Sick days really bite, don’t they? How do we make sure that those sick days don’t interfere with our health and fitness plan?
Quite often, at least for me, when I am NOT sick, I push myself to lift more, work harder, and sweat like crazy. Even though, in my regular program, I do have a “rest”day each week where I do slow work and stretching, it would always be beneficial to do more of that to optimize my physical condition.
By doing some exercise even on a sick day, it helps us in more ways than one!
1. During sick day, we move slower and more deliberate and don’t use weights. This helps us to improve range of motion as well as our form.
2. Taking more time to relax in those stretch positions really helps to lengthen, strengthen muscles and keep our joints balanced and strong.
3. By committing to do at least some kind of exercise every single day even when we are sick, it keeps the momentum and habit moving forward and you are more likely to jump in where you left off once you are well without difficulty. By skipping days or workouts, it is proven that our motivation drops and our drive as well.
…so my advice to you…do a workout every single day even if sick. Take it easier on sick days and perhaps go without weight and spend most of your time doing stretches and maybe even some yoga to maximize your fitness and keep that motivation alive!!!
As I was doing my defensive moves this morning, I had this sudden thought about how important it is to vigorously defend our health in today’s world.
If I think about all the things that potentially could interfere with our health, there are so many! There is life stress, food additives and chemicals, environmental pollution, lack of exercise, lack of proper nutrition and nutrients, past life experiences affecting our emotional health, very busy and demanding life (rush rush rush), and more…
So, I was thinking about how much dedication and focus it takes to be healthy. Because, if you think about it, what are the easy choices now days? Yes, the easy choice is reaching for processed food, the quick answer, the pre-made type foods (all bad stuff!). Then I was thinking about how it takes effort and intention to make the healthy choices in our life the easy choices… We may not be able to control the environment, but we can control what we put into our bodies!
So, how can we make this easy? …
Some ways to make the healthy choices the easy choices are to prepare some simple healthy food ahead of time especially before a busy week. I do not like cooking, so I needed to find a great and fast way to throw stuff together. For example, I cook up a tray of healthy proteins for the week on Sunday…takes me 5 minutes to throw frozen chicken breast on a wax paper covered cookie sheet, paint them with hummus and bake in the oven. I can get a lot of other work done while those suckers are cooking! These chicken breasts through the week make good fast meals either being cut up on top of a salad or heated hot with some frozen veggies that I toss together. I alternate the chicken with cod, other types of fish, boiled eggs and ground turkey recipes. It works great, is never boring, and you are always prepared for nutritious eating and it makes healthy the easy choice when it is ready to grab from the fridge!
A few other ideas I use to prepare for a healthy nutritious week…
I always have 0% greek yogurt and low fat cottage cheese in the fridge which makes good meals with raw unsalted nuts and fruit (and no cooking required!). I spend only 15 minutes every 2-3 weeks making up 15-20 ziplock baggies of 1/3 cup raw unsalted nuts and seeds so they are easy to grab and go. Fresh fruit always available (apples and oranges because they don’t go bad). What other ideas for healthy easy snacks can you come up with? Please COMMENT on this post with your ideas!
What about when I get the munchies? (yes, we all do!)
I have Ryvita Bread (Muesli crunch is my favorite) on hand for those times when I feel the munchies come on. I can put a little smear of peanut butter on one or two of those, and its a great healthy snack that satisfies my munchies. Better to have this kind of thing readily available than salty popcorn, chips, or other unhealthy chemical-filled snack foods around. Be sure you are well-fed before heading to the grocery store and you will be less likely to buy junk food! Avoid having crap in the house, otherwise it becomes an easy choice to eat junk food and we do not want that!
Some Research is worth the time…
Get to know what types of foods are actually healthy. Stick mostly to the perimeter of the store to do your shopping because thats where most of the real whole foods are. Peek at the labels and if there are more than a few ingredients or a bunch of chemical names, stay away from it. Join clean eating groups to learn which foods are and are not healthy. Learn some new simple recipes to keep your nutrition interesting and delicious.
