Staying in Shape is Easier. . .

Some of you may know who Jack LaLanne is. The godfather of American fitness - he is world reknowned as a bodybuilder, motivational speaker, nutrition and fitness expert. At 94 years of age he continues to work out every morning for two hours, spending 1 ½ hours in the weight room and ½ hour swimming or walking.
LaLanne says that as a child he was addicted to sugar and junk food. At age 15, he heard Paul Bragg give a talk on health and nutrition. Bragg's message was very simple but had a powerful influence on LaLanne, who subsequently decided to focus on his diet and exercise habits. His message has always been - stay in shape and you won't have to worry about getting back into shape.
Many of the emails I get from prospects and clients talk about their struggle - climbing on the fitness horse, falling off and getting back on again. Weight gain and loss yo-yoing back and forth - with the result that the amount of fat cells increase in the body over time and increased chances of diabetes and other health problems. And the yo-yo effect not only takes more time to get weight off, but to keep it off permanently or drop the last 10 to 20 pounds.

If you're not currently fit - don't lose hope or heart. Get back on the horse and make a commitment to STAY on. Don't cheat yourself out of the radiant good health and confidence that you deserve. And if you are currently fit - listen up - STAY THAT WAY! Take a leaf from Jack's book! Don't allow yourself to get out of shape and you won't ever have to worry about getting back in.

Age is Just a Number with Wrinkles on it

Last night I had the distinct privilege of watching the Puget Sound Senior Baseball League team, the Silver Foxes (my friend on the team is a mere kid at 52). The average player age in the league is 62, but I saw players in their 70's and a couple in their early 80's playing hardball like a bunch of 20 somethings.

These guys are in amazing shape - and they play serious baseball. They've had hip or knee replacements, back surgery, torn rotator cuffs - physical limitations that might make most of us a little more cautious about our bodies, but they bounced around that field like a bunch of crazy kids.

I did a double take when one of the batters (whose surgeon advised him to run no further than first base after a hit) called for a sub to run for him. The batter was 72, the sub was 76! And he stole second and third base to boot!

As I navigate my own mid-life and look for examples to remind me that age is indeed just a number (with wrinkles) I found tremendous inspiration watching these men who radiate health, energy, and joie de vivre - not for glory or ego but for sheer love of their game - baseball.

My dear friend and team member, Kevin, sums it up very well.

"Yes they are an inspiration! After being out of the game for the better part of 10 years I remember now how physical baseball really is. At 52 and my current triathlon fitness I thought I would be in perfect shape and starting up again would be fun, playing baseball would be a piece of cake and easy transition....au contraire.

The average age on the Silver Foxes is 62...are you kidding me? A few are approaching 70 years old and a couple are over with the oldest at 74 a pitcher who played with the Baltimore Orioles organization back in the day. I mentioned to Dick that I once met Stan "the man" Musial who played with the St Louis Cardinals and he came right back remembering the way he used to stand and hold his bat in the batters box. When you talk to Dick he is always willing to share his stories about the game. They're passionate about it.

How do these guys do it? They do it mostly with a love for the game. Every week they can't wait for game day, to put on their pro-uniforms wearing their name and number proudly. They constantly talk about baseball during the game but joke around quite a bit too. They are always positive whether you do well or not on the field. It feels good to be around some of these guys and makes me think about a time before I was born when baseball was everything all Americans cherished.

To those who inspire us to live well!

4 Obstacles Preventing You From Reaching Your LifeFit Goals

What's preventing you from getting real results?

I've been getting a lot of emails lately from people who feel like they're going around and around the same mountain with their life organization and wellness challenges.

Underneath the frustration at either not achieving their goal at all or sliding after they'd reached a certain baseline (no judgement here, we've all been there!) what I see they almost always have in common is one or more of these 4 obstacles. They keep turning up like ducks in a shooting range so let's blast em one by one. Let's face it, all change starts with being aware right?

1. Inability to push yourself. Guilty as charged! It's easy to convince yourself that you don't need to crank out those last few reps with the weights, or you can stop your cardio session 10 minutes early today (you'll make it up tomorrow, yes?) or you can leave the kitchen counter buried with mail and get takeout (again). Rationalization is easy when you're all alone - it gets harder when you've got someone else to answer to. The solution? Get some accountability - with a trainer, coach, friend, mentor, group - whatever it takes. When someone else is pushing us to do just 1 more lap around the track, we dig deep and do it! And I stand accused - yesterday without my swim trainer I ended my lap swim early (a little boredom crept in, I confess!) fully intending to make it up at my next session. Shame on me, but there it is - thank goodness I'm human!

2. Not having a plan. If you were planning a trip to California from Rhode Island you wouldn't just gas up the car and start driving. You'd probably eventually get there but it would take a lot more time, energy and money than if you had a roadmap and itinerary. This is especially true for fitness goals. Do you know what you need to do to get the results you want? How often/how long and what kind of workout is best for you? What to eat and when? What's your goal? Weight loss, muscle gain, cardio endurance or just getting off the couch on a regular basis? There are very specific (and simple) ways to get there. The same is true for eating healthy or organizing your home. With a plan your actions become very clear and focused. You save time, energy, and money because you know what to do and how to do it!

