Image Source: Flickr user SweetOnVeg

Motivation is a word that can mean so much.  Motivation helps us accomplish our goals.  Motivation can come from many people and in many forms.  Why is the word motivation my focus today? Because most people need it to stay on track with an exercise program or to change their eating habits.

I feel a very selected group of people are self motivators, but even these people have their own sources. They may find inspiration in self-help books or in various other ways, and they know how to apply it to what they want to accomplish.

Most of my life I have been very fortunate to know what I want and how to go after it.  I have had and found my own motivators.  If I wanted to lose weight I picked a pair of jeans and kept trying them on every week until they fit - my motivation was to get into a pair of jeans I knew looked good.

Someone might need a physical person to be their motivator to start a weight loss program or exercise program.  I’m sure we have all read about an exercise buddy.  This can be a great motivator to help you stick to activity for the body.  I see it everyday with bootcamp - I listen and hear all the girls talking to each other encouraging them to keep coming and moving.  I have found texting clients to be a big motivator.  Then they know that someone cares about their day, their health and what they are actually doing.  Kind positive words are a HUGE motivator as are kind positive actions.

As February begins, many of us are still thinking about our New Years health resolutions, but are we still motivated to keep the resolution or are we losing steam?  If you are on the right track and seeing results, keep it up.  If you are the one losing steam, stop and ask yourself why.  Do you need a extra little help?  Why do you think you are not seeing the results you want?  What motivates you?

List all the positive things that you have been doing these past 4 weeks and know that they are all for your greater good. Do not stop.  Ask for help from a friend or a trainer and don’t give up.

Good health is something we can’t buy.  No matter how much money you have, it doesn’t matter in the end if you don’t have your health.

I think it’s a combination of a lot of factors, keeping in mind that everyone is different. But what I have noticed from working with women between the ages of 30-70 years old, is that those who have changed their mindset about health are the ones who find success. I see joy in the men and women who choose well-being; the ones who worry less about the number on the scale and find joy in moving their bodies and committing to loving themselves. These are the ones who suddenly find themselves fitting into the pants they thought they could never get back into. These are the people who get out of bed in the morning with no more aches and pains because the yoga they’ve been doing has brought them back in touch with their bodies.

This is the mindset of being aware.

It is the knowing that you can be healthy and that you want to be healthy. It’s about respecting the body you’re in.

"Love Your Body" Flickr User: Aaron Audio

How do we do this? Start with a positive mental attitude. Really be aware of what you are putting in your mind, in your mouth and begin to move your body more. Love your body more. This is the start. Practice this awareness. Over time, you will find the physical fitness that you enjoy that helps you to lose weight and stay healthy. Soon enough you may start to feel more positively about all of the aspects of your life.

Make the decision today that it is time to treat yourself with respect and love. From there it will all fall into place. And if you need help, I’m here to guide and encourage you.

Wishing you a happy and healthy New Year!

~ Col

As the holidays approach, we may find ourselves feeling a mix of emotions — excitement, anticipation, worry, anxiety. While it’s sometimes great to break up our every day, normal routines, preparing, traveling and planning can also be quite stressful. Throw a few choice family members into the mix and what we sometimes end up with is a recipe for turkey stuffed with disaster. Even if you don’t find yourself effected by Uncle Joe’s snide comments or Mom’s great way of nonchalantly pushing your buttons, you may find yourself way too tempted by Grandma’s sweet potato pie and unable to button your pants by the end of the week.

The good news is, regardless of your experience, there is something you can do to lessen the blow of the holidays and almost guarantee that come January 1st, “lose 15 pounds” won’t find itself scratched at the top of your New Year’s Resolution list.  That thing is exercise.

Even if it’s just committing to a walk around the block every evening, exercise has the potential to create life changing results.

Here are 5 reasons to move your body this holiday season:

1) Exercise relieves stress. No matter what the cause, when we experience stress, we often search for quick fixes or escapes. In an interesting article about the correlation between stress and eating, we learn why comfort foods become so darn desirable in the first place.

Left to its own devices, the long-term anxiety set off by chronic stress would deplete your energy reserves; you wouldn’t survive very long. But fat- and sugar-laden foods help your body build up reserves and stay in the game of life. ~ Hara Estroff Marano, Psychology Today

Exercise is a natural way to release energy and frustration and flood the body with endorphins, effectively combatting stress. Here’s a great video on How Stress Affects Digestion And Weight.

