Wow - been 50 days since I last posted a blog on my "continuous commitment to health and wellness". In the past 50 days, I've exercised over 50 hours. So, that includes rest days and the fact that some of my workouts  have been greater than 1 hour and some of them have been less than 1 hour. In the past 50 days, I've managed to eat and drink in moderation over Thanksgiving and Christmas. In the past 50 days I've struggled with getting up while it's still dark outside and finding the energy to stay committed when all the forces of nature tell me to eat and hibernate.

Wow - I'm sooooo sorry that I haven't blogged! It's been exactly 2 months since I last wrote of my continuous commitment to health and wellness. I last wrote of being your own guru.

Since then, lots has happened. Still very committed - why stop now? I've been doing this ever since I was in my early 20s. But, things have tried to derail me. About 1 month ago, got a 2 week upper respiratory virus. Ugh. Had to take time off. You know, it's those moments that often derail us from our continuous commitment. We get sick, we travel, we get injured and our routine gets interrupted. Even though we recover from the illness, the injury gets better or we are home from our travels, we tend to not return to our fitness/healthy eating patterns. Why is that?

Here's what I often hear people say. "It's so hard to start again. Feels like I'm starting over." That statement is interesting to me. I rarely think of starting anything over again. If I've stopped doing something for a bit and then start up again, I don't start where I've left off. I start where I am. In other words, I don't compare today to yesterday or last week or 1 month ago. I guess that's a bit of a Buddhist approach. Whatever you name it, I like it.

The beauty of this way of thinking is that the current moment is the most important moment. And, I love coming back to fitness or eating well after I've been derailed. I come back with a sense of gratitude. Wow, I can do this! I'm no longer sick or injured or whatever took me off the path for a bit. I don't come back thinking, "Wow, I suck. I'm so out of shape. Why even try eating well because it all goes away so fast."

The moral of the story. You'll get derailed. Plan for it. Think about your comeback and how sweet it is.

Keep up your commitment. It matters.

I've been thinking. Thinking about those things that keep me motivated to pursue my own health and wellness. Hell, that's why I'm blogging, right? It's been my hope that you can see through my blogging that I'm no Wizard of Oz. What's behind my curtain is no different than what's behind your curtain.

I'm not your Guru. You are.

That's right. Give up the guru. You have the know how, the wisdom, the ability to make change in your life. I've said all along that this commitment is not easy. It takes getting up every day and recommitting to making it happen. Thinking about each moment as an opportunity to make a better choice towards your investment in self. It's about choice. And, choice is about taking responsibility to know yourself well enough to better understand what motivates you to choose A or B.

That bears repeating. Take responsibility to know yourself: what drives you, what motivates you. This knowledge is the key to unlock your barriers. Not some special program, not some guru.

So, maybe spend less time looking outside of yourself for the solution and spend more time looking inside of yourself.

And, go ahead and do something that makes you sweat today and eat something that is recognizably from nature.

keep up the commitment.....

leah

It's been almost 3 weeks since I last blogged about my commitment to health and wellness. Oh, don't worry, I'm still committed. But, I seem less committed to blogging. Sorry about that.

Lately, I've been thinking about what inspires me to stay on this path. It's not the elite athlete. Don't get me wrong. I'm in awe of their talent and hard-work. But, what's more inspiring to me is watching people overcome. And, by overcome, I don't mean it has been be huge barriers to be considered inspiring. I'm inspired by the elderly woman who despite her age, I see walking on the bike path. I'm inspired by the middle-age man who despite his addiction to cigarettes, decides to take up cycling. I'm inspired by the woman, who despite living with cancer, continues her commitment to training for a 5K.

I don't have any of these barriers. Age is not a barrier, addiction is not a barrier and illness is not a barrier. I have it easy. My health is not to be taken for granted. Why would I waste this precious time I have being healthy and not continuing to enjoy the fruits of my fortune. If those around me who overcome in the face of their barriers, then I can continue to commitment to my daily investment in health and wellness. So when every I don't feel like taking that first step off of the couch and out the door, I think of them and get inspired.

And, if my words didn't inspire you, then check out the like I've posted the the website for "Athlete the Movie". It will do the trick.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=YqgpxmO_upQ />
Keep on, keeping on,

leah

What does learning to tolerate discomfort have to do with a continuous commitment to health and wellness? Well, it's a little tricky. I'm not asking for you to recalibrate your pain threshold. What I am asking of you is to check in with your ability to hang in there when something doesn't feel very good - physically or emotionally. Be honest with yourself - do you tend to avoid doing things that create discomfort? If so, it must be hard to commit to a healthy lifestyle over the long haul.

Come on - fitness is not always fun - actually, many, many times it's not fun at all until it's done. It kinda hurts: muscles burning, lungs burning, hard to breath, sweat in eyes, etc.

