Active in Michigan

Well, it started to get a bit chilly last week, and while today is warmer, it is indeed time to start thinking about how to stay active as autumn and eventually winter tighten their icy claws around our fair state for the next half year.

Michiganders are at high risk for hibernation-related fitness deficiencies. Meaning when it gets cold we tend to huddle in our houses eating and drinking warm, comforting, high-carb high-fat foods until the weather becomes bearable again. We lose strength and endurance, get depressed, put on excess weight and put ourselves at risk for diabetes, coronary artery disease and a variety of cancers. Not a fun or healthy way to spend half our year.

However, it doesn't have to be this way. With some planning and determination, we can all maintain healthy levels of activity during the cold months, which in turn will keep our energy and spirits high, making it easier not to also spiral into a 5-month holiday food coma. Start planning now to make the transition easier.

Here are some ideas:

* If your primary exercise is walking, you can always take it indoors, to your own treadmill, the mall, the high school indoor track, or the gym. Because it's often less appealing to walk indoors, make it a plan, put it in your calendar and don't skip it. Find ways to make it more appealing: download good music, audio books or podcasts you look forward to listening to onto an mp3 player and use it while you walk. If on a treadmill, grab an interesting magazine or allow yourself to watch a favorite tv show while you walk. Enlist a walking partner so you can chat the time away. Find a way to enjoy your time and you will want to keep doing it.

* Sign up for a class and pay for it in advance. Make it something you've enjoyed in the past or always wanted to try. If possible, get a friend, spouse or coworker to sign up too so both of you will be more likely to attend. When you're done, avoid commiserating about being sore or exhausted. Focus instead on how strong or refreshed or energized you feel.

* If you work out in the morning and it's harder to get out of bed to do it when it's cold and dark, consider investing in an alarm clock that simulates sunrise with a light that gradually gets brighter until it's time to wake up. (Search Amazon.com for "sunrise clock" for many different models.) Your body's response to the light will help you get up easier. Or try setting your alarm to wake you up with a high-energy song you love. Try sleeping in your workout clothes so you can get right to it instead of dreading the icy draft when you get out of bed. Remember that the workout should warm and energize your body!

* Consider trying something new or getting back into something you've not done in awhile, whether an outdoor winter sport like skiing or an indoor active pursuit like a martial art, dance or indoor soccer. Check your rec & ed department and other organizations. There are lots of fun things to do to help you stay active all winter long.

* Enlist the help of a personal trainer, whether one-on-one or with one or more friends. When you have an appointment and someone to hold you accountable, you are less likely to skip out on workouts.

* Get support from friends, relatives, your spouse or children or coworkers. Make a pact to stay active this winter and regularly check in with each other. The more personal you can make it, the better, but there are also online communities that can help you connect with others who are trying to stay on track, such as SparkPeople.com. Try to stay positive with each other - not inducing guilt trips but instead helping problem-solve and gently pushing each other to stay on track.

Good luck!

Do it anyway.

To all my clients and friends who want to get in shape but can never find the time, I’m going to call you out right now. I’m talking to myself here, too.

This is not about guilt or feeling bad about yourself. It's about moving forward.

The time will never be just right. There will always be a party or a birthday or a work deadline or a mother visiting or a sick child. Life is never static and your schedule will not suddenly stand still for a magic hour for you to get your run in. If you truly want to exercise, you will make time.

You brush your teeth every day, right? Here’s the thing: exercise is so vital to our health and quality of life that we need to think of it like basic hygiene. Your goals for exercise don’t matter here, though it helps to have a reason that resonates with you. I’m not telling you that you need to lose lots of weight or become a crazy muscle machine or run a marathon. All of us need regular exercise, preferably on a daily basis, whether we’re doing it to look our best, feel our best, perform our best or just to be able to keep living and functioning. Your goals will determine the time you spend being active – even a little bit will improve general and mental health and help ease problems like diabetes and high blood pressure and reduce the risk of a variety of cancers.

There are lots of resources out there to help you find some exercise you don’t hate, to connect with others to make it more fun, to motivate yourself by tracking and to develop step by step plans for specific goals that ignite some spark of passion in you. That’s not what this entry is about.

