You know the photos of all the celebrities slipping into their bikinis and super snug jeans in record time post baby, well what if that were you? “Well hold on” I hear you protest, “I haven’t got a nanny, a personal chef or personal trainer so how could I possibly achieve that? No way.” Well as Henry Ford once said whether you think you can or whether you think you can’t you’re right. So why not think you can and draw to you the conditions, and motivation that will make you right. Every action begins with a thought and every thought begins with an emotion. Positive emotions lead to positive action which takes you closer to where you want to be, negative emotions send you right back into the kitchen for some more Hangendaz.

So how do you really do the slinky bikini thing or just get into your pre pregnancy jeans swiftly, without  a nanny, a personal trainer and spa food chef on your doorstep and without doing something detrimental to your health well, first decide to, it’s as simple as that. Next educate your self. Next plan the where and when and how of it. Who will look after the baby while you take sometime for yourself and get fit.  How will you fit fitness it into your schedule, where will you train. You need to pick a place that will work for you consistently. It could be your living room while the baby naps. If she sleeps for an hour at a time, great, if she catnaps for 15 minutes at a time, then you’ll need to get creative and break your workout into several shorter segments to work around her schedule. Or your friendly neighbourhood gym might have a crèche she could be happily entertained in while you workout.

“But I’m too unfit for the basics, and what about an eating plan I hear you say”? Well if you take a look at our products and follow the advice you won’t need to worry about a trainer, or a chef, the information is right there with exercises from beginners to advanced and nutritional information and delicious recipes to get you on the right track and fitting into your pre pregnancy clothes by at least baby’s first birthday.

So take the challenge and achieve your goals! As a mother of three I can tell you from my own experience its definitely not only achievable, but well worth it in terms of energy and well being, productivity, confidence, and positive self image. So go for it. What have you got to lose, except those extra saddle bags ?

Cheers,

Nancy

The Truth About Fats

For years many of us have been yoyo dieting and counting calories and been anxious about every fat containing morsel that has crossed our lips. A whole industry had evolved around food labels proclaiming the benefits of this or that product because of the miniscule percentage of fat it contains. After all fat makes you fat right? Well this is the danger of half truths.

Yes fat contains per gram almost twice as many calories as carbs or protein so on the surface of it it does have the potential to pack on the kilos more so than the other nutrient types. Also fat from most animal sources is saturated and is more difficult for the body to handle and as a result it can cause problems especially for one’s heart and blood vessels. Fats derived from plant sources such as nuts, seeds, and some animal sources (i.e cold water fatty fish such as salmon) have the ability to protect the heart and blood vessels as well as producing many other health benefits protection of the brain and nervous system to name one other.

“Ya great for my ticker” I hear you say “but what about my thighs?” Well interestingly enough the right kind of fats positively benefits your girth as well. For more on how go to our nutrition product on our web site www.flexibilityplus.com.

Yours in health,

Nancy

I heard this the other day from self transformation expert Anthony Robbins: “We don’t do half the things we want because of the way we chunk things.” What he ment was we put off doing stuff that would add value to our lives and that ultimatetly we really would enjoy, simply because of the detail we choose to focus on. Let me give you an example of what I mean. I was talking to a friend the other day I’d sent info to back in January. Stuff she really would have benefited from using in order to have better control over a health issue she’s been grappling with for years and is greatly impacting her quality of life. When I asked how she was going with it she said she really hadn’t done much with it all these months, why? Too hard!

She asked me how I was going with something she was helping me with and I had to admit to the same failing.

We laughed and as the conversation went on I observed that really what was missing was a conditioning of our selves to make us follow through. In other words strategies that would make doing what we want in order to achieve our goals automatic. Because when we get into healthy habits of doing we can reach our goals with much less effort. I went on to give an example of some of my own routines, like early morning meditation, followed by exercise, followed by making fresh carrot juice. She laughed out loud and said for her doing stuff like blog posts, which I was struggling with at the time, would be 100 times easier for her to do than juicing ever would. I stopped and said “yup sometimes we struggled with it too, when we made it to complicated”. Thinking about all the steps, from buying the twenty kg bag, to lugging it up the stairs, to storing it, to getting the carrots out, putting the juicer on the counter, washing the carrots, juicing, cleaning the juicer, drying and storing it again.  Wow! It’s enough to make you go” I don’t have time to make fresh juice I think I’ll have another coffee!”

It’s all because of the way we put it together. See once upon a time when you were learning to drive, it was overwhelming there were ten things you needed to simultaneously and it just about fried your brain trying to sort it all out, but when you got your licence and got some experience engine on, clutch in, gear change, break off, signal, look in rearview and side mirrors, steer, accelerate all became part of one thing, called driving. Now you drive, chow down on your big Mac, and talk on your cell all at the time without blinking an eyelid. Creating habits for healthy living can become just as easy if we focus on the outcome and not all the detail. Think about it if someone told you in advance all the grim detail of learning how to drive would you have. If you’d let the detail stop you learning think of all the freedom you’d hve thrown away.

Oh it was fun putting this blog post together, now I feel like some carrot juice.

Till next time
Chunk it right!