3. Lack of time. This is one of the most oft repeated excuses I hear, and I know it's a real one. We're more time crunched now than at any other time in history. That said, we can't use it as an excuse because we're not going to get any more than 24 hours in a day anytime soon. The good news is - small steps yield big results and things like getting organized and committing to a fitness program don't need to take longer than 30 minutes a day. In fact, as far as workouts are concerned an inverse relationship exists: the longer you work out the lower the intensity has to be to enable you to keep going. The higher the intensity, the shorter the work out - but you get great benefits because you burn more!

4. Lack of consistency. Of the 4, I think this is the biggest frustrator and dream dissolver. And again, I plead guilty here! Let me give you an example. You decide (right now) that you want to get in shape for the summer. Or you want to clear out the dead weight of winter clutter still lurking in the garage or basement. Great idea. You make your plan and begin with a bang. You work consistently for 2 weeks or a month and achieve a level of success. You feel pretty good about that so then you take a little break. Soon you've fallen off your commitment wagon a few more times and then you start to lose momentum. Maybe the weight starts to creep back, the clutter piles you didn't quite finish begin to spread. . .Or maybe you've set a 3 month goal for yourself and by the end of that time you don't see the results you had hoped for and you get discouraged and give up.

Remember - if you're not consistent, you're non-existent. Lack of consistency will steal your joy. You don't deserve that!

The cost of disorganization is high. For instance?
•late fees on bills and credit card payments
•poor credit rating for late payments
•overnight fees for mailing time-sensitive information
•loss of early bird discounts
•time & money wasted on upkeep and maintenance of unnecessary stuff
•storage unit costs
•loss of non-convertible living space
•time & money wasted looking for or replacing misplaced items
•stress-related health issues

A recession is already a stressful time requiring more attention than usual to lessen the cost of disorganization and poor health fallout. The best part is it's totally preventable! Read the following 5 tips to see how.

#1: Think Lean: Cutting Financial Costs
It takes time to review your finances, it's tedious and no one wants to do it. It also takes a lot of organizing skills just to find and sort through papers, plan and schedule the related tasks.

It took me a few hours to find hardcopies or backup of all the financial information I wanted to review, putting it into a format I could make sense of and then implementing the cost cuts and adjustments I wanted to make. But after I finished I felt great and I succeeded in: cutting my car insurance by 30%, adjusting client billing rates, cancelling two recurring charges on my credit card, getting a better deal on my phone and internet service, buying cheaper health insurance, and narrowing my marketing plans. I'll save over $1,000.00 a year.

So getting lean is well worth the effort. If you'd like to give it a try, but don't know how to get started, contact me for a consultation on setting up a simple profile you can manage yourself.

#2: Think Thrift
What do you already have that you can use rather than buy new?
But wait! That doesn't mean go overboard by saving all your stuff unnecessarily - "just in case." During a recession you might need your living space more than you need your stuff. You may want to convert a spare bedroom, basement or garage into a home office or space for a renter. So thin out that unnecessary stuff by continuing to recycle and resell even if you reuse and repurpose.

For example - what do you do with those super old textbooks and encyclopedias from the 70's that ebay doesn't want, the library doesn't want and even freecycle.com turns down? Donate them to a large charity like the Salvation Army. They will donate the books to a recycler who assures that the entire book gets ground up. The books are recycled into cardboard and other low grade paper and not dumped in the landfill. The books are re-born into something useful, and everybody wins!

#3: Don't Freeze - Focus!
Getting focused is largely about what you choose not to do, rather than what you choose to do. It's a matter of setting aside other work or projects to concentrate on a priority, a kind of temporary clearing the deck of distractions so you can reach a goal. Getting focused is how we get things done. During a recession, there can be more things to get done than usual. Watching our money, making repairs rather than buying new, shopping with coupons - it all takes time. And sometimes the sheer volume of what we have to do makes us freeze right in our tracks.

#4: Health is Wealth now more than ever.
Stress over economic concerns and job worries wreaks havoc with your immune system and your health in general. Fast food sales skyrocket during these times as people (mistakenly) believe they are saving money and getting more bang for their buck. Eating cleanly and well does not have to be expensive. If you can't afford the health club or are cutting back, you can create a home gym for almost nothing and still get a fantastic workout in 30 minutes contact me to find out how. And walking - one of the best exercises in the world - is free. There are lots of hills in the Seattle area to help you firm up your quads and glutes in no time! Now more than ever you need to put yourself at the top of your own list!

#5: Get Closure and Just Do it.
Projects that never get completed and constant barrage of more and more tasks to do can really take their toll on you. I'm a big fan of closure. That means that if you take on a new volunteer obligation, finish the work on an old one and close it down. Closure also means be real about your daily to-do list. Why torture yourself with a long list you can't realistically accomplish? Instead of 30 items, put 20 on there and finish/complete/bring to closure 15 of them. Now, that's a good day!

Part of what generates our bottomless to-do list is the fact that we are "always on". Besides email, cell phones, and text messages, there is now Facebook, MySpace and Twitter generating more contact, more communication, and more action. "Always On" has its place and a huge positive side. But it can mean that your day swells up with even more things to do. If you're challenged to be productive now, adding more can put you over the top, physically and emotionally. Be smart about how you handle yourself. Remember, "Just because you can doesn't mean you should."