The bottom line is this: unless your excuse not to exercise on a given day is something that would prevent you from brushing your teeth or showering if you needed one, do it anyway. I don’t care if it’s 5 minutes of stretching or 20 minutes of strength training or a half hour on the treadmill – whatever scheduling snafu has messed up your plans, go to plan B and do it anyway. I don’t care if you’re not in the right headspace or don’t feel like it – the only way you’re ever going to start feeling like it is if it’s habit and you’ve done it enough times that it starts to feel good (which will happen), so do it anyway. I do care if you’re injured, but if your ankle’s sprained you can always get in the pool or on a bike or at the very least do some stretching, so come up with an alternative and do –something- anyway. I do care if you have an exercise addiction or eating disorder and need to tone it down, but that’s not most of us. Most of us need to stop talking ourselves out of being active and start talking ourselves into it.

How long have you been “trying” to get it together and develop a regular exercise habit? How much of that trying has entailed waiting for the “perfect time”, waiting to “feel better”, waiting to have “enough energy”, waiting until you have “more time”, waiting until the house is clean or you can afford a gym membership or your kids are old enough to entertain themselves or your back stops hurting or your divorce is final? How much of your life do you want to waste with “trying” when you can and should be “doing”?

Anything can be worked around if we really want to do it. Ask any athlete who’s lost a limb and kept doing their sport. There are a million stories out there of people who rose above every challenge to come out better, stronger, happier people who have achieved amazing things. Chances are, in comparison to some of those stories, your challenges are not so very large after all. So figure out what your goals really are, stop trying to be anyone you’re really not (like a marathoner if you really just hate running and would rather go golfing), and ditch the excuses. You’re smart. You’re resourceful. There is someone in your life who cares enough to help you if you need it, and if not, you can pay or barter for someone to care. You’ve gotten this far in life and even if you feel like a kicked dog right now, you can take control of your body and your health, and it doesn’t have to be as big a bloody deal as most people make it. In the time you’ve spent listing the reasons why you can’t exercise, you probably could have taken a walk around the block.

So take the initiative. Stop fighting so hard against yourself. Take a deep breath and decide today, and every day, to accept all the challenges and excuses and inconveniences and feelings, figure out what you CAN do, and despite all the reasons you might not, do it anyway!

40 miles into the woods, 40 miles out

My boyfriend is a martial arts and kickboxing instructor and this is one of his favorite phrases. When he's talking to people who come to his class and work hard for a few weeks only to get frustrated by their lack of immediate progress, he gives them this speech. "40 miles into the woods; 40 miles out. It took you how long to get out of shape? Probably years. Don't expect to get yourself into shape in a few weeks."

One of my personal favorite phrases is a quote from Aristotle. "We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act, but a habit." So too with fitness. We can't make an epic effort for a short period of time and be fit. We have to make a sustainable effort for a long period of time. We have to be consistent. Our bodies and health will reflect our long term habits.

So don't give up if you're only 5 miles along on your trip out of the woods. Keep going. You'll get there.

The Long Haul

What I'm doing now is a great example of what NOT to do. I started this blog challenge on June 1st with the best of intentions which petered out around June 20th (just short of my "new habit" goal). Now that it's June 29th and I have 20 entries in June, if I want to finish I need 10 blog entries for two days. I can do it, but it won't be fun, and it probably won't be as good as it would have been if I'd done it once entry per day. I used to do this kind of thing in college all the time. In fact, I started writing papers at the last minute purposely, believing I did better work under pressure. Sometimes, I really did! Unfortunately, working under pressure all the time is not sustainable. I've had to re-learn this lesson a lot in my life, and I still have trouble keeping it straight.

I turned 30 last Tuesday and it has me thinking a lot about the long term. Where my life is going, what I want to make of my business, my relationships, my hobbies and ambitions. I'll be starting a retirement account later today, in fact. I don't have a ton of money to put into it, but the hope is that if I put a little in every week or month for the next... well, at least 35 years, by the end I'll have something I can retire on. I've heard many, many disheartening stories about people waiting too long to start saving and never being able to retire. According to all of the financial experts, I should have started saving in my 20s. Well, I didn't, but I'm not letting that stop me from starting now.

Where is this long ramble heading and how does it relate to fitness? Our bodies are kind of the same as retirement accounts. The more we invest in it and the longer we do so, the better off we will be throughout our lives. You might be a young person thinking about looking hot in a bikini right now, but what about when you're 70? You probably want to be able to get up the stairs at that point, right? It's never too late to start, because something is always better than nothing, but the earlier you start, the better. And your efforts need to be steady, sustainable and constant for the best results. You can't play frantic catchup and hope everything will work out ok, like going on crazy crash diets for your high school reunion and doing nothing for your health and fitness most of the time. This just doesn't help, and eventually will leave you worse off than if you hadn't done it.