Are you familiar with the value of superfood?
It is important to know that the nutritional value in our foods and veggies are NOT what they used to be. There are vital nutrients missing that help to fight against oxidative damage that can lead to disease including cancer. This is where the use of superfoods can make a HUGE difference in our health. The superfood shake contains phytonutrients, cellular nutrition, antioxidants, micronutrients, natural herbs (and ZERO artificial ingredients) that increase body efficiency (including hormones) and is our best defence against disease, promotes weight loss and kills cravings. Having superfoods in a shake form, is not only convenient for on-the-go, but contains a large number of superfoods in just the right mix and balance to optimize their benefit!
DEFEND YOUR HEALTH! By far, optimal nutrition and regular exercise is the best defence we have!
PAY ATTENTION to what you’re putting into your body because what we put into our body equals the health that we get out. You could be a healthy eater in general, but if you snack on or add in high fat, salt or chemical-filled garbage foods, this will totally zap your energy and take your body weeks to get rid of it! Remember, these chemicals interfere with our body’s fine signalling processes, interfere with hormone balance and interfere with our body’s ability to function efficiently to keep our arteries clean, fight infections, control fat deposits and have energy!
Don’t forget that daily exercise is critical to keep muscles healthy, heart strong, maintain balance and helps our body to use energy efficiently. Set aside a time each and every day where you can consistently get your exercises in…schedule it and make it a non-negotiable! I keep a blank printed out calendar handy beside my TV in the rec-room and every time I do a workout or exercise, I document it on the calendar. This is a great way to track activity and you can look back and see how much you have achieved and where you can improve. Its a great technique and increases motivation too!
Yup, it just hit me this morning as I was exercising about how it takes effort, focus and intention to maintain health and so important to have a simple sustainable plan and the easy choices readily available to grab and go. Taking the time to learn the simple ways to do this is worth it!
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Being fit is far more than just big muscles and strength! It’s about being able to move, twist, jump, maneuver, run…and more …all without getting injured! The MMA fighters need to do more than just fight to keep up their fitness level, and so should we?. My agility power and a core workout were done this morning with sweat pouring and after it was over I was all smiles because it felt so great! Was a tough workout though!
As we get older, meaning over 40 and beyond, it is incredibly important to work on strength and agility training to maintain our strength, balance, coordination and joint range of motion. Walking is good exercise, but it really is not enough since it doesn’t work the essential muscles or the mind in the ways that agility training does..
Reaction time and coordination slow down as we get older, but we can fight that with only 10-15 min of practise every day. Agility skills help us to react faster, reduce risk for falls and this type of exercises puts pressure on the muscles and bones which help to keep them healthy and strong. With agility training, our posture improves, giving more upright walking stance and confidence and have less discomfort in our back.
The benefits of Tai Chi, yoga, Tai Cheng (take a minute to watch the video) with their slow controlled movements also really help to increase range of motion, balance, co-ordination and flexibility. If you don’t have time or feel comfortable going out to a class for this type of exercises, we have this type of program available on DVD or digital streaming and it can be used at home.
Dancing is also another good exercise to improve agility. It can be very fun and social activity as well, which is a bonus.. Dancing benefits not only our physical agility, but also our mental agility and reduces cognitive decline (BONUS!). There are many kind of dance available and if you would rather dance at home, there are country dance programs that can be done at home as well!
Remember as a kid we used to play hop scotch? Just that little bit of hopping, balancing on one leg really trains the brain and builds agility. Consider playing with your kids or grandkids and reminisce about those fun times and enjoy!! It will feel more like fun than exercise for sure. This morning with my workout (check out my current core blasting fighting program!), we did something called “Hop Squatch” which is very similar to hop scotch, but only with squats between single foot hops! LOL
By being consistent each and every day and working on agility to some degree, we have better posture, strength, balance and even energy! This will make us even more active in other activities, promote weight loss and a higher level of positivity and self-confidence. It is definitely worth working on and no matter what your age, there are exercises that will help! For more assistance finding a program to suit you, contact your local senior services, or contact me about some effective and fun home based programs that will help you out.
