May is the new December

Anyone else feel like you’re going a million miles an hour now?  We have lots of end-of-year activities and parties and celebrations as a family, and I’m in the thick of swimming lessons all afternoon during the week.  Fortunately I came across a post I wrote for my friend Pam Narvaez’s life-coaching blog a few years ago; these words were just what I needed to remember for how to both survive and thrive in a busy time. I hope these ideas resonate with you, too.

SURVIVE

Relieve Stress

Fortunately, an immediate way to improve your well-being is both easy and free!  To quickly and effectively relieve stress, stop what you are doing, close your eyes, and take a few deep breaths.  To facilitate deep breathing, relax your facial muscles by pressing your tongue against the roof of your mouth for 5-10 seconds, then release.  Next, visualize yourself somewhere that makes you calm and happy—a beach, by a mountain stream, snuggled up in bed, or whatever works for you.  Continue to breathe deeply until your mind feels more open.

Gentle stretching is another stress-buster, and when done in concert with the breath, it is a highly effective way of calming and resetting your nervous system.  For example, to release tension from the shoulders—from a long day at the computer or driving in traffic–, inhale deeply as you scrunch your shoulders as close to your ears as possible.  When your inhale is complete, let out a long, forceful exhale and fully drop the shoulders.  Repeat this sequence 3-5 times and enjoy a clearer mind and more relaxed body.

• Gentle stretching, deep breathing, and visualization can help relax the body to relive stress.

Clean your palate

Wait!  Don’t take another bite!  Do you know where your food came from?

Eating well need not be difficult, expensive, or time-consuming.  By choosing unprocessed foods, you maximize the nutritional content you consume; by choosing in-season, local, fresh foods make generally the most economical—and environmentally-friendly– choice.  Healthy foods like nuts, fruits, and vegetables require little preparation and are easily transportable.

To ensure that your body is best able to process the foods you eat and absorb the appropriate nutrients, keep yourself well hydrated.  Drinking water throughout the day not only aids indigestion to keep your body fueled, but it allows muscles to function at their best.  Furthermore, you can stave off hunger with a zero calorie glass of water.

• Eat fresh, local foods to maximize nutrition and minimize environmental and financial costs
• Staying well hydrated is key to physical wellness

THRIVE!

Break the adrenaline habit

Our society promotes a culture of pressure by reinforcing the idea that we can (and should!) do multiple tasks at once, for as long a duration as possible.  Multitasking requires the brain and body to work in overdrive, thereby increasing adrenaline production.  In the short term, adrenaline is a useful hormone; however, studies indicate that high adrenaline production and stress are closely linked, and neither is positive for long-term wellness.

Be a rebel and eschew multitasking!    Think about it: juggling is much harder than throwing and catching a single ball.  By focusing on one task—or person—at a time, you can be focused, present, and genuine.  As such, not only will the quality of your work likely rise, but you’ll be lowering your stress at the same time.

Attention to your physical well-being deserves the same kind of focused attention.  Schedule workouts into your day—just as you would any other important meeting—and you’ll eliminate the pressure that comes with trying to squeeze everything in as the day progresses.  Planning ahead is key to breaking adrenaline’s grip on your daily life.

• Focus on one task at a time to complete it effectively and efficiently, with as little stress as possible
• Incorporate planned workouts into your schedule

Consistent physical activity

If you struggle with exercising consistently, whether due to lack or interest or competing priorities, make a list of types of exercise that you enjoy.  These can include walking, gardening, playing soccer with your children, going to the gym, or participating in a group exercise class or on a team.  Do you prefer to exercise alone or with a group?  Do you like one sport or activity so much you do it exclusively; or do you need the social outlet of a team sport; or is the accountability that a class or personal trainer offers motivating to you?   It doesn’t matter what your answer is, but devising a fitness plan that takes your preferences into account will result in better adherence to your program.

Also, many people don’t exercise consistently because they think they need a single, large block of time to reap the benefits of exercise.  Scientific studies support breaking exercise into short, manageable bursts throughout the day to achieve the same physiological benefits as one longer session.  Furthermore, you receive the added benefit of reinvigorating yourself throughout the day.

• Identify what motivates you, and devise a fitness plan that compliments your interests and fulfills your needs
• Short bursts of activity are physiologically and psychologically beneficial

Good health and great happiness to you!