So, beyond what you want to look like or fit into next week or next month or next year, give some thought to the long haul and how your lifestyle is gong to contribute to your health in the years to come. You'll start to understand that crazy diets and unsustainable exercise programs are not going to do it. Change has to be sustainable throughout a lifetime, and for that kind of change, slow and steady wins the race.

All-or-nothing thinking gets you NOTHING

I see this all the time. A client comes to me, excited and ready to go. This is the time they will finally get everything together and get in amazing shape! They will work out for an hour and a half every day (even though they've been a couch potato for the last 3 years), survive on lettuce and cottage cheese (even though they currently have a major fast food addiction) and in no time at all, they will have the Perfect Body (TM). This, by the way, will solve all of their problems and make them Happy (TM).

I talk to them a little and find out that this is not the first time they've made such a resolution. It's a familiar pattern, because for many years, I lived it.

Here's what happens. We are dissatisfied with the way things are and decide we need to change it. We want instant gratification, so we decide to take massive action and change all of our habits at once, rabidly pursuing what we think we need to do to get the perfect version of what we want. We write or plan out elaborate schemes and get very excited about the whole prospect. For a short period of time, we are all over it. We work out daily and eat nothing but whole grains, veggies and lean protein. Then, after a few days, or a week or two, it catches up to us. We're too tired or sore to do a workout. The girls are going out for martinis and we just can't stand it anymore. A hiccup occurs in the plan, and we are horrified. We have just blown the whole thing! We will never be able to change, we are just lazy, gross and will be fat and out of shape forevvaaarrr. Our plan is derailed and we feel like absolute failures, so we say "screw it, I may as well eat anything I want, and screw exercise, it's not like I can change anyway."

This is all-or-nothing thinking. If we could step outside ourselves for a moment and observe the thought and behavior patterns, we would think it came from an overdramatic teenager! We need to grow up a little here and reform our unrealistic expectations. We need to be able to live with imperfection, because it's part of being human. Human beings don't change instantly. It takes time, and patience, and self-forgiveness when we mess things up.

If you're contemplating a new nutrition or fitness plan, think about sustainability. Is it something you can live with? Are you trying to make everything happen at once? Look at your past behavior. Have you often started a new plan only to wash your hands of it in frustration in a few days or weeks?

The only way to truly build sustainable health and fitness is to get past all-or-nothing thinking. Don't expect yourself not to make mistakes. When you do make a mistake, let it go and get back to your goals as soon as possible. Recognize that you don't want to live your life without pleasure and that you shouldn't try to deprive yourself of everything you enjoy in the pursuit of some unattainable perfect you.

Believe me, I've been there, and I don't want to go back anytime soon. Besides being miserable, I was terribly unhealthy.

Eventually, with some patience and support from the people close to me, I got over myself and learned to take small steps to improve over time, working through setbacks without beating myself up. The less all-or-nothing thinking I do, the happier and healthier I am.

That's not to say I don't still do it sometimes. All-or-nothing thinking is a hard habit to break, and society reinforces it constantly.

But with patience, self-forgiveness, and small steps, I've managed to banish it from my life most of the time. If you decide to, I know you can too. :)

The importance of SMART goals

I tell all my clients to make SMART goals. This is a well-known acronym standing for Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Realistic and Timely (or Time-Bound). I tell people this because the vague statement of "I want to lose weight" or any similar statement tends to yield no results. When we actually think and plan out SMART goals, things start getting done.

I ran smack-dab into a personal example a couple days ago when I picked up my bridesmaid dress for a friend's wedding, which is happening in July. Because the bride is awesome, I got to pick my own dress, as did all her bridesmaids. It's a subtle blue strapless stunner. And it doesn't fit. :P

Due to depression and a number of things, I slacked off on my own diet and exercise program over the winter and gained weight because of it. Not a ridiculous amount, but enough that I've been meaning to go on the offensive with my program for awhile. Until I had a firm deadline, though, I was putting it off. There were a lot of "I'll start tomorrow"s, and "eh, I'm busy today, it's not a huge deal if I don't get my run in." Now that I have a firm deadline in mind, it's actually easier for me to consistently make the right choices to get there. I'm not freaked out about it; just focused. I haven't gone on a crash diet; just adjusted in a sane way and am making sure to get in my cardio every day and working harder on the strength training. This reminds me of how important the components of the SMART goal are.

