Beating yourself up won't help

As a personal trainer, I often times feel like I am managing a jack-of-all-trades health position. Not only am I to be educated and experienced at weight training, flexibility, and cardiovascular health, I also feel I need to be a coach, psychologist, nutritionist, and holistic lifestyle guru. Now, if I can wear all these hats and do them perfectly, everyone will lose weight and love me, right?

WRONG. In the same way that we cannot be everything to everyone, and do everything perfectly all the time...I cannot try to be all-of-the-above-trainer at all times.

I am perfectly flawed. Yep, I have flaws...and they are perfect. I own up to them, I acknowledge them, and I understand that it will take a lifetime to either embrace them or work toward improving them. There are multiple reasons why I might sabotage my abilities by getting down on myself (and I promise I am ALWAYS trying to live above this) but I wanted to point out some ways you can avoid crippling your ability to stay on course with your health and wellness:

• Get accountability: via classes, friends, a trainer, a coach, or by joining a training group for a race or charitable event.
  
• Eat no less than 1200 calories/day for weight loss. You can estimate how many calories you need online. Be sure to include at least 25 grams of fiber/day, and lots of lean protein.
  
• Get 5 days of at least 30min high-intensity interval training: this would included circuit resistance training or interval cardio work.
• Drink half your body weight in ounces/day and reduce alcohol and caffeine
• Sleep 7-9hours every night. Ideally try to be asleep by 10:30 so you are ready for your morning workout.
• Plan. Put your workouts on your calendar and keep a log of what you actually do. You will stick to your plan longer, and have a nice reward of being able to look back at what you have accomplished. You can even keep track online!
  
• Have fun, ask for help when you need it, and reward yourself when you meet specific goals.
  

Getting past your past

I recently started a new program called "Downer to Dynamite". It is an 8 week series aimed to help educate, motivate, and support women who want to get out of their unhealthy habits, and begin to respect themselves mentally, emotionally, and physically. The incredible thing that has happened, is that I, too, have found myself being challenged by the program. Some questions really get you thinking about a variety of life-issues.

What has occurred to me is that most of us are still getting over insecurities or coping mechanisms we learned from our youth. If any of our basic needs for safety, love, food, movement, and shelter were ever unmet (think Maslow's Hierarchy), we likely created our own way to protect and care for ourselves. It is in these mechanisms that we are still reacting to our life circumstances. For instance, in the fourth grade, my family moved to a new school district where I first felt the stares of the "new girls". I felt totally unsafe and unloved. I thought I couldn't really trust people and that I had to please a lot of people in order to be accepted. Well, I still get anxious about friendships for that reason. And sometimes I cope with this anxiety by dressing differently or reaching for exercise or food to calm myself.

Thankfully, I have a high level of awareness of these defense mechanisms and have realized I have a choice to either react and let them control me, or I can let the real emotion sink in and deal with it healthfully by talking to people, doing some journaling, or remembering the truth that I AM ENOUGH, just the way I am.

CS lewis once wrote, “Pain removes the veil; it plants the flag of truth within the fortress of a rebel soul".

Understanding our source of pain helps us to unveil the truth of how we have created habits of self-preservation. Some habits could be healthy, others may simply serve to bring us even more pain. Ask yourself these questions when faced with chronic anxiety, stress, negativity, or pain to unveil your truth and start the process of forming new reactions to your circunstances:
1) Where have I felt this before? or, When did I start feeling this way?
2) Why am I reacting this way in response to this feeling?
3) Do have someone I need to forgive or talk to about this to get past my past?
4) What are some other ways that I can act out my response that honors my heart but empowers me rather than bringing me down?
For more info, visit Getting Past your Past

Play that funky music...

I often hear people say that they just can't motivate themselves to workout. Admittedly, I occasionally have those days too. But what I have found, is that when I really think about it, 9 times out of 10, I will always feel better if I just make myself get out there and move. Once I am moving, the stress and fatigue melts away, and I am can get in the zone. However, if you are finding that shear will-power isn't quite enough, you may benefit from having a trusted play-list of your top workout favorites to keep you going. A research team out of Stanford showed that music engages the areas of the brain involved with paying attention, making predictions and updating the event in memory. All great ways to make your workout more effective. Listed below are some resources for making your own awesome and moving playlist:

Did I tell you I am now a hip-hop extraordinaire? Get your top 10 hip hop workouts songs!

