Are You a Fitness Role Model For Your Family?

Are You a Fitness Role Model For Your Family?

In this busy world it is so easy to lose sight of our own health and fitness.  Without making fitness and wellness a priority, what does that tell our children? With so many young children overweight and in several cases obese, perhaps we should look at ourselves a little more closely. Do we make fitness a family affair? Or, are we sitting overeating and over-drinking as a crutch, while ignoring the lack of activity in our children?

 

The fact that so many diseases can be prevented by proper diet and exercise is the best reason to get ourselves moving. If our kids see us working out and eating right they will eventually follow our lead. So, if you plan on sending your children off for swim lessons or dance classes,  think what you can do for yourself during that time. If your child is participating in an activity, what is really keeping you from working out while you wait?

 

Woman in your Forties or Fifties especially need to realize the importance of working out! Keep in mind that every decade we lose a percentage of muscle mass which means our body fat creeps up. Weight lifting has proven to increase bone density which offsets and delays osteoperosis.  

Stay healthy for you, stay healthy for your family!

Here is an easy workout for core strength for you to do in the comfort of your home.

AB Crunches- see picture:

This can be done either on a stability ball or on the floor. Pull your abs in through the belly button area, hands placed behind the head, raise your shoulder blades off the ball or floor. Hold for 1 second and then slowly bring back to set. Make sure the small of your back is flat against the floor, do not let your spin curve. This is the best way to hit your inner stabilizers in your stomach area for better balance and less back pain as we age. Try to hit 100 ab crunches every day!

 

How To Keep Your New Year's Resolutions!

Hello Clients and Friends!

Hope you enjoy today's exciting column on why our new year's resolutions tend to fail :( 

The case for the “new year, new you, new start” concept has all of us reevaluating what we want to accomplish, change, alter, etc. in the coming year.  Research and our own experience tells us that an overwhelming number of individuals who commit to a health and fitness resolution fail within 6 months! It simply doesn’t work for most and, even worse, sets up us for failure. 

What to do? Change the Game and Play Fair!

1. Don't promise yourself 20 lbs. of weight loss in 30 days and don't be faked out by the 10-minute workout (usually accompanied by some "nutritional" pill.)

Credible trainers have long known that there needs to be a process that is as individual and customized to our clients to help them in their efforts.  The most important elements begin when our clients start by telling themselves the truth. Here are some thoughts to chew on:

• Why have you chosen this resolution now?
• Is it a choice that you are deliberately making or are you doing this for your spouse, children, doctor or someone else?
• Review the past resolutions you have made and discuss the barriers, not the goals, which kept you from ahieving them.  
• Look at the upcoming year and see if there are any dramatic changes that will alter your lifestyle.

Certainly you’ll use your own approach with these questions but try to reveal the underlying behaviors that will likely repeat themselves.  This is a critical step in going deeper and being honest with yourself.

As always, what matters is what happens next.  The rest is simply talk.  This month I want to give you some tips that will create an environment for success! 

• Journal. After determining your goals or resolutions, take a few days to journal your feelings and thoughts around these goals.  Tune into anything that comes to mind  – past successes, failures, potential barriers, underlying saboteurs, etc.
• Talk to a Professional. Schedule a meeting to review what you have written and discuss the underlying reasons for your fitness goals and past failures, and also discuss what works for your time frame, diet, schedule etc. This consultation can help you understand yourself better and help the expert know where to begin correcting your course of change.
• Once a month determine together with a fitness expert some very short-term, positive expected outcomes for the month ahead that you can measure and/or track.  
• Being fit takes work and is truly difficult for the majority of people.  Brainstorm with your personal trainer some creative ways to make these changes gradually – make them part of the solution. A drastic change can create feelings of desperation and even result in moving backward instead of forward.  Change can be something as small as adding five minutes to your cardio workout.  Since the you create these changes and rewards, the chances of success grow dramatically.
• Talk about the things you are passionate about – what you really love or want for your health. This goes beyond say losing 15lbs., or strengthening abs. Inside each of us there is still a child who wants to dance, ride a bike and express ourselves uniquely. Express and embrace those underlying desires as it can truly create a light at the end of a tunnel that is reached one day at a time.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                    Once you’ve unlocked your potential and understand the deeply personal reasons for your resolutions and goals, you will likely have successful and gratifying relationship with yourself that goes beyond fitness goals.

You are your own change agent.  Try something new!

Happy, HEALTHY,  New Year!