Specific means you have to know what you're going for. Don't be vague. If it's about weight loss make it a number of pounds or a clothing size. If it's about strength, specify exactly what you want to be able to do. If it's a functional goal, state how many miles you want to be able to walk or run, or whatever.

Measurable means you can quantify it. If you just want to feel better, how will you know when you're there?

Achievable means it has to be possible. Don't set yourself up for failure by making an impossible goal, for example losing 30 pounds in a week.

Realistic means you have to think about how likely you are to follow through and achieve this goal. Even if the goal is possible, like getting ready for a marathon in 2 months, you may not actually be willing to put in the amount of work it would take to achieve it. Think about what you're willing to put into your goal and adjust accordingly.

Timely or Time-Bound was what I was missing. Deadlines help us not to put things off continuously. If there's no event coming up, try picking an artificial deadline. It helps when we have something to hang the deadline on, though. Otherwise we can just keep moving it back.

Try writing your goals out and testing them by these criteria. If they don't fit, tweak them until they do. Then, post them somewhere you can see them so that you can make good decisions and make a little progress each day. Go for it!

How to snap out of a "I don't wanna" mood

You're drained after a long day, or not ready to get out of bed. You're just not feeling it. At. All.

How do you get your butt off the couch or out of bed and working out like you planned? Moreover, how do you get yourself to look forward to it instead of dreading it?

One key is consistency. The more you exercise, the better it feels. For the first couple of weeks you're doing it, if you've been inactive, it's probably going to feel uncomfortable and you're probably going to feel worn out afterward. What's all this about exercise increasing energy? Depending on how deconditioned you are before you start, at first it might just make you feel pooped. Don't let that stop you. If you're consistent and start doing a little something preferably every day without overdoing it, you'll start feeling the benefits of increased vitality and energy with little bursts of exercise induced endorphins ("happy hormones"). Once you start feeling better, it's easier to keep at it.

Sometimes that's not enough. We get into these arguments with ourselves. "I'm tired, I deserve a break, I don't feel like it today, I'm too busy..." etc. etc. etc. We view exercise as a chore, and so we do mental backflips to avoid it. We need to start viewing exercise as something fun and valuable. Lots of people who enjoy exercise view it as "me time", to focus on and care for themselves. Taking the time to care for yourself means you're better able to care for others and fulfill your responsibilities. Plus it makes for happier people. Still dubious? Try something new you haven't tried before. Zumba is cardio dance and seems more like a dance party than exercise. There are lots of team sports you can try - check programs in your area. Martial arts are fun and active and can really help if you're feeling frustrated. After all, you get to go beat on punching bags for awhile. Find something you like, and try different things until you figure out what that is. Make exercise social if that works for you - work out with friends or groups of people. Get outside if you like being there. Get in the water if you like to swim. Find some aspect you like and start thinking of exercise as something you're lucky to be able to do.

Okay, so those are long-term attitude adjustments to work on. How do you get out of a short term slump and get your workout in right now?

1) Imagine how you will feel afterward. Accomplished. Alive and awake. Energized. Relaxed after a great stretch. I love the feeling of getting into the shower after a good sweat. Whatever makes you feel great after you've just gotten done with exercise, visualize that with every detail you can, and crave it like you would a piece of chocolate.

2) Bargain with yourself, but don't make your reward food. Maybe if you get your workout in, you can then take the rest of the evening off and watch a favorite tv show. Or go window shopping at your favorite store. Or whatever slight indulgence you want to look forward to but that won't sabotage your efforts.

3) Decide. With a capital D. Remember that you are in control of your life and your outcomes, and that success is the sum of the decisions you make for many days in a row. Make the conscious choice to succeed today.

4) Switch things up. If you'd planned on going on the treadmill and can't stand the thought, try playing basketball with a friend or trying that new kickboxing class or whatever. Do something different, equally beneficial, that you can stand the thought of a little better.

5) Call up your acountability partner. You have to plan ahead for this one and ask someone to help you keep yourself on track. Then when you're wavering, you call them and they talk you into it. If you don't have a formal partnership set up, call your most encouraging friend and tell them you need some firing up. Then listen to them.

