Move Your Body ~ LOEWEN BEHOLD ~ Move Your Life

Over the past 20 years Personal Training I have come to see strengths and weaknesses are not as black and white we might think. Sometimes muscles that appear strong are actually weak, and strong muscles, while looking good in the mirror, are typically tight and short, often leading to musculo-skeletal injuries. Apparently, this blurring of the lines extends beyond just muscles.

I was having lunch with a friend last week and he talked about how sometimes our percieved biggest weakness is actually our hidden greatest strength. I immediately thought of my own body, which after running eleven marathons, teaching literally thousands of fitness classes, pumping countless weights, practicing yoga and Pilates daily and consuming a vegetarian diet, still resembles the Venus de Milo, not Twiggy. What the hell?

We all know Fitness Professionals are NOT supposed to be curvy. Says who? Well, no one actually says it out loud. Instead they do things like suggest playing squash, or cutting down on carbs to help shrink my hips.  Riiiiggght. Do you think if it was that easy I wouldn’t have done it by now? Then there is the ridiculously obvious look of surprise when people discover my marathon PR is sub 3:45. Once in a high school track meet, someone actually remarked, OUT LOUD, that he couldn’t believe someone my size could run so fast. Sigh.

I guess that’s when it became a bit personal mission to show people fitness comes in varying shapes and sizes. Okay maybe its more that ‘a bit’ of a mission. Maybe its a life-driving-all-consuming obsession. I still struggle inside, looking at many of my colleagues with envy, but honestly its what defines my work. Thank you to so many of you who have responded and stuck with me for years even though I am so not a Barbie Doll. You have transformed what I percieve as my biggest struggle into my greatest strength.

Now what about you?  What’s your hidden Golden Achilles Heel?

When we were kids, my siblings and I used to invent our own knock-knock jokes. Many have long since been forgotten, but one endures as part of family lore. My brother would tell this joke and then roar with laughter as we sat there trying to figure out what was so funny.  Well… today, some thirty five years later, I am thrilled because I get the joke, and its hiiilaaarious.

Knock, knock

Who’s there?

Bare Bum.

Bare Bum Who?

Bare Bum on a Bike.

This joke came to life today when I was walking down Government Street. People were hooting, hollering, smiling and laughing behind me. I turned to look and was completely agape at a parade of bare naked people riding bikes. Apparently, this Naked Bike Ride takes place in several cities across the globe to protest vehicle emissions. What an attention grabber.

Part of me was captivated. Another part was thinking OMG this is way too much information, but I realized these are real people, no airbrushing, no photoshop, just the real goods. It hit me that these folks are praticing what I preach about being comfortable in my own skin and letting go of what I think I am supposed to look like.

I don’t look so different from the nakedness I saw today on the street, yet I still haven’t the courage to let it all hang out. I’m still trying not to measure myself against the unreal images I see in the media. I want the courage and comfort they have, and I want to thank them for reminding me normal is actually what I saw riding down the road, not the perfection plastered all over billboards and magazines. Plus I love that this is a proactive protest encouraging cycling as a mode of transport.

Does putting my money where my mouth is mean I should participate next year? Maybe it will take me longer than a year.  What about you? Care to join me?

I’ve learned over the years the majority of my food choices actually occur in the grocery store, not when I open the fridge or the cupboard. Chances are, if I buy it someone in my house, will inevitably eat it. This means the important decisions I make about my diet are made as I nonchalantly load up my shopping cart, while carrying on a dialogue with my daughter about why we are not getting Cocopuffs or Count Choculas.

Here are ten tips I try to keep in mind so I don’t lose it in the cookie aisle. Some of these are adapted from Ramona Josephson’s Heart Smart Shopper, and others are gleaned from my own tumultuous experiences in the supermarket.