Topsy Turvy

So, all went silent here at onbalance for a while.  We had a few weeks Charles Dickens would have been proud of, for they certainly were the best of times and the worst of times.  That said, let us be grateful that our worst of times are only as bad as they are….

We had Spring Break, which started off with The Monkey going to the doctor to have a cyst in his ear lanced.  If that sounds both uncomfortable and gross, you are on the right track to understanding this experience.  To reward him for outstanding behavior at the doctor’s office– truly, I would not have been so calm– I let him pick an afternoon activity.

We set off to Sweet Berry Farms to pick strawberries.

We picked nearly 7 pounds of strawberries in less than an hour.  It took us less than 48 hours to eat 7 pounds of strawberries.  We like strawberries!

The next day we had a Cousins Meet-In-The-Middle Day in Waco at the Cameron Park Zoo.  Neither my Sister-in-Law (who lives in Dallas) nor I (who live in Austin) had been to this zoo before, but it proved to be a great day trip.  Even though it was Spring Break, the crowds were manageable, the animals were exciting to watch, and the kids had a great time.

The Stowaway and her Girl Cousin even got out of their strollers to live it up on a park bench.

The Boy Cousin joined The Monkey and The Bear for a ride on a wild animal.

By this point it was Wednesday, and things were looking up.  I had a bit of a toothache, but we were getting ready to head to Houston for a few days of fun with family friends, so I didn’t think much of it.

While in Houston, I was enjoying chatting away a sunny afternoon with a dear friend while our children ran around at a playground.  My bliss was interrupted by a horrific scream, one I identified immediately as coming from The Monkey.  The next thing I knew, he was running down the playground slide, spattering it with blood, and his forehead and fabulous flop of hair was caked in bright red.  I know that head wounds bleed profusely, but trust me when I say there was a staggering amount of blood.  I held him while he screamed for a few minutes, and the spare t-shirt of The Stowaway’s being used as a bandage was soaked in blood.  I decided to call 9-1-1.

After a long wait (17 minutes!), the ambulance arrived.  The EMTs recommended taking The Monkey to the hospital for a neurological evaluation.  (The upside of the horrific screaming that was still coming from my boy was that he never passed out.)  I got to ride in an ambulance for the first time.  Lucky me.

After the ER doc determined The Monkey still had brains in his head, he glued my boy back together again.  Hooray for no stitches!

And because we like irony in our family, The Monkey had to play in the ambulance when we went to the Children’s Museum of Houston the next day.

By the time we arrived back home to Austin the next day, I was in sheer pain from my toothache.  Fortunately my dentist was able to work me in within an hour of calling Monday morning, and by lunch time I’d had a root canal.  Yippee!  In all honesty, I am grateful for modern dentistry.  As much as it stinks to have to have (and pay for– OUCH) a root canal, going from 10 on a pain scale to 2 within 24 hours is nothing short of a blessing.

So, thank goodness the kids were back to school so I could focus on my mouth, my clients, and the regular running of the family…right!?  Two days after the root canal, The Stowaway came down with the dreaded pink eye.

Back to the doctor we went….

I guess all of this is the long-winded way of letting you know why I haven’t posted in a while.

Here’s hoping you and yours have had less excitement in your lives lately!

Plan for Success

It’s been said that failure to plan is planning to fail.

I took some time yesterday to calendar all of my workouts between now and March 23, the day of my goal race.  While it requires some thought and careful attention to how the training cycles fit in with other family events I have already scheduled, I am one step closer to achieving my goal.  Seeing the workouts every day on my Google calendar keeps my training at the front of my mind.  Also, having thought through the entire arc of my training allows me to keep a more reasonable perspective when something (work, family, illness)  inevitably temporarily derails my plans.

Running coaching is one of the services I offer.  I enjoy working with people to get them ready for a target race; moreover, I educate them about how to train to peak on race day.  Drawing on my years of experience on a self-coached competitive running club and developing my own training plans, I combine different types of workouts to make sure my clients are well prepared for their race.  If you’re thinking of running the Capitol 10K, Congress Avenue Mile, or a destination summer marathon but you need a little guidance, let me help you meet your running goals.