I hope these help. Enjoy!

"Secrets"

I get so sick of hearing and seeing variations on the phrase "weight loss secrets."

Secrets? Really? Is there some super weight-loss cult out there plotting and hiding this information from the rest of us? And Glamour Magazine, or whatever product is boasting the "Secrets" headline is our only hope of getting this amazing, magic information that will make us instantly slim and perky?

First, I object to the wording. There are no weight loss secrets. There is so much information freely available on the topic floating around on the internet among other sources that one could never hope to wade through it all. Some information is more reliable and relevent, but trust me, none of it is kept under wraps, and no magazine or website writer has "inside info" on this stuff. They research the information that's available, maybe talk to an expert or two, and give an opinion on what they think will help the most. Somehow, using the word "secret" seems to sell magazines and DVDs, so it's used as often as humanly possible.

More importantly, I object to the idea. Everyone is aware of the very basic principles of losing weight. Eat in moderation and exercise often. Sure, there are ways to go about this more efficiently and there are things that might affect your outcome such as hormones and there are things that can help to an extent like thermogenic drugs. But without at least one, and preferably both of those two foundations, significant weight loss will not occur. Both concepts represent having to put effort into changing our habits, and we hate that! So, we keep reading up on these so-called "Secrets" and hope that something will eventually tell us we don't have to eat right or exercise and it'll actually work.

In the meantime, we don't take the small steps that, if taken each day, will eventually, slowly and steadily (and we hate that too, in our society of instant gratification) get us to the weight and level of health where we want to be.

My advise as a fitness professional is to stop waiting for some mystical weight loss secret and start doing something small each day to get where you visualize yourself wanting to be. Take a walk. Put half your restaurant meal in a doggie bag for later. Meet a friend for a game of tennis or chat on the elliptical machine for 20 minutes. The more you do them, the more ingrained these habits will become, and you won't have to worry about it all so much, because slowly and steadily, you'll get there!

My loved one won't exercise. What can I do?

Here's the deal. Nagging does not work. It just doesn't. And no matter how gentle your comments, your loved one will probably see it as nagging. The major thing you have to accept here is that your loved one is not you, and you can't make him or her do anything they truly don't want to. I watched my parents struggle with their smoking habits for years. My mother would quit, Dad wouldn't, and soon Mom was back to smoking again. Dad wasn't going to do it until he really wanted to; until he had a reason that spoke to him and gave him the will to follow through and keep following through. My mother got breast cancer and finally, they both quit, together, and have been smoke free for a couple of years now (Mom is also currently cancer-free). No matter what any of us said or did before that, Dad didn't really want to quit, and so he didn't. He would try half-heartedly now and again, but he didn't really want it and so he always fell back into it.

There are some things you can do to help a loved one reach that motivation point when they have the will, desire and follow-through to change their health habits, but first accept that it may not happen right away, or for a long time, or possibly ever. Remember why you love the person and focus on that. You might even tell them some version of "It drives me absolutely crazy that you don't seem to care about this and it makes me worry about you. But I love you no matter what." Oddly enough, sometimes this reassurance is all someone needs.

Some things you can try:

-ask the person to exercise with you. Make sure you're doing something that's reasonable for them, I.e. if you're a marathoner and your spouse is a couch potato, try walking with them, not suicide sprints.

-if they have expressed interest in exercise but haven't followed through, ask if they would like to work with a professional to figure out what to do and get in the habit. Then encourage them to work with a trainer, or purchase a package with a trainer as a gift. (Don't do this is the person is resistant; it will just be a waste of money if they are not ready to commit.)

-try to help the person find something they will enjoy. For example, there are several video games for fitness out there, like the Wii-Fit. If your loved one hates organized exercise but likes video games, maybe this will help. If they hate treadmills but love basketball, encourage them to join a team, join one with them, or start playing with them.

-if your loved one feels too frazzled and you can help, do so. Example - if they feel too busy with the kids, volunteer to watch them while they head for the gym.

-if you're looking for help and support in your own health journey, let your loved one know that. Sometimes we will go further to help our loved ones out than to help ourselves.

Remember, you want your loved one to exercise because you care about them. Be patient and understanding, as you would want them to be about your own faults and bad habits. Change happens gradually, not overnight.

Good luck!