2) Exercise helps to keep weight at a desirable, healthy level. Even when we do enjoy a little too much rice pudding, we don’t have to see it reflected in our thighs. Do an extra set of pushups, another lap around the track, a fun game of tennis to burn off those extra calories consumed at the office party.

3) When we exercise, we feel better. As mentioned before, raising the heartbeat floods our system with endorphins, making us feel happy, naturally. Exercise also helps us to get in touch with our bodies, so we have a better sense of what we may need at any given moment. And when we know what we need, we tend to take better care of ourselves. As we feel stronger we become more centered and less likely to overeat or make other less than optimum choices.

4) Exercise fights fatigue and boosts energy. When the house needs cleaning, the travel plans need booking and the presents need wrapping, sometimes we need a little more energy. Taking the time out of our busy day to exercise may seem counterintuitive, but tending to ourselves first is the most important and ultimately time effective thing we can do. When we are happier, have more energy and are more clear minded, we are able to plan easier and prioritize our activities - thus, we get things done more easily and efficiently.

5) Exercise gives you time alone. This may be the most important reason to keep exercising during the holidays.  With all the extra activities and interactions that come with the holidays, finding alone time is a must. As we increase outer life experience, we must increase internal experience. Time alone gives us space to reflect, creating clarity and opportunity for insight. Many great revelations come when we are quiet and listening. Going for a solo bike ride or a jog in the park just might be the most important thing we can do for ourselves and our loved ones at home. When we’re clear minded, everyone benefits.

By Leigh Ashley Parent

“I am always doing that which I can not do, in order that I may learn how to do it.” ~ Pablo Picasso

My intention for this month is to focus on the importance of mindset towards exercise.  I always talk about how important it is to start the day off with a positive statement and mindset.  It’s the same with exercise. When we look at exercise as punishment or as something we have to do, guess what’s going to be the first thing to go when we wake up tired or in a bad mood?

The goal of exercise is to create a healthy body, and most of the time, this starts with a healthy mind. If you create an exercise routine that is enjoyable, social and just plain fun, guess what you’re going to want to do when you wake up tired or in a bad mood?  Sometimes it’s just as simple as starting your workout with the mindset that this action is making me feel strong, healthy and beautiful.  Experiment.  Before your workout, say aloud, “I am happy to be doing something good for myself.”

For this reason, I’ve decided to do something a little bit different this month: Boot Camp will be meeting yoga, and it’s going to be wonderful!  This approach will be a physical and mental workout, the best of both worlds. Mind-body exercise.  Here, we will be working towards a body of balance.  What a beautiful thing!

If you know me, you may know that I always start my day with a personal list of affirmations.  So today, I’d like to leave you with one of my favorites:

“I am worthy and deserving of all great and good things.  I open my heart and my life to receiving them now.”

See you at Boot Camp Yoga!

Colleen :))

Spice Up Your Workouts With Interval Training

There’s been a lot of buzz recently about Interval Training. So, you may be wondering what it really is and, more importantly, why you should incorporate it in your fitness workouts. Well, if you want a workout that can help propel you to the next fitness level, burn more calories, increase your speed, improve your power and more, then it’s time to learn more about this effective technique.

A simple definition of Interval Training is: short, high-intensity exercise periods alternated with periods of rest. These higher and lower intensity periods are repeated several times to form a complete workout . Here’s a basic example: walk for 5 minutes at 3.5 MPH, walk for 1 minute at 4.2 MPH and then repeat this sequence several times.

Most people spend their workout time only performing continuous training exercises. These are exercises where the intensity level is basically constant throughout. An example of this is walking at 3.5 MPH, at 0% incline for 30 minutes.

Continuous training is very effective and should not be eliminated from your weekly workouts. However, it’s recommended that you include both Interval Training and continuous training sessions as part of your fitness regimen.

Why should you include Interval Training? As previously mentioned, there are many benefits to this type of training and execution is relatively simple. Interval Training can help you improve cardiovascular fitness, increase speed, improve overall aerobic power, burn more calories, break-through a plateau, increase workout duration, reach new exercise levels, expand your workout options and increase your workout threshold – just to name a few.

