Holidays

     Well, here we go.  We are heading into the most joyous season of the year. That is how I want you to look at it. That is what it is.  Allow yourself to be excited and happy.  Feel all the joy around you and live every moment being "here" and living in the moment.

    You are working so hard and every time you are sore, you are changing your body and growing. Growing on a cellular level (muscle fiber by muscle fiber) and growing in your connection to your physical selves.  Whatever your plans for the holidays, do not let fear into your life. If you are cooking, choose wonderfully healthy food to put into your body. My dream Thanksgiving dinner is: Turkey, roasted turnips, green beans and a sweet potato roasted.  If you are going to be with family, do not feel badly bringing some healthier options that you love to eat.  I am going to bring baked apples and veggies with me to my family's house.

    Eat and ENJOY what you love.  Take your time and savor the flavors and the memories that many foods bring.  If you spend the entire time putting food into your mouth while at the same time having an internal dialogue that is negative ("I should NOT be eating this, this is the last thing I need, I am so fat....") you will miss the joy of the food you are eating and will not satisfy you.  

     Choose what foods you adore. Healthy or not.  Decide what is not "worth it" and then really ENJOY what IS.  Savor it slowly and feel great about eating it.  Let yourselves be proud of all the hard work you are doing.  We have all gotten SO much stronger it is incredible.  We are able to do more and more every week.  This winter is going to be amazing watching all of you grow ever stronger and seeing  your bodies and attitudes change.  I am so proud of the work we do together.  Be positive and feel joy and love this holiday season.  

Mind-Body Connection

Hi. This is Scott. Story asked me to guest blog on my take on the mind-body connection.

We live in an extreme urban environment where our lives dictate the necessity of our mind exerting control over our actions. Liquid Strength is the rare opportunity for our body to speak back to us, to give feedback. We all arrive at the gym with the various loops replaying in our heads (work, kids, relationships, what to have for lunch). One of the greatest benefits for me is how I am forced to get back into my body. I cannot be worried about the business project deadline or any other list playing in my head when my glutes are screaming at me. This action brings me into my body. As in yoga, this then allows my mind to quiet down, to drop the lists continuously looping in my head and override my screaming muscles to find an inner calm.

This past Wednesday, I was tasked to keep count of the repetitions. Surprisingly, I found it challenging to keep track: normally, I lose myself in the fluidity of the motions, rising above the cacophony of my muscles, to arrive at a meditative calmness, unaware if we are on the 11th or 22nd repetition of an exercise. Counting kept me focused on the task at hand and made it more difficult to silence the screaming of my glutes, which I found distracting. My mind could only focus on my muscles cries for attention. It was hard to not sympathize with their exhaustion, but this is not how to grow stronger. One must push through. The mind controls how we perceive external stimuli and stress. If one deems something inconsequential, it will be so.

Everyone responds differently to prompts. We all have our internal filters which translate the same expressions uniquely. When I’m told not to think of flying pink elephants, it’s is hard to not, if only for an instant, think about flying pink elephants. When my muscles are screaming at me, it is hard to do much else than acknowledge them. But my will controls my muscles. Once acknowledged, (yes, I feel your pain) I can then move forward, very much as one does with yoga, to find an inner quietness amidst the symphony of shaking muscles.

Positive visualization is a very strong tool. If I focus on how I am a strong athlete, increasing my power, my body will respond. If I approach the class and move through the positions from a position of strength, engaging with full intent, I will grow stronger. I will listen to my body, but I will unite it with my spirit and leave stronger and more whole.

I have watched everyone make great progress with understanding the positions and your bodies are responding. I look forward to continuing the journey with the class.

Supplements

    Every time I enter the vitamin Shoppe I am taken aback. The overwhelming amount of options and hype intimidates me.  I can only imagine what it is like for anyone who has never studied nutrition.  I read everything available to me to find the latest studies and research and the findings are still tough to navigate.  If you listen to the sales people in a health food store, you would spend half your day popping pills. It is important that you understand that these are sales people and are often only educated enough on the selling points of products and not the science behind the product.

    There are wonderfully talented herbalists and alternative medicine practitioners. There are also a lot of quacks out there.  I urge you to do your research before you take anyone's word about what to put into your body.  

    I am not a huge supplement user or fan. There are very few things that are truly proven to be effective. There are however, some really great things you can do for your body with the help of supplements.