Act.

Planning is important. If you don’t have a plan, you don’t know how you’re going to get from point A to point B, and you risk not getting there at all.

However, sometimes we get so caught up in making the perfect plan that we never really start the journey. Or we wait for the conditions to be just right in order to begin. We have to “feel like it,” be “in the right headspace,” have every resource available, have the answer to every question before we are ready to move forward.

This is a recipe for never getting anywhere at all. I can be a control freak at times. One of the most important lessons I’ve had to learn is that there is no perfect time to start anything, and while preparing and planning are positive things, they can impede us just as much as they help us. Am I implying that you should skip planning and preparation altogether and go after what you want completely blind? Of course not.

But stop waiting for the perfect time, the perfect day, the perfect plan. Stop derailing yourself and starting over completely because something didn’t go the way you thought it should. Adapt. Move forward. You’ll never get where you want to be by standing around and thinking about how you’re going to do it. Life is messy and uncertain. Get over it. Act. Choose not to be a bystander on the sidelines of your own life. The only way you will get anything like the life you want is by taking action every day to get there.

Good luck!

Excuses

Today, boys and girls, we are going to talk about excuses.

Excuses sabotage everything our "best" selves intend for us. They're part of human nature. When we don't really want to do something, our very intelligent brains come up with dozens of reasons why we can't or shouldn't. The dumb thing is, we tend to spend more time futzing around with excuses and thinking and getting mad at ourselves and then soothing ourselves... we might as well have saved ourselves the time and trouble and gone ahead and done whatever we should have in the first place!

I'm going to use exercise as an example because it's what I hear the most excuses about, but you can apply this to whatever you tend to make excuses not to do. Try the following strategies to steamroll right over your excuses and create the habits you really want.

1. Problem-solve.
Many excuses are logistical in nature. "Lynda, I don't exercise because I don't have any time." Yes, you may be very busy. But everyone has a few minutes stashed here and there. It's a matter of figuring out where they are and how you can harness them. We make time for the things that are important to us. You don't have to exercise for one uninterrupted hour each day - that might well be unrealistic for you. But can you take a 10 minute walk on your lunch break, take the stairs at work, take your kids to play frisbee in the park while you're watching them, march in place while your working on dinner? Actually, once you actually go through your day, you probably have more time than you think. Don't take your excuses at face value. Think it through and find a way.

2. Argue with your negative thoughts.
"I can't exercise because I'm embarrassed, I look like hell, it hurts to move, I'm clumsy and feel like a dork." We're so mean to ourselves! You wouldn't say those things to a friend, or even a stranger, but chances are you have your own torturous way of thinking about yourself that holds you back from the things you really want to do, especially when it comes to exercise. Argue with those thoughts! What would you say to a friend who had heard these insults? You'd probably get mad on their behalf. Get mad at your own inner demons, and set out to prove them wrong!

3. Trick yourself.
"I really don't feel like exercising today." If you've made a commitment to yourself to exercise, you should try to follow through. Tell yourself "I'll do it for 5 minutes, and if I still don't feel like it, I'll stop." by the time you've gotten dressed and started working out, it'll feel kind of silly to stop after 5 minutes. Tell yourself "5 more, just to make it worth it." By this time, you're probably done whining anyway and just focused on getting it done.

4. Distract yourself.
Work out with a friend and chat while you do. Listen to music. Have a tv on in the background or a magazine on the treadmill. You need to focus to a certain extent, but we tend to get bored easily in our overstimulated world. Have something to hold your interest while you get the work done.

5. Enlist an accountability partner.
Make a deal with a friend, relative or coworker. Each of you will commit to the habits you're tying to create, and give each other regular status reports. If you missed a workout, you have to explain why. Make it someone who will call you on your crap, and do the same favor for them.

6. Focus on the results, not the task.
Okay, so you don't really want to exercise. But your probably DO want the benefits that come with it - increased energy, reduced stress, feeling good in your own skin, etc. The long-term results are hard to focus on, but you can also focus on the immediate feeling of accomplishment that always comes after you've fulfilled a promise to yourself to take action on something at any given time. Think how good you're going to feel after that swim class, and go do it!

