Fitness Motivator, November 15, 2002 Volume 2, Issue 12

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Welcome to all our new subscribers, and I extend my appreciation to everyone who forwards this newsletter to friends. One friend telling another is how we grow, and I deeply appreciate your support. If you know anyone who might like it, please forward this newsletter to them or send them this link: http://www.FitnessMotivatorNewsletter.com

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As we start into our holiday season, I know we will have some holiday challenges to contend with, but I feel that with the right attitude, knowledge and making the right choices, we can make it to the new year without backsliding.

Not only can we come through it without gaining weight or losing ground in our exercise program, but also we can actually make headway.

What are your fitness goals? Do you know that you can achieve them? Whatever you envision, you can make a reality.

I challenge each of you to stick with your goals and your dreams for the future. Don't find excuses because of the holidays stress, and the parties that seem to last a couple of months cause you to fail. Give yourself and your loved ones the gift of caring for yourself. Good health and fitness is the greatest gift you can give yourself.

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" Nothing can stop the man with the right mental attitude from achieving his goal ; nothing on earth can help the man with the wrong mental attitude "

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Losing Weight: Seeing Results with Weight Loss and Exercising

Are you seeing and achieving the results you want? I often hear people say they've been following a diet and exercising, yet their weight doesn't always appear to be reducing.

When I'm working with people who want to lose weight and become fitter, one of the reasons I've found to account for this is that their approach is sporadic. They may start a strict diet, give up after a couple of weeks, then start another, perhaps a different one.

A certain event, maybe Christmas or a holiday often sets this cycle off again and afterwards they stop the diet.

These typical examples reveal how being sporadic in your approach to your health leads to you being half-hearted. Do you join a gym and then give it up or are you still paying for it, yet not even going? Are you eating meals regularly? Are your eating habits irregular? Do you skip meals sometimes, mostly breakfast?

The way to achieve the results that you're looking for is to be consistent. Being consistent means choosing a regular exercise and eating plan and committing to it. This needs to fit in totally with your life and needs to be continued, even after you've started seeing some results.

Developing a regular exercise and eating plan, and following it consistently will allow you to lead a healthier life.

Being healthy is something which needs to be approached consistently and when you're being sporadic in your approach you're unlikely to achieve the results you want. Many people are haphazard in their approach, particularly with regard to weight loss.

If you've been sporadic you're very normal but there are ways that you can change to make you more consistent.

Look at the reasons you're being sporadic and deal with them. Perhaps you need to write some of this down to enable you to explore more fully what's going on. There are a number of ways that you can become more consistent with your weight loss.

One way is to make it an integral part of every day and not something that has to be fitted in if you have time. You can make a plan for your eating and exercise. Look at all parts of this plan to schedule the time you need to devote to it in your life.

If there are times when you're being sporadic, don't give yourself a hard time; instead, celebrate the time that you achieve consistency. This will help you to build momentum, which will in turn enable you to feel more motivated to continue.

I've found that being sporadic often occurs when you may be taking on too much. Perhaps, when you first started exercising you committed to doing too much and too often. This becomes difficult to maintain and may lead to you giving up.

I would suggest that you commit to an eating and exercising plan that is achievable on a consistent basis. For instance, decide to exercise once a week and stick at it, rather than committing to six times a week initially and then giving up.

You can always build on this weekly exercising once it has become a consistent habit. Being consistent in your actions will bring you consistent results.

What do you need to be doing on a regular basis to achieve weight loss and health for yourself?

Wendy Hearn
Weight Loss Success Coach

Author of "What's Eating You? - The Top 10 Things That Stop YOU
From Losing Weight" http://www.PositiveWeightLoss.com
Free sample chapters, send a blank email to:
mailto:whateatart@wendyhearn.par32.com
Wendy works with people who want to successfully lose weight.
http://www.WeightLossCoaching.com

Back to Table Of Contents

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"Whatever course you have chosen for yourself, it will not be a chore but an adventure if you bring to it a sense of the glory of striving, if your sights are set far above the merely secure and mediocre."

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Marla prided herself on her rigorous routine, running five miles daily. When she reached her early thirties she started to feel exhausted, couldn't sleep at night, and discovered that her skin was showing signs of aging.

Marla was exercising too much for her health. After consulting an ayurvedic physician, she started an exercise program that was more in line with her Vata body type. Today she sleeps through the night and has recovered her stamina, strength, and youthful skin.

