Two Steps Forward

          Welcome to afitnewyou!  As we come out of our "turkey coma" here in the States, and most likely regret the amount of pie and desserts we consumed on Thanksgiving, there can be a tendency to become discouraged about reaching your fitness goals due to a sense of failure from consuming too many calories.  Many people in the Northern hemisphere should appreciate that the "holiday season", where many tend to over indulge as part of many feasts and celebrations, occurs during our winter when we can hide the extra calories under many layers of clothes....those of you in the Southern hemisphere probably stress about the extra holiday calories a bit more being that it is your summer.  But in either case, I hope that all of you do enjoy the holidays and do so with an abundance of joy rather than with stress and / or regret.  I want you to understand that it is "o.k." to celebrate, and that all of the hard work you put in all year hasn't gone to waste.  In fact, if there is any point in the year where you have "fallen off" of your fitness goals, or have a "cheat day" here and there know that you can overcome it and you should not let it derail you from ultimately reaching your fitness goals...that is as along as you realize it is only a minor set back and get back to it.  This is because as long as you continue to progress, any way you look at it, two steps forward and one step back is still movement in the right direction!

          This time of year can be particularly harrowing for those who are trying to improve their body composition when they are faced with many potential, nutritional road blocks that come from holiday parties and gatherings.  In situations that are supposed to be celebrated with joy there can be a tendency to have stress and regrets.  Unfortunately, many people disregard what they need to do in order to achieve their fitness goals early on in the holiday season, essentially giving up for at least a month or two until the holidays are over.  They rather take a hiatus from doing what they need to reach their goals so that they can enjoy the holidays relatively guilt free.  After taking a step back, by consuming too many calories early into the holiday season, many people will throw in the towel.  To avoid this failure, understand that the step back can be countered by two steps forward.  Even though you might thoroughly enjoy yourself at a party during the weekend, you have plenty of days left in the week to get the momentum going back in the direction of your goals.  Waiting until the New Year could be your start, but it will be much easier to reach your goals if for every "step back" you take you counter it with steps in the right direction by still continuing as soon as you can with your workouts.

          The holidays are only a small portion of the year, and set backs can occur at anytime.  Injuries for example, are a common step back that people often go through.  While an injury could be particularly devastating to a professional and / or competitive athlete, how they recover (pun intended) from the injury is usually a true testament to their mettle.  While injuries do keep you from performing as well as you may want, they often provide the rest and recovery that allows for increased performance following the injury.  Suffering an injury is certainly a step back, but the time spent resting and / or rehabbing allows your muscles to repair and strengthen.  There is a great potential to perform better following the injury, even at times as a result of it!

          Do not let a short-term set back keep your from achieving your long-term goals.  Trust me when I tell you that the emotional toll is far worse than the physical toll when facing a bump in the road to your goals from things like overindulging during the holidays, or when faced with an injury.  The guilt and disappointment you may feel is far worse than the actual physical detriment your body has to contend with.  As long as you keep the perspective that the step you take back can be overcome by the same hard work you have put in all year, you will be heading in the right direction sooner than your realize.  Even a rather negative event, such as an injury, can allow for positive growth in that you have the opportunity to recover to an even healthier state than you were before.  And joyous occasions should be celebrated rather than met with stress and guilt.  Just realize that although speed bumps are things that we encounter to slow us down, they are only a small part of the road that we quickly put into our rear views.  Continuing to move towards our goals after a small set back is the progressive way to reach a fit new you!

         

Be Grateful - revisited for Thanksgiving

          Welcome to afitnewyou!  This week I would like to inspire you to keep up with your fitness goals with a reminder...to be grateful for what you have.  While I can tell you many things that one should be grateful for, which often get overlooked or taken for granted, in my little space here, I will remind you to be grateful for your health.  If you are doing something today to point your diet and/or exercise routine towards healthy goals, even if its simply thinking about those goals, than you are in a place that you should be grateful for.  In life, it is often said that "everything is relative."  And, that saying can pertain to so many things.  If you are ever discouraged about anything, you can usually find a silver lining if you look hard enough, or some reason to be grateful.  The same is true for your health.  Although you have a fitness goal that you haven't reached yet, maybe it is a body weight you want to be at, a dress size you want to fit in, or an amount of weight you want to make your new personal best, you have to still be grateful for the health that you have today.  This is because you never know when your health may take a turn for the worse.  I have seen many people and clients who had only started to live a more healthy lifestyle after a health scare.  Lets avoid the tragedy needed to sometimes learn a lesson.  Lets be grateful for the health we have today!

     Jason is someone who comes into the gym on a regular basis...these days.  He is in his sixties now, and after he suffered a heart attack when he was 45 years old.  Before the heart attack he didn't exercise regularly, and just as bad, he smoked cigarettes and drank hard liquor regularly.  It wasn't until this life threatening event that he decided he needed to make some major changes in his lifestyle.  Immediately after leaving the hospital, and being thankful to be alive, he gave up tobacco products, cut down his alcohol consumption, and started exercising everyday.  He knew he was lucky to be alive, and grateful for that second chance at maintaining his health.

has been on an exercise routine for the last twenty years.  Unfortunately, he wasn't very active prior to that, and even more unfortunate than that was that he only started taking care of his health
     JT is a client of mine who had a similar lesson of taking his health for granted.  JT is in his seventies, and is pretty active for his age, regularly playing golf and tennis in the warmer months, and hitting the gym in the colder months.  JT was always very active and a self proclaimed "jock" from a very early age.  Its this continued active lifestyle that many people need to follow.  But JT had a freak accident where one of his retinas partially tore.  Unlike Jason, JT's mishap was completely unavoidable.  But, along the same lines, it wasn't until his vision was severely diminished that he fully appreciated how healthy he was before this accident...even if he had the regular aches and pains of someone his age, or any weekend warrior for that matter.  And as his vision improved, his spirits picked up more and more because he was able to play tennis again, where immediately after the injury he was told there was a chance he never would.

     As I said earlier, don't wait for a tragedy to happen for you to appreciate the level of health you have today.  Yes, we are all striving to achieve a better state of health; and yes, we all have fitness goals that we want to achieve.  That's fantastic, and I am sure a good part of that is what got you to your current state of health that you are in now.  And even though you can and should work towards your goals, and an even healthier state of living, its important to acknowledge and appreciate that health you have today.  And when you do, this value of your own health should fuel you to keep moving towards your health goals.  Its a positive cycle.

     We are often to busy, too concerned with what we haven't achieved, what we still need to do, and the flaws that make us all human.  But we all have some level of health that shouldn't be taken for granted.  We all should be very grateful for the level of health we currently have.  As we age, we all now that its harder and harder to stay healthy.  So by being grateful of the health you have today, no matter how much further you want to take it, let that value of your health motivate you to do everything you can to stay that healthy and more importantly reach your health and fitness goals.  Reflecting on the goodness of your current state of health is an introspective way to reach a fit new you!