Write Yourself the Right Size

September 1st, 2008 by LB, under Fit Commitment. No Comments

 

I love this book!    Its a novel approach to weight loss and one I think deserves attention.  Julia Cameron, noted author of the legendary Artist’s Way, a Spiritual Guide to Creativity, advocates writing as a method to uncover the roots of unhealthy eating patterns. 

In her earlier book, which I read late this spring, Cameron introduced the concept of Morning Pages as a daily practice.  She suggests that getting up earlier every day to write three stream of conciousness pages can clear out cobwebs and clutter, enabling you to live a more intentful life.  Most people I know who read this book started this years ago.  I’ve only been doing it for four months now, and honestly it is truly remarkable how something this simple can affect your life this profoundly.  I think its worth noting that for me ‘morning’ pages weren’t really feasible because I exercise first thing every day, and so I think of mine as the evening pages, and I do them every night before I fall asleep.

In this book, The Writing Diet, Cameron adapts this practice to writing around one’s eating patterns and diets. She also advocates using a food journal for recoring things like food consumed, location, feelings at the time, and the company you keep when you eat.  Far cheaper, and more effective than any fad diet, I am whole heartedly endorsing this approach.  Let me know if you’d like to borrow the book, or if you’d like to try your own food journal.  I have a template I’d be happy to share.

Perfectly Imperfect

July 15th, 2008 by LB, under Fit Commitment, Weight No Longer. 1 Comment

I’ve always believed that what endears us to others is our humaness.  I wanted to write about this because through reading The Art of Being, by Dennis Merritt Jones, I can see in a new way how this applies to our bodies and our selves.  He talks about the famous story of Michelangelo working on the Statue Of David, and being asked by an apprentice how he would ever achieve perfection from a crude slab of marble.  The response is now famous. 

“I have nothing to add because the perfection is already there.  All I have to do is remove the necessary pieces.”

~Michealangelo

Merritt likens this to the idea that life is really about subtraction, as opposed to addition.  Its not that we need to have an enhanced body, or a better butt, a firmer stomach,  the right piece of exercise equipment or the perfect exercise outfit.  Instead we need to be prepared to let go of some unecessary ’stuff’ such as old ideas, beliefs or behaviors.  The truth is we are perfectly imperfect just as we are.

Perfection is finally attained not when there is no longer anything to add, but when there is no longer anything to take away, when a body has been stripped down to its nakedness.

~Antoine de Saint-Exupery

Fit It In

April 23rd, 2008 by LB, under Fit Commitment. No Comments

The current recommendation for cardiovasucular exercise if 30 – 50 minutes 5 – 7 times per week in your target heart rate zone.    It used to be that we recommended that this had to be continuous, however the good news is this isn’t necessary.  Intermittent bouts are equally as beneficial for achieving health benefits,  provided they are in the zone.  This means a ten minute walk in the morning, at lunch and at the end of the day will do it.

Its easy to get trapped into thinking you aren’t going to exercise because you don’t have time, but don’t let that stop you.  Remember even short bits are good.

To Cross Train or Not to Cross Train?

April 8th, 2008 by LB, under Fit Commitment. No Comments

Yes, that was indeed the question in tonight’s fitness theory course.  Did I mention I absolutely love teaching these courses?  That when I do anything related to fitness my entire being becomes suspended and some greater energy just seems to funnel through?  That I experience complete flow?  Did I tell you that I am lucky enough to have calling?  Okay,  sorry back to the post.

Cross training is the premise that one does a variety of activities.  The benefits include significantly decreased risk of injury,  improved physiological benefits,  increased enthusiasm, more energy and the ability to work the body fully.  Sounds good right?  It is, but one of my course participants wanted to know if can ever be bad.

Actually yes, particularly if your end goal is performance.  Let’s take running and yoga for example.  I do both daily and so I never become a pretzel because the muscle strength and stability I create running is counter productive to the flexibility I obtain through the yoga poses.  In my case the combination of the two is ideal becasue it enables me to run injury free for miles, even if I never become Gumby.