To join the Athletic Grandma Community and receive a FREE download about 7 tips to become more self-disciplined in your life, click HERE.
When I first started my fitness journey, I never would have been able to do a deep squat like this! No way! I had crunchy knees doing stairs and sharp pains in them…not to mention a bad lower back that always seemed to be “going out of place” and causing me sharp pains, pains into my legs and nothing but grief.
The day that I made the decision to put my health and fitness first was when this all changed!
It was a beautiful summer day 3 years ago when I decided to have fun and be silly by doing handstands and cartwheels on the lawn… Turns out, it was not a very good idea! …for 2 full weeks after that I had so much pain in my neck, shoulders, back, hips and even my feet, that I told myself enough is enough already!!! I was asking my self in disgust…”How did I get so out of shape!?”… I seemed to have gotten out of shape so fast! As it turns out, making decisions to eat junk food and skip workouts over a long period of time really didn’t do me any favours!
Something had to be done about this!
Once I made the decision and started working out using a professionally designed workout-at-home program, it was so hard! I could barely do a minute of jumping jacks and I could barely do a push-up on my knees! I thought I was gonna die, but my determination to change and improve my health kept me going. I recruited the help of a physiotherapist whose help I sought out regularly to help manage my pains and to help me adapt my form as I slowly got stronger.
It took a few months of working hard on exercising to start noticing that I had less back pain in the mornings, was walking up stairs with less pain, was getting so much stronger and was building some nice muscle at the same time! I noticed that I was getting heavier on the scale though! All that new muscle was heavy! EEK!
Getting bigger and heavier was not what I wanted!
At this point, I revamped my diet, dialed down my portion sizes and added superfood daily at the suggestion of my Beachbody coach. By this time, I was also able to keep up with the trainer and able to complete the video program instead of continuously adapting due to pain! Within 3 months after starting superfood, clean eating and portion control, I had dropped 35 pounds and was feeling the best I had felt in my life!! I still had some pain in my knees and lower back, but definitely not as often and not as severe…
My successes led me to believe more in myself and what I was capable of. I was motivated to achieve more! I started another program with higher intensity, completed it, then started another, completed it, then another, and another. Now, by this time, my energy was improving, my motivation was getting higher, my pain was getting to be less and less and I was feeling good and strong with the proper nutrition and exercise. This proved to me repeatedly that the work I was doing was not just getting me healthier, it was totally changing my body and its capacity to lift and move in ways I never dreamed of.
3 years later, fast forward to today, I am 42 pounds less than when I started, am committed to my daily superfood, clean eating and portion control as a long-term forever lifestyle. It is very simple system to follow, has really improved my strength, (peri-menopausal) hormone balance and energy, and as I keep going I CONTINUE to improve my body’s capacity to move, bend and lift. I had originally thought I would reach a plateau in terms of what my body is capable of, but it turns out that is not the case!
There is no limit to what can be achieved!
Week by week, workout by workout, I continue to get stronger, and am capable of more! I can run faster, can run up the stairs (no crunchy knees anymore!), can lift and move furniture, carry around my 41 lb grandson, sit all day at a desk, lift and toss bales for my horses, fork hay, do yardwork, shovel snow and can squat deeply with NO PAIN! Who would have thought this was possible? I am proof that it is totally possible to rehabilitate from anything and any physical problem if your mind is determined enough and you have a firm enough belief in yourself.
By transforming physically, it has changed my mindset and attitude as well. I am happier, more positive, feel stronger and more stable emotionally, have improved my relationships (work, home, family, friends), believe in myself more on many levels, and have more passion and excitement for life! (and a bonus is I was able to get off of every prescription medication I was on!)
