New class starting in November!!

You know what's better than being strong? Being strong, flexible AND having healthy joints so you don't get injured! Let's be honest: a lot of us don't even stretch on a regular basis, much less work on our mobility. We end up hobbling around from workout to workout, always in pain in some area, but convinced we can't spare the time to loosen things up. Unfortunately, this is totally a short term solution...eventually you will get injured (and you probably already have!) from a lack of mobility. Mobility and flexibility are different beasts - mobility movements always have strength and movement components, while flexibility exercises rarely involve strength. Practically, this means that mobility movements focus more on increased joint health than increased muscular length. People are most likely to hurt themselves where their muscles attach, which in my opinion makes mobility training more crucial than flexibility training for anyone looking to avoid injury.

SO...I'm starting a class in November at my new gym, Excellence, that will focus on increasing mobility while getting a kick-ass workout! It's gonna be Friday mornings from 6:30am-7:30am, and you can come for the month for only $40 or drop-in for $10. I'm so excited to be creating this new class...I would love you to check it out! You'll wanna be there if you're interested in:

*Circuiting mobility exercises with strength movements
*Getting stronger and more mobile/flexible
*Learning simple movements that you can add to your fitness arsenal
*Increasing your range of motion
*Living and moving more pain-free
*Building long strong muscles
*Releasing tension in the shoulders, neck, and spine
*Improving your posture
*Learning fun variations on common exercises (like pushups and planks)
*Sweating like a mofo

Questions? I got answers. :) Hope to see a lot of you there on November 8th!!

I heart squash

I don't know about you, but about this time every year I yearn for squash. The color, the flavor, the texture...everything about it reminds me of fall and my childhood. I remember my mom's dish in perfect detail - the acorn squash cut in half and the seeds scooped out, replaced with butter, cinnamon sugar and a pinch of salt. For years of my adult life, this was my go-to dish for Thanksgiving parties...I subbed out fresh minced ginger and cinnamon for the sugar. If you don't have time to bake it, you can stick it in the microwave, covered, for 6-8 minutes, and boom! You got squash. :) I'm excited to try out some of these recipes this autumn (especially the Southwest Stuffed Acorn Squash...I'm making that tomorrow!). Happy eating! :)

Where there's a will...

My husband pointed me towards an article in the latest Wired magazine...in searching for it online, I came across one published earlier this year that's more comprehensive and dealing with the same subject. Willpower. The findings of the latest studies are very interesting - let's look at the main point, and then figure out what it means for all of us.

Big Idea: Willpower is incredibly feeble. We have a hard time saying "no" all the time, and the more times we have to say "no," the easier it is to turn that "no" into a "yes." So if there were two hundred individual socks scattered around the floor and you had to bend down to pick up each one, somewhere around the 100th one (or earlier, depending on your own personality) you would probably say "Screw this, I'm going to go watch TV," leaving the rest of the socks to languish on the floor. Hmmmm...maybe this analogy only works well for parents...oh well, hopefully you get the idea. In practical terms, that means that your success at, say, eating a healthy and balanced diet has way more to do with your environment than you might think. How many times a day do you have to choose to eat an apple instead of a Snickers? Are nutritious food choices fewer and farther between in your workplace? Is there an office candy jar, and are donuts and bagels served at meetings? Every time you have to say "no," you're using up your precious store of willpower.

Willpower is limited and easily worn down...so what to do? Well, here are a few ideas:

1. Set your intentions as clearly as you can. What are your goals? To be healthier? To lose weight? Get specific about those goals...really think about what "healthy" or "weight loss" means to YOU. And this is important...once you've clarified your goals, try to bring them closer to the surface of your mind. The more conscious you make yourself of what you want to achieve, the more you'll recognize the obstacles (within and outside of you) to getting where you want to go. Once you've narrowed things down and focused in...

2. Shift your home environment. This is the area that's most under your control. Get rid of all the crap in your cupboards, just throw it out...that way the choices that you do have to make will be between one good-for-you option or another. If you have to say "no" to the ice cream every time you open the fridge, you'll end up saying "yes" more than you want to. When your home more truly reflects your intentions...

3. Shift your work environment. Pack healthy snacks to bring with you to work so that you're not trying to make a choice while you're starving (according to the article, we make poorer choices when we're tired or have low blood sugar). When it's your turn to bring the snacks for the meeting, bring nuts and fruit. Talk to your boss/coworkers about replacing the candy jar with mints or sugar-free gum - a quiet mention about rising healthcare costs would probably aid you in this one. ;)

4. Avoid temptation. The Wired article states that the most strongly-willed people that were studied "are able to intelligently steer clear of situations that trigger problematic desires. They don’t resist temptation - they avoid it entirely. While unsuccessful dieters try to not eat the ice cream in their freezer, thus quickly exhausting their limited willpower resources, those high in self-control refuse to even walk down the ice cream aisle in the supermarket." That's what all the shifting of your home and work situations is about - removing the crap so that you have plenty of willpower left over for other stuff, like exercise, reading, playing with your kids, or whatever you would do if you weren't desperately trying not to eat the chocolate in the cupboard.

Most of us will try to skip #1 and go right to the other suggestions...I'm guilty of this as well. I urge you, though, to take the time to figure out why you want to change, and who you want to change into. Pick up all the socks just this one time, give yourself a clean slate, and go boldly forward. Good luck!! :)

best laid plans of mice and personal trainers

Okay, so you're not gonna believe this...

Fate has dealt me a strange hand this year. It's been a very challenging time, demanding lots of growth and acceptance of change (which is awesome, and terrifying, and difficult). I left Zum and moved to Northwest Fitness and Conditioning, a place with a promising vision under a thin layer of sweat and drywall dust. And now here I am, a couple months later, announcing another move.

The fact that I'm reeeeeally excited about this move should tell you something, especially since I'd be hard-pressed to get excited about transition of ANY kind after the past few months! I'm going to be joining the awesome team of independent contractors at Excellence Health & Fitness! I've known the owner, John, for a while and I'm a huge fan of what he and his business partner Eli have build over the last several years. The space is beautiful, with high ceilings (and aerial silks! Aerial silks!!), a hardwood floor in the classroom space, a huge metal frame to hang on, and plenty of kettlebells and other toys to swing around. The trainers there are top-notch (and super nice). But what really sets the space apart from every other personal training studio (and gym) in Seattle is their vision of and dedication to holistic wellness.

We all know that being healthy and working towards the body you want takes more than just exercising. You have to take time to recover. You have to eat well. You have to destress and rebuild your muscles and your psyche. We all know this, but there are pieces of that puzzle that we all struggle with. I don't really have a problem eating well or exercising enough - I have a huge problem taking time for myself to relax and take care of my body. It's difficult to convince myself to focus on this one area, since I can always remind myself how well I do in the others! It'll be harder to ignore at Excellence, though, because this place is all about the whole package. Since the last time I checked them out (six months ago) they've installed a fantastic cafe with smoothies and healthy lunch options. They have a wellness center in-house that features chiropractic, massage and acupuncture. And they have a membership that includes all these things (though you can still choose your services a la carte). It's sort of like a one-stop-shop for wellness.

Yeah, I'm excited! I know I'll be personally inspired by this place and these people to make changes in my own life and the lives of my clients. So even though part of my brain is covering its ears and saying "No more transitions!!" the rest of my brain is skipping around and imagining how much fun it will be to work in this awesome environment every day. Thanks, Excellence, for bringing me on board! :)