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I was just reading about the winner of Biggest Loser Season 3 gaining back more than 1/2 of what he lost during the show. There was a survey question asking if it was a surprise! Nope, no surprise….I think studies actually show that only about 5% of people actually keep off the weight that they lose. Why??
If we look at weight loss as a “diet” we are dooming ourselves to failure. Weightloss needs to be considered a lifestyle change. Eating habits need to be maintained after the weight is lost. Of course, you will be able to occasionally splurge, but as a general rule, you will need to stick to your good eating habits.
Exercise is another thing that folks tend to do while they are “dieting”, then let it drop as soon as they get to their goal. This won’t work! You may not need to keep up the schedule that you were using while you were losing the weight, but you will still need to exercise.
I am sitting in the hospital waiting room right now, while my husband has surgery on his shoulder. There is an eating establishment in the lobby of the clinic that sells doughnuts! How can a clinic rationalize serving doughnuts? Here I am, at a place that is suppose to be promoting health, and I had to bring my own food in my bag!
We need to start looking at weight loss not as a short term project, but as a long term plan. We need to improve our diet, incorporating more whole foods and nearly eliminating processed foods. We need to incorporate movement into every day, whether it be a structured class or a brisk walk. We need to park our cars, get out our walking shoes, pack a banana and walnuts in our bag and go!
We need to identify those emotional challenges that are keeping us from either losing the weight initially, or that allows us to gain it back after going to the hard work of losing it. What kind of help do you need? Do you need an eating plan set up? Do you need an exercise plan laid out? Do you need guidance on stress reduction, breathwork and meditation? If you do, please let me know! I would love to help you on your lifelong path to fitness, wellness and peace…. Email me at simplicityquest@gmail.com or take a peek at one of my websites www.yogafitnesswellness.com or www.paths-to-fitness.com My goal is to help you FEEL better, which will ultimately help you to LOOK better for the rest of your life!
Have a great Monday!
YogaJen
The other day, a group of friends and I met for wine, cheese and salad. We were just sitting around drinking wine, talking and the topic came up ” What makes you light up? What is it that when you are doing it, you are so excited you can hardly stand it.”
One friend immediately started talking about astronomy and how when she was in a planetarium, or writing about the stars, she lit up. You could see it! Her eyes grew larger and lighter just with the mention of astronomy.
I started to talk about teaching yoga, teaching my course on E-Bay buying and selling, or just teaching anything! When I started the discussion, I could feel myself get excited, get happy and totally LIGHT UP! I also light up when I write, write about anything! I get the most excited now when I talk to folks about yoga or fitness, or have the opportunity to put down on paper ways to get fit, healthy or lose weight. I want to help people, and at the same time I help myself, because it makes me happy!
One friend, when asked the question said “I don’t know, nothing I guess”. When we let our work consume us, especially if it is work that we are not particularily happy about, but that we do because we have to, we lose our spark. We lose the light that we had when we were little and were doing that thing that lights us up.
How can we get it back? Ask yourself a question…”when I was a little kid, what made me the happiest? What was I doing when time flew by?” If you still can’t remember, try a brief meditation, letting yourself go back to that time, when you were a child and totally be there, visualizing the best time of your life.
Did you like to dance? Did you beg your mom for dance lessons and then dance around the house all the time? Did you enjoy playing school with whoever you could find as students? Maybe you lined up all of your dolls and stuffed animals as your students and stood in front of them “teaching them to read”. Maybe you were outside, pounding nail after nail into boards in your yard or garage.
Did you spend hours reading books or writing stories? Maybe you swam lap after lap in the pool, or wandered the woods looking for wildlife or that really cool leaf.
Find what lights you up! Figure out a way to make it part of every day of your being. Working all day and maintaining a household all night, can make that spark completely go out. But what is life without the fun part?
Get back to the instrument you haven’t played in years, sign up for a dance class, teach a course for community education, take a walk in the woods, pound nails in the board (oh, maybe you could build a birdhouse and sell it??). Find your light and figure out a way to fit it in everyday! By finding your light, your passion, you can find fulfillment in your life, happiness in your day, and maybe even develop a plan to make your passion your livelihood. Wouldn’t it be great to spend your days doing what you love??
Peace and Happiness….
yogajen
I haven’t been in the water since high school. I never liked water in my eyes or nose, and that seems to happen quite frequently in the pool.
We signed up for a triathlon in June, and part of that involves swimming. Dan, Kasha and I signed up for swimming lessons so that we could learn better stroke technique. We learned tonight how to get our faces lower in the water, thus saving the strength of our legs for the biking and running.
