayside when we have a bad day and then use our lack of discipline or planning to be one more reason to beat ourselves us. I know because I have done it at least a thousand times. And I finally got sick of it. I'd say the reason I stay healthy is more to keep my self-esteem up than it is any other reason. I hate wasting time beating myself up for something that I could avoid if I would just do what IO say I want to do.
What do you want to do for your health that just isn't getting done?
Is it because you "still have to get the rest of your life figured out"? Well, guess what, life is moving on whether you are or not, so you might as well MOVE with it!
If you know what you need to do and you just aren't getting to it, here's some ideas to get you moving (and stop procrastinating):
Your greatest motivator is going to be your passion for why this is so important to you in the first place. For an added push, consider writing your goal over your mirror, save it as a screen saver, write it on your hand every morning...whatever you need to do to keep the task at the top of your mind and inspiring you to live with urgency around getting it done. In the end, what matters most, isn't always that you got the goal or get the task done, it's that spent your time with focus and intention to do the things that matter most. And that's getting it together all by itself!
As many of you know, I have been an avid runner since the age of 13. In fact, I can’t remember ever feeling particularly out of shape since I first started running. So it’s not surprising that I recently told someone that I haven't been this out of shape since I was 12. After laying low to try to get pregnant, and then the restricted activity while pregnant, and then the recovery time, I have gradually turned to mush. This is a tough reality to swallow for a girl whose life work is all about healthy fitness. The bright side is that I have two beautiful and amazing little boy munchkins that are a great trade off, I get to empathize with my clients a little more, and I get to redefine what fitness means for me.
Fitness and being “in shape” comes in all shapes and sizes. I have always known there were different varieties and levels of being fit because even within my own beloved sport, I was a distance girl, and didn’t train to sprint. I also played basketball, but put a softball in my hands and I was all thumbs. Which is to say, what does being in shape mean to us? Is it all about aesthetics, the ability to participate in particular sports, the way our fitness levels our stress, or how we improve our life expectancy?
Ideally, fitness is a multicolor coat that can change and evolve and become what we need it to be. In order to birth my two little boys, I needed to be fit mentally, emotionally, and to have a huge sense of calm and endurance in my body. Still, I long for that runner’s high after a long day on the path. But now that I am a mom, I am forever trying to squeeze one more minute out of my day, and one more ounce of energy to put toward my workouts. If I do get the chance to workout, it feels completely different, and it is definitely much harder than it used to be!
To keep my motivation up, I recently stumbled across some winning fitness blogs that were ranked by Fitness Magazine and its readers earlier this year. Their “Fitterati” blogger awards are broken into great categories like best healthy living blog, best running blog, or best nutrition blog. My favorite so far is MizFit and The Body of a Mother. But don’t take my word for it, check out the list and see if one of these bloggers catches your eye. Or, just keep reading here…I am passing on all I learn to you every day!
