Tricking yourself into staying; when motivation is nowhere to be found

The follow excerpt is from another blog that I follow. I wanted to share it with you because I could not have said it better myself.

Does your training ever leave you feeling like you’re participating in a science experiment with a sample size of N=1? There are training routines to plan and track, data points to be harvested and analyzed, and a constant quest for innovation to reach your personal limits. Sometimes these factors make training exciting. And sometimes they make training seem incredibly boring and like a chore.

When you find yourself fishing for the snooze button on your alarm instead of springing out of bed to assault the day and the training you have so carefully carved out time to execute, you could keep doing the same old thing. But the same old thing is why you’re lying in bed listening to your alarm squawking and cringing instead of rushing full force into an awesome day that you can’t wait to start and a training session that will invigorate you and help advance every area of your life.

Don’t let your training routine be something you dread. When it is, turn it into a game and trick yourself into staying fit even when you’d normally want to bail. There are many ways to achieve this goal, but here are a few of the quickest, easiest ways to keep it fresh and playful.

Unless you’re a professional athlete, remember that this isn’t your job. It’s something you do electively because you enjoy it. Keep that thought in the front of your mind and visualize the moments you’ve most enjoyed in training, the times you’ve overcome your inertia or personal limits and gone to a higher level. That’s fun. That’s the attitude you want to have every day. Cultivate it, visualize it, experience what it feels like and carry it with you so it’s accessible every time you want to just say no to training.

When all else fails, promise yourself a reward. Been dying to eat a bowl of ice cream? Need a new pair of shoes? Want to watch your favorite television show later in the day but feel guilty about making the time to do it? Take anything you’d really like to do and promise it to yourself if you complete every workout seven days in a row or for two weeks or a month or whatever. Write down the reward, what you have to do to achieve it, and make it happen.

 

Moderation, rest and it place in creating sustainable change.

mod⋅er⋅a⋅tion  /ˌmɒdəˈreɪʃən/

–noun

1. the quality of being moderate; restraint; avoidance of extremes or excesses; temperance.
2. the act of moderating.
3. moderations, British. the first public examinations at Oxford University for the B.A. degree in mathematics or in classics.
—Idiom

4. in moderation, without excess; moderately; temperately: to drink in moderation.
There is such a thing as too much of a good thing, even the healthiest foods, exercises can become dangerous and harmful when we abuse them, not only can it become an obsession, but it can also have detrimental effects in the body, thus in the energetic system and so on. Often when trying to maintain healthy habits we begrudge ourselves small slip ups, we feel we must be on the ball one hundred percent of the time, when in fact our changes would be more sustainable if we accept that we will falter, thus we should take it easy, be kind to ourselves and start with small steps. Taking breaks and taking stock are an important part of the process. It is comparable to what happens in the body when exercise training. There is a prescribed rest interval for different types to training which yield different adaptations. When training for increased strength and size, you would not use a rest time appropriate for endurance training. Furthermore you would not for go the rest period all together since it would limit the change in the muscle over time.
If we apply this principle to life and making changes in our lifestyle or perception then it stands to reason that depending on our goals and aspirations, different paths will be appropriate for different types of people. Do not compare your journey to that of another, we are all unique. take your time, as a wise person once said it is not the destination that matters but the journey there.

 

Well-rounded fitness

There are five components of fitness which together determine your overall physical well-being and ability; Cardiovascular endurance, muscular strength, muscular endurance, flexibility, and balance.

Together these components provide general health benefits also known as functional fitness. Functional fitness is comprised of  exercises and activities which includes two or more of these components. They are all equally important because they contribute to a longer and more importantly independent life.

Cardiovascular endurance is essential to a healthy circulatory system and heart; your body’s transportation system to nourish itself. Because heart health is so vital for everyday living regular cardiovascular exercise, is a sure fire way to ensure it is optimal for as long as possible

Muscular strength is important in everyday movement, getting out of bed, getting dressed etc. These are things we take for granted until we are no longer able to perform them for ourselves. Because we lose muscle mass as we age it is important to build and maintain as much as possible so that you can live independently for as long as possible.

Muscular endurance is the ability to repeatedly move a muscle without tiring and allows us to participate in sport, gardening, hiking; activities which contribute to our quality of life and are essential to our overall well-being.

Flexibility helps us maintain range of motion around our joints reducing stiffness and tension. The more flexible we are the less likely we are to get injured because we can more easily move our joints properly.

Balance is critical in injury prevention especially as we age. Participating in physical activity which requires us to balance helps us build and maintain our stabilization muscle which helps prevent falls and related injuries.