It was a challenge to let my face go into the water, then turn to the right when the arm came over the head and take a breath. Water in the nose, water in the throat, coughing…hmmm…
It began to get easier and easier as we progressed through the lesson, but still a challenge to get the nose and mouth completely out of the water before taking the breath. Luckily, yoga has helped me with breath control, so I am able to get through several strokes before needing to take a breath, which is helpful…less chances to get water in my nose!
Today, I found out that the studio would be able to offer a discount on the triathlon fee for my students! Have you always wanted to attempt a tri?? Visit the website at www.yogafitnesswellness.com and send me an email! I can hook you up with the discount code if you come for classes with me!! See the schedule there, pick a class and take a discount on yoga classes too!!
Email me at simplicityquest@gmail.com and find out more about triathlon training, getting fit and healthy!
Are you ready to tri???
yogajen
Cool site I found this morning where you can put your events!! See the yoga schedule at
Have a great Friday!!
There has been alot of research and experimenting done with resistance training and how great it is for building muscle and speeding up metabolism.
The problem I have always had, is that I HATE lifting weights! It has always proved to be boring and monotonous, and I haven’t been able to stick with it for long.
Recently, I had discovered a yoga class that incorporated weights, and I LOVED IT! I started to teach a class called YogaSculpt that is becoming quite popular. It is essentially a power yoga class which incorporates resistance training, using moderate weights at a slow pace to failure.
I enjoy teaching the class, although I tire out and it is hard to talk throught the whole thing! Those who attend enjoy the variety as well. We do a sun salutation followed by a resistance exercise and go back and forth between them.
If you don’t live in Winona, but are interested in YogaSculpt, let me know. I have thought about recording a video, and I think I just need a little encouragement. If you would like to see how the class goes, let me know and maybe I can put it on video for you!!
Have a great day!
Yogajen
p.s.- eating has been going ok, but I am thinking about doing a vegan week coming up to kick start my metabolism. I had my thyroid checked this week and it borders on the low end of normal, so I am going to research some natural ways to help with that, but think a nice vegan cleanse will do it good as well…..
Sunday started out as any other Sunday…eating omelets and watching CBS Sunday morning. Then my husband announced that he thought he might have broke his collarbone skiing on Saturday night, and we might have to go to the Urgent Care clinic.
Off we went, to find out that he had shattered it into more than a few pieces. Pain meds, no running and an inability to do anything requiring 2 hands will cause quite a stir at our house!
Today, we are off to the orthopedic surgeon to see if surgery will be necessary to repair the break, or if they will just let it heal on its own. Either way, there will be weeks of little physical activity, which will be a challenge for a guy used to running 30 miles a week.
The other issue is, that running keeps him happy and sane. We will pick up a recumbent bike, sit it in the living room and he will ride it for hours at a time I am sure.
I think to the possibility of not being able to teach yoga. If something like this happened to me, I would be unable to do the thing that keeps me happy and sane. As I look at possibly cutting something out of my day to make more time to do the things Dan was taking care of such as shoveling, dishes and washing clothes, I have determined that I will need to cut hours at my job, not cut out my physical activity time.
Why do I say that? We need to make sure that we take care of ourselves FIRST so that we are better able to take care of others. Me, without yoga, walking and other physical activity wouldn’t be good for anyone. I often hear young moms say that they don’t have time to workout or take a yoga class. I didn’t when my kids were young, and I look back and think what a better mom I would have been if I had taken that time for myself. It is my opinion that young moms don’t have time NOT to give to themselves in either a walk or a yoga class EVERY DAY!
So, as I reassess how things will need to look over the next month or so, I think I need to cut back somewhere, and work is where that will be…
Have a great Monday!
yogajen
Some days just work out perfectly. You feel good, you have the time, and things just fall into place. Today was one of those days.
I needed to meet a guy at the yoga studio who was installing a new stereo system for me. I had decided that I would do Chalean Extreme Burn Circuit 2 this morning before I left the house. After Bill got done installing the stereo, I pulled out my portable dvd player and popped in Chalean.
This DVD was awesome as they all are. In this program, Chalean works with heavy weights. The intent is to lift a weight heavy enough that you reach failure by between 10 and 12 reps. I managed to get to to about 10 reps on each of the exercises today, and had gone to between 7.5 and 12.5 lbs on virtually all of them!
When I finished this DVD, I decided to do Debbie Siebers, 6-Minute Abs. Debbie is another trainer who has programs with BeachBody. Her programs include Slim in 6 and Slim Series. So I finished the 6 minute ab DVD, and still had a bit of energy left, so I decided to finish off with a little Tony.