You may be wondering how this story may impact you? You may be wondering how you too can have a complete body and mind transformation? How can you totally change your life as well? How can you improve your hormone balance, lose weight and become a happier person? My advice for you is to seek out the help of a coach (like me) to support, motivate and keep you accountable and help you through your journey to better health and fitness. I can teach you about superfood, clean eating, portion control and support you through your progress in fitness and even help you get off prescription drugs. I have been through all of this myself, have experienced both the pain, failures, difficulties and challenges, so I totally get how tough it is.
Think about this…
Being on a health and fitness journey is hard, but it is ALSO very hard to live overweight, hormonal, unhappy, in pain and totally miserable. Make a decision today and chose your hard!
To join the Athletic Grandma community, enter your name and email address HERE and receive a free download about 7 ways to improve your self-discipline.
CONTACT ME HERE about getting onto a program that will change your life.
It is so important to find a workout that you love and enjoy in order to have long-term success in health and fitness.
If you are trying to make yourself do a program that you hate, it is going to be very difficult to complete it and to be successful in the long run.
I tried quite a few programs before I found one that I truly LOVE that gives me a full body workout, nice muscle tone and that I feel I can really connect with. This MMA style fighting program is right up my alley and makes me happy, smiling, sweaty and feeling killer awesome every single time!! It’s not easy, but it comes with a simple nutrition plan, I love the challenge and it keeps me moving forward with great motivation!?
Check out my MMA Power from this morning! 🙂
If I think over the last 3 years and the vast number of programs I bought in order to find “the one”, it is crazy how much money I spent.
What is an easier answer to this?
Guess what? There is no need to buy a bunch of programs any more!! There is a new option available where there is ONE fee per year that includes every single program in the system! This will allow you to pick the one you love without having to buy each individual one to test them out! What a great concept! See more info below on this!
Enjoy your Monday and work at finding a fitness program you LOVE! It is so worth it, it will change your life and help you to achieve your fitness and weight loss goals much faster!
I am feeling accomplished this morning! Day 15 out of 30 of my MMA challenge is complete! ?
The beauty of an all-access system is that it includes EVERY program through digital streaming that has ever been created from Tai Cheng to Yoga, to Insanity and P90x and also includes the newest programs such as Hammer and Chisel as well as Core de Force (my favorite!).
LOVE LOVE LOVE IT!! Have a good one!! 🙂
To become part of the Athletic Grandma Community, be sure to enter your name and email address HERE and get a free download of the 7 ways to improve your self-discipline!
How many challenges do we face every single week of the month? Real life contains emotional tests like disappointments, tragedy, societal issues, stress, injury, divorce, death, unemployment and even choices we make with an unknown future. So how do we keep moving forward without being totally defeated with life?
There are several ways we can do this that are truly effective if we are determined to move forward and intentional about facing the issue. By intentionally facing the issue, it builds on our strengths and makes us even more resilient for the next challenge. If we don’t face it, it weakens our capacity for the next time.
Boy did I learn these lessons the hard way…
Despite my hand injury and pain slowing me down, past abuse, and the huge commitment of raising my grandson full time (some days I feel too old for this!), I refuse to let myself get defeated. Through my emotional fitness journey, I found some strategies that I put into practise that really helped me to learn to experience the inevitable challenges, have normal feelings about them, yet find a way to move past them quicker so that they have less impact on my life.
Here is what I learned…
I learned to enjoy my life as it is, instead of wishing it was different. I learned to be present in my current life, enjoy what life has to offer now and not constantly be feeling like I need something different. Having those feelings of wanting something different than what you have now is a huge stress, worry and constantly gets you down. This is a hard habit to get out of, and I need to remind myself of this at times, but it is worth the work!
I learned to be thankful. Wow, this made a huge difference in my life. It is so easy to count our troubles instead of counting our blessings, but focusing on trouble completely eliminates our ability to experience the good we have been given in life. A change in my perspective here made all the difference. I learned to recognize the good and to be very thankful about it.
