Any self-respecting follower of the Feel Good Lifestyle knows well the burden of a sudden and intense need for chocolate. In adherence to my “listen to your body” challenge of last week, I clearly had no choice but to venture to Walgreen’s on Saturday night to find a suitable answer to my body’s demands.
To pretend chocolate isn’t holy is blasphemous, but pretending moderation is unnecessary is just as big of a lie, so I confess it was a small box of a new line of bite-sized Dove “Beautiful” Chocolates that made their way home with me that night. I didn’t realize until I got home that in an attempt at targeted marketing, the chocolates actually boasted ingredients beneficial for healthy skin. How lame—as if I needed an excuse for chocolate. Chocolate needs no justification.
When I unwrapped my first little treat, I was delighted to find that the aluminum wrappers had little messages on the inside—how exciting! What a disappointment when the messages turned out to be cheesier than Seventh Heaven in syndication. My first wrapper proclaimed “You are beautiful!” Psssh—I already knew that. Dove needs to hire some new writers or get a new gimmick.
Now I know a disciplined, hard-bodied trainer would confidently state her complete satisfaction at a single ounce of dark chocolate and announce her cheerful anticipation of next month’s 100-calorie indulgence. But, let’s face it, I’m not that disciplined and I’m definitely not a hard body…so I went in for seconds. Good thing, too, because chocolate number two’s message completely redeemed the first:
“Happiness is a state of health.”
For serious? Dove, have you been reading my blog? How fitting that the essence of my program would be encompassed in a quotation found in a chocolate wrapper. That’s right, folks, the ideas that I’ve been trying to put into words for over a year are printed on tin foil and can be found at your local drugstore.
So take a hint from Dove (and me!). Stop for a moment and think about the people you admire for their healthy lifestyles. Most of them have found ways to be active and healthy in ways that truly make them happy. They enjoy the food they eat and look forward to their chosen modes of exercise. On the flip side, think about the people you know who are overweight and unhealthy—they are typically unhappy or discontent with some aspect of their lives. It’s no secret: happiness breeds health.
My challenge for the week is this: instead of planning to be happy once you are healthy/skinny/fit/etc., resolve to become happy as a means to that same goal. Identify those issues which are keeping you from a state of happiness and make a commitment to confront those issues first. “Happiness is a state of health,” and health is a state of feeling good.
Wednesday, August 20, 2008
Wednesday, August 13, 2008
Open your ears
Before I even get started, I want to extend a GIGANTIC congratulations to my client, Brittony Keller who took home the gold medal in figures at the National Roller Skating Championships last week! Woohoo! That girl must have an amazing trainer…
That said, it might make sense when I tell you about the agony that ensued when I attempted to do the workout I put her through Tuesday night as my own workout this morning. One of the bold aspects of my “schtick” is that I never put clients through exercises that I don’t actually do myself. Consider it the ultimate in empathy training—today, this cute little quirk of mine almost killed me.
It was never an innocent exercise, but it certainly didn’t seem out of control: at the peak of the workout I’d had Brittony do a push up with her hands gripping the sides of an upside-down Bosu, followed by 10 mountain climbers. Repeat 5 times? No problem. Brit handled it like a champ, and although she was tired at the end, she claimed to feel okay.
Brit works so hard and it’s really inspiring, so I was really excited to try her workout for myself when I got to the gym this morning. I made it through the lunges, the dips, the squats and the curls…then came the Bosu push up/mountain climber combo. I pushed through the first set of five and was amazed at how tired my legs felt as I struggled to reach full stride with my mountain climbers (I shouldn’t have been—I haven’t challenged my legs in weeks!), but the real kicker was when I tried to start the second set with a strong pushup. I just. Couldn’t. Do it. Or at least I couldn’t do it right. I felt my back tilt with the effort and automatically knew I needed to stop.
I have to admit, I was a little disappointed with myself for not being able to finish the set, but I this afternoon, I got the affirmation that listening to my body was the right thing to do. As I got out of the car and picked up my tote bag I noticed an extreme fatigue in my anterior deltoids (i.e. the front of my shoulders). It was a struggle just to lift my arm, let alone pick up the gigantic canvas tote Brian refers to as my “luggage.” I know my shoulders are going to be unbelievably sore tomorrow if they are this tired today, and had I pushed through the second set of push ups out of pride, I probably would have hurt myself and would not have been able to push up at all for a while.