But say my goal was to complete the entire demanding Ashtanga Yoga Primary Series exactly as it is to be done.  Then I would truly have to give up running in order to open my hips enough.   In this case the cross training would be determental to the desired outcome.

The key point is that training adaptations are specific to the demands you place on your body, so it all comes down the being careful and concious of how you spend your exercise time to best accomplish your goals.   This of course is where a good personal trainer can come in to help, and as luck would have it, there are currently eleven in training. 

The Thirty K Mark

March 1st, 2008 by LB, under Fit Commitment, Yackadactyl. 9 Comments

I’ve run ten marathons and while each one is different, one thing remains consistent, the thirty K mark.  It doesn’t matter how you slice it, this is a tough spot.   As you can well imagine your body desperately wants to collapse and the end is nowhere near in sight.  Its at this point I always ask myself questions like:

Who’s bright idea was this?

What ever made me think I could do this in the first place?

Would anyone really even care if I just quit right now?

Why am I such a raving lunatic?

How will I ever make it?

I know.  If you haven’t ever done this, you’re thinking what the hell.  I know, but here’s the thing.  There’s something that happens when you cross the finish line that I don’t even think I could ever explain, suffice to say you’ve just dug deeply into your reserves of mental strength and are walking away with a new sense of what you’re capable of.  For me, the paralells in my life are remarkable. 

Now when the rubber hits the road in my life, I find myself thinking this is like that damn thirty K mark in the Victoria Golf Course.  This one stands out above all other rough spots because for this race I had trained so much harder and was aiming to shave ten minutes of my time.  By the time I hit this gentle slope I felt like I was carrying bricks up a mountain.  I really had no idea how I was going to run twelve more K.

I was lucky because my Bro J was with me, and was conistently throwing water in my face to keep me from falling down.  And so I took it one K at a time, telling myself walking and quiting were not options.  I sang the ‘Wheels on the Bus’ in my head to keep my legs going.   I ran my personal record that day and crossed the finish line holding my brother’s hand and went on to run many more.

Where is this going?  The author, me, hit a thirty K mark in her life.   And just like that moment in the Golf Course I really wasn’t sure if I could continue, and I found myself asking all the exact same questions, but on a much bigger scale.  I really wanted to crumble and lay under a tree.  And so I didn’t blog because I was afraid all I’d do was whine, whine, whine.

Honestly, I’ve never come that close to packing it in and it threw me, but then I remembered thirty K and I knew I could do it.  So I’m not sure I’m at thirty-nine yet because that’s where you KNOW you have it in the bag, but maybe about thirty-seven and a half.  And when I reach the magic forty two this time, I gotta remember to put my feet up and soak in how good it feels to complete what I set out to do, BEFORE I take off on the next one.

Making it Fit

January 31st, 2008 by LB, under Fit Commitment. No Comments

This year I’ve been somewhat forced to exercise daily at 6:00 AM.  Sometimes, as I’m running down the road in the pelting rain, my Petzl headlamp flickering and shorting out, the insanity of it hits me, but to be honest on the whole it’s really actually wonderful.  There is no traffic; sometimes I only see one or two vehicles.  The dogs are sleeping, and its so quiet its amazing.  This winter there have been some absolutely stunning mornings with clear skies,  millions of stars and a near full moon reflecting on the water so brightly I don’t even need extra light.   And then tonight it also hit me….  other than my hi-vis vest it doesn’t matter what I wear! 

Making the Most out of the Gym

January 23rd, 2008 by LB, under Fit Commitment. 1 Comment

In an earlier post, I mentioned how I really am not an advocate of gym workout as regular fare,  but I wanted to share with you one of my favourite ways to break the monotony during these cold, dark winter months.  Is it really snowing yet again?

I like to mix circuit training with interval training and supersets, in an infinite number of ways.  First let me clarify what each of these is.

Circuit Training – Intervals of cardiovascular training with strength training. This type of traning keeps the heart rate elevated, but also includes strength building, and so is very time efficient.

Interval Training – Intervals of high and low intensity cardiovascular work. This can be formal with combinations like two minutes of high intensity alternating with two minutes of low intensity, or informal which is often referred to as Fartlek training.  High intensity intervals are a little more stressful on the body, so you want to be sure you have some prepatory base training first.

