Posts Tagged ‘exercise’

Wednesday Wellness: Stay Healthy During the Holidays

By Tammy Parkinson | November 16th, 2011 0 Comments

The Holidays bring about many temptations and challenges, but also a lot of fun and love.

Sit down, take a moment and absorb some suggestions (below) which might help you stay healthy over the next month and a half: (can you believe Christmas is almost a month away?!)

  1. The “Holidays” consist of 3 days from here forward…Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Years Eve! Just 3 days!!
  2. Remember one very important “tip” before heading out to a holiday party with all the rich foods, desserts, and drinks – EAT before you go! Yes, EAT! That way you will have the chance to have something healthy and when you get to the party – you won’t be so quick to devour a plate of goodies.
  3. Sugars, fats, and sodium do more damage than just add calories to your figure – they cause fatigue, headaches, stomach upset and bloating. Remember, you will pay dearly afterwards.
  4. Find a “Holiday Buddy” who will agree to eat sensibly with you over the holidays. Challenge each other and hold each other accountable. Join our “no sweets during the Holidays club” or find a nutritional accountability coach. I know a good one!
  5. Keep track of what you eat in a food journal. A journal also holds you accountable and you won’t be so likely to cheat if you know you must document it. You can also share this with your Holiday Buddy via text or email.
  6. Be proactive – think ahead to how another 5 – 10 pounds (or more) will look on your figure by the time the holidays are over. Is that what you really want? Maybe it wouldn’t be so unrealistic to actually be in better shape come January!
  7. Treat yourself to a new outfit on January 7th – as long as you haven’t gained any weight between Christmas and New Years. If you are on a budget, pull out an outfit you have right now which you love and fits snug. Have that as your goal for January 7th!

Exercise

Do you want to know what the real trick is to starting and staying on an exercise plan? It’s not only the actual exercising – it’s the thinking, planning, feeling, and preparing.

  1. Sometimes we do things out of obligation, guilt, peer pressure, etc. If you really want to begin an exercise program you must feel committed, know you’re ready, plan, and prepare for a permanent change.
  2. Know that exercise (and nutrition) needs to be a permanent lifestyle change. Our bodies aren’t made to be sedentary – they need to move. Daily! Meaning, exercise must be consistent and forever. An understanding of this will set your mental stage and you’ll have a better chance of success.
  3. Buddy up with someone (friend, coworker, personal trainer) who can support and motivate you. This person should also hold you accountable.
  4. Know what you’re doing when it comes to exercise. There are many different methods, programs, and techniques for exercise. Plan out your strategy before you begin a program.
  5. Plan out your workout schedule (days, times, length, etc.)
  6. Organize your gym clothes, set the alarm, have an alternate plan in case of rain, etc. The more organized you are – the less chance you’ll have of making excuses NOT to workout.
  7. Plan an exercise program you’ll enjoy. If it’s a chore – forget it. If you don’t think any exercise is fun – that’s just plain negative thinking! This might be the time to think about getting a personal trainer just for the Holidays!
  8. Be prepared to chart your progress – because you will see progress! Charting it will help keep you motivated.

Have a blast. Enjoy family, friends, and festivities and make the Holidays about the experiences vs. the food!

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Thoughts on Leadership: Take your MEDS and become an effective leader

By Gino Blefari | January 20th, 2011 0 Comments

The constant pressure to perform and stress of solving difficult problems is part of a leader’s role. It can be easy to let these factors weigh on your personal health, but it’s crucial to be on top of your game and productive at all times. Poor nutrition and poor sleep habits are ineffective coping strategies.

Take time to slow down and you’ll find that this peaceful state of mind contributes to more effective leadership. To think or reflect, especially in a calm and deliberate manner is the kind of meditation that Buddha, Jesus Christ and Mahatma Gandhi engaged in to train, calm and empty the mind. Recent brain research shows that M-E-D-S – meditation, exercise, diet and sleep – can actually improve performance. “MEDS” aren’t just actions you perform occasionally, but part of your daily life.

