Brace Yourself....New Year's is Coming

Depending on what blog you've read or who you follow on Facebook, you've likely gotten a few impressions on what the relationship between New Year's and Fitness is....

This is the camp of - marketers are coming for....YOU.  They want your almighty dollar and they want you to fall flat on your face when it comes to your New Year's fitness resolutions because then they can sell you McDonalds.  And the only answer here is to shun New Year's and be consistent.  Be consistent.  Be consistent.

OR

Isn't losing weight FUN???  Let's have some fun!!!  YAY!!!!!  And then no one loses weight because you aren't making enough effort to burn a mini Snickers off.  

OR

I WILL EAT YOU ALIVE.  You will scream, cry and possibly bleed and you will love me for it.  

(By the way, nothing against Richard or Jillian....I totally want Jillian's arms or see them before makeup/photoshop).

Why must we wholly shun New Year's and fitness resolutions in order to be successful?  So why can't we meet somewhere in the middle?  Sure marketers and retailers are going to play it up and oversell it. It's called capitalism and advertising.  It's what they do.  Being consistent in your exercise and nutrition is the way you get results but how can you do that if you are not already exercising and eating well?  

Camp #2 draws you in with the ease of their programs and gets you committed to something that won't get you results because it's.....well, easy.  

Camp #3 pushes you off the high dive and tells you to sink or swim, wussy!!  So you quit because who has the time to do an hour worth of plyo everyday (or wants to)???

There is symbolism in the New Year, just like Sunday is symbolic of a new week every 7 days.  I love Sundays.  I teach a yoga class on Sundays and it's our "reboot" day.  Just like it is at my 5:30 a.m. classes.  Reboot, restart, go forth, again and again and again.  Life is cyclic, we've known this from the dawn of time.  There is a season and a time for everything.  There is a time for me to rest my body from so much running and there is a time for me to train for a marathon. There is a time to do more yoga and a time to do more lifting (along with yoga :).  The big secret is to keep that sense of renewal with you everyday.   Don't let a little falling off the clean eating wagon turn into a 12 car pile up on the Nutrition Highway.  And even if it does, picking yourself back up and telling yourself that it's ok.  New day, start again, get back on the wagon, the treadmill, the elliptical, the whatever....and REBOOT.  

So embrace (instead of brace) the New Year!  Celebrate and relish the fact that the cycle is starting again.  And do it again in Spring when Winter slowly melts away and you can get off the treadmill and run OUTSIDE again!  And do it again in Summer when gives us abundant sunshine!  And fall brings some relief, then Winter draws us in for cozy fires, snow days and holidays with the family.  

Keep being consistent....or seize this chance to start.  Show yourself some grace when you fall off and always get back up and work your ass off!!!

Project 52

One of the reasons I quit my corporate job to become a trainer and yoga teacher was to spend more time on myself, in addition to helping others on their journey.  But I have done what I normally do, throw myself into my work and end up over scheduled, over worked and stressed out.  There's something about focusing on ones self that we inherently see as selfish.  While I believe that we should selflessly attend to the needs of others, we cannot do that without pouring into ourselves.  Starting with 2014, I am going to consciously focus on myself so  I don't end up burned out and switching careers because I never paid any attention to my needs.  

I got inspired to treat myself as a project as much as I do other people or the projects that others ask me to take charge of.  That's when I came up with Project 52.  The concept is to come up with 52 items (one for each week of the year) that you want to work on.  First, the items should not be task list items - like "lose 10 lbs" or "go to the gym 5 times a day."  This is the biggest issue in keeping New Year's resolutions is that we often make them quantifiable resolutions versus an intention - very much like setting an action without a priority.  Priorities drive actions.  Not the other way around.  These 52 items should be QUALITY items.  Items that are an intention for your life.  Not an expectation only to lead to disappointment. 

Second, the items should be varied.  Some should be difficult (ask for forgivess), some should be easy (read more).  Some should be fun (dance)!!!  They should be wholistic - mental, spiritual & physical.  

You can keep a journal of your Project 52 - highly encouraged! Each week is a new item that you'll focus on.  As you move on to the next week/item, continue to carry out previous items, just giving that week's item your main focus.  

Here are some I know are making my list:

Slow Down!!!

Meditate

Dance!  :)

Spend more time with D (my son)

There are 16 more days left in December.  Write down 3-4 items each day until January 1st.  Then start with #1 the first full week of January and move down your list each week.  I've started a facebook group for those who would like to share with others or get inspired!!  Click the link and request to join the group!  

https://www.facebook.com/groups/1439250926293991/

Peppermint Mocha Recipe

I love making my version of popular dishes/drinks at home!  Last post was the PSL and this post is the Peppermint Mocha!

4 oz chocolate almond milk

2 oz coconut milk

1 tsp Hershey's dark chocolate powder

1/2 tsp Watkins Pure Mint Extract

Combine (in order) the above ingredients in a Magic Bullet blender or other small blender and mix until frothy.  Pour into a cup of coffee that is about 3/4ths of the way full and fill to top with mixture.  

It is soooooo good!!!  And it has a fraction of the whopping 400 calories and 60+ grams of sugar that a Venti Peppermint Mocha (no whip) from Starbucks has.  This one serving was enough for two big cups of coffee.  MMMMMM......

Homemade PSL Recipe

I know we are officially out of the PSL season (the hip acronym for Pumpkin Spiced Latte) and into the Peppermint Mocha Season (PMS?  That acronym needs work...), but pumpkin is universal for me.  I loooooove it.  I even buy allllllll the Blue Moon Harvest Pumpkin Ale I can find (if you locate some, let me know.  Not kidding).