Nancy

Even if you don’t have the hour; the 45 minutes or even the 30 minutes, there’s no excuse to totally for go your exercise completely. Even as little as 15 or even10 minutes of brisk walking, stretching or weight training will make a difference. Remember the effects of exercise are cumulative so every little bit counts. And you know what’s interesting once you get up and on the move you rarely just do the 10 minutes that was all you thought you had time for. Because once you are up and out of that chair with each minute of exercise you gain more momentum and the joy of working towards achievement of your fitness goals, or even more basic than that the wellbeing you feel from just the deep breathing involved, the sun or wind on your face if you’re training outside, etc. means you’re in the groove and just feel like keep going.

If all you really have is ten minutes between appointments and you haven’t time to get outside or the weather isn’t being cooperative ten minutes to limber up with some simple stretching exercises will do you a world of good. For ideas see our products on our website www.flexibilityplus.com.

Cheers,
Nancy

Nancy and I have just spent the last 3 days at a National Baha’i Convention which meant we had little time to do any intense exercise as the meetings started early and finished quite late each day.

But we walked each morning for just over half an hour which was a refreshing way to start our day.

Now back home I am looking forward to 5 days of surfing with some mates next week, so starting tomorrow I will be getting in as much surfing and exercise as I can in preparation for the upcoming surf trip.

If I didn’t build up my paddling fitness for this surf trip, (which could mean around 4 to 6 hours surfing each day), I would not be able to fully enjoy myself due to a lack of surfing fitness.

Now I know I can get to the level of fitness I want to within the next 6 days because of my baseline paddling fitness.

If I didn’t have a sufficient level of paddling fitness there is no way I could achieve my fitness goal within such a short time frame.

However, if I wanted to run a marathon, I wouldn’t be able to achieve the necessary running fitness within 6 days, because that is not what I train for.

So, when you set fitness goals think about your current baseline fitness and set your goals accordingly. Don’t create goals that you cannot possibly achieve because chasing unrealistic dreams will only result in frustration and you will not be enthused by such failure.

Keep it real!

Until next time

Jonathan

www.flexibilityplus.com

After writing a little about goal setting I thought I would get a little more personal and write about my two BIG goals that keep me pumped. Now, please don’t get me wrong – I am not suggesting that you should have these same or similar goals.  The idea is that I want you to see what pumps me, so in turn you can (hopefully) think deeply about what pumps you.
So…
My first big goal is to stay fit and healthy for me and my family. I have a wonderful wife and we have three great children – a 19 year old daughter, a 17 year old son and a 7 year old son.
My goal is to continue spending quality time with my wife and children for many years to come. I want to enjoy sharing in their lives as our children mature and in turn have their own children.
My second major goal is to stay very fit for surfing. Why? Because I just love surfing. The experience of riding an ocean wave is magical and I hope to be surfing when I am 70 and beyond.
That’s it.
No major list, not complex, but for me, very significant.
Find your BIG goals and go for it!
All the best
Jonathan
www.flexibilityplus.com

Yesterday I talked about being flexible in your training, allowing yourself to change your exercise program to suit your changing circumstances.
In my twenties and thirties I was focused on increasing my strength through lifting heavier weights on a progressive basis. Right now, my focus is far more on cardio fitness, flexibility and core strength, incorporating exercises to specifically improve my surfing performance.
This doesn’t mean that a person can’t keep the same focus with their training, as each of us needs to train in a manner that they enjoy, whether that means sticking to the same program year after year, or regularly changing their routine.
Whatever exercise system works for you, the main ingredient is to keep doing it!
Having said that, don’t fall into the trap of giving yourself too much to achieve. You need to create routines that are simple and easy to achieve. As you get fitter, stronger, more agile and flexible, then you can look at adding more to your program.
You are far better off to start a jogging program that has you running for 30 seconds for 5 days a week, then adding another 30 seconds so you jog for 1 minute for the next 5 days, then 1 minute and 30 seconds for the next 5 days, and so on; allowing you to comfortably build up to running for 20 minutes within about 9 months.
This beats going hard out for 10 minutes in your first run, feeling really exhausted, having very sore muscles for three or four days, and then giving up.
Set goals that build a strong foundation, that allow you to sustain exercise for year after year, because you are seeing great results and you are thoroughly enjoying yourself.
All the best
Jonathan
www.flexibilityplus.com

This is a big subject, but I am only going to touch on one aspect of it for now.
What I want to focus on is how your goals will change as you get older.
BUT you do need to have goals of some sort to stay motivated and to train regularly.
Over the previous two years I lost my motivation for surfing after getting hit by my surfboard across the side of my head which perforated my eardrum and took about six weeks to heal. Then I got a painful ear infection which kept me out of the surf for another few weeks, so all in all I was pretty fed up.
This led me to focus more on my martial arts and so I got more into stretching to increase my flexibility for higher kicks.
In an earlier post I talked about getting back into surfing this year, so I won’t go into that again, except to say that right now I am very focused on my surfing as I am really enjoying it.
So, I have developed a new exercise program that focuses a lot on cardio fitness, upper body strength, and core strength, with stretches to maintain my flexibility.
So you can see how my changed circumstances have resulted in my goals being changed.
My overall goal to be fit and healthy hasn’t changed, but how I train has altered to meet my micro goals. This flexible approach to exercising is really important, and is an aspect of training that is often taken for granted.
It is, however, the secret to longevity for your health and fitness, because as you grow older you will find that your circumstances do change, and these changes will affect what you can do.
So, go with the flow, train in a manner that achieves your goals and don’t be stuck in a groove.
Check out www.flexibilityplus.com which provides training methods that allow you to create your own unique personalised exercise program.
Enjoy your training
Jonathan