As the empowering life coach, author, trainer and inspirational speaker Matthew Ferry explains: “It’s hard to be happy when you’re not healthy. When you are feeling physically down, it’s difficult to experience happiness. It takes a tremendous amount of work. And so, what I recommend for people to be happy is to take their MEDS. MEDS is an acronym for meditation, exercise, diet, and sleep.”

Here’s what we mean by MEDS for great leaders:

M: Meditation

One of the main benefits of meditation is that it helps shape who we are and how we interact with others. The biggest misconception about meditation is that our thoughts or ideas just appear in our heads. On the contrary, we choose what we think. It’s simple, if we think something will go wrong or that we will be ineffective, then to each one of us that is true. Now if we think the opposite and think we can be successful, intellectual and powerful, then to each one of us again, this is true. The idea here is that we are what we think about and we become what we think about every day.

E: Exercise

Another strategy for maintaining effective leadership is to exercise regularly. Studies have proven that those who exercise on a daily basis rated significantly higher on overall leadership effectiveness than those who do not exercise. An excellent example of an effective leader who is dedicated to working out every day is Intero’s Chairman Bob Moles. He has worked out every day for over 22 years, 8054 days in a row! Bob’s dedication helps him to lead by example and be more effective at what he does.
 
Routine is extremely important in this regard. In my own life, I work out as well as meditate first thing in the morning. By doing this I tend to keep appointments throughout the day every day. If I were to hold off and work out after work I would not be disciplined in sticking to a routine.

D: Diet

We need to have control over ourselves before we can lead and motivate others. When it comes to diet, the key is finding what works for you. Proper diet and nutrition can significantly enhance energy, which helps you be a better leader. Intero’s COO Tom Tognoli is a great example of someone who controls his diet and maintains these habits each day, making him a distinguishable role model. This kind of self-discipline serves as incredible inspiration to others.

S: Sleep

More sleep tends to contribute to better success in life. It results in fewer mistakes and higher productivity throughout the day. Studies show that those who sleep seven to nine hours per night accomplish more than those who sleep less. If you lack sleep, you are sluggish, easily discouraged and pessimistic. Other people sense this. On the other hand, a good night’s sleep will give you energy and an upbeat and optimistic outlook. This will affect your team positively.

Make it a daily thing

Great leaders know that MEDS is key and needs to be followed every day. Those who follow this habit tend to have lasting impact, pushing their teams to success time after time.

Sounds pretty simple, right? Meditation, exercise, diet and sleep will make you mindful of your daily performance and you will no doubt become a more effective and superior leader in your business.

Special thanks to Matthew Ferry for the tip on MEDS! Taking our MEDS is most definitely a major ingredient for creating success.

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Wednesday Wellness: Put money in the bank

By Tammy Parkinson | October 13th, 2010 0 Comments

Tomorrow I’ll do it!

Next week I’ll get started!

As soon as the kids get settled, I can devote my time to my health!

When I get back from vacation…

There are a bazillion other excuses of why we put our health on “hold”.  Our intentions are honorable, but we always think we have “tomorrow” to start!

What IF you are holding off until “tomorrow” and you get in a severe accident and all of a sudden, you CAN’T exercise for up to 2 months…at all? Would you be relieved that you “held off” or would you be bummed out that you did NOT start your workout regiment? If you HAD worked out, you’d be in shape, strong and would get through the healing and/or surgery even stronger. You’d be able to balance, use your core and have the heart health to get through injuries easily. If you were “waiting” to start your body would still be out of shape, weak and make the 2 months healing time very challenging and difficult.

Does this sound a little out there? Maybe, but isn’t this like putting money in the bank for a rainy day? Maybe this is like eating healthy so that you don’t get diabetes, or maybe this is similar to training well for a marathon so you don’t get injured, or maybe it’s simply because if you DO get in an accident, you are in rocking shape so you heal fast?