I learned to slow down. I was constantly in a rush every minute of every day. By being in this state of mind, I was constantly making mistakes, cutting corners, getting ahead of myself and missing out on so many important moments in life. Not to mention that being in a rush all the time was driving my kids crazy! I learned to slow down and remembered what my mom always told me…”slow and steady wins the race”…dang it she was right! Slowing down and being intentional about what I was doing improved my state of mind, I was more relaxed and my life was less stressful and (no surprise), my relationships improved!
I learned to face the truth and the real emotional issues. It was always easier to turn away from life challenges instead of facing them. I was a master avoider!! The fact is, these emotions and truths will catch up to us eventually! I learned that when I faced reality, I was much more capable of dealing with life effectively. Seriously, when you do this, what once seemed difficult, now seems so much easier! Things that seemed scary, now feel more comfortable and familiar. I felt the difference this made in my strength and it helped me to build a much deeper confidence in myself. Feeling capable is a great feeling! ….and once on this path, you just keep getting stronger all the time!
Further to facing the truth, I found that NOT pushing emotions away or packing them away in the “little black pandora’s box” of my mind was the best idea! Seriously, I have learned that we need those feelings in order to have satisfaction, meaning and absolute pleasure in our life. Packing away those feelings in the black box actually drained my energy and had unconcious impact on my personality! Sounds scary, but its very true. We need to experience our real emotions to have satisfaction and joy in our lives!
Another thing I learned is that things cannot be perfect all of the time. I had to really believe the fact that no one is perfect and no one gets things right every time. If we have too unreasonable of expectations of ourselves, there is a constant feeling of failure and inadequacy. This is NOT a good feeling, but had become a bad habit for me. Perfectionism actually leads to anger and lack of confidence and has a negative impact on relationships. This is a tough one to get over since I have had this issue since childhood, but it is an essential one to work through in order to be happy with yourself. I learned that I was able to gain confidence through the process of trying, succeeding, failing and trying again…It built my power, resilience and confidence over time.
The last thing I learned that was a critical shift for me to avoid defeat in life was to realize that relationships in our life need to be nurtured and cared for. This includes coworkers, intimate partner, kids, family…all of these relationships need to be given attention and commitment to keep them alive and positive…and not just occasionally…this is something to work on consistently. The other thing I had to learn was that I am 100% responsible for my contribution to the relationships and for my happiness. No one else was responsible for any of this. Forgiveness, making amends, accepting forgiveness, being open and vulnerable about love and talking about concerns were essential to realize and to apply to my life.
There was a lot of things to talk about today! These were all things I learned by being committed to personal development, being determined to deal with past issues of abuse, focusing on becoming a better person… Ultimately, developing personal strengths in multiple areas of life and thinking bigger like this really does make accepting any kind of defeat in life totally optional. We have the choice and we don’t have to let life’s challenges get us down!
I am feeling happy, successful and accomplished right now since I got day 13 of my 30 day Fitness Challenge DONE! I hope you have a fabulous day!!
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Having a strong belief in myself and my vision is what keeps me going every day!
Having trouble staying motivated on your health or goals journey?
Having a true belief in yourself and your goals is essential since nothing will work if you don’t believe in it. Do you find yourself saying to advice..”I don’t believe these ideas will work for me”? A lack of belief in ourselves will limit us no matter how great the ideas or opportunities are that we are exposed to.
So what to do then?
People who are successful are determined to make situations work for them rather than playing the role of victim and searching for reasons why a situation will not work.
If we believe that change is possible for ourselves, we will be willing to test, experiment, and try new things even when we feel uncertain. If we don’t believe it is possible to make new things work, then it’s hard to make any progress. I don’t care how good the ideas are, nothing will work for you if you don’t believe in it. And more importantly, nothing will work if you don’t believe in yourself.
True belief in yourself leads to more positive energy, drive and motivation… Put pen to paper and write down what you would like to achieve and develop a vision for yourself to develop that inner power to build your belief in what is possible.
Once you develop the belief that “anything is possible” and that you can “do anything you set your mind to”, and believe in your vision …you will be amazed at the change in yourself and the incredible motivation and action that comes from it!