Plus, this training method has useful applications for beginners, intermediate exercisers and even conditioned athletes. There are two basic types of Interval Training. For the majority of exercisers (novices and intermediate) Fitness Interval Training methods are recommended. Athletes can choose a more advanced technique known as Performance Interval Training. 

The Fitness training method utilizes periodic increases in intensity. Typically the higher-intensity levels range from 2-5 minutes in duration and are followed by lower-intensity periods that also range from 2-5 minutes. And, a critical element in Fitness Interval Training is determining the appropriate level for the higher-intensity periods. This level should not exceed the anaerobic threshold (which is usually reached below 85% heart rate reserve).

On the flip side, the Performance training technique involves periods of near maximal or even maximal intensity (e.g. >85% heart rate reserve – even reaching 100%). The higher-intensity levels can range from 2-15 minutes in duration and are followed by lower-intensity periods that also can range from 2-15 minutes in duration.

Don’t let the two types of training and their ranges confuse you. Incorporating Interval Training methods into your exercise routine is actually quite easy. Since the majority of exercisers fall into either the beginner or intermediate category, we’ll focus on getting started with those techniques.

To begin, choose the type of exercise: walking, jogging, swimming, biking, etc. Next determine your lower-intensity level. This is usually somewhere between 50-65% target heart rate. This will be your baseline, lower-level intensity. Then simply increase the intensity-level up to where you feel like you are working hard to very hard, but avoid reaching a level over 85% target heart rate. If monitoring your heart is not feasible, instead use the RPE scale where 1 is basically at rest and 10 is working extremely hard. For example, if you find that when you are exercising at a comfortable level you rank a 5, then bump up to a 7 for the higher-intensity intervals.

You may choose to systematically raise and lower your intensity (e.g. 2 minutes lower intensity followed by 1 minute higher intensity and repeat) or you can alternate more randomly by raising and lowering the level at your discretion. To increase your intensity, you may choose to change the speed, incline, or some other variable.

Interval Training can be especially helpful in situations where you are trying a new form of exercise. For example, this can be very beneficial when first learning to jog. If you attempt to jog continuously without building up to it, you will probably fatigue quickly and even give up. However, if you begin with intervals of walking interspersed with jogging periods, the workout will be much more enjoyable and effective. Also, you will be more likely to stick with the program and achieve the end result – continuous jogging.

Now that you know the benefits of Interval Training and the basic techniques for it, why not give it a try for yourself. Not only will it provide health benefits and improved fitness levels but it is also a great way to avoid workout boredom. Plus, with Interval Training workouts often are more enjoyable, go by quicker, and improvement results come faster. So why not try spicing up a stale, run-of-the-mill workout with Interval options? You may even find yourself excelling in an activity you were skeptical of even trying.

       ]]> http://bodybetterment.com/journal/spice-up-your-workouts-with-interval-training/feed/ http://bodybetterment.com/journal/sound-body-sounder-how-working-out-makes-you-smarter/ http://bodybetterment.com/journal/sound-body-sounder-how-working-out-makes-you-smarter/#comments Thu, 27 Dec 2007 13:11:43 +0000 Colleen http://bodybetterment.com/journal/sound-body-sounder-how-working-out-makes-you-smarter/ I found this article in the American Council on Exercise, Fitness Matters. I know what you are thinking.  What next?  But yes this is true.  Studies have proven that exercise will make you smarter.  The most recent study to verify the exercise-cognition connection, the results of which were published  in the November 2006 issue of the Journal of Gerontology, revealed that subjects who exercised  for six months showed an increase in the amount of specific kinds of brain tissue.  Kirk Erickson, Ph. D., a scientist at the Beckman Institute for  Advanced Science and Technology of the University of Illinois and one of the researchers who conducted the study, had one group of subjects walk three days a week for 45 minutes, while the control group were given non-aerobic stretching exercises.  After six months, brain scans revealed that the aerobic group had experienced a 2 percent growth in the prefrontal lobe, the site of higher-level functions such as goal-planning and multitasking.  The enlargement occurred as a result of the production and release of chemicals in the brain triggered by exercise. This goes to prove that exercise will improve mind, body and soul!