If running isn’t your thing, know that working with a thoughtful, detailed personal trainer can help you meet your fitness goals.  One of the ways I differentiate my personal training services from others is that I develop both short-term and long-range workout plans for my clients.  Depending on the client’s needs and wants, I provide homework assignments between sessions and accountability via shared Google calendars.  Whether it’s for myself or for my clients, I’ve seen the benefits of planning pay off time and time again.  Let me know how I can help you plan to reach your fitness goals!

Good health and great happiness to you!

 

100 Calories

People often ask me the best ways to survive the holiday season with minimal damage to their health and fitness.  Two years ago I wrote a Holiday Party Survival Guide, and I think the ideas there are still really useful.

Anyone who has worked with me knows that I believe that, for most people, getting fit is about planning what you eat and planning how you move in a way that works with your life.  Food marketers have done an amazing job in recent years touting their goodies for sale in convenient 100 calorie packages.  While this can be incredibly useful to people as they wean themselves off of processed foods or eat them only in these small portions, I want to think about 100 calories in another way.

I encourage you to find a way each day between now and the end of the year to burn an extra 100 calories.  If you do this, you’ll have burned an extra pound (3500 calories).  I’m going to guess that one pound doesn’t have much WOW factor for you, but in a season of excess, setting an intention to do just a little bit more for yourself can really affect both your mind and your body.

For the average person (not that I think any of you onbalance readers are average), the following activities burn about 100 calories in ten minutes:

• running (10 min/mi pace)
• cycling (13 mph)
• stepping– either in place or up and down flights of stairs
• circuit training
• calisthenics– pushups, jumping jacks, squats, lunges, plyometrics

Your calorie burn is dependent on your sex, weight, and fitness level.  I like to use an activity calculator to get a closer approximation of calories burned.  The Fitness Partner allows you to enter your weight and time, and you’ll get a chart of activities that show how many calories you’ll burn in that amount of time.  Calories Per Hour has an activity calculator where you enter your personal details and then choose a specific activity for calorie burn information.  Either way, you’ll get a good idea of how many choices you have to burn these extra calories without investing a lot more time.

Remember, a little bit of intentional movement really does make a difference.  Good health and great happiness to you!

 

 

 

Re-balancing

I can blame the radio silence here at onbalance only on myself. With the start of the new school year, I seem to have taken on a few too many roles. Even though the discreet roles are worthwhile and fulfilling, the collective responsibilities I’ve been shouldering have led me to feeling busier and more rushed than I like.

On a day-to-day basis, I’ve found myself enacting three simple habits to keep my focus and sanity:

1. Breathe– Every time I sit down (which isn’t very often), I roll my shoulders up, back, and down as I take a deep inhale. I then exhale fully. I repeat this process until I no longer feel like I’m going to jump out of my skin. Breathing is extremely powerful, even for those of you who find this idea a bit high on your woo woo scale.

2. Eat well– When I eat like crap, I feel like crap. It’s so simple, but it’s so true. When I pay attention to nourishing myself with fruits and vegetables and hydrate well, I feel better. Eating on the go doesn’t have to mean processed foods. An apple, a cheese stick, a hard-boiled egg, and a bottle of water are all quicky, healthy, and extremely portable.

3. Practice Saying “No”– Obviously, I’m not very good at this, or else I wouldn’t be writing this post! I love what my friend Renee Trudeau has to say about learning to decline requests with grace, and I’m practicing each of the methods with a smile. There are multiple times every day when someone presents me with an opportunity, and I need to evaluate it carefully and commit myself only to those things that speak most directly to me.

Stopping to reevaluate my priorities is a worthwhile exercise to do regularly, regardless of whether I’m feeling like I’m drowining or surfing with vigor. As much as I wish I would remember to do it before I get to the drowning stage, I’m grateful I’m good at treading water.

Good health and great happiness to you.

So Close

Last week I returned to the trapeze rig for the first time in over a year. It was a thrilling confirmation that I can still do activities I like to do, even with an infant. Thanks to my fabulous husband for being a highly participatory dad.

I opted to spend the lesson working on getting my swing going again. Head trapeze artist Russell suggested that I try a new trick– a full-time straight jump– that requires focusing on the timing of the swing. By the end of the lesson, things were clicking and Russell was able to catch me on my very first attempt.

