Skinny fat or Skinny attractive?

Which sounds better to you?  I hope the latter!  If you just concentrate on losing weight, or on being thin, the first will result.  If you create a balance between the right nutrition, the right aerobic training and the right resistance training, you will achieve the attractive results that most of us want.  I address these topics in the first few entries to this blog:  The Right Balance.  Ladies, take note:  one of my colleagues said, "there is nothing worse than taking hold of a woman's leg and feeling a squishy sponge."  Skinny fat is NOT the way to go!

5 things each day = health!

You have 5 fingers.  Use them to count as you do 5 healthy things for yourself each day.  Here’s a list to choose from:

1.  Eat breakfast

2.  Do 30 minutes of exercise before or after work.

3.  Breathe deeply for 1 minute each hour during the work day.

4.  Stretch for 20 minutes.

5.  Walk your dog.

6.  Walk your spouse.

7.  Do other nice things with your spouse.

8.  Eat vegetables with each meal.

9.  Choose water instead of soda for lunch.

10.  Go to bed early enough to get 7 or 8 hours of sleep.

11.  Eat dinner together as a family.

12.  Eat 5 or 6 small meals during the day.

13.  Eat a lean protein, a starchy carb and a fibrous carb with each meal.

14.  Avoid sugar all day.

15.  Lift weights.

16.  Take an exercise class.

17.  Golf. Or play tennis. Or run. You get the idea.

18.  Do an exercise video.

19.  Walk to your coworker’s cubicle and talk to him instead of calling or emailing him.

20.  Take a relaxing bath.

21.  Read a few chapters in your favorite book.

22.  Get a massage.

23.  Focus on your spirituality by praying or meditating.

24.  Floss your teeth.

25.  Cook dinner yourself instead of going out to eat at a restaurant.

Do 5 of these things each day for 30 days.  Then send me an email and tell me how you are feeling.  I bet you will be healthier and happier!

dbailey@theconditioningclassroom.com

Failure

It's not a word we like to connect ourselves with.  How did you feel if you received an "F" on an assignment in school?  Deflated. Frustrated. Demoralized. Not exactly ready to face the world with confidence, that's for sure! One of my clients came in this week and as she reluctantly handed me her food and exercise log, she exclaimed, "I get a big ol' F for the week."  She had taken her son on a college visitation out of town and hadn't completed any of the assignments I had given her.  So, on the one hand, she was right. If we looked only at that week, she did fail.  But wait. Even though my studio is called The Conditioning Classroom, it's not a traditional school and we actually encourage failure!  Well, a certain kind of failure, anyway.  In resistance training, we have a term called "momentary muscle failure."  MMF.  It's what happens when you can't possibly do another bicep curl . . . or shoulder press . . . or squat.  Your muscles "fail" because they have exhausted the energy available to them.  But notice the first word in MMF is "momentary."  It's not actually failure - or at least not what we assign to the word failure.  We tend to think of failure as final.  In MMF, it's momentary, because your body responds and creates the energy necessary to do another set.  But more importantly, MMF sends a very clear signal to your body that it needs to change and create more muscle mass so that "failure" doesn't happen so fast the next time you challenge it. It makes itself better because of failure. We encourage our clients to experience MMF so their bodies respond by increasing lean muscle mass and thereby igniting their metabolism. Ladies, take note:  This is why you will never significantly change your figure for the better using your plastic coated, pink 3# dumbbells! You need to actually challenge your muscles enough to experience failure . . . the MMF kind.
But back to my client and her "F" for the week.  After a very satisfying and exhausting workout, I explained the concept of MMF to her. And I told her that yes, she deserved an "F" for the week, but in The Conditioning Classroom, it's not Final.  It's Momentary. And it will make her stronger. She now has a more focused approach to reach her goal of wearing something "form fitting" for her family Christmas picture. So the next time you experience failure in your job, or in your pursuit of health, remember that if the failure is Momentary, you will actually become stronger. Don't let failure be final. It's really only a stepping stone to your next success!

A day with the family

Why do you work out?  A smaller waist?  Bigger muscles? Those are good reasons . . . but today I heard one of the best reasons.  I'm working with a client who has Multiple Sclerosis.  She is plagued with chronic fatigue.  She gets up, gets the kids ready for school and then goes back to bed.  Over the last few years, she has retreated more and more into a recluse kind of lifestyle . . . reading about life, but not living it. Yesterday, she got up, helped get the family ready, packed lunch and went to the beach . . . a day with the family.  As they were driving to the beach, her husband looked over at her and said, "Oh my God.  You are with us."  You see, before she started working out and doing the ALIVE protocol, her husband would have taken the kids to the beach by himself.  But not yesterday.  The whole family went together.  Including my client. Mom.  On a family holiday to the beach.  You see, working out means so much more than inches and pounds.  It means minutes and memories . . . a day with the family.