Tony is hard to explain. He is awesome, and totally keeps you engaged. I love P90, but then P90X came out, and totally blew my away!! So, now he has come out with this series called One-on-One, which are DVD’s that look like they were filmed in his basement (are they??). SO, anyway, I finished off the morning with Tony Horton One-on-One, YOGA!! It was phenomenal!! A little over 40 minutes of a slow paced vinyasa flow yoga in a style that only Tony can pull off!
So, overall, I finished CHALEAN EXTREME, BURN CIRCUIT 2, 6-MINUTE ABS, and ONE-On-ONE YOGA with Tony. It was awesome.
Eating was another good experience today!
(b)- protein shake (L) salmon and salad (s) buckwheat waffle with sunflower butter (d) turkey burger and salad
I might squeeze in a snack yet before bed, but overall this was a great day! Why was it so great? I attribute it to a couple of things.
1) I was able to sleep until I was ready to get up.
2) I didn’t have to work today
So what does that mean? I am much better off on days when I can plan my schedule, fit fitness in at the time of day that is best for me, and eat when I am hungry!
Hoping for a Sunday that is just as good!
yogajen
I have been parusing the internet for a long time looking for a program that is personalized to each individual. Most of the sites I see ask you a few questions and then spit out what they call a personalized plan, but it is really just a canned plan from their arsenal of plans based on those few questions.
I have tried many of these plans, and they don’t keep me accountable, due to the fact that I have to sign in to them, and log my information. Most of us need a little more nudging and encouragement than that! We also need more personalized attention fitness wise, so we don’t try to do a workout that is too difficult. This can discourage us right away!
I don’t recall one asking if I was a vegetarian, vegan or if I had a gluten intolerance. I also don’t recall them asking if I had any food allergies.
Physical limitations was something else that was missing. Some of them would ask if you were sedentary or not based on your job, but I was never asked if I had recent surgery or a hip replacement.
Fitness and eating plans need to be personalized. Many folks don’t want to go to a gym, and some personal trainers are not up on the latest research, yet you pay huge hourly fees to have them help you with a plan.
Would you like to have a plan put together personally for you, that you can do at home, and that will grow with you as you progress? Would you like to get a video made just for you, with several workouts and directions, that is modified as you need more challenge? How about an eating plan that you can follow, that is simple foods, found at your local grocer!
This plan would include the video, a weekly meal plan, a workout plan, email support and daily inspiration and assistance.
It all starts with an email to me at simplicityquest@gmail.com Please include your name and phone number. I will forward you the first step, which is a questionaire. This will be followed by a personal phone call to discuss your needs. Within a few days, you will receive your meal plan and within one week, you will receive your personalized fitness program, complete with a video created just for you! We will work on yoga, resistance training and aerobic activity, mixing it up to best suit your needs. There will be the right modifications so that you can DO the program, and not feel overwhelmed.
There will be daily inspirations to help guide you on your path to fitness and wellness!
The cost for this is $149 for the initial consultation, meal plan and video (delivered via email), followed by a monthly fee of $39, which includes meal plan updates, email support, daily inspiration and being held accountable! It will also include periodic updates to your video to help you to keep progressing!
The only other items you may need to purchase would be a yoga mat, some handweights or resistance bands, a plain journal and your groceries!
Make 2009 the year you commit to making your life and yourself what you want it to be!! Let me help you personally find health, fitness and peace….
Have a great Friday!
YogaJen
It is amazing what a difference stress can make in your eating habits. I stayed on task today, but it was a challenge. I had stressful day due to new software and having to wait to have updates and changes done.
I try to not let it affect me, yoga breathing you know, but it still gets the better of me some days. It is also true that it is harder to lose weight when you are stressed. I think that may be a big influence on the obesity problem in our country. I find that when I am stressed, even if I eat well and exercise, I still have a hard time losing any weight.
Stay the course, no matter how hard the challenge! We start swimming lessons tomorrow and that is the beginning of our spring race training. We are already signed up for a triathlon in June and plan to do a variety of races while we are on vacation this summer.
So today, I ate well and I exercised, even with the stress at work, so we will see how it reflects on the scale!
Eating:
(b) Protein Shake (s) yogurt and cashews/macadamias (L) scrambled eggs with tomatoes and parmesan cheese (s) cashews/macadamias (d) Buffalo chicken salad at Subway with a little Ranch dressing (dipped my fork in it) and mozzarella cheese.
Yoga 75 minutes of mixed class…power/relax
Off to take a nice hot bath, but on my jammies and read a book for an hour…..back to the chaos tomorrow….
yogajen