Today I returned to the rig, sore hands and sore body. I continued to practice my swing, making a few technical, body-position changes, and it started to feel so much better. I moved on to the straight jump, and that trick started to feel much more natural. (Well, as natural as it can feel to hurtle yourself at another person while you’re both high above the earth.) I was ready to try the catch.

In two attempts, I was able to touch hands with the catcher Kenny. But I was not able to complete the catch. This is where I remind myself that it is the catcher’s responsibility to catch me. And, just like in life, you can put all kinds of preparation into a project, but ultimately we rarely have full control.

As much as I want to be caught every time, I’m choosing to focus on the improvements I made today. I’m also reveling in how good it feels to do something for myself, apart from my family commitments. And while I may be more sore than I wish I was post-lesson, taking time for myself to do something physically and mentally engaging reminds me that I can, in fact, continue to take on new challenges.

A Soup Swap Primer

Looking forward to cool autumn weather and a bowl of warm, hearty soup? A soup swap is a great way to try new recipes, stock your fridge or freezer with efficient meals, and meet new people. One of my clients invited me to a soup swap last autumn, and it was such a success that I used the same format to host a soup swap today with several of my Balance Personal Fitness Training clients in attendance.

I gave very loose parameters for my soup swap: each person could choose to bring between six and ten single-quart servings of soup. Participants could bring as few or as many different types of soup as they wanted, so long as they were in the six-ten quarts range. I also asked people to bring the recipes for the soup(s) they made; in future swaps, I’ll ask folks to email them to me so every participant can get every soup recipe (and there’s no wasted paper!).

Soups were packaged in cheapy reusable plasticware, reused yogurt or cottage cheese containers, or in double-bagged ziplocks. People brought their soups in a cooler, which allowed them to have suitable storage and transport for their ‘new’ soups until they returned home. (A cooler was very important on a late October day with temps in the mid-80s.)

As people arrived, I had them fill in a chart I made indicating major soup ingredients. The categories were: beef, chicken/turkey, pork, fish, wheat, dairy, soy, vegetarian, and vegan. That way folks with food allergies or dietary preferences could know which soups met their criteria.

Each soup was thereby assigned a letter, and then people placed their soups on a picnic table next to a piece of masking tape labelled with the corresponding letter.

After organizing the soups, each person drew a number out of a bag to determine the swapping order.

We swapped in numerical order, one quart at a time per round. When a participant had selected as many soups as s/he brought, their number was simply skipped in the next round. For seven swappers, the whole swap took right at ten minutes.

Everyone left with a cooler full of yummy soupy goodness in a greater variety than they’d make on their own.

Other logistics:
–The swap works best with 10-15 swappers…any fewer, and choices are a bit limited; any more, and you’ll be swapping forever.
–I chose to hold the soup swap at a local park because a) the weather in late October is usually reliable, b) there would be a playground for kids to play on during the swap, and c) I wouldn’t need to clean my house. Oh, yeah. Picnic tables are really useful for setting out lots and lots of soup!
–We started the swap about 20 minutes after the posted start time—that gave everyone time to fill out the chart, organize their soups, plot their swapping strategy, and enjoy chatting over munchies like homemade banana bread and hummus & pita chips.
–As the swap hostess, I made a few extra quarts of soup in case we had soups with leakage or someone needed additional vegan/gluten-free choices. We didn’t have any such issues, so I came home with plenty of extra soup to freeze. I can’t complain about that!

Now go forth and swap soup!

Sneaky Workout: Stairs

In case you’re new to the onbalance blog or missed my guest blog post on The Work At Home Woman last week about sneaking in exercise while the kids are at the playground, I’ll let you know that this idea of finding bits of time for fitness is central to my well-being and my work.

You won’t be surprise, then, when I found myself with a spare half-hour today between a client appointment and a doctor’s appointment* and knowing that I had a high-intensity workout on the schedule for today, I thought that I could make good use of the time between appointments. I first thought about going for a run, but I was dressed in long pants and had on a regular bra, so running in the already-70 degree-plus weather was not an option. As I pulled into the parking lot, I realized that the building where my appointment was located was several stories tall. Add in the basement, and I had five floors of fitness at my disposal. It was time to do a stair workout.