 

Happy New Year!

The there are many factors to getting new habits to stick.  To start my new habit off on the right foot I decided there was no better day to start writing in my blog regularly than today, but it is not as simple as that, you have to implement strategies that will prime you for success.

Firstly, you must want to change, if you are resolving to do something because others tell you, you should then you will not be successful. I have been told by many business professionals that blogging is a great addition to a website and I should really get into the habit of it. To be honest I really did not feel like it until now, which is one of the reasons why I have not been successful at it.

Secondly, are you confident you are able to make the change. It is the single most important factor in determining whether or not you will achieve your resolutions.

Here is a video of a clinical psychologist Wendy Walsh discussing how to be effective at your resolutions.

 

 

Resolutions, goal setting, and transformation

As you all know I have been trying to get this blog off the ground for several months now, and have been unsuccessful. I do not see this as a failure, but a learning opportunity; what did I do or did not do which led to this end result. After giving it much thought I have come to the conclusion that the problem was that I tried versus just doing it. So I am going to give it all I have and just do it. My career goal this year: I will regularly update my blog a minimum of three times a week.

At this time of year many people are talking about resolutions; whether they do or do not work, how to achieve them, and how to make them stick. To be effective in creating your best life and maintaining new behaviors goal setting is an important tool. Well written S.M.A.R.T. goals solidify your commitment to working towards accomplishing them.

This year I am taking a new approach, one I learned form one of my clients (because I learn as much from you as you do from me); I have written my short and long term goals for the year on some paper and have sealed them in an envelope. In three months I will revisit what I have written and see what I accomplished and what fell to the way side. This will allow me to evaluated my successes and reevaluate my ares for opportunity.

I challenge you to do the same. Remember goals do not have to be life changing it would be something as simple as drinking more water in a day.

As many of you know I worked for lululemon for many years. Their format for goal setting is quite effective to get started. As a wise man said; why reinvent the wheel. For information on S.M.A.R.T. goal setting courtesy of lululemon click here.

 

My Inspiration

It is in people I admire I find inspiration on how I choose to live my life. This is my grandmother, she will be 96 years old this month. She lives independantly in her own condo, and hasa zest for life that is unparalled. She is almost seventy years older than me and her comitment ot life and to health is truly an inspiration. She walks 2 kilomerts a day, rain or shine, even in the snow. She lives in Ottawa, so when I say snow I mean SNOW, yet that does not prevent her from getting out there and doing what she loves. She has been walking for as long as I can remeber.

 

It is amazing to see the impact healthy life choices have throughout life can result in a reawrding long and functional life. Granted there is a genetic component, most of my relatives live to be a 100.  Regardless her tenacity in maintaing her physical, intellectual nad spirltal self is an ispiration. If she can find it within herself after all that she has seen and been through in her life. Then who I am not to give it all i’ve got.

 

How to Measure Exercise Intensity

Exercise intensity can be gauged based on this simple equation:

220- (minus) your age gives you a fairly accurate estimate of your maximum heart rate.

Heart rate is used as a benchmark in determining exercise intensity because as the exercise gets more difficult, the heart has to provide the working muscles with more blood, which means the heart has to pump faster. Working at a maximum intensity is very uncomfortable to exercise at and is most suitable for athletes. For the general population, a healthy exercises range is 60-80% of you maximum heart rate. To find this rate, take your max heart rate and multiply it by .6 and .8 respectively to get your exercise range.

You exercise range can be further broken down into moderate and vigorous zones. If you are looking to improve your cardiovascular fitness over time, then incorporating small bouts of vigorous physical activity into your daily routine can help. Start small; 2 minutes and work up. As you become more fit, it will take more intense exercise to get you in the vigorous zone. Eventually you will be able to enjoy more vigorous physical activity pursuits.

There are several ways to know what intensity you are working at: the heart rate equation, and/or how you feel. Moderate exercise is characterized by an increased heart rate, increased rate of breathing, mild sweating and the ability to carry on a conversation while exercising. If you find you cannot carry on a conversation, then you are working too hard. You can also use a scale from 1 to 10. If the exercise you are doing feels like a 6-7 then you are in the moderate zone.

 

Welcome to my new blog!

Hello and welcome. I am stating this blog to share my thoughts, experience and expertise on health and wellness. Check in weekly for updates. If you have specific topics you would like me to cover feel free to e-mail me questions and comments.

There is 30 day exercises challenge starting April 1st. It is organized by reach physio. I will leading a chat room discussion Tuesday nights for those taking part. To sign up go here.

Enjoy the sunshine.