Supersets – Supersets incorporate exercises for opposing muscle groups done back to back. This is also a very time efficient workout as your rest interval becomes your work interval for another muscle group with not a moment to waste. Another hidden benefit is the fact that as you work the antagonist muscle group, you actively stretch the agonist.

I typically start with a six minute warm up on the rowing machine because unlike so many pieces of cardio equipment it actually uses all the body.  Then I just construct the rest of my workout based on what’s available. My first superset pair will usually be Bench Press and Horizontal Pull up, and I do one set of each in quick succession before hoping on whatever cardio piece is available.

The first minute of cardio is ‘easyish’ and then the next two mintutes I go hard – hard enough I can’t not talk.  The final minute I catch my breath, before proceeding to my next superset, which can be a repeat of the previous one if I am aiming for two sets of each exercise.  Then back to which ever cardio piece I can access with my four minute pattern, followed by another super set pair – say Pullover and Shoulder Press, and so on until I have worked my way through my whole body.

Somedays my strength focus might be only upper body, or lower which makes the whole thing take about an hour, and other days I’ll so single sets and do the whole body. There are hundreds of different permutations you can use for this, but I love it for efficiency, interest, variety and making my way through the busy gym month of January and February.

Happy Sweating!

Going Nowhere Fast

January 10th, 2008 by LB, under Fit Commitment. 4 Comments

 That’s basically my take on treadmills and gyms in general…. going nowhere fast.  This might be a bit funny coming from a fitness professional.  It’s not that I don’t advocate the use of indoor fitness equipment; I just don’t see how anyone can find true joy in exercise on a piece of equipment, particularly when reading a book, or watching TV.

It is my strong belief that its only those who find true pleasure in exercise are successful in making it a regular part of their life on a long term basis.  So good friends, what have been your little tricks and strategies for keeping active?

Eat, Pray, Love

January 6th, 2008 by LB, under Fit Commitment, Yackadactyl. 6 Comments

I know, its been some time since my last post, but less time on my damn computer and more time with family and friends is what I seek.  Somehow my thoughts about what I wanted to change in 2008 began well before Christmas and continued throughout the holidays.  I’m not sure if its the recent milestone birthday or just a sign of the times, but whatever the case may be, there is much I would like to live in the upcoming year and all of it seems beautifully captured in this fabulous book given to me only days ago by my wonderful sister-in-law-so-to-speak.  I don’t want to give anything away, but I HIGHLY recommend this book as a great start to the New Year!

Yoga Rhythyms

December 10th, 2007 by LB, under Fit Commitment. 2 Comments

Wow, have I been off on a tangent.  Its time to get back to the point of this blog.  Wait, was there a point to this blog? 

Yes,  so I wanted to offer up a little about how I make room in my life for Yoga.  For many years I believed that a yoga practice required my full attention for an hour or more, and that was how I approached doing my own Yoga.  But then, like so often happens, life got busy and for a time Yoga ceased to exist for me.  Unhappy with the consequences, I sought to bring it back.  It looks a little different; however, its happening and that’s the key.  Funny to, because these short mini sessions seem more conducive to the yoga mindfullness I have aspired to for so long.

Here are my tips:

1. I love music for helping me focus and stay with a pose or practice. Shiva Rea’s Yoga Rhythms disk is my all time favourite for an invigorating flow.
2. No time is too short for a little yoga.  I can fit a sun salutation in while waiting for the kindling to ignite in the morning, or even waiting for pancake batches to cook for Shark and company on a Sunday morning.
3. Start with one pose and just see where it takes you…. Inevitably it just grows all by itself.
4. I leave my Yoga Mat permanently set up in my room because everytime my feet touch it my body feels the irresistable urge to strike a pose.
5. If by the time I go to bed if I haven’t done any Yoga I’ll do even one pose before I go to bed.

Any why do I do all this? Because of all the fitness things I do, this is probably the one that makes my body feel its absolute best, and this is even more true as I get older.