6.30am Before getting out of tone up your pelvic floor muscles with 5 minutes of Kegels

7.00am Roll out of bed and rev up your engine for the 3 sets of 15 free squats

7.15am Give your   vitamin D levels a good boost with a15 minute walk in the sun

7.30am Have a light nutritious breakfast of high quality easily digestible protein and complex carbs

8.30am Take the stairs at work

10.30am Have a nutritious mid morning snack such as a piece non starchy fruit and a small handful of raw nuts ( e.g Almonds), or seeds ( e.g sunflower, and/ or pumpkin) or protein bar and green tea

2.00pm climb the stairs again

3.00am snack of fruit and nuts

Between 4.00pm and 6.00pm Take another 30-45 minutes of exercise either cardio, weights, core, flexibility or a combination

Yours in health,

Nancy

Procrastination the thief of time as some have called it is an insidious habit that robs us of our highest potential if we let it. Have you ever procrastinated? I know I’ve been guilty of this one. Have you ever asked yourself why you do it?  I know I have. Here are some of my whys:

1.    Embarrassment. I have to confront someone on an issue, and am not looking forward to the prospect, so I put it off
2.    Ignorance. I need  info I don’t have on a subject and don’t quite know where to begin looking for the answers
3.    Preference. I’d much rather do something else right now than tackle that issue I’m supposed to, because I attach more pain than pleasure to that than what I’m already absorbed in.
4.    Shortsightedness and poor prioritizing. I fail to see the long term picture and am overly focussed on the here and now, after all there are far more important things for me to do right now right now than this thing I’m putting off, right?

Do you relate? Yup?! Let me ask you this then, have you ever had your procrastination catch up with you and reverse on it self?
For example, you have a large homework assignment or a report for work due tomorrow morning. You’ve known about it and the deadline for weeks, you’ve gotten as far as getting some of your resources together, but only just started really knuckling down to get it done and now you’ll have to stay up all night to finish it and miss the big game you were looking forward to watching. Darn! You walk in bleary eyed the next morning and hand in something you know could have been done way better if only you’d put in the time and paced yourself.

Now, lets say you’ve been for your annual check up you are a little nervous because you know you’ve put on 20lbs since you last check up and you were already a little plumper than you’ve have liked then. Then the doctor drops a bomb shell telling you your blood pressure is sky high, your cholesterol and blood sugar levels are a worry and she’s ordered you to start an exercise programme as soon as she can stabilize things with medication, oh and by the way you’ll be on these drugs for the rest of your life!

Two years ago your cousin told you to try this exercise programme and nutrition plan she was on and you noticed that she looked better than she had in years, was no longer chained to her smoking habit and had more energy than you did even though she’s ten years older than you!  You only had 15lbs to lose back then, a little left over from the last baby you had, you were in pretty good health, you didn’t smoke and were too young to worry about heart disease and besides those chocolate chip cookies that just came out of the oven smelled so divine and would go perfectly with the cappuccino you just made and the last chapter of that page turner you were reading.

Your cousin invites you to join her on her run, and you go “if you think I’m getting out there in this blizzard you are nuts” (it was raining and a tad cool and windy outside). Your cousin says “suit your self”, and you snuggle on the couch with your comforter and your comfort food and sigh with contentment. Twenty minutes later cuzi’s back, glowing and full of beans, she dives into the shower slips on a chic evening gown and heads out the door for a night on the town. You glower and grab another cookie. Sound familiar?

Two years on don’t you wish you’d listened?

To be continues….
Catch you tomorrow,
Nanc

Thought you were of the hook huh?

Just because you’re on the road’s no excuse to slack off. Trust me your body will thank you if you find a way to stay with a routine even when you have no access to a gym etc. The effort you make to stick with it will mean being able to slide effortlessly back into full gear when you return and avoid the typical readjusting that your body makes when you start all over again after a break, which usually equals lot of muscle aches and pains. This in itself can be so off putting that it can derail your entire effort to maintain a fitness programme.

So here are some tips when you are on the road:

1.    Case the joint and find the parks, walkways, or bush trails near your accommodation, conferences venue etc.
2.    Set your alarm 30 to 45 minute earlier than usual and hit the pavement, sandy beach or pebble stone path before breakfast. Your clarity, efficiency, and productivity will improve out of sight.
3.    Take your business partner, colleague, or client with you and do some business while you walk during a lunch time break. You won’t over eat at lunch and you might even be able to fit in an extra engagement with the time you save.
4.    Invest in one or more exercise rubber bands. They come in different resistances and give you a great resistance workout when you don’t have access to weights. You can do this while watching the 6 o’clock news before heading off to your evening sales presentation or conference dinner.
5.    If you’re feeling like connecting with your inner child, slip into some comfortable trackies and head for the local playground. Find some out door stairs, low balance beams, a climbing frame, and a set of monkey bars go for it and have blast. After 20 minutes of playing you’ll have wonderful healthy glow and feel like a kid again!

I feel so inspired I’m heading up and down the stairs for some of my own advice

See ya later,

Nancy

We’ve talked about the benefits of physical fitness for women but what about men? Well, men have just as much to gain as women do from taking up an exercise programme. Natural inertia, bad habits and the belief that they’ll never get back to the fighting form they enjoyed in their youth often keep them back. Any man reading this who falls into this category should take heart. One study showed that the effects of a sedentary lifestyle of thirty years duration was actually reversed in six months, after a group of middle aged men took up an exercise programme. The weight of the trial subjects had increase by 25 percent their body fat had doubled and their aerobic capacity had decreased by 11 percent over thirty years of being couch potatoes. Despite all that, in six months they were able to achieve the same degree of cardiovascular fitness they had enjoyed as twenty year olds, which proves it’s never too late start an exercise programme.