The honest truth…. I feel like I am losing belief in myself today, so I needed to hear this post more than anyone! Despite this, I made myself complete day 10 of my current 30 day fitness challenge (at least I have accomplished this!) …I am going to put pen to paper today and follow my own advice!
Please COMMENT on this post with your ideas about how to improve motivation and belief in ourselves
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Ever started on the path to fitness and then gave up?
We all have.
As a Nurse Practitioner and health coach, I see it happen all the time.
Most of the time, it has everything to do with a person’s mindset.
Our limiting beliefs about ourselves are, well, limiting. Even if we decide to get fit and pursue health, we will fail if deep down we don’t really believe we could be fit or strong. Despite our determination, our negative beliefs will undermine our efforts, and we’ll sabotage our own efforts.
Good news though! What we believe about ourselves can be changed. Our brains are capable of creating new neural pathways and changing not only our beliefs but also behavioral patterns. It just takes work.
We have it backwards. The path to fitness doesn’t start with a strategy of when and where and how to work out. It doesn’t even start with a nutrition plan. It starts with a correct mindset – one that believes we can accomplish the health and fitness we desire.
Only once we believe we are capable of change, is it sensible to work toward that goal.
How to Change Your Mindset
First, don’t expect instant results. This thing takes time. In order to develop a fitness mindset one of the first things we have to understand is that whatever physical shape we are in today, it is the result of hundreds of small habitual actions performed throughout our life.
And we have to understand that just as we don’t get out ofshape and overweight overnight, we won’t get in shape overnight either. We need to truly understand that “instant gratification” is not possible.
Most importantly, we have to understand that a fitness mindset sees life as a journey rather than a destination.
That means every failure and setback is an opportunity for growth – focus on that. We are not eating salad to fill a quota. We are not even working out to build muscles. At least, those aren’t the thing to focus on. Think of them as a byproduct of your patience, consistency, and resilience. And those qualities are grown in the face of difficulty. Embrace that, and the tough days – when you’re physically spent or emotionally worn, or all your drive and desire has dissipated like a mist – those days will seem less like drudgery and more like opportunity.
Practically, changing your mindset is the training of your thoughts every day. Sometimes, especially at the beginning, it’s a minute-by-minute work.
Steps to Changing Your Mindset
Identify the Thought You Want to Change
We can’t change something we don’t know about. Be honest with yourself about what you really believe. Do you really, deep down, believe you can eat clean as a lifestyle for the rest of your life? Do you really, deep down, believe you can one day become consistent at working out? What do you believe about yourself? Do you feel that you are worth it?
Recognize When You’re Thinking the Thought
This is where you spy on your own brain, catching it red handed as it lies to you. Listen closely for that negative self talk. When you’re vacuuming and your mind wanders, do you hear those negative thoughts? For example, if you don’t believe that you can ever stop snacking on sweets in the evenings, you might catch yourself thinking, “I’m an emotional eater.” The more you think these thoughts, the more they become true. Catch them in the act.
Replace the Thought
Once you catch the negative self-talk in the act, stop. Stop yourself from thinking it. Refuse to indulge that lie one more time. That’s what it is – it’s a lie. Replace it with a truth – even if it’s not necessarily true right now, make your mind identify it as a truth. It is possible, to some degree, to speak things into being. If you tell your brain something over and over, it will begin to believe you. Once you believe it, your behaviour will follow. Because we act on our beliefs. We can’t help it. Putting pen to paper and writing these beliefs and belief replacements down has been proven to be most effective.
Positive Replacement Thoughts
There are loads of ideas of positive replacement thoughts, or mantras as some call them. Here’s a list to kick-start your brainstorming.
My most recent ones are, “I am a gladiator!” or “I am a chiseled badass granny!” The more I say it, the more I believe it. And the more I believe it, the more I act like it. It’s the coolest thing to be able to train our brain.
What limiting thoughts are keeping you from growing in health and fitness?
What positive declaration can you replace it with? (Share in the comments so I can cheer you on!)
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