Finding love = gaining weight???

After talking to a friend yesterday, who has recently fallen head over heels in love, she was disappointed at how her body has been feeling, and looking lately. "Too much date night and not enough gym time?" I asked her. She nodded. It's normal to sacrifice your personal time, exercise, even sleep when meeting someone knew.... But, what to do???

Exchange date night out for...
1. Romantic (healthy) dinner in!
2. Afternoon date running outside in the park or work out together
3. Walk your pet with coffee and a chat
4. Do an art project - create something!
5. Volunteer and fall in love while helping others :)

The list is endless.... Spending time together is the point, not becoming less active or overeating. And remember those portions ladies- your guy CAN eat more than you and SHOULD :)

AHPERD

Was delighted to be a presenter at the Association of Health, Physical Education, Recreation, and Dance NYC Zone conference in Brooklyn today! Shared tactics for infusing dance conditioning into school curriculum and even had some educators decked out in colored dots to do some skeletal assessment :)

What an inspiring day - I hope to have many more opportunities to share my three part conditioning curriculum. I am ready for more!!

RESISTANCE!

Our final component for becoming your own personal trainer this week is.... resistance training.  Using weight to build stability, increase strength, and find power enables the body to increase lean body mass, improve cardiovascular efficiency, and decrease body fat.  Try some of these :

1.  Step-up to overhead press -- Using a stair stepper or bench, step up onto it with the core engaged (pulling in the space below the navel) and raise the weights up overhead to straighten the elbows with the palms facing forward.  Keep the knee out in front of you to balance.  Step down and repeat. 

2.  Stability ball chest press -- Lie on the physioball with the feet flat on the floor and the ball connecting with your upper back (like you are laying down on a bench.)  Keep the hips in line with the head and knees while you press toward the ceiling (chest press) then lower the weights to bring the hands close to the shoulders.  Repeat. 

3.  Single-leg shoulder scaption -- Balance on one foot with weights down by your sides.  Lift the dumbells out to the diagonal in front of you to shoulder height while rotating the palms to face the ceiling.  Keep the arms straight and the core engaged, then lower back down.  Repeat.

4. Stability ball triceps extension -- Position yourself on the physioball the same way you did with the chest press exercise.  Lift weights toward the ceiling with palms facing one another.  Bending at the elbow, lower the weights down toward your face to create a 90 degree angle, then raise back up toward the ceiling.  Repeat.

So remember.... grab two dice and assign your CORE, CARDIO, REACTIVE, RESISTANCE, ATHLETE'S CHOICE types of training exercises to 1-6, and the other dice will relate to the intensity of speed, weight, duration of time, etc.  Spice up your workout by surprising the body with the unexpected!   

REACTIVE!

Part three For rolling those dice (alongside core and cardio) is reactive training. Use quick and explosive movements to increase the rate at which you produce force. Keep your knees in line with the toes while wearing supportive shoes on a safe surface. Try these:

1. Squat jump -- stand with feet shoulder width apart. While keeping the core engaged, bend knees reaching your bottom back behind you into a squat, jump and land in the proper placement discussed above. Try holding for a few seconds and then repeat to stabilize. For strength, repeat with no pause between repetitions.

2. Box jump up or jump down -- in similar form as the squat jump, spring up onto a box, bench or stair stepper while landing with toes over knees, then step down and repeat. Try starting on top of the box and spring down. Repeat.

3. Traveling jump -- take the squat jump moving through space. Jump forward or laterally to the side and maintain good form while landing. Keep the core and glutes engaged throughout.

Watch your ankles and knees for no deviations and work on quick reactive skills to increase speed!

CARDIO!

Keeping with the theme of the week...

Use these cardio ideas to spice up your workout as you become your own personal trainer!!

1.  Take it outside -- (I just did this last night and had a blast) Using landmarks through a park or on the street, select random intervals of sprinting, running stairs, or a light jog to randomly take your cardio circuit through a different terrain (literally!) Hit the pavement with a friend or two and challenge one another.  Say, "at the next tree we're gonna sprint to the lamp post" then the next person can say "ooh, stop here and we're gonna run up and down these stairs three times in a row while increasing our speed."  Use the hills, landmarks, and pathways you find to chart your time, speed, and intensity. 

2.  Indoor circuits -- Set up a small area for use during your full series workout.  Get a bench or stair stepper and keep some additional space available.  Switch between 1 min of stair climbing, jumping jacks, and high knees.  Increase your speed against the previous minute.

3.  Dance it out!! -- Who doesn't love to dance??  During your cardio circuit while paired with your cardio, strength, balance, and reactive training, turn on some music and dance to one song.  Keep moving (jumping, sliding, changing levels, while working on new moves!) and when the song is over get back to your routine. 

Remember, a fun workout is a successful one!  Grab a friend, roll the dice and have a blast :)  

CORE!