   Vitamins.  There are many. There are water soluble vitamins (all of the B's including Niacin, Riboflavin, and B12 , vitamin C etc) and there are fat soluble vitamins (A, D, E and K).  Water soluble vitamins are flushed out of your body on a regular basis in urine and even sweat. Fat soluble vitamins are stored in your body's fat and not washed out. That being said, high megadoses (which many multi vitamins contain) of water soluble vitamins will be flushed down the toilet, literally, while fat soluble vitamins will be stored.  Megadoses of Fat Soluble vitamins can actually be harmful and cause toxicity.

    Make sure you read the labels of what you are taking. You want to get the RDA% of all your needed nutrients but you do not to overdose.  Personally, I take one of children's chewables I give my twins. It has iron (which women who are still of childbearing years still need to be aware of) and 100% RDA of the basics.  As I said in earlier blogs, food is the best source for your nutrients and I am focused on trying my best to get them from a healthy diet.  A multi vitamin can fill in the gaps of what you do not get though.

    Calcium is often not offered at the full RDA in most supplements.  The jury is still out on how effective supplementation is for calcium.  The research supports getting our calcium from lean dairy. Calcium is very important for bone density and therefore metabolism. You metabolism is basically your "lean body mass". This being bones and muscle. 

    There has also been a lot of talk and discussion this year about Vitamin D.  We are getting better about sunblock and our jobs/lives no longer have us working outside so much. Vitamin D is produced by our bodies when we are in the sun.  It only takes about 10 minutes of daily exposure to get your RDA.  They are finding that some people's bodies are not making vitamin D as they should.  You can have your levels checked at your doctor's office.  Low levels have been linked to all kinds of very serious health problems. I seriously advice you all to be aware of getting your RDA of Vitamin D.

     Besides vitamins, there are all kinds of plant flavonoids that are wonderful for you.  Do your research and buy any products you use from reputable sources.  I have found a company who makes chews and drinks that I love that contain green tea and flavonoid antioxidants. You can buy condensed green tea you can add to your water or brew up a few cups and sip them throughout the day.

     The one supplement I believe everyone should take is Omega 3s.  The research is astounding how important Omega 3 fatty acids are in health of our brains, heart and even moods. Please read up on them and learn more.

    As far as weight loss goes, there are a million supplements that are heavily advertised. Weight loss is a huge business and many/most claims are not supported by any scientific research at all. CLA is perhaps the only supplement that has been shown to be conservatively effective.  Check with your doctor and do not buy into the "market" of weight loss. Healthy lifestyles and good choices are what lead to success.

    Work out/recovery wise, I personally like amino acids. When you train hard and get sore, you make tiny injuries to your muscle tissue. When they heal, you heal stronger. Soreness is a good sign that you are building lean muscle.  Muscle is built by protein and amino acids are the building blocks of protein.  I really like Amino Vital sports mixes. I put them in my water when I teach.  The chemistry behind Amino Vital is very strong.  There are other forms of Amino acids and other brands/forms that are also very good. Do you research. Do your research.

    One of most important things you can put in your body of course is WATER.  Water is such a huge business right now. Many waters are advertised as having all sorts of benefits.  Most contain lots of sugar and coloring and very little effective ingredients. I highly recommend plain old tap water that also contains flouride for your teeth.  I love to use a metal water bottle and safe the earth yet another plastic bottle.

    I invite you to ask questions. Both here on my blog and everywhere. Learn about what you are eating.  Be an educated consumer.  We all have choices to make every day.  The road to health is basically making the right choices most of the time throughout your day.  I believe it is important to eat that homemade cookie is you really want it.  As long as you make healthy choices there is room for the things you WANT to eat even if they are not what you THINK you should eat.  I tell my clients to shoot for 85% great choices only. Be kind to your body and your self.  Take the emotion and the power away from food and it gets easier and easier to be happy. 

The last blog entry is one that I would like all of you to go back over from time to time. I will be writing more about the subject and will be further exploring the mind/body connection as we move forward but I think it is a great start.

     The ultimate goal is to fuse together the lifestyle choices we make in our day to day with the philosophical ideas we are embracing.  That is to say, work daily on changing our internal dialogue and attitudes about our bodies while also making good choices here and now.

     We want to educate ourselves about the food we put into our bodies. Begin to make choices that are based on thought and not emotion.  So many people eat emotionally and food and body image is a hugely emotional minefield we stumble through instead of choosing a path that will carry us to the place that we want to go.