Making healthy food choices is also not always the most comfortable experience. Since our bodies are hard-wired to crave sugar, fat and salt we learn to work with these cravings and not follow their every whim. 

What would happen if we avoided feeling uncomfortable? We would most likely follow the path of least resistance in both fitness choices and food choices. For example - drive cars instead of walking, riding bikes; take elevators/escalators instead of stairs; have our shopping delivered to our doors via internet; grocery shopping instead of growing our own food; eating prepared foods or convenience foods instead of preparing meals and on and on and on.

So, the next time you have the opportunity to feel a little or a lot uncomfortable in the pursuit of a healthy lifestyle, do it. Take the road less traveled, the path of more resistance not least. It may hurt a little more, but it will be worth it.

"Lazy" from wiktionary:

an Adjective

lazy (comparative lazier, superlative laziest)

1. Unwilling to do work or make an effort.

   Get out of bed, you lazy lout!

2. Requiring little or no effort.

   lazy port

3. Relaxed or leisurely.

   I love staying inside and reading on a lazy Sunday.

4. (optometry) Of an eye, squinting because of a weakness of the eye muscles.
5. (cattle brands) Turned so that the letter is horizontal instead of vertical.

[edit] Synonyms

• (unwilling to work): bone-idle, idle, indolent, slothful, work-shy

It's a pet peeve of mine to hear people say they are "lazy". "I'm just lazy, I guess." They refer to it like it's some "condition". As if it's not their fault they are lazy. And, better yet, now that I've posted the definition above, it appears they are not truly understanding the definition of the word. I'm going with definition number 1: "unwilling to do work or make an effort." How do you interpret this? Me? I take it at face value. It means UNWILLING TO WORK OR MAKE AN EFFORT. It would be powerful if that's what we said every time we wanted to use the word lazy. Say it for what it is - unwilling to work or make an effort.

Ok, ok, why am I harping on this point? Because it's so blindly obvious. The definition of lazy is all about taking responsibility for avoiding work. And, the work I'm speaking of is the work of committing to health and fitness each and every day. Lazy is being UNWILLING TO WORK. So, the deeper set of questions try to get to what's behind the unwillingness. What are the reasons?

The theme of this blog is all about commitment - working each and every day to make healthy choices. Sometimes it feels like a lot of work and sometimes it feels like a little work, but it is work. I've  opened up a little of my private life in hopes it might help others see that even some one like me, a "Health Professional, A Nutritionist, A Fitness Instructor" works at this daily commitment.

Thoughts?

Keep on keeping on.

Something dawned on me earlier this week while I was facilitating a group meeting to discuss committing to living a healthy lifestyle. Someone asked if this commitment to making healthy choices in food and fitness ever gets easy. And, that's when it dawned on me. "No", I replied. It just starts to feel a little less hard. And, some days it's just back to hard.

So, why do I even mention what appears to be semantics in word choice? Because, I'm thinking if we approach this commitment to lifestyle change with some sort of expectation that it will eventual get easy to do, we most certainly will feel let down, get frustrated, and throw in the towel. Instead, if you go into this lifestyle with the understanding that every day brings new challenges and detours to making the healthy choices in food and fitness, when the apparent road block appears you will have the patience to figure out how to go around it.

Some days present fewer road blocks than other days.

I often hear people describe their days as "good" or "bad". I ask them to please define. A "good" day includes exercising and eating small amounts of food throughout the day in meals and snacks which consist of healthy choices. A "bad" day is anything that deviates from a "good" day. And, the real issue is that a "bad" day or even a "bad" moment in a day often derails them. And, I mean really derails them. This is what it called in the biz as "black and white" thinking or "all or none". So, you eat the chocolate chip cookie. So? How does that make the day all of a sudden a "bad" day. And, better yet, why does eating the chocolate chip cookie become the reason you stop working on this whole lifestyle change all together?

Remember, if you really approach living a healthful life over the long haul, build into the process chocolate chip cookies. You get me drift. It doesn't ever get easy. It just gets a little less hard.....on some days.

Keep on keeping on....

Excuses, excuses.....I hear them a lot. I'm growing kinda weary of them. It's like there is an overpopulation problem with excuses. Let's commit to not making any more excuses about the reasons we don't exercise regularly or don't eat well or don't get enough sleep or don't manage our stress better. Instead, let's acknowledge the choices we make each day and learn to accept and commit to practice the change we want to see.

Easily said, huh? Much harder to do, I know. Here's the thing. What's the alternative? Stay stuck in the excuse trap or find the courage to accept factors, circumstances or whatever you can't change. Once that's done, focus on what you can change. Example? As far as I know, no one has yet to stop the aging process. Can't hide from aging. We all do it. Funny though how much energy we put towards slowing it or even trying to reverse it. And, it's those types of "we are desperate to change" areas in our lives that make us vulnerable to snake-oil peddlers (as I like to refer to them as). You  know, dieting programs, books, pills, promises. Anti-wrinkle creams. Supplements promising better performance on the bike or in bed for that  matter. Ugh. So sad.