Roll those dice and select from a few of these simple core stabilizing and strengthening exercises:

1.  Prone isometric-abs (Plank) --  Lie face down (prone) with feet together and draw abs in to activate the glutes (butt muscles) while lifting the body up off the ground.  Make sure to keep the body in a straight line from head to toe with weight on elbows and feet.  Keep those abdominals engaged! 

2.  Medicine ball rotation -- While holding a medicine ball (see below), stand with feet hips width apart and slightly bend the knees to support the back.  Twist the spine while rotating from side to side (facing right and left) without moving the pelvis.  You can also try this sitting on a mat in a seated crunch position or with your feet lifted off of the floor. 

3.  BOSU crunch -- While sitting on a BOSU ball (see below) or a physioball, place the small of the back on the ball with feet flat on the floor (like a traditional crunch position) with arms behind the head.  Using the abdominals ONLY raise the torso forward then lay back down on the ball without arching the spine.  **Be careful not to use the strength of the legs or momentum of the torso to complete this movement!! 

4.  Marching/single knee raise -- While laying on the back (supine) with two feet flat on the floor, engage the low abdominals (pull navel to spine) and lift one foot up off the floor to a 90 degree angle.  Hold for a few seconds then lower and repeat with the other leg. 

Whenever completing core based exercises it's essential to stabilize the spine and pelvis as you are doing each repetition.  Do not arch the spine, tuck the pelvis, or allow for excess movement in this region. 

See you tomorrow for another set of exercises! 



Be your own...

...personal trainer!!

Ever feel stuck in your typical patterns or bored by your own workout? Sometimes I find myself wishing someone would spontaneously tell me what to do and surprise my body with the unexpected. I often walk to the gym saying, "you're gonna run, you're gonna run" and then when I walk in I go do something totally different. It helps to keep me alert!!

If that doesn't work, try this:

Get a pair of dice and assign each number of one die to various exercise types (core, cardio, strength, balance, reactive, athlete's choice) and the other die will be assigned length (time in minutes, number of reps, etc) or intensity (lbs, resistance, speed, etc.) See if you can challenge your body to work outside of it's comfort zone. Roll each die, and see what to do. Complete that exercise and then roll again. A fun workout is twice as nice!

Stay tuned all week for exercise example types for each of these and get to rolling...

A snowy Saturday!

Get outside today and get fit while enjoying the winter white-- according to FitSugar, you can get a great workout and burn some serious calories: (base for 150lb man)

Building a snowman-- 285 cal/hr
Having a snowball fight-- 319 cal/hr
Making snow angels-- 214 cal/hr

Imagine the calorie burn for winter sports like skiing, ice skating or hockey....

So... bundle up, head outside, and get fit this winter!!

Getting my blog done.....

right under the wire!!  I'm managing to keep up with my blog this week with the help of a few major supports -- you know who you are ;)  I am so grateful to my personal relationships of friends, family, and colleagues, who help keep me on my toes..... sometimes, literally. 

Does keeping up with these relationships help you to keep up with your own life??

Sure does.

The Better Health Channel lists many factors that affect our "well being". Some include:

• Network of close friends
• Sense of purpose and meaning
• A sense of belonging
• Happy intimate relationships with a partner
• Sufficient sleep
• Nutritional diet
• Regular exercise

These in addition to practical things like having a stable career, enough money to live, and reaching achievable goals create a person's ability to maintain a positive "well being" and impact your overall level of HAPPINESS and LIFE SATISFACTION. 

These things seem pretty important to me and I'm sure they do to you too.  So, how can you develop your sense of well being? 

• Make regular time available for social contact
• Become involved in activities that interest you
• Try to be optimistic and enjoy each day
• Try to find work that you find enjoyable and rewarding, rather than just working for the best pay
• Join local organizations or clubs that appeal to you

I just started a weekly Italian class with a company called Fluent Brooklyn.  Each Thursday night I will join a crew of interested folks who are passionate about learning, and daring to try something new.  I left my class this evening feeling so JAZZED about my new "friends", the new information I learned, and my positive "try anything" attitude.  When I couldn't master the pronunciation immediately, I took a deep breath and with the help of these new "friends" (practically strangers!) I was able to achieve the goals of the class.  I can't wait to get back next week.

Think of challenging yourself in a new way: learn to knit, start a new language, meet someone new, walk a different route home from the train than you usually do..... and find an adventure and perhaps some happiness along the way!

And the winner is....

Raleigh, North Carolina -- the #1 most healthy city for women ranked by Women's Health.  Their team assessed 38 measures of health and well being: access to medical care, cancer rates, obesity rates and important lifestyle factors including nutrition, unemployment, happiness and fitness.  Cities like San Jose, CA; Burlington, VT; and Madison, WI were found to rank among the top ten.   