Exercise has been an important part of the ayurvedic routine for thousands of years before it became a modern fad. "Exercise gets rid of heaviness and stiffness of the body because it burns ama (digestive impurities) and creates more flexibility, lightness smoothness and easiness," says Vaidya Rama Kant Mishra, director of product development at Maharishi Ayurveda Products International.

Other benefits include enhanced firmness, endurance, and ability to do work. It pacifies all three doshas and creates balance when suitable for the body type and season. It enhances the digestion, and if done properly, it dissolves impurities in the tissues. Exercise enhances immunity and capacity for food. It banishes fatigue, stops early aging, and retards weight gain.

But too much exercise can be damaging. "Fatigue, lack of glow in the skin and face, Pitta and Vata aggravation, and strain on the respiratory and cardiovascular systems result from too much exercise," says Vaidya Mishra. Modern research confirms that too much exercise can create free radicals and damage the body. Excess free radicals have been linked to over 80% of degenerative disease as well as premature aging. "According to Maharishi Ayurveda, you should not use more than 50 percent of your total capacity," says Vaidya Mishra. "And that capacity depends on daily fluctuations of energy, change of the seasons, age, and body type." This is the ayurvedic principle of balaardh - using half your capacity and conserving the other half. Exercising beyond one's capacity can create imbalance in mind and body, and do more harm than good from the ayurvedic perspective.

Vata types need less exercise, so lighter activities such as walking are best. Pitta types need moderate amounts, swimming and skiing, for example, and Kapha types need more intense exercise, such as jogging and aerobics, in order to stay in balance. The seasons follow another pattern: if you want to increase your exercise, winter and spring are the best times. In hot weather, you need to decrease exertion and stay out of the hot sun. As for age, children have more capacity for exercise and older people need less, although daily exercise is essential at any age.

How do you know if you're doing the right amount of exercise? As long as you feel energized and blissful, you are not going beyond what your physiology can sustain. If you feel strained and exhausted, you're doing too much. You can continue to exercise until you notice one of the following two signs of overexertion:

1. Difficulty breathing through the nose. If you have to open your mouth to gulp in air, that's a sign that your heart is overexerted, the circulation system is taxed, and the coordination of heart and lungs is disturbed. Stop immediately.

2. Sweating on forehead or tip of nose. It's fine to sweat elsewhere in the body, but when you notice sweat in these two places, it's a sign that you are overexerted and should stop. If you're not exerting enough, you can exercise for a longer period or with more intensity. You could start with a walk, but each day you could increase the intensity of exercise (by walking faster). Or you could walk for a longer time (increasing the duration). Start out slowly and gradually increase the intensity and time. Stop when you note signs of overexertion. Yoga asanas are the ideal form of exercise for all body types and ages, because they balance the three doshas, tone the muscles, and rejuvenate all the organs in the body. Pranayam, or breathing exercises, are also good for restoring balance to mind and body. You can take a course at a Maharishi Vedic Center to find out how to do them properly.

To increase endurance, eat more sweet, juicy fruits, and more proteins such as milk, paneer (a fresh cheese), soaked almonds and cashews. Make sure your bowel movements are regular, and if not, incorporate more cooked prunes, figs and raisins in your diet.

Exercise every day, as part of your regular daily routine. If possible, exercise in the morning before 10:00, as your body has more strength, stamina, and coordination during the Kapha time of day. Exercising at this time also energizes you, preparing you for the day ahead. Exercising in the late evening or towards bedtime is not recommended, as it can elevate body temperatures and disrupt sleep rhythms. A light walk in the evening is fine. Also avoid exercise from 10a.m. to 2p.m., the Pitta time of day when the digestive fires are burning high and it is time to eat the main meal of the day.

It's not a good idea to exercise on a full stomach, nor is it good to exert yourself if your stomach is empty. Wait about two hours after a full meal. Have a light snack of fruit juice, a cooked apple, or some kind of soupy, warming food before exercising and eat your full breakfast afterwards.

Note : This ayurvedic information is educational and is not intended to replace standard medical care or advice. Copyright MAPI, 2002.

For more information on Ayurveda or to subscribe to free newsletters, plaese visit http://www.mapi.com

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"Decide what you want, decide what you are willing to exchange it for. Establish your priorities and go to work "

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If you want to reach your full potential, you're going to have to step out of your comfort zone. What's a comfort zone? In her article, "Getting Unstuck When You're in a Rut," personal and business coach (http://www.instacoach.com), Dr. Sharon House, defined comfort zone as "That cozy place we hang out at that's routine, predicable and safe." She further defined it as "a trusted beaten path for us to follow." So, what's so bad about that? Plenty!