My husband found me the last two six packs at Walmart *sniff*  That's real love.   And 180 calories a beer.  **SNIFF**

I don't love the sugar and artificial crap that is usually heaped in anything labeled "pumpkin spiced."  (A  Venti, no whip from Starbucks packs in 400 calories and 60 grams of sugar!!!!).  So I made my own!

I used 4 oz of So Delicious Dairy Free Coconut Milk (the unsweetened kind), about 2 tablespoons of canned 100% Pumpkin (I just keep it in the fridge in a container), add some McCormick's Pumpkin Pie Spice and blend it up in my Magic Bullet blender with using the flat blade attachment (LOOOOOVE this thing).  It's enough for two regular sized cups of coffee - stir it into your coffee so it dissolves.  You can make more, store it in the fridge and give it a little whir whir before stirring it into your ocffee each morning.  

It's 32 calories per serving (this is enough for 2 cups of coffee) and only 1 gram of sugar.  Plus 80% of your vitamin A ;)  Using milk will increase the calories somewhat but will add more protein.  Using skim milk will increase the sugar content.  

Happy Caffeinating!  Next, I'll tackle that peppermint mocha issue (420 calories and 66 grams of sugar for a venti, no whip!)

The Big Fat Shame

Recently, I've been seeing a lot of traffic on social media on "shaming."  Particularly body shaming.  A very beautiful and defined mother of three young children, posing in a midriff baring sports bra type of "workout" outfit, with the caption "What's Your Excuse?" is considered a "fat shamer."  I get what she was trying to convey with the pic - likely something along the lines of "If I can do it with all these little rugrats vying for my attention, then surely YOU can do it!  Stop letting excuses like lack of time keep you from chiseled abs and long flowing hair!"  You know, the typical.  But it made people feel bad about themselves and so now she's a fat shamer.  This hip word, shame, that's now being applied to just about everything, dog shaming, fat shaming, yoga shaming even, is nothing new, right?  Neither is this post!  

Yes, I wish the media would stop portraying photoshopped models as what females look like and instead use normal people (same thing for those gorgeous six packed male models too).  Yes, I wish we would stop nitpicking and bullying each other.  Yes, I wish the retail and fashion industry would stop jacking with sizes so that we all know that a 10 is a 10 is a 10 in a pair of jeans no matter if it's at the Gap or at Walmart.  Yes, I wish people would stop hating each other for whatever body type it is that they have (including hating on skinny people or "skinny shaming").  

But what I really wish is that we'd stop expecting other people to change our beliefs about our body and start doing it ourselves.  Stop believing that you aren't an "athlete" because you were told you didn't need to be good at sports because you were so smart.  Stop believing that the scale tells you how healthy you are or how much of a failure you are.  Stop believing that you can't start over when you missed 4 days of working out.  Stop believing everyone else's definition of who you are.  Stop giving their opinion of you more weight than your own.  

I have always been skinny - go ahead and hate me for it, I don't give a flying you know what.  My mom is skinny and tall and I got the skinny gene.  Guess what?  Skinny didn't save me from being called lots of names!  As a kid, I was "hyper."  As a teenager, I was mocked for having dark circles under my eyes, a big nose, acne (genetic, genetic, puberty) - none of which I could change!  As an adult, I kept playing those tapes in my head.  I gained weight in a job where I traveled a lot.  I ballooned in pregnancy.  I emerged as a self loathing, ready to self destruct, adult.  I just wanted to love myself.  

And then I started to run.  At first, I started to run because I hated myself and seemed like appropriate punishment.  I beat myself up when I missed a run.  I ran harder when I felt like someone was belittling me or taking power away from me.  I ran and I ran and I ran.  

And then I started to race.  At first a 5k.  Then a 10k.  And then a half-marathon.  And now, 10 half marathons and more 5k races then I can count.  

And then a shift.  I don't know when it happened exactly.  Likely close to the time when I got my tummy tuck.  At first, it was so taboo, hush hush, plastic surgery is so fake kind of bull crap.  Then it shifted to a different attitude.  My body had been put back together.  I no longer had a hernia or was asked if I was still pregnant 5 years after I delivered a big, healthy baby boy.  I stopped caring what other people's opinions were of plastic surgery and that spread to what other people's opinion of who I was.  

BEFORE

I started to lift.  I started to ride my bike.  I started to practice more yoga, which had been with me since I was 20.  And I kept running, not because I hated myself anymore.  But because it felt like I could fly.  I started to think that I could help other people on this journey to shift.....so I became what I am today.*

And guess what?  The names still don't stop.  They never will.  The latest is "manly."  I know the context in which it was said and I still love the person who said it because it wasn't malicious but it was still a jab, an opinion, a woman shouldn't be muscular, a leader, assertive type of label.  It's just that now, I don't give it any space in my head.  In fact, I welcome it.  Not because I AM manly.  But because I am strong, and I value wisdom, not opinions.  

I have learned so much.  That only you can take that journey.  I can't make you.  I can't make you take care of yourself.  I can't force you to stop eating crappy food or start exercising.  Nor can I change the tapes in your head.  But I can help replace them with new ones.  You can do it.  You ARE doing it.  You WILL get back up.  I believe you can.  

It still creeps up.  That insecurity.  Those tapes.  The desperate desire for approval.  So I go for a run, I get on the mat, I lift something heavy.  And I breathe.  

*12/6/13:  point of clarification on "what I am today..."  This is a tribute to my clients and students and those who have been part of my journey to become a personal trainer and yoga instructor.  

http://smallbutfierceyogaandfitness.blogspot.com/2013/07/the-beginning.html