This ranking made me think about my choice to live in NYC (which did NOT make the top ten) and how things in my life like work stress, commuter stress, freelance employment stress (often things out of my control) mixed with the things I am in charge of like my nutrition and what I eat, my fitness level, the amount of sleep I get (ahh! this I need to work on!) and my personal relationships with friends and family, all link up  to create the overall picture of my well being.  And that mental health picture I was posting about yesterday -- all of these aspects are connected and one drastically impacts the other.

Living in a city that didn't make the top ten, or that may even be ranked unhealthy for women, shouldn't be an excuse for you to be unhealthy.  Think about the individual elements I listed above and think about how changing one can shift the entire picture. 

Today, I plan to work on my sleep schedule!  I will head to bed right after a little Law&Order ;) and hopefully this will be one change I can make no matter what city I happen to be living in! 

A little self help goes a long way...

It's performance week for me, and that means that in addition to the mental stress that comes along with being not only the choreographer but one of the performers, it means that my back pain from a long standing injury has resurfaced as it always does during these intense times of rehearsal.  I decided to hop into the bubble bath tonight to get a little R&R.    

A few dollops of some lavender and I was in heaven!  (I recommend the L'Occitane foaming bath!!)

This essential oil can help to:

• aid in relaxation while de-stressing to calm feelings of anxiety (aromatherapy use)
• relieve tension-headaches when scent is inhaled
• reduce joint and muscle pain when used in massage oils 

A warm bath will:

• increase circulation
• provide soothing comfort
• soften connective tissues (I could even stretch in my tiny NYC tub!)
• relax muscle tension

It's important to drink water as you might actually sweat in the bath! Similar to the effect of a hot tub, the high temperature may make you feel a slight headache to follow.... so keep hydrated!  Take some deep breaths and allow your mind to rest as your body meets the natural buoyancy of the water which helps to reduce pressure on joints. 

I try to relax in a bath about one a week (which can be challenging but worth it!) and perhaps you should thinking of adding this to your New Year's Resolution list... it'll be a beneficial one to keep as our mental health is just as important as our physical health. 

Rub-a-dub-dub!! 

Reflecting

So you've made it through the week, and by Monday, January will be half over. The week has closed on my amazing completion of my resolutions and my positive spirit. I hope YOU have been able to keep up with your goals and to remember to take time to appreciate your efforts.

Congrats, kudos and keep it up!!!

Ready for seconds??

While on a lengthy ride on the A train yesterday this advertisement caught my eye:

"Portions have grown, so has obesity"

With obesity reaching an all time high, especially in children, it's important to take note of our health and the way we eat.  As we are surrounded by ideas of "bigger, more, extra".... the impact on our diet is clear.  We are eating more, and eating more often.  What to do?

• Downsize your plate size!  If your plate is smaller, you will fill it will less food.  Use coffee mugs for soup, cereal, or ice cream (!) for portion control.
• When eating out at a restaurant, divide your food in half immediately and take it to go for another meal. 
• Check out nutrition labels and see what the actual serving size is -- often much smaller than we imagine.  Measure sauces, dressings, cheese and know how much you are eating.
• Keep sauces off of your salads, burgers, fries, and dip the fork before your food.  See how much less you can use while still having flavor.

See what you eat before you do, and eat it slowly to enjoy each bite.

Short on time?? A tip from NASM...

Try warming up for five minutes on an elliptical trainer before your workout. Maintain good posture and pull in the area just below the belly button as you count to either 10, 20, or 30 depending upon your capacity. This will enable you to get your body warm quickly as you use your glutes to move your legs into hip extension (legs going behind you) while stabilizing large muscle groups. 

This five minute cardio warm-up is a quick and efficient way to begin your workout! 

Music to my ears

According to the United States Sports Academy,
Music ... provides an ideal accompaniment for training. Scientific inquiry has revealed five key ways in which music can influence preparation and competitive performances: dissociation, arousal regulation, synchronization, acquisition of motor skills, and attainment of flow.

Well, what the heck does that mean?
Listening to music can:

• narrow focus, dissociate from feelings of fatigue and promote good mood during low to moderate exercise
• be used as a stimulant to calm down or psych up the athlete at appropriate parts of performance  
• increase level of work output  
• regulate movement and prolong performance

Plan a "workout mix" that helps to cue the change of various components to your workout: circuit style exercise changes and to measure your rest intervals. 

Generally, music should have

1. a strong, energizing rhythm
2. positive lyrics
3. rhythmic synchronization to the activity performed 
4. musical style that the athlete enjoys 
5. uplifting melodies and associations of sport and triumph 

For me, music creates a rhythm to my day whether I'm washing dishes or walking to the train.  It's motivational, enjoyable, keeps me focused on a task, and enables me to keep track of the amount of time and my speed of that tasks completion.  A personal favorite is Peter Bjorn and John -- "Young Folks"... there's just something about that whistling that gets me moving!  And of course, nothing motivates me like a good selection of rap beats :)

Happy listening!

