reflection and hydration

I picked up a book my daughter won as part of a fitness night during the summer.  Its kind of a mind body book, and has many quotes & sayings with reflections from the author.  Today this one has really hit me as I came home from my 90 minute hot yoga class. When the room is 108 F and the teacher doesn't open the door at all hydration is soooo important. 
The thought here was : They hydration principle - When you're thirsty it's too late.  When you exercise you should be drinking a 1/2cup of water every 15 minutes to replace the sweat loss. This is especially important in activities where there's lots of sweating .  To go on the author discuss some healthy habits for .both life and physical fitness(these may not be the list of your choosing but you can always make your own).

• A glass of water every morning
• regular exercise
• daily vitamins ( I think its subjective to the individual)
• daily action items (you know all those things you have to do today)
•  balancing budget (life is easier if you know what you have to work with)
• phone call to mom or family member
• support group meetings (these can help you through all kinds of things)
• sex with spouse (OK this can get lost in a marriage as you have kids etc)
• Church attendance ( i know this isn't for everyone, but it offers a support system that you may not get anywhere else- not just spiritual, but also as way to find your own place)
• regular prayer- I believe that at some point we all turn to prayer, it may be the loss of a loved one, the desire for a different kind of life, the birth of a child, prayer is found in all types of spiritual thought. 

Find a way to replenish your body everyday.  Where do you go to find encouragement for yourself?

• podcast
• uplifting movies or TV shows
• books
• conferences
• inspiring friends or individuals

Do you have people who you find encouraging and uplift your spirit?
Just something to reflect on today.

certification craziness

The last month has been crazy doing education for fitness.  I work for the YMCA and needed to get a couple classes  done.  So I've been studying and taking some general fitness about healthy living followed by group fitness training, choreography and music. Last week I was certified as and instructor for a senior fitness program called Enhance Fitness. We will start this program at our Y as a pilot program instead of offering silver sneaker programs.  Today I took a 3 hour exam for the ACE national Group fitness trainer exam.  I passed, and I can't tell you what a relief that was.  Five years ago I went to school to study fitness and nutrition.  It was my intent to transfer to another program on graduation, but expenses at the time, and our family weren't permitting. Even now the opportunity isn't presenting itself to go back to the nutrition program at this time, however the opportunity to expand on my education and utilize it offers some satisfaction.
So now that the current exam and class schedule is completed, I can start to concentrate a bit back on my own fitness as well as the my current classes. I'm ready for the weekend, my friday zumba gold class and some Hot yoga.  With all the rain going on in our area its totally acceptable to take Hot yoga for warmth.  Happy days ahead.

Group Exercise.

So as part of my journey to be healthy, I work as a trainer for dance students.  I also  teach Zumba, and recently was offered an opportunity to get involved with a project called "Enhance Fitness" which was started by Group health, and is oriented towards senior health.
Working for the Y has opened some exciting doors for me.  With these opportunities looming in the near future, I have to take some national certification test, despite having a college degree in fitness specialist and personal training.   Two weeks ago, I took a class through the Y called, Healthy lifestyle principles.  This is the Y's requirement to take any other class in health and wellness programming.
This weekend I'm taking the Group X training instructor through the Y and will follow up before the end of the month with a national certification for Group X Instructor. Since the Y offers the workshop with a comparable exam, it will make sense to follow up with the national exam for the same. All the information is fresh!  So what is group X?  its basically the Exercise instructor knowledge for group trainings.  Whether small or large.  It doesn't necessarily pertain to any one type of group exercise, but goes over all the things you need to know, including refreshing anatomy, kinesiology, physiology, nutrition, health screenings, programming, teaching principles.injury prevention and emergency/first aid procedures, among other things. Its alot to go over in one day. I'm looking forward to it, and trying to run through the manual over the next few days ahead of time to go over things that we don't think much about like the Krebs cycle, and ATP- oh the early days of college.

Aren't these lovely?