The gains of fitness can be achieved with out fanatical and intense activity. One study at the University of Colorado found that after a three month exercise period consisted mainly of walking a study of groups of sedentary men with an average age of fifty three had improved to a state comparable to that of men who had exercised for years. Walking is a great way to increase our cardio vascular fitness it is a way to connect the inner and outer worlds, to give time for the evolution of thought without being lost in one’s thoughts it is a way to connect to those around us in a world fast becoming disconnected. Walking even connects us to our history as a species.

Walking in the sunshine has the added benefit of improving bone strength both from doing weight bearing exercise and the opportunity to create vitamin D on the surface of our skins that does our bones a world of good because of its involvement in calcium metabolism.

Walking by ocean or waterfall or after a rainstorm has the added benefit of boosting mood due to al the negatively charged particles in the air.

So do your whole being a favour and done those walking shoes

See you on the trail

Nancy

• Take your physical limitations into account: If you cannot perform an exercise, don’t consider it. For example if a friend convinces you to enrol in a group fitness class that requires dance coordination and you are completely “uncoordinated” you’ll probably feel incompetent, even humiliated, drop out in short order, hang up your aerobics shoes and may decide this exercise thing just isn’t for you
• Choose your exercise form according to your personality: If you’re a group person you may enjoy a group fitness class, walking or jogging club or training with a partner. If you’re a group person and enjoy competition you may enjoy playing a team sport. If you enjoy the great outdoors a tramping or kayaking club may be just the ticket. If you like something meditative, stretching, yoga, tai chi, or Pilates may appeal. . If you enjoy training on your own, weight training, swimming, walking, or jogging may appeal. For many a combination is ideal
• Commitment to exercise requires scheduling it: Other wise you may fall prey to excusitis “I don’t have time for exercise,” etc. When this happens ask yourself, do I have time for cancer or heart disease and block time out for it in to your diary right along with all your other appointments.
• Programme your environment: Put exercise clothes and shoes right by your bed, or your gym bag stocked with water bottle, towel, toiletries and a change of clothes right by the door. Include the gym on your route to or from work, or have, the stationary bike set up by your desk at work or in front of the TV in the family room at home. These strategies will help you structure exercise into your life so it becomes a habit just like all your other personal rituals such as brushing your teeth, combing your hair, etc.

• Reward yourself : No not with an extra piece of chocolate cake when you’re done working out, more like calling that friend you’ve been meaning to catch up with, watching that favourite TV show, buying that longed for CD, shoes, cute workout outfit, etc.

• Ramp it up: If you just go through the motions when you exercise, nothing significant will happen. In order to get the results you want, get it done with purpose and intensity and the positive results will reinforce your efforts. Intensity doesn’t mean you have to exercise to the point where you are constantly gasping for air or turning blue in the face with effort. It does means you are concentrating on the exercise you are doing not shooting the breeze by the water fountain between reps while weight training, reading the Sunday paper while on the stationary bike, or holding a stretching exercise without really feeling it.

• Lastly keep an exercise diary: This will keep you purposefully focussed, so you can easily track your progress and tweak things so you consistently see results. It also allows you to pause for applause and celebrate your victories. Go to our web site www.flexibilityplus.com and you will find in the products we offer comprehensive solutions that cover all I have talked about here.

Until next time,

Go for it!

Best, Nancy

Let us assume you understand the benefits of exercise and have decided you really want to make a commitment to your health and fitness. How do I get started, I hear you wondering? And once started how do I stay on track, especially when it’s pouring with rain outside?

Here are some principles and ideas that will help

PART I

•    Set goals for your exercise programme: Start with simple, realistic achievable goals, then move on to new more challenging ones, one step at a time. Break up your goals into mini goals. Your first goal may be to do a certain volume of abdominal crunches, for example 50 crunches per day. You look at your goal and it seems daunting.  Right now you do ten crunches and your abdominals start screaming at you. Well, since muscles do recover relatively quickly, to get around the feeling you couldn’t do another crunch, break your goal down into segments over the course of the day; 10 repetitions morning, noon, afternoon, evening, and bedtime. In each succeeding day aim to increase the amount you do each session without changing the overall volume. Your muscles will respond in short order to the regular challenge. If it is walking, cycling or running you have goals for, first achieve your initial goal at a comfortable pace and then, increase your pace before increasing the volume of work. Here too you could at first achieve your total volume over two or more sessions in a day if one session is too demanding.
Whatever the goal do something on it every day. Visualise your goal constantly, commit to it and
•    Notice what ‘s working and what isn’t : Flexibly adapt so that you are doing what works consistently
•    Find a mentor: One who has successfully achieved what you want to and follow their guidance
•    Enjoy the process: To do that you will need to pick an activity or activities you like doing and believe you have the capability to do competently and master over time. If you’re an out door type and the thought of being in a gym turns you off, then exercise in the fresh air. Picking activities that you enjoy doing is critical to becoming and remaining a life long exerciser. This will require a little experimenting, so if you’re a novice try out several possibilities.
•    See exercise as a menu of many exciting and varied options. Keep looking until you find something you believe you could do for the rest of you life.  The more you like your chosen activity the more likely you are to stick with it.
•    Mental attitude has a huge impact on motivation: It turns out that motivation is high when there is a likely chance of success combined with a stimulating reward.

In part II we’ll cover other important strategies that will help you become a lifelong exerciser

Cheers until next time,
Nancy