     How do we begin to turn around the issues we struggle with the most? How do we break our own habits and change our thinking and attitudes about ourselves, our bodies and the world around us? These issues are huge.  The answer is small.  Small changes. Small shifts in what you do today. How you think and talk about yourselves and others. What you choose to feed your body.  How much you decide to let your logic, your brain and your reality here and now be the ruling force in your life is your choice to make. It is my choice to make. It is a choice we are faced with  every minute of every hour.  

    We start with right now.  Over and over again we deal only with RIGHT NOW. We decide where our mind will be. What thoughts we will focus on. What we will do and not do. Try living and choosing in the present.  The other "lists" and fears and doubts that crowd into your mind, push them aside and just deal with what is "at hand".  It sounds like such a simple thing but it is something that takes a lot of practice and commitment over and over again. 

     I invite all of you to just start. Small.

     This week I want to focus on the more philosophical  aspects of Liquid Strength.  I truly believe that this is the cornerstone of why Liquid Strength works and why we all love doing it so much.

     When I created Liquid Strength, I was looking for a way to "meditate" away from my daily "lists" and stresses. The concept of "The List" is one that I have found really resonates with my students. We all have several "lists" running pretty much non stop in our heads on a daily (even hourly) basis. These lists can be:

"What I need to do before/after work"

"what I need to buy to make dinner/lunches tomorrow"

"the foods I can't eat"

"problems in my marriage/at my job/with my body"

"surfaces that are dusty"

"movies I haven't had time to watch"

"books I need to read"

"emails I have to write"

"friends I have GOT to reach out to"

"insecurity check list" (this one tends to pop up when we are stressed and because we know it SO well we run to it whenever some new issue pops up. It is like our "go to" list)

    I bet all of you could write some pretty funny lists that keep you quite busy mentally on a daily basis. I would love to read them !!!!

    When we do Liquid Strength, we are very challenged physically and very focused mentally. The need to be present to do the cycles at all helps keep us away from our "lists".  As you progress in your practice you will find yourself getting lost in the flow of the cycles. There is a great opportunity there to experience a true moving meditation. To exit your laundry list of lists and feel your body and your "self" in a present and positive way. Sometimes I feel as though I am feeling my "self" for the first time as I struggle to earn my way through a difficult Liquid Strength "cycle".  It is a wonderful chance to experience the perfection that is you. It is amazing what we are able to do with our bodies.  When I see my students finding the grace and beauty in a movement cycle that I know is really challenging for them, I can see the joy and pride and sometimes even surprise of realizing the power that is in your body.

    If we can focus on that experience. (The almost out of body observation and celebration of the miracle that we are.) We will change our physical selves. We will change the relationship we have with our bodies. We will learn to find joy in the thing that we tend to "beat up" on the most and that we give such power to make us miserable. The ability to choose how we see ourselves is ours. When you make that "switch", everything changes.

   Your body reacts to your perception of it.  It took me years in the fitness field, motherhood and lots of floundering to figure that out.  I see all of you as you walk into the room. Your bodies changing so profoundly every week.  I see the "switches" in class when you are lost in the work. I can always tell that the big physical changes will happen a week or two after that "connection" is made.

   The practice and teaching of "mind body" connection is a delicate and profoundly personal one.  Each of you will find your own unique path to get there.  I can tell you what has worked for me and guide you along what I believe to be the road to getting there but the mastery of that connection is yours alone to make.

   I feel so lucky to be able to be on that journey with you all  and to learn with you and from you as we travel along this road.

    

I wanted to share a great and very easy recipe with everyone. This is one of those recipes that can be altered each time and taste great and be LOADED with healthy stuff.

Stuffed Cabbage Leaves:

1)get a head of cabbage

2)cut the core out (make a hole in the bottom basically where the core is)

3) put the cabbage is boiling water and peel off the leaves as they soften

4)shave off the "rib" of the leaf so it is easy to fold

In a big bowl mix up:

1) a bunch of veggies you love. I used yellow peppers tons of onions and tomatoes. ANY veggie will work.