I've been a bit remiss in posting but then I found this lovely photo on Heather Bullards sight and wanted to share it with you all. The sunshine, and happy colors and all the multi tone flowers make my heart joyful.  Have a most happy day.

Happy 2012!

Alrighty, can you believe its 2012?  I'm amazed how fast 2011 went, I guess I was having fun and didn't realize it was slipping by.  Some years you wonder if it will come fast enough, but this year so many things happened that it just seems like it disappeared. New things to come this year, that I'm really looking forward too, and sharing as they come about.

So everyone focuses on health and fitness as part of their resolutions it seems.  I'm not a resolution maker and my business is all about health and fitness, January is just a normal month in that respect, but I always see a flux of clients during this time.  As some great pointers for the new year here are a couple ideas to perhaps get you on the right tract. If you are a dieter and find its hard to prepare your healthy lunches without preparing the same thing everyday or you don't have time I would follow the idea from this blog: http://5dinners1hour.blogspot.com/2011/04/make-ahead-lunches.html
The author did a wonderful job of how she prepared lunches for her kids ahead of time, including a variety of sandwiches and snacks.  She measured and prepared everything and bagged them in baggies, and small containers and her children can pick what to put in their lunches. Some examples that would easily carry over to weight watchers- and if you write the points plus value on the bag, you can easily track the points as well- would be pb&j, ham & cheese sandwich, or roll ups on tortillas, nuts and fruit, measured salad, with dressing of choice  in separate container.  Other ideas were apple slices with caramel sauce, or banana slices with chocolate sauce, orange slices, jicama slices, pre-cut broccoli and carrots with or without dip.  Hummus & crackers, cheese cubes & pre-cooked ham, granola and yogurt,  the choices are really limitless.  You may have to think about moisture content, or a little extra packaging. Soups are my favorite for lunch, so opening a can and dividing it ahead into microwave containers, can make lunch time a little easier.  The gal who writes this blog did it for both time efficiency and frugality. She has young school age children and after school activities as well.
But I always look at the comments and find it interesting that a large portion of her readers who are working, or are trying to work out schedule differences with significant others.  I wish I had thought of this when my daughter was younger. I tried frozen made ahead dinners but it took to long for them to cook when we got home, and now she is away in college. I'm thinking with some of the challenges I have scheduled this month, it could be helpful to throw a few lunches together for the week to easily pick on the those days I'm running around.

almost the end of the 2011.

Resolutions or challenges?
So its almost the end of 2011.  I don't make resolutions, because I don't want to disappoint myself if I forget or worse its something that I really wanted to do, but fail.  I mean resolutions in theory are something you do over the year right? While a challenge is a short term type of thing.

This year I've opted to do a challenge. 30 days of hot yoga.  Even if I'm  unable to do 30 classes, I feel its a worthy challenge and one that will benefit me regardless of how many classes I'm able to get to. In past years I've done things such as 5k St Patty's day, or multiple 5 K's over the year. All of which I achieved.  This being a daily will be a bit harder to work the timing with all the other things in my life.
So perhaps making a challenge will help you start the new year off right. Here are some ideas in case you're have trouble thinking of one or two.
1) adding 1 exercise class a week for the month and making sure you attend.
2) taking 5 - 20 minute walks every week for 1 month.
3) try doing water walking 2 days a week if you have trouble with walking on pavement.
4) make one meal a week fish if you are not regularly eating fish,
5) Start each dinner with a small cup of vegetable soup or broth, to help fill your stomach and reduce evening calories.
6) pre- plan your dinner menus for 2 weeks, so you can eat healthier.
There's a ton of ideas that may be appropriate for you. These are just a few that came to mind.  For more ideas to a healthier you, you might check out this page from Oprahs magazine last year her feel good challenge-  http://www.oprah.com/health/January-2011-Feel-Good-Challenge-O-Magazine/2
so whether its a challenge or a resolution you make, think a bit ahead for a healthier new year.