Susan Pilgrim, Ph.D. says in her article "Leaving The Comfort Zone (AKA the Danger Zone)," "The comfort zone can become a danger zone. When we continue to function on a daily basis the same way we have over time, our thinking becomes rigid. We can see things from only one perspective and we forget there are many ways of looking at the same situation." She goes on to explain that thinking only one way causes our creativity to be inhibited. "Literal plasticized ruts in the brain are created. Parts of the brain eventually die when they're not used over time. Thinking and doing differently create new neural pathways that can keep the brain functioning at an optimal level," she says.

I'm sure you're aware that wanting to make changes in your life is easier said than done. This is especially true if your life is not what you want it to be. It is easier to think of yourself in the way you've always been. A good example is my husband, Dave. Dave has 15 years of commercial insurance experience and has worked in both the agency side and company side. He doesn't particularly like it, though.

As I have taken steps to finally do the work I've always wanted, I've asked Dave what kind of work he would do if he could do anything he wanted. Each time I've asked Dave this question, I've gotten different answers: historical writing, photography, raise exotic birds. Not once has he answered commercial insurance. When I asked him why he won't start doing what he would rather do, he'd say, "I know insurance!" And I'd say, "So what? You can learn something else." But Dave was in his comfort zone.

Dr. Sharon House continues in her article quoted earlier, "Often what we call procrastination, a lack of motivation or boredom is really just being trapped in the shell of our own comfort zone. Like a turtle, we pull inside and stop moving. Stop growing. Stop seeking. We rationalize our position with excuses and justifications and put a limit on it. We lock it up with a 'guarantee' that consists of two extremely powerful words: 'I can't.'

"We paint ourselves into a corner with our fears and inhibitions. We resist change. We avoid risk. Our senses dull. We may feel as if we are suffocating. We notice the dull ache of emptiness. We feel paralyzed by our fears, real or imagined! Pretty soon, living inside the safety and comfort of our shell, devoid of challenge or change, becomes a habit just like brushing our teeth in the morning or tying our shoes. Easy, effortless, familiar! We've retired from the excitement and challenge that purposeful living offers. Our comfort zone has become our liability zone!"

If you recognize that you are in your comfort zone and you want to get out of it, how do you do that?

*Drive to and from work a different way. *Rearrange your furniture *Change your hairstyle *Update your wardrobe *Learn a foreign language.

Next, if you want to make bigger changes like a career or move to another state/country, use visualization techniques. See yourself doing what you want and being where you want. What you think about you bring about.

Lastly, recognize that fear is the greatest threat to us, according to Brian Tracy. In his book, "Maximum Achievement" he states that before age six we are all programmed with the fear of failure and the fear of rejection. "These fears usually set the upper and lower limits of your comfort zone. Because of them, you do enough not to be criticized or rejected on the low side, and you stay well within your limits so you can avoid risk or failure on the high side. Once you've slipped into your comfort zone, you stay there, attempting to avoid any feeling of fear or anxiety. Your fears hold you back from most of what is possible for you."

Mr. Tracy goes on to say that the opposite of fear is love, beginning with self-love, or self-esteem, and that is the way out. "There is an inverse or opposite relationship between self-esteem and fears of all kinds. The more you like yourself, the less you fear failure and rejection. The more you like yourself, the more willing you are to reach out and take the risks that will lead you on to success and happiness. The more you like yourself, the more willing you are to take the actions that propel you out of your comfort zone and toward the achievement of your real goals and desires."

To begin liking yourself or increasing your self- esteem, Mr. Tracy suggests repeating, "I like myself" (or "I love myself") 50 to 100 times a day until these words penetrate your subconscious. I have used this technique for many years and it works! If you use it consistently, you will quickly see and feel differently about yourself and notice an improvement in your relationship with others.

I'm very happy to say that Dave has stepped out of his comfort zone and has enrolled in the Travel Writing Course of the American Writers & Artists Institute. If you're interested in their travel writing and other writing courses, their web site address is: http://www.awaionline.com/main.html.

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"Go confidently in the direction of your dreams. Live the life you've imagined."

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" Vision without action is a daydream. Action without vision is a nightmare "

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"It is wise to keep in mind that neither success nor failure is ever final."

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Check out our the facelift that our Exercise Your Willpower website has gotten. If you need more motivation and some group support, feel free to subscribe to the Exercise Your Willpower mailing list. To get more information, visit our website at: http://www.exerciseyourwillpower.com

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