In the past year, I’ve known women who deliver babies, men and women who survived surgeries, men and women who’ve survived car accidents and clients who have overcome diabetes and high cholesterol. Those who came in to these challenging occurrences with strength and health have phenomenal healing scores over those who aren’t taking care of their health.

What to do? How to “put money in the bank” you have to have this as your priority in your life so if tragedy DOES happen, you are prepared and can heal as well as possible because you are prepared.

Trust me; this can make the WORLD of difference 1, 5, 10, 30 years down your road!  What will you do?

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Wednesday Wellness: Runner’s high

By Tammy Parkinson | September 22nd, 2010 0 Comments

Have you ever heard of “runner’s high” or being “in the zone”? Have you ever felt those?
 
When a person starts to run (and I’m talking about my own experience), the feeling of running a mile can be daunting. It feels like you’ve stepped in concrete and blocks of cement have been molded to your tennis shoes. That first mile is brutal; but then after trudging along week after week, ever so committed, 1 mile becomes 3 and 3 becomes 5 (granted, this takes a while). Then something unexpected happens: around mile 4, your feet start to feel light, your gait starts to glide, almost fly and you get “runner’s high”…and it is awesome! 
 

There’s also the experience of working on a project and the momentum to start is heavy. You’ll do just about anything to avoid beginning because it feels like it’s a mountain you just simply don’t think you can climb, but you plot along, building a foundation and after hours, days, weeks, maybe more, you are “in a zone” and you can’t be stopped! 
 
What would happen if the runner stops running at mile 2, would they achieve the runner’s high?
 
How about the worker who starts the project but never finishes, would the job just fizzle?
 
There’s a time in every task, exercise, challenge we might say where it gets really hard. If we stop when it gets hard, we never feel the “juice” of the other side; we never experience the elation of pushing beyond our boundaries. 
 
I know it’s hard, I know it’s uncomfortable; but I also know the “juice” is sweet and worth the effort to bust through the walls. Try to reach beyond the eye of the storm, search out the reward and believe in the glory you will feel if you just go a little further. I don’t mean “just the distance”, I mean to say what it takes to go further than the distance and feel the nectar of going to the other side! You will surprise yourself and it will be worth it!

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Monday Mojo: Act Like You Want It

By Tom Tognoli | September 7th, 2010 0 Comments

If you were the President and CEO of your own company, would YOU pay YOU the kind of money YOU want to make for what YOU did last week?  Would YOU pay YOU what YOU want to make for what YOU are going to do this week?

Everyone wants more, everyone wants a better life, everyone wants to get it faster.  So…what is the difference between those who get what they want, better, faster versus those who don’t? They are in alignment. Their actions each and every day are in alignment with what they want.  And those who don’t get what they want, better, faster are typically all talk. They are not in alignment. They say one thing, but do something completely different.

They want to make a lot of money, but work and act like someone who makes minimum wage.

They want to be fit and healthy, but don’t exercise and eat healthy.  Not only do they not exercise much, but they don’t exercise at all, and not only do they not eat healthy, but they eat like crap.  Fast food, grease, fat, no  fruits and vegetables. They smoke, and drink. Talk about a train wreck waiting to happen.

They want to have a great relationship with their kids, but don’t ever spend quality time with them.  When they are with them they are on the cell phone, computer, watching TV, etc.  Not talking and playing with them, not listening, not going for a bike ride. They tell them “we will do it tomorrow, next week, next month, next year”.  Then, you wake up one day and they are gone, out of the house.

They want to have a great relationship with their spouse, but never spend quality time with him or her. Sure they talk about their bills, the “stuff” they need to do, watch TV in the same room, etc.  But they never actually go on a date and enjoy each other like they once did before the got married, before they had kids. Then before you know it, you don’t know each other anymore and…

It all starts at a very early age.  If we wanted to get A’s in school and not C’s, we had to do the types of things people who get A’s do.  Study our ass off, not wait until the last minute, be disciplined and accountable in our study habits. We had to attend all of our classes and be fully engaged. If we wanted to start on the football team, drill team, chess team – we needed to do and act like a starter.