Steps and calories

The week of Christmas before and after are rather interesting days when it comes to exercise. Usually the few days before hand, you get busy, buying food, presents, and preparing for the big event, whether its Christmas eve or day or day after.  

My daughter Miss P. flew in from London late Monday night.  We then started a week trying to keep exercise in our day, as well as getting ready for the holidays, and for her to meet up with old friends. She is used to 6 hours a day of exercise from dance and body conditioning. Obviously we aren't going to do that here, but she does require some maintenance. 

She told me she does not like yoga, so I took her to Hot Yoga and there she discovered its not so bad,- her first class was a fusion class, followed by a Hatha class, and then tonight we did a power sculpt class. All of which she excels at while I struggle but that's to be expected...with our difference in age and physique. But it does leave this mother a little jealous that she can no longer function as a young adult. Argh, the natural process of aging needs to be slowed down for sure.

So then I've been so busy, trying to run around and get things done, I wasn't checking my body media but I was wearing it. After shopping trips, and I wish it would record yoga better as and activity, because the movements aren't more athletic i don't get much credit for it, But it does make my calorie burn go up, so I guess its the trade off. I plugged in my media today and was fascinated to find that Christmas eve and Christmas day, had large numbers for both steps, and calorie burns.  I did not expect this at all!  Christmas eve,  I spent preparing the meal for Christmas day- we had at that time a count of 18 coming for the family meal. I made a low fat lasagna- using chicken and turkey sausage, cottage cheese, low fat mozzarella.  It turned out delicious and no one knew it was lower calorie than me. Christmas eve my immediate family of Miss P and Mr G always have enchiladas, fresh fruit salad, and either black beans or rice (we are not Hispanic- we just like Mexican food alot).  This year again, using 2% cheese, and lower fat turkey my meal was healthier. You can't go wrong with fresh fruit. I always look for the fruits we don't usually have like pineapple, kiwis, pomegranate, fuyu persimmons. They are treat anytime but extra special all together. My daughter made cookies for gift boxes, a tiramisu from scratch, and a traditional cranberry cake we serve with a hard sauce for Christmas day desert..

 I found that while we were busy spending all this time in the kitchen I managed over 14000 steps.
Christmas day, after opening presents and my daughter made us breakfast of panatone bread french toast, left over fresh fruit and some bacon.  It was delicious!  We then had to start on the re-arranging of furniture to figure out how to seat 19 people for sit down dinner. Mr G and I spent the time doing this, finding and adding table leaves, searching through our home to find adequate seating, dressing the tables,  etc.  My steps again over 14000 and calories burn up to 3400. 
My calorie burn minimum is 2050 but lately even on days that are light activity I've been burning more in 2300-2500 level. Pretty cool for sure.

 I'm seeing small changes in my body, these days. I've never been comfortable with it, too much ridicule when I was young from someone who was important in my life. Consequently I don't have a body that I love, but one I'm struggling to. I can tell you more things I hate about my body than I love but my most hated are my upper arms.  I have those kinds of upper arms that although muscular, encompass as much fat as they possibly can squeeze into them.  Mini little ham hocks they are like. When I focus on lifting weights or doing kettle bells I can tolerate them, however I try to wear longer sleeves for anything besides yoga, because I hate them so. Having had melanoma a few years ago, I wear long sleeves more than most anyways. So now you know, my arms are my kryptonite.

So as my year comes to a close, I've been wearing my body media since late April.  When I started wearing it and until just 2 months ago, I had severe chronic anemia, unable to do 8000 steps at the time, or if I did one day the next required  a day of rest. so I was averaging about 3-4000 steps at the time. I'm thrilled that my steps have increased not just to 8000 but more often over that.  My weight loss isn't as satisfactory, but you can't have everything at one time can you? I have 4 more months to reach more of my weight loss goal, which as I've been healthier the last two months, it should be easier to achieve it.