21 days to make a habit

Studies have shown that it takes about 21 days to break or form a new habit. Personally, I think 30 days is a good, round number, and gets any last stubborn resistance out. :) Think about that. 30 days from now, you could have a new habit you've been talking or thinking about forever and not really doing anything about. It just takes a little bit of action every day. Chris McCombs, a self-styled fitness business mentor, talks about taking "massive action". That's awesome, and hey, if you can do that, go for it. Personally, I believe in small, sustainable steps. Trying to do too much all at once tends to result in getting overwhelmed and backtracking as fast as possible to return to one's comfort zone - the old habits you've been stuck in forever. So aim for balance. Challenge yourself, but don't expect to reach perfection in 30 days.

I'm thinking about this concept because I'm participating in Jeanette Cates' 30 Day Blog Challenge. I'm supposed to write a new blog post every day of 150 or more words and then post it to Twitter. I've had this blog for awhile and it's not like it's *hard* for me to write - I was an English major! (Don't use that to judge my grammatical errors and typos, please!) I just haven't made a conscious effort to form the habit of writing in it on a daily or almost daily basis. By doing this I hope to get some good, informative writing done, make more connections and ultimately identify some more people who can benefit from training with me and want to take that step. So, while I'm working on this blog thing, why don't you think about trying to form a habit over the next 30 days. Maybe it's drinking your 8 glasses of water, or walking for 20 minutes a day, or changing the way you talk about your body from negative to positive. Maybe it's increasing your endurance until you can finally run an entire mile without stopping. Or maybe it's replacing a big bowl of ice cream for dessert with fruit. Maybe it has nothing to do with your physical health and fitness, and that's fine too. But pick something you've been meaning to do for awhile and take a little action on it every day for the next month. You've got nothing to lose, and plenty to gain!

Change your 'tude to change your life

Humans are made to move. Our bodies are amazingly put together to allow us to run, jump, dance and play - all the things you see small kids doing all the time. What is it that happens to us as we get older that makes us stop taking joy in in the ways our bodies can move and start seeing movement as a chore? The cues we receive are myriad - from our parents telling us to sit still, to our teachers expecting us to be quiet in the classroom, to our first desk jobs, to a sudden shift in messages from everywhere as we get older that movement isn't about FUN - it's about being FIT, and that we should all feel BAD about not doing enough of it. I don't know about you, but guilt trips tend to take any possible fun out of something I'm doing and make it positively grueling. But these are the messages we receive as we move through our lives as Americans, and it's no wonder so many of us end up with exercise continually on the bottom of our to-do list, constantly feeling lousy about it, with health problems piling up because of it.

WE NEED TO LEARN HOW TO HAVE FUN MOVING AGAIN!

You knew how to do it when you were small. There wasn't any complication to it - your body was new and it felt good to move. Moving wasn't about health or looks or guilt. It was just fun. Now, you have the habits and the aches and pains and the attitudes of an adult. You're probably going to be a little hard to convince at first. But - would you rather keep your current attitude that exercise is a difficult, annoying chore and hate every minute of it, if you ever manage to make it a habit? Or would you rather try and get some joy from it if you're going to try and do it anyway?

So. How to start working on making movement a fun thing again when it sounds like anything but?

- Take cues from your kids. If you don't have kids, you probably know some. Kids love it when adults are willing to play with them - but you have to actually play. Run around, roll around, dance, jump, crawl, play! If your kids are already caught up in the video game or computer's maws, tell them you're going outside. Bring squirt guns, or balls and mitts, or a frisbee, or sleds if it's winter, and a determination to have fun!

- Let the dog take you for a walk. Don't just take the shortest route possible and go back inside - let the pup have an adventure and share the excitement.

- Indulge your silly side! If you're in a good mood and feel like skipping down the sidewalk, or dancing to a song you like, or running up a hill and striking a king-of-the-mountain pose, do it!

- Use your imagination! Yes, you're a dignified adult, but that doesn't mean your imagination has dried up and died. Sometimes, when I'm running laps on the track, I'm actually Batgirl chasing criminals. It's much more interesting than running in circles on a track, and it gets me done faster. Yes, it makes me a total nerd, but I'm a total nerd who can run for miles.

- Pair exercise with things you like. Listen to music that makes you want to move and use it to energize you. Work out in front of your favorite tv show. Put a comedy skit in your ipod and laugh through your routine.

- Take a fun class. There are all kinds: Zumba is latin dance aerobics. Drums Alive lets you beat on stability balls with drumsticks. Hip Hop Abs is pretty much what it sounds like. My own Sunday Kickstart class is largely spent giggling. If you're uncertain, bring a friend so you'll both be in the same boat.