Well, it does not stop once we graduate high school or college. if we want X, we need to start acting and doing the kinds of things someone who gets X does.

Do you want to know the trick to getting what you want, better, faster? Build a map, then write out detailed right/left directions on how to get where you want to go and then FOLLOW YOUR DIRECTIONS. That map is your plan and the directions is your schedule.  Figure out what it is you need to do (specifically) to get what you want, better, faster. This is your map. Then take that list of stuff and plug it all into your schedule. Don’t just do it for a week or a month, but plug that “stuff” in your schedule for an entire year right up front.  Then when you wake up, open your schedule and DO EXACTLY what it says. Follow the directions. Don’t try a shortcut – remember you spent the time to figure out the detailed directions. The last thing you want to do is get lost trying to take a short cut.  If you make your plan, write out directions, and then follow them NO MATTER WHAT. It will be like magic.  Before you know it you will start getting what you want, better, faster.

So, to get more of what you want, better, faster.  Start acting and doing the things of people who are getting what you want, better, faster.

Make it a GREAT week!

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Wednesday Wellness: Keep Your Eye on the Prize

By Tammy Parkinson | June 2nd, 2010 0 Comments

When you were a kid, did you ever get those cereals which had a prize at the bottom? You know, the secret decoder ring, or the magic whistle? Even if you didn’t really love the cereal, you’d eat through it because of the super cool prize at the bottom!

This is what it’s like with diet and exercise! There’s this super cool prize at the end. You know it’s there, you know you’ll love the results, you just might have to eat a little sawdust along the way (not literally I hope).

The prize at the end of the journey is usually worth it if you keep your focus on the trinket!

Now that summer is (80%) here, get that cereal box out (i.e. exercise clothes) and run, walk, train and lunge your way to the super decoder ring. Nibble your way through carrots, lean proteins, greens and fruit to wear the trinket!

If you don’t rummage, you’re not likely to receive the gift of health at the end!

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Wednesday Wellness: Life Planning

By Tammy Parkinson | May 5th, 2010 0 Comments

Over the past week I have shared this analogy with several of my clients and it “sticks”!

Let’s say you are the family planner and financial budgeter. It’s October and you realize Christmas and property taxes are right around the corner. You know you will be spending quite a bit of money in December. Do you:

a)     Spend like there’s no tomorrow and worry about your credit card balances December 20th, hoping you’ll get a free offer for a new credit card around December 15th?

b)     In October, budget in order to be in the black come December 1st so that when you do need to buy presents you won’t go too far in the red

c)     Don’t worry about it much because you’ve already saved your money last summer and you have enough in the bank in order to safely skate through December without going into a national deficit.

Now let’s say you are going on a big trip with friends and/or family to Italy this summer. There’s wine, pasta, pizza, gelato and pounds to be gained (lots of them).   You are hoping to be in the best shape of your life before you travel to Italy. Do you…

a)     Crash diet 2 weeks before the trip, cleansing, detoxing, fasting and starving so you can have pizza, pasta and gelato (knowing you’ll gain it all back because you’ve only lost water and completely messed up your metabolism)

b)     Start to get in shape a couple of months before the big trip, working on your fitness, watching what you eat and starting to lose a few pounds before your adventure, hoping you can keep it off.

c)      Are already in shape because you planned on being in phenomenal shape several months before the event while at the same time creating lifelong habits of how to travel, what to eat and how to exercise; no matter where you are?   You know that when you get to Italy you will indulge a little but you will feel so great about your health, you won’t feel possessed to eat pizza and gelato like you will never have it again…ever?

Of course in each scenario, best case is “c”, and with “b” you can get by (barely). Unfortunately, so many of us choose “a” in our life, not just with our health and our budget…but everything. We put off what we know we need or want to do because somehow we make ourselves believe in the 11th hour we can always pull it together.