So, what can you change in your life each and every day? Pick something - and preferably only 1 thing (it's easier to focus on 1 thing). Is it making sure you get to the grocery store so you have the healthy options to make a healthy dinner to bring a healthy lunch to work? Is it blocking out time to exercise? Is it getting to bed at a reasonable hour to ensure enough sleep? Is it taking at least 5 minutes to close your eyes and breath?

When you break it down, it doesn't seem all that impossible does it?

So, come on....stop making excuses and start making progress ...... every day.

Whew -

I'm back from my week of travel - literally driving across the country twice in 7 days. That's 3,600 miles in a car, on my butt, on the interstate with miles and miles of McDonald's, Arby's, Burger King and the occasional Subway to choose from. Oh, and Dairy Queen. It was an eye-opening experience to say the least. Yeah, yeah, yeah....the obesity epidemic is running rampant.....I now have a much greater appreciation of the reasons for the phenomenon. Very little obviously healthy choices on the road. It took a lot of extra planning - more than I currently do - to ensure that I had healthy choices on this trip. And, if you read my earlier blog about my fitness challenge, you know how tough that was.

This experience tested my commitment to health and wellness. The path of least resistance would have been to eat crap and not exercise the entire week. And, believe me, there were numerous times I wanted to travel down that path. Now, I certainly did not eat as well as I usually do when I'm home, nor did I exercise like I usually do. However, I did commit to try my best to maintain some sort of normalcy. Packed a cooler of food and had to restock frequently....it took 2.5 days to get there and 4 days to get back. This cooler of food represented investing in my nutritional sanity (is there such a thing?). So, no matter where I was on I-80 or I-70 or I-64, I could eat some fruit, some veggies, a yogurt, a home-made sandwich...you get my drift. I packed nuts, crackers, energy bars. I had choices.....it felt good. It took time and forethought. It was hard to make it happen. It was worth it.

Exercise was a bit harder to figure out.....it made packing a cooler look easy. I mentioned in my earlier blog that it was 103 degrees with 105 heat index on the east coast (my ultimate destination). No exercise allowed outside. Besides, I was mostly in the car, somewhere on my journey across the country. Driving days ranged from 10-18 hours at a time. Does it sound like I'm making excuses? Because I am. So, I stopped making excuses and exercised instead. That took getting up extraordinarily early some days to squeeze it in before getting in the car. No matter how bad the hotel fitness facility appeared to be, I found a way to use my own body to get my heart rate up, strength train and break a sweat. None of it was ideal. The exercise bouts were short, cumbersome, uncomfortable, etc. But, hey, something is ALWAYS better than nothing.

This entire time, I kept telling myself that it's only a week and that's doable. Quit whining. You're lucky to have the capability to do what you do. Who cares if it's not easy to figure out....figure it out!

And, what I want to report from this whole epic journey is that it solidified for me how important it is to stop, think, plan, and execute those daily wellness tasks. Don't think/assume it's going to magically happen. Or, you'll do it when you find time....that goes for both eating healthfully and exercising. None of it is easy. But, it's worth it.

Keep on, keeping on.

I'm on the road and haven't kept up with my Blog about daily commitment to fitness. But, I have kept up with my daily commitment to fitness! Not easily, though.

This blurry photo is me "pumping" iron at the Quantico Marine Basic School. Sorry, no photos of marines. Gotta trust me on this one. I'm lifting weights instead of doing Sports Yoga because I was already creating a "stir" by being in this marines-only gym and really didn't want to draw any more attention to myself than I already had. But, believe me, I soooo wanted to drop down and do a few planks, upward dogs and Warrior Ones......

What's my point in blogging about this? Well, it's about the whole daily commitment thing. Where there is a will, there is a way. It's 103 degrees here with a heat-index of over 105 degrees and there is a severe heat advisory posted. What does that mean? Don't go outside unless you have to. I'm staying in a hotel with no fitness facility. No outdoor anything is possible. So, before I resorted to running the halls of this Holiday Inn, my brother (who works at the marine base) was able to get me in his gym.

Now, if that had not been an option. I would have run the halls of the Holiday Inn, done some push-ups, dips, sit-ups, planks, Sports Yoga in my room. Why? Where there is a will, there is a way. Why do I have the will? Because, I know that taking care of myself is not about whether or not it's convenient to do so. It's necessary - it's a priority.

Think about it. What's more important than self-care?

So, for those of you who travel a lot, who have kids with many demands, who have a life with many demands - I challenge you to find time, to make time to take care of you first. Find the will and there is a way.

Stay-tuned. I promise to keep up on my blog as I travel back from Virginia to Colorado....I may yet be running the stairs at my next hotel.