Whatever you do, it has to be something that works for you. The more you focus on having fun, the less of a chore exercise will be, and the easier it will be to make it a permanent part of your life. You might be sore and tired at first, but remember, consistency is the key to getting rid of these symptoms. As they exit stage left, you can have even more fun!

Reward yourself without sabotaging yourself: weight loss goals

Most people, when starting a new nutrition or fitness program, reward themselves along the way to keep themselves motivated. This is a great concept and in some ways essential. Unfortunately, a lot of people go about "rewarding" themselves in very self-sabotaging ways, creating vicious cycles that counteract their attempts at improving their health and well-being, creating frustration and eventually causing a return to old, bad habits.

Here are a few self-sabotaging "rewards" that don't work, and some better alternatives:

-over-the-top treats
Hitting the gym and then deciding to splurge on a hot fudge sundae (or chili fries with the guys, or margaritas with the girls, or whatever) is a classic example of self-sabotaging rewards. If you take a look at how many calories your exercise efforts are burning vs. how many are in that splurge food, most of the time you'll be shocked and appalled. Food treats are not altogether bad and you *should* allow for some decadent foods occasionally or even on a daily basis; but NOT in huge amounts and NOT as a "reward" for following your fitness plan. If you're craving something, try a small portion, like a mini candy bar or a few bites of a shared dessert. Don't go crazy on a regular basis and expect to achieve good results.

-teeny-weeny clothes
Seen as an incentive to diet and exercise, too-small clothes tend to cause more anxiety and backsliding than motivation. Better to purchase clothes that fit as you lose weight - this is a very positive reinforcement of your efforts that can make you feel great, instead of a constant guilt-trip that may make you feel bad about yourself and thus trip up your healthy plans.

-things you should be doing for yourself anyway
The occasional day off, self-care you never seem to get around to, time to relax: these should not be contingent upon whether you're losing weight or not. In fact, neglecting these things can really sabotage your diet and exercise plans as stress mounts and overtakes your ability to cope with life. Take care of yourself as a baseline practice, not as a reward for something you've done.

-stuff you can't afford
There's not much worse than being saddled with large amounts of debt, whether it's from one big splurge or a bunch of small things adding up. Make your rewards within, rather than above your means in order to maintain a happy, healthy you.

Some examples of effective self-rewards: (remember, you can always purchase things used to avoid spending too much, if that's a concern)
-a new book, cd, dvd, video game or whatever entertainment item floats your particular boat
-a trip to someplace you'd like to go: museums, concerts, amusement parks, operas, parks - whatever interests you
-non-food-centered outings or parties with friends and loved ones: go bowling or rollerskating or surfing or swimming or something else fun that you don't normally do, and enjoy the activity and company
-attractive, properly sized clothing that makes you feel fabulous at the size you are.
-time at the spa, hair salon, manicure place or massage place - anything that makes you feel good and refreshed in your own skin and isn't part of your normal routine

The important thing is that your rewards please you and help keep you on track without causing guilt, anxiety or sabotaging your efforts. So make it about you and not anyone else. Good luck, and enjoy!

Visualize it

I have a short post for you today on a motivation technique. Everyone has heard of visualizing success, but most of us seldom use it. In the realm of fitness, everyone has different goals. Perhaps you want to be pain-free, or have more energy. Maybe you want to look better in a swimsuit. You might want to be able to do something like cross the finish line at a 5K or even a marathon. Whatever it is, visualization is a great technique to keep you motivated and even get you better results. You can try it while you're exercising, when you get up in the morning before you start your day, before you sleep at night and whenever you need a little extra boost (like when a carton of ice cream is staring you in the face).

It's called visualization, but vision doesn't have to be the only sense involved. The more you can get involved in the moment you're imagining, the better. For example, if you want to lose weight, you can picture yourself looking the way you'd like to, feeling lighter, moving with more ease. Imagine what your clothes feel and look like on you, how it feels when you walk or run, your breathing being easier as you exercise. Get wrapped up in the experience and enjoy it. Don't chastise yourself for not being there yet. This should be a positive time. Smile and know you are on your way to making this vision a reality, then continue about your day, whether it be going to sleep, getting up, continuing to exercise, or ignoring the ice cream newly at peace with not needing it.