So what’s the message here? Listen, and I don’t mean to the radio or the television or that new tough love book you bought in the self-help section at Border’s. Listen to your body—it’s an amazing tool. We gaze in wonder at documentaries about animals and their amazing instincts, but we short change ourselves for the ones we , too, posess.
I really believe that in most ways, our body knows exactly how to take care of itself, but we are so conditioned to ignore its messages that we often don’t hear what it says. Whether we’re eating when we’re full, deciding not to take a lunch break because there’s just too much to be done, drinking that 4th shot of tequila or try to do another set of push ups regardless of our form, it’s a dangerously human habit to ignore your body’s limitations.
Part of the permissiveness of my approach in Feel Good Training comes from the idea that you instinctively know how to take care of yourself and definitely know what feels good—you just have to practice trusting your own intuitions. Challenge your listening skills for the next week. Let your body tell you:
Listening to your body feels good. It is a method of self-respect and an exercise in self-trust. Try it.
That said, it might make sense when I tell you about the agony that ensued when I attempted to do the workout I put her through Tuesday night as my own workout this morning. One of the bold aspects of my “schtick” is that I never put clients through exercises that I don’t actually do myself. Consider it the ultimate in empathy training—today, this cute little quirk of mine almost killed me.
It was never an innocent exercise, but it certainly didn’t seem out of control: at the peak of the workout I’d had Brittony do a push up with her hands gripping the sides of an upside-down Bosu, followed by 10 mountain climbers. Repeat 5 times? No problem. Brit handled it like a champ, and although she was tired at the end, she claimed to feel okay.
Brit works so hard and it’s really inspiring, so I was really excited to try her workout for myself when I got to the gym this morning. I made it through the lunges, the dips, the squats and the curls…then came the Bosu push up/mountain climber combo. I pushed through the first set of five and was amazed at how tired my legs felt as I struggled to reach full stride with my mountain climbers (I shouldn’t have been—I haven’t challenged my legs in weeks!), but the real kicker was when I tried to start the second set with a strong pushup. I just. Couldn’t. Do it. Or at least I couldn’t do it right. I felt my back tilt with the effort and automatically knew I needed to stop.
I have to admit, I was a little disappointed with myself for not being able to finish the set, but I this afternoon, I got the affirmation that listening to my body was the right thing to do. As I got out of the car and picked up my tote bag I noticed an extreme fatigue in my anterior deltoids (i.e. the front of my shoulders). It was a struggle just to lift my arm, let alone pick up the gigantic canvas tote Brian refers to as my “luggage.” I know my shoulders are going to be unbelievably sore tomorrow if they are this tired today, and had I pushed through the second set of push ups out of pride, I probably would have hurt myself and would not have been able to push up at all for a while.
So what’s the message here? Listen, and I don’t mean to the radio or the television or that new tough love book you bought in the self-help section at Border’s. Listen to your body—it’s an amazing tool. We gaze in wonder at documentaries about animals and their amazing instincts, but we short change ourselves for the ones we , too, posess.
I really believe that in most ways, our body knows exactly how to take care of itself, but we are so conditioned to ignore its messages that we often don’t hear what it says. Whether we’re eating when we’re full, deciding not to take a lunch break because there’s just too much to be done, drinking that 4th shot of tequila or try to do another set of push ups regardless of our form, it’s a dangerously human habit to ignore your body’s limitations.
Part of the permissiveness of my approach in Feel Good Training comes from the idea that you instinctively know how to take care of yourself and definitely know what feels good—you just have to practice trusting your own intuitions. Challenge your listening skills for the next week. Let your body tell you:
- When you are hungry
- When you are full
- When you are dehydrated
- When you are restless and need to move
- When you are tired and need to be still
- When you are comfortable and content
Listening to your body feels good. It is a method of self-respect and an exercise in self-trust. Try it.
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