1. Always make a list, to avoid the spur of the moment and impulse decisions.  If you have tips on how to remember or not lose the list, please share because I am not sure my list has ever actually seen the inside of a grocery store, something I inherited from my mother. 
2. Never go shopping while hungry. It’s absolutely unbelievable how much more I spend and how many truly bad decisions I make while roaming the isles at Thrifty Foods with a gnawing, growling stomach.
3. Shop Wide. Typically the perimeter of the store contains all the essential items and the aisles contain evil, but irresistably seductive, items like Presidents Choice Chocolate Chip Cookies and Lindt chocolate, so I try not to go there unless I absolutely have to. 
4. Load up on grains, veggies and fruit (not Pirate Peanut Butter Cookies) and store them in the biggest area of your cart. When shopping for produce, variety in colour indicates a variety of nutrients.
5. Be discerning in your choice of dairy, meat and meat alternatives and store these in the child seat area to help minimize how many you buy. (I’ll get to where the child should go in just a moment.) Low fat options for dairy are preferable and a good rule of thumb when selecting meat is the faster the animal the leaner the meat. No, cows are not fast.  Nor are pigs. Fish and legumes are good though.
6. Foods like oil and sugar should be limited, so put them in that bottom undercarriage of your cart. This limits how much you can carry and maybe you’ll even forget about them.
7. Read food labels, particularly of products you consume regularly. I always check ingredient lists as they are listed in descending order, so if sugar is first on the list, which it often is with many packaged cereals, (and cookies) there is a problem. I also check  for percentage of fat content and total calories per serving. Ideally no more than 30% of total calories ingested should come in the form of fat, and not more than 10% from saturated fat. Serving sizes vary from product to product, so if comparison shopping you’ll need to do some basic math.
8. Watch for terms like “light’ or “lite“. This can actually refer to taste or texture and not calorie content.
9. Don’t be seduced by products promising to be fat free. They can still be loaded with sugar, and therefore calories.
10. Avoid trans fats, hydrogenated fats and saturated fats. All of these terms indicate your body can not break the fat molecules down, consequently they get deposited in your body.

 N.B. – Oh and tip number eleven. I love my daughter more than life itself, but grocery shopping is much easier when I go by myself. I know this isn’t always possible, so until she was almost five, I used to shop with her in a backpack. Product shelf placement is a science. Ever notice kids meltdown more in grocery stores than anywhere else on the planet…

Okay, and maybe I melt down in the cookie aisle, which reinforces my shop wide strategy, avoiding the chocolate covered Hob Nobs when they taunt me from the centre aisles.

I’m somewhat in shock about having a teenage daughter. I don’t know if I ever got over the shock of becoming the mum of a teeny tiny baby, never mind an adolescent, who is taller than me.  Not that it takes much.

Yes, it is the greatest thing in my life, but in all honesty trying to arise this creature these days is no easy feat. Unless it’s horseback riding day, in which case, miraculously, this beautiful young lady is in the car, riding helmet on, smiling ear to ear, eyes sparkling, tapping her dusty riding boot and looking at me with that look.  The sort of look only a teenager can muster.

During the week though, its quite another story and so between the teenage awakening, or lack thereof, and my morning exercise thing, oh and the ironing I couldn’t get motivated to do the night before, mornings are ram-jam packed full, so we pretty much always make breakfast in the blender. I have come to love it.

I use many recipes out of a Super Smoothies cookbook, but I also make them up a lot, depending on what’s in season and what’s in my fridge or freezer.  Our favourite goes like this:

A couple of Bananas, a bunch of frozen mango, a chunk of frozen orange juice concentrate, some soy milk and mixed with some low fat soy milk, and some vanilla or a couple of sprigs of fresh mint.

What about you? Any favourite blender breakfast concoctions? Any tips for getting teenagers out of bed in the morning?  Any morning coping strategies (or lack thereof) to share?

In my family walking is a panacea for everything, or at least that’s what I grew up thinking. “Walk it off’ we tell each other. I think its akin to ‘suck it up’ or “buck up.”  My Mom, who pioneered the saying, may well be ahead of her time.

Our bodies are not meant to sit for eight, or more hours a day. We are made to move, a fact not lost on Dr. James Levine of the Mayo Clinic, innovator of the treadmill working station. My body wholeheartedly agrees.

I’ve been relegated to a desk, and meetings, for the better part of my work day for about five years. My back, neck and hips protest regularly, begging for a return to my full time fitness days. Inspired by a friend, I’ve decided to invest in a mobile work station for my home office, so at least I can be walking the talk, while blogging.

It turns out there are several options. Steelcase  produces a dream unit called the Walkstation, but at $6000.00 (including the treadmill) its a little out my price range, particularly given a skookum treadmill isn’t really needed here. This is about keeping the body moving, not working out. A  simple model enabling you to walk a couple of miles per hour while working will do the trick.

If you already have a treadmill, you can purchase a special desk separately. Some companies offer very slick, polished models, but Trekdesk has a modest option for about $500. Or for the truly budget concious (me), there are also some do-it-yourself solutions.

At Primal Media, a workstation was created using simple inexpensive shelving from Home Depot.  This option is ideal if you already have a good quality running treadmill and would like to leave it available for running workouts, without having to dissemble  absolutely everything.