The problem isn’t that we pull it together; it’s that we never plan for what happens in the moment after we dodge the bullet. We stay on this inevitable roller coaster through life and are always living in the 9th inning so to speak.

It is late spring now. Most likely you have something fun planned for later in the summer which involves activities and indulging. Consider starting your spring training early and go into the home stretch already having achieved your goals!

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Wednesday Wellness: Undiscovered Love?

By Tammy Parkinson | April 28th, 2010 0 Comments

This evening I had a conversation with someone about why some of us love to exercise, and others would rather eat hot coals while lying on a bed of nails.  Why is it, she wondered, that it took until she was in her 50’s to find activities that she now (finally) loves?  4 days a week, I might add!

She remembered making a goal at age 39 to run a mile before her 40th birthday (footnote…she started training for the 1 mile goal 6 moths before her birthday).  She hated (I know, a strong word, but the best one to describe how she felt) every single moment of it and put that goal on the shelf well before her 40th.

She remembered trying to lift weights a few years back and swore the clock was jinxed because 20 minutes seemed more like 90.  She couldn’t wait to finish her routine.

Then about a year ago she walked in to a new exercise class (always on a quest to try to find something she could endure because she valued the importance of exercise). Most of the participants in the class were women her age and the class was taught by a fun, high energy “in her 40’s” instructor, who made the session so fun that my “friend” (ok…she’s my sister) instantly fell in love with the class!

What was the difference?  Why now?  For the first time, she was made to feel comfortable, she felt at home, she laughed and wasn’t intimidated.  The guidance of the instructor made all the difference for my sister.  It was a Zumba class and the music was her style, the participants were her age and dancing was something she immediately connected with.

She took me to this class (in Washington) and I could see why she was having so much fun!  We then took a hot flow yoga class, something I literally begged her to do with me.  This class was also taught by Carole, the Zumba instructor, and to my utter shock my sister has been doing yoga now twice a week for 5 months…she loves it!

The connection?  She felt “at home”.  She felt comfortable and welcome.  She felt she could do well and enjoy herself.  It wasn’t so much that she was “exercising”… she was having fun, sweating and feeling successful!

I started thinking about this and wondered how many non exercisers could actually fall in love with an activity if they felt at home, not intimidated and could laugh with others and at themselves.  Of course Body Firm offers this, but for those of you outside of the Bay Area, look around, I bet there are studios, gyms and groups who care as much as we do and as much as Carole does!

Could this be you?  Could you have something deep inside which just hasn’t been uncovered?  Don’t quit; my sister never did, just keep trying to find that place where you can let go a little and feel good.  There are so many options, so many places to go!  Ask others, try new things, laugh and see if you can find a place where you will eventually look forward towards adding to your schedule!  Maybe even 4x a week!!

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Monday Mojo: It’s Important, Not Urgent

By Tom Tognoli | April 26th, 2010 0 Comments

One of the things we really focus on doing at Intero is making a conscious decision every day to spend our time doing the important and not the urgent.  Most of people spend the majority of their lives running around like a chicken with their head cut off jumping from one thing to another dealing with all of the urgent crap in life.  But you know what?  The urgent stuff is typically nothing more than the important stuff we procrastinated on doing and now if it doesn’t get done something is going to blow up! Guess what – it’s urgent.

It’s important that we exercise and eat right every day.  If we don’t, when we get 50 to 100 pounds overweight, and our blood pressure and cholesterol are through the roof, it will be urgent that we take care of ourselves so we don’t keel over and have a heart attack, or worse.

It is important that we spend quality time with our family, every day.  If we don’t, it will become urgent one day when we come home and they are gone.

It is important to constantly be embracing change and innovation.  If not, one day we will wake up and the world will have past us by and we will be frantically trying to catch up.  Change and innovation will become urgent.

I know the urgent will always pull at us, but the key is to have the discipline to stick to doing the important and we will be successful at whatever we do.  It’s Important, not Urgent.
Make it a GREAT week!

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