2)lean turkey or chicken or beef (I used 99% lean turkey)

3) egg white and lean cheese (hard cheese is great and you only need a dash)

4)salt and pepper and tons of spices that you love. (I used italian spices and hot pepper and onion and garlic powder)

Get a large pasta sauce pan and line it with a couple of cabbage leaves

put a half a cup or so of your turkey and veggies onto each leaf and tuck the sides in and then roll it up tight.

Keep doing this until your turkey mixture is gone.

Pour a big can of pureed tomatoes and a cup or two of the water from your cabbage over the bundles.

Cover and simmer for half an hour or so or until the turkey is done.

You can spice up the sauce with lots of great stuff. You can add some low fat cottage cheese or ricotta. You can experiment and change this recipe to be different in so many ways.

We ate it for 3 days. It was easy and tasted really great.

     Yesterday was a great class. I am sure a lot of you are very sore.  I want to take a completely different tangent today. What I want for all of you more than anything is  not to diet but to think about your bodies as  amazing and strong. If we can change the dialogue you have in your own mind within yourself about yourself, we can change anything.

    I want you to begin noticing the changes happening in your body.  Focus on those and let yourself feel the joy of those changes. Every day feed your body the best fuel you can and most importantly be proud of the amazing gift that a healthy and strong "self" is.

    Shift your focus away from what you are "not going to eat" and try to figure out "how you are going to fit in" all the wonderful food you must eat in a day.

    Take time to breathe and be present in the moment as you experience your day, your workouts, your meals and your relationships with everyone around you.

    

     Ok, here goes. It is election day. Very exciting election year. History will be made either way. The first African American president or the first female vice president. No matter what your vote, I hope that you do indeed vote. 

    Today we are looking for change and moving forward into a new chapter in America. This year has been difficult for all of us. Money is tight and stress levels are high. 

    I have been working with Good Morning America on a story about the impact of tight budgets on health (and waistlines).  I find it ironic that the "leaner" the food "fatter" the price.  Comfort food is cheap and so inviting when we are stressed and unhappy. It can be hardest to take good care of ourselves when we need to most. It is challenging to feed a family(or yourself) healthy food when you are trying to save money.  Gym memberships and trainers are an easy thing to cut out to save money.  

    In this blog I am going to offer ideas for food choices and recipes along with ideas and inspirations for the choices you will make on a daily basis. Sometimes the posts will be very technical and practical. Sometimes they will be my personal musings and honest thoughts about body image, life challenges and whatever thoughts or ideas sprout up along the way.

    I invite you to ask questions and chime into the discussion.  Wisdom comes in many forms. I know I can learn as much from you as you can from me.

    A lot of you have been asking for me to make a "food list".  I am going to do that on a regular basis. I am a big believer in feeding your body wonderful food that ignites a sense of adventure, variety and sensory stimulation. We all tend to eat in "patterns". Every meal very much the same from day to day. The same deli and same choice day after day. To get all of the vitamins and flavanoids we need to be healthy, we need to change it up and eat a wide array of colors (the colors of vegetables are great indicators of the nutrients they are rich in) and textures and types of food. There has been a lot of research lately about the many health benefits of spices and herbs and even oils we use.  

    I am going to start with a basic guideline of the kinds of food you want to eat EVERY day. These are foods you must fit into your meals no matter what style, ethnic flair or spices you choose.

Daily MUST eat foods:

1) 3 servings of lean dairy (high in calcium)

yogurt, skim milk, low fat cheese

2)at least 6 servings fruits and vegetables (serving sizes are not that big so this is easier than it sounds)

apples, oranges, kiwis,pears,kale, hijiki, broccolini,bok choy (I am trying to get you to think out of the box here. I like to buy anything I have never had and try it)

3)nuts and seeds

(these can be garnishes or snacks)

4)lean proteins

salmon, buffalo, cod, chicken breast, beans and tofu etc.

5) water

I will be posting tricks, tips and recipes for these foods. I am going to give a sample day to give you an idea of how to make this work:

breakfast:

Nonfat plain yogurt with berries, sunflower seeds and slivers almonds

coffee or tea with skim milk

snack:

sliced apple or pear with very lean cheese or celery with peanut butter

lunch:

spinach salad with chicken breast, red pepper, yellow pepper, broccoli and olive oil and lemon.

orange or plain yogurt for dessert

snack:

small handful of almonds or grapes

dinner:

broiled salmon with veggie stir fry (onions, mushroom, asparagus, red pepper, carrots and a small amount of brown rice thrown in)

desert:

baked apple or pear