Or, cheaper yet,  Jenny Evans at LifeHacker has a great 6 minute video on how to construct a working platform from a board and two brackets. Despite not owning a drill or measuring tape, I’m thinking this is my best option. Then if I want to vary height I can always add an inexpensive key board tray or monitor arm.

I’m excited. What about you? Ever contemplated the idea?

I need to come clean. Literally and figuratively. These are my feet at the end of this morning’s run. What’s wrong with this picture?

1. Well for starters my feet are shaped like dinner plates. They are as wide as they are long, making  it very difficult to find shoes that fit. Wouldn’t you know the only ones that work, without causing my toenails to fall off, a plight common for runners, cost $180.00, hence the replacement delay.
2. Its June. I am standing in the middle of a puddle and I am chilly. I could obsess, but I’ll try to get over this wet west coast spring.
3. My runners are disintegrating, yet I haven’t found the time to get a new pair.
4. My socks are so ripe they could take off down the road by themselves. Maybe that’s where they go.
5. You can’t see it, but the truth is I run at 5:15 AM because my running clothes are older than my daughter. (She’s 13)

All this might not be so bad, but last week I wrote a post about self care as though I had it mastered. Clearly, I have some work to do before I can walk my own talk. Sigh. Don’t you love it when you discover you are full of you know what? Or does it only happen to me?

This week I am going to order new running shoes, buy 10 pairs of brand new pristine white running socks, and I am going to buy two new running outfits to replace my current collection of hand me downs, and ancient stinky mix-and-match get ups.

If there was a “What not the Wear” for exercise, I would be an ideal first contestant. Any fitness fashionitas out there with advice?

How about you?  Inspired to initiate your own self care affair?

N.B. – Truth be known?  I do exercise every day. I’ve nailed that part of my life.  But much of what I write about smelling the roses, mindfulness, self care and body image, I’m writing because I need to remind myself out loud, so I can be held accountable.

The people in your life who love you, don’t love you more when you are a size 6 and less when you are a size 16, so why should you?

I’ve been a single parent for quite some time, and so I have an idea how difficult it is to make exercise a priority when kids come first – as they should.  There are times when caring for our children trumps everything else, making it easy to forget taking care of ourselves can enable us to take better care of all those we love.

Sometimes it helps me to remember the spiel at the beginning of all flights. You know the one…

“In the unlikely event of depressurization, an oxygen mask will fall from the console directly above you…”  And always the flight attendant goes on to describe how if you are traveling with a small child, you should place your own mask on before assisting your child. 

It seems completely counter intuitive, but yet when you really think about it, its not. Your child needs you. I think taking care of your our own health, so we can better assist our children, and others we care about, is not as selfish as we sometimes think.

I could be writing a predictable post about the importance of SMART goal setting when it comes to your fit pursuits.  You know the drill. Goals are essentially important when it comes to fitness. They need to be Specific, Measureable, Attainable, Realistic and they need to consider a Time Frame. Blah, blah, blah.

Instead, I want to tell you that after twenty some years of training and coaching individuals to get active and stay active, success in maintaining physical activity and a healthy lifestyle has little to do with goals and everything to do with learning to love exercise and just getting the job done.

Action goals, like being active every day, eating more fruits and vegetables, weight training 3 times per week, or running your first 10 K are great motivators. However, performance goals, like getting your body fat down to 14%, weighing below 130 pounds or running a sub 4 hour marathon can, and often are, particularly as we get older, a great source of disappointment.

Being active every day, you will inevitably lose weight, build muscle, improve your health and create positive momentum in other areas of your life. We need to do this because it feels so damn good, and improves our health, instead of what we hope it will make us look like, or how we hope we might perform.

I think we need to spend less time concocting intricate goals and more time just getting our bodies moving.

Why waste time doing endless crunches in multiple directions, when you can target all of your abs and back muscles with this one exercise? The plank is one of my favourite abdominal exercises, because its effective, time efficient can be done anywhere, even in my office or at the end of a run.

Harlie demonstrates.

Be sure your elbows are directly underneath your shoulders and try to keep your shoulders away from your ears. Maintain neutral neck alignment. Keep pulled up out of your shoulders, place your weight above your knees, and without sticking you bum up in the air, or letting it drop, lift the hips.

This exercise can be done from the three levels shown; but it is essential the body remain level like a blank and that the hips are in line. If you feel the hips and back sagging even an iota, come down, adjust and do the slightly easier level. Remember to breathe, and try holding for a minute. Once you can do 3 times one minute, progress to the next level.

Once you can do all levels easily, talk to me. There’s more!

Level 2

Level 3