Wanna know what made the overall top 10 list?

Think you could do better? Create your own list with lots of recommendations on iTunes through the Sport iMix site.

Feeling manly?...here are the 52 Best Workout Songs according to "The art of manliness"

Unfortunately, I couldn't find a resource for a womens' top workout mix. Help a girl out! I would LOVE to make a Restoration Fitness top 25 by having you list your favorite workout music for women in the comments below!!

H.I.T. IT!

H.I.T., or High Intensity Training, is one of the best ways to get a great workout and overcome weight loss or strength gain plateaus. Essentially, it means packing a big punch of effort into little packages throughout your training. HIT stresses intensity over repetition. Additionally, adding higher intensity, more powerful effort bursts into your cardio program can also have huge benefits. Twenty minutes of high intensity interval cardio increases your aerobic capacity (VO2max) dramatically, maintains lean muscle mass, boosts your metabolism during and after exercise, and potentially burns more fat calories than 30-45 minutes of low intensity cardio.

Here are some tips to add high intensity into your program:

1) Choose a weight for an upper body exercise that you can only lift 6-10 times, lower body would be closer to 8-15 times. Use a 3-1-4-1 cadence for the lift. For instance, on a seated row: Pull bar toward your ribs for 3 seconds, pause 1 second at end range, spend 4 seconds allowing bar to return to start, and finish with a 1 second pause prior to repeating.

2) Finish your lift with a hold at mid-range to force the muscle to near complete failure.

3) For an intense cardio interval program try this:

• 3-5 minute warm up at easy pace
• 30 seconds at a sprint followed by 30 seconds rest
• Add 30 seconds to each sprint and rest interval until you reach 4 minutes total for your "sprint" interval
• After your sprint interval, take 4 minutes rest, then reverse the order back down to 30 seconds for each "sprint" and rest interval.
• Finish with a 2-3 minute walk or cool down followed by a great stretch!

**you should always either consult with your physician for clearance or have worked up to a high level of fitness so that you are able to work at a high cardiovascular, respiratory, and muscle intensity without risk of injury

How often? 2-3 days for interval cardio training and 2-3 days for your weight training. See expert Yuri Elkaim give you specifics.

Shrinking or Shining?

I have recently become the proud personal trainer for a wonderful woman named Sara. She is blogging and twittering her ups and down along her journey to lose 100lbs. Now, as much as I want to see Sara free from her extra weight, everything in me wants start out by saying...NO! It isn't about shrinking...it's about shining!

It takes a bold person to lay out her entire process of life-change for the whole world to see. That's not shrinking...that's letting your light shine! What if all of us started getting more real about our struggles, triumphs, failures, and victories? If you want extra support to help you reach your weight loss goals, follow these tips:

1) Follow a twitter dieter to learn great tips, tricks, and to follow along in the weight loss ups and downs. AOL health is currently following 24 dieters.
2) Read other great bloggers who talk about boosting your body image and self-confidence. My top 2 favorites are Dara Chadwick, who writes about the statement "You's be so pretty if...", and, Back in Skinny Jeans.
3) Get involved with a community of women:

• Invite women over to share your favorite health recipes, or, better yet, plan a cooking extravaganza one day a month for healthy freezer meals.
• Join a local training group. My favorite running group in the Northwest Denver area is The Solepepper F.I.T. club. All levels are welcome and Erin is so positive you can't help but want to laugh even while you run.
• Get real. If you aren't ready to tell the world about your process and want a more intimate setting with some direction and small group accountability on exercise, nutrition, and embracing a positive body image, you will find it at the 8 week Downer to Dynamite series. Semi-private classes are starting in June.
• Stay real. Tell at least a few friends our family members what you are doing. We all need support, especially when we are trying to change something that is a long-time habit like overeating or lack of exercise.
  

“Love is all around you, love is there in your laughter, in your hair, love flows everywhere. Love is older than you but the light shining through makes me see your love is all new.”-anonymous

Let your love for yourself and others SHINE!