How to eat healthy, while keep it convenient!

In this fast-paced society we all find ourselves a part of, how can we eat simple and healthy foods while we are on the go?  Most people eat pre-made dishes or consume meals outside of the home several times a day!  Personally, it's hard work for me to pack lunches and snacks ahead of time and for most, it's impossible.  Check out some tips from M.D. Joanna Dolgoff in Healthy Processed Foods: Do They Exist? 

• Steer clear of these terms: corn syrup, high-fructose corn syrup, fruit juice concentrate, maltose, dextrose, sucrose, honey and maple syrup (add sugar to our diet and little nutritional value)
• Foods recommended include:
• yogurt to aid in digestion
• hummus and canned beans to add protein (drain beans first to reduce sodium!)
• canned sauce adding adding antioxidants found inside tomatoes

• frozen vegetables which retain all of their nutritional value when frozen at their peak (and could be cheaper than fresh!)
• eggs to add Vitamin D and protein

You might have to get creative at first, but once you find how simple these solutions can be, try to build your diet around those healthy processed foods as a base when needed.  Pack snacks like nuts and figs ahead of time in baggies and grab one on your way out the door as you're headed to run errands.  That way you won't be tempted by that delicious looking slice of pizza at Famous Ray's!  

Don't skip breakfast!

Start your day off right with breakfast.  Studies show not only does eating breakfast help with long term weight loss, it also boosts brainpower and mental performance long into your day.  Check out these fast and simple recipes, many you can prepare ahead of time. 

Most simple.... hard boiled eggs. Prepare a dozen at the beginning of the week and grab them on your way out the door. 

Most creative.... fruit and cheese kabobs

My personal favorite..... the breakfast burrito :)

Namaste

The holiday season has done a number on me!  I feel as though the past four weeks have been filled with delicious food and drink -- and a few too many holiday treats!!  I went straight to the gym today and decided to begin with something totally different, something that my body was not expecting...

Vinyasa Yoga

This specific style of yoga practice, also known as flow yoga -- and YES we were flowing (!), warms up the body and mind while using breath and fluid movement into and out of various poses.  For those who like to be physically active while exercising and might worry that yoga is simply holding stretches, this yoga practice is a great compliment to your existing workout routine.  

Benefits include: 

• movement-breath synchronization improving the cardiovascular system
• creates internal heat to challenge physical endurance
• cleanses the body and mind while enlightening the spirit
• purification for the body by expelling toxins from the muscles and organs through sweat
• increases flexibility and range of motion
• helps to increase metabolism aiding in weight loss and reshaping of the body
• tones muscles
• increases stamina and endurance

My one challenge: I have to constantly remind myself that yoga is a personal practice -- not about making shapes or reaching poses that look like the person on the mat next to me.  It is about finding my own progression and working on that path for me, and only me. 

So whether your resolutions are getting you into a class (yoga, pilates, dance, aerobic) or into some cardiovascular or strength training..... just be proud of yourself for starting the new year off on the right foot! 

NAMASTE!

Finding inspiration in the New Year!

As this first Monday of 2012 comes to a close I am reflective of the past year.  My mind is filled with thoughts of my personal resolutions and the new sense of excitement in what the new year will hold for each of us.  Ringing in the New Year always brings a lot of fun and celebration, but it also welcomes anxiety regarding the things we will do, wish for, or change in the upcoming days to come.  I find most people are motivated the first couple of weeks of January and this motivation declines as the winter slowly crawls on.  People place stress on their high expectations and often lose interest quickly, in making the changes they hope for. 

How can you find your own motivation? How can you stick with it for the long haul?

I am excited to share one of my own personal New Year's Resolutions for 2012:
As a newly certified personal trainer with the National Academy of Sports Medicine (wild applause!) I launch my year with training sessions while building a network whom I can support and inform.  I plan to:

-- Post on this blog daily, Monday through Friday, as a daily spot for inspiration, fun facts, and a place for me to showcase the work of my clients and students. 

This goal is specific, measurable and attainable.  Odds are, I'll probably be able to stick with it.  And if something happens and one day a blog post slips through the cracks, I promise myself ahead of time to not let that slow me down.  I will reward myself along with way (if I can get through all four weeks of January, I'll buy myself a new bag I've been dying for!) and find support of others (friends and family) to keep me on task.  I encourage you to find a way to make your own personal resolutions in this way.

• Goals that are specific, measurable, and can actually happen!
• Set up a healthy reward system for yourself
• Tell others what you are up to so they can help you keep on track
• Chart your progress
• Applaud yourself for your hard work and effort!

Cheers to 2012 and all the wonderful ways we will improve ourselves and the lives we live!!