There are some logistical considerations when choosing to do a stair workout:
First and foremost, make sure that you will be able to reopen the stairwell door once on the inside. I simply asked someone in the hallway to let me out if I couldn’t get the door back open as a test.
Next, walk up a few flights to gently warm up the body. You’ll also find a landing between floors on which to stash your bag so you don’t have to carry it with you or worry that someone will dash off with it.
As you climb the stairs, make sure to step fully on each riser, with as little of the heel hanging off the back of the step as possible. Doing so will prevent seriously sore achilles heels and calves the next day!
While you may want to pump your arms as you ascend the stairs, I strongly suggest holding the handrail as you descend. As your legs get more tired and your heart rate increases, trying to move quickly down the stairs can turn into a disaster if you lose your balance. The handrail can prevent a fall.

There are several ways you can approach doing the stairs as a workout. Certainly, a straightforward single-step-at-a-time method will give you a good workout. To increase the cardio intensity, try jogging up the stairs. Or if you want a strength workout that will also get your heartrate up, ascend the stairs two-at-a-time and then jog single stairs back down to the bottom. You can, of course, mix up these strategies to keep things interesting. Just keep moving!

For those of you who think this is a crazy idea, perhaps you’ll feel better knowing that in the twenty-five minutes I was in the stairwell, not a single other person used the stairs. (Which is, quite possibly, the reason we need lots of multi-story medical buildings….but I digress…..) When I finished my workout, I popped back out into the hallway, found a water fountain for a drink, then went back outside to stretch and cool off for five minutes. At the end of that five minutes, my heart rate was lower but not fully recovered, indicating I got a really good workout in my “downtime.”

Sneaky exercise saves the busy mom once again!

*I now know that despite the awesomeness of this workout, it is ill-advised to do it just before a mammogram. It is very difficult to stand perfectly still and hold one’s breath after such a high-intensity cardio workout. My jello legs were not doing me any favors, either. But onward and squishward went the mammogram machine anyway, and I’m hopeful for a clear report next week.

Ten Tips for Sneaky Exercise

1. Kids in the bathtub? Do 10 squats, 10 pushups, 10 lunges then rest for 60-90 seconds. Repeat for up to 5 sets or until you can’t talk or the kids are all clean.

2. On the phone? March up and down a step (or sturdy step stool).

3. Waiting for water to boil? Put your hands on the counter and do supported pushups. You’re done when the water is ready.

4. Can’t decide whether to go for a walk or call a friend for a chat? Take your cell phone with you. Walk and talk and feel better in both body and mind.

5. Kids driving you crazy in the late afternoon? Have old school relay races—hop on one foot, run backwards, grapevine, etc– in the back yard.

6. No back yard? Crab walk or bear walk around the house.

7. Want to travel? Take an imaginary trip to the jungle, and imitate as many animals as you can think of. Adding noises earns bonus points.

8. Not feeling creative? Simply be as many verbs as you can: walk, run, jump, wiggle, dance, slide, shake, etc.

9. Need a full mind-body boost? Turn on some music to fit your mood and dance however your body leads you.

10. Stressed out? Consciously relax every part of your body by starting at the head and tensing then releasing each muscle group all the way down your body.

Just what I NIA’d

When I woke up this morning (at 2am, 3am, 4am, and then 5am for the day), I wasn’t convinced it was going to be a great day. I was a less-than-my-usually-cheery-self during my early morning workout class, which was especially unfortunate given the jungle-like humidity my group faced.  They were inspirational (and perspirational) in their dogged determination to complete the workout.

I dashed home after class, got my 6-year-old ready for first grade, then had a family walk to school. By the time I got home, I had just about 40 minutes before needing to take the 3-year-old to preschool. It was still before 8am, and I was exhausted!

I had the chance to come home after preschool drop-off and have a rare, unspoilt FOUR HOURS to myself. No clients. No husband working at home. Just me and my comfy green sofa.

But I also remembered that today is Dr. Deb Kern’s WILD Women Workout, and after going to only two sessions before, I realized that was just what I needed. Dr. Deb leads a group of women through a NIA workout filled with everything from tai chi moves to pilates poses to all-out cardio jam. Dancing unabashedly in a studio, about twenty women move around the room free from judgement and filled with conviction. The workout is all about connecting with your body, harnessing the power of your mind, and honoring the self.  

I left the workout feeling energized and hopeful.  Thank you, Dr. Deb!