31 Days to Fit and Fabulous

Facilita' d' uso!  Easy does it!


Today's post is dedicated to Jan and to Ms. Bucket of a few months ago.

Begin by chanting this mantra:  I am all I am right now.  I do what I can.

Jan of bobbypin'sboardwalk blog wrote to me of her dislike of cooking and/ or preparing food.  Her angst came from her "all or nothing" view about her "diet' and as a result, she'd sabotage her efforts in losing a few unwanted pounds.  Because she ate mostly fast and "convenience foods", she felt whe was already a failure  and this made it difficult for her to maintain any kind of progress as she always felt like she'd already "blown it".  Feeling like a failure is the worst place to be when making any kind of lifestyle change, especially when it comes to a woman and her body!

The truth is, because of all the "diet" books out there with hundreds of pages of recipes and cooking instructions, we've become afraid to eat normal!  Normal just isn't good enough when we should be juicing our own wheat grass and eating raw, organic, vegetarian, vegan, whole, slow, cruelty free, hormone free,  free range, free trade, free from additives.  Holy cow!  It is no wonder we end up hating food!  Only to binge on it in order to fulfill our own worst nightmare: we are weak and undeserving.

The reason I have a section on organize is because most of our eating issues are bottled up stress and anxiety about how others perceive us.  Do we measure up to the standards we read about in the magazines and see on television?  I have given up on the media for the most part as I have found so many contradictions.  I subscribe to one new magazine as it  shares several points of view on a particular subject or story and has very little commercial advertising.  Thus, I don't have to look at skinny women in airbrushed displays telling me I should use this product to make me be all that.

Organize your own personal lifestyle.  Who are you when it comes to eating and exercise?  Are you the kind who enjoys an hour or more at a gym diligently sticking to a program?  Do you hate to sweat and have achy muscles?  Do you love to lay around on your off time or take a ten mile hike?  Do you love the tastes and textures of a variety of foods and look forward to new recipes or are you mostly a creature of habit and like to eat the same things day after day?  Getting to know yourself with regards to your body is key in creating a lifestyle strategy you can live with forever.

Write a small paragraph to yourself starting the first sentence with:

• My usual day of eating looks pretty much like this...
• My ideal exercise program would be....
• In order to have the kind of body I desire, I am willing to change ...

Once you see who you really are, stop beating yourself up already!  You are who you are.  And you are perfect because you are YOU.

Drink water and water type beverages.  More, more, more!  Just do it.  This part is easy if you don't think too much about it.

Exercise should be simple and prescriptive today.  When I say prescriptive I mean the exercise should be corrective in some way.  Movement is the most important type of exercise you should be doing.  Moving with purpose and intensity is the best especially if the movement could be balanced for all of your muscles.  Since most movement is imbalanced we need to correct our muscles with weight or resistance training as well as stretching muscles that get tight from over-use.

Most people that workout  are not aware how important balance is,  For example, the strength of the muscles of the pectorals or chest should be in balance with the strength of the muscles of the latissimus dorsi or back.  Without making this too complicated, when you perform push-ups, try to perform the flexing phase (as you are releasing back towards the floor, bending your elbows) slowly, concentrating on using your lat muscles. As it gets more difficult for your chest, bring your knees to the floor or closer to your hands, as you push up and bring knees off the floor or farther away when you come back towards the floor.  In fact, practice right now.  Stop reading and get on the floor for twenty of the best push-ups you can do!

Make the practical and simple exercises the ones that you perform regularly if you are not sure or don't yet have a program that is consistent.  Start with my video and make it consistent.  Every Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday.  Learn about your body in it's simplest and most effective movement.  Increase your intensity each day you exercise.  Eventually increase the repetitions you perform.  The idea is to be consistent!

Calories count and you know how I feel about that.  Make them count, people!!!  Make a pact with yourself that no matter what, you will honor yourself with the best of the bunch no matter where you happen to eat lunch.  If you are dining at a fast food place, think for a moment what your best choice might be.  I'm not talking about those awful dried up salads with dressing packets, I am saying that if you insist upon a fast food place keep your choice light.  Look at the nutrition information, they all have them now, and go lighter than you usually do.  Perhaps even a bit healthier, while you're at it.   Small changes add up!!  Remember Helen!  A great book, Eat This Not That, has hundreds of better choices when it comes to fast or junk food.

Here it is in a nut shell:  Eat only what YOU REALLY WANT.  Eat less of it.  Eat less junk as much as possible.  Eat more vegetables whenever you can, even the tiniest shifts make a huge impact.  A little trick:  Drink 16 ounces of water before you eat.  Trust me, this works.  Just do it!!

I would like to offer a small suggestion here.  How about you try to cook just one good meal a week?  Just for kicks and giggles.  No pressure to do it right, just for the heck of it.  This is simply to bring you back to being in love with food again.  When you love food, you savor it and enjoy the whole experience, at least some of the time.

My zucchini pancakes made savory and with the blossoms!

Imagine there's no diet.  No shoulds or shouldn'ts.  No bads or goods.  No rights or wrongs!  Imagine there's no fit police watching your every move.......(sung to John Lennon's Imagine).

La vita e abbastanza grande!  See, life is really quite grand!  Now, go to it!

I Hate Exercise and Eat Burgers and Pizza

I wash my own floors.

If you had read the comment from "What's Her Bucket" on Mondays post, you may have identified with her.  Maybe not.  All I know is the world is full of diverse and unique people.  I've gotten to know many bodies in the thirty-some years as a fitness professional.  There is no doubt in my mind that there are a percentage of people who are uncomfortable while exercising, just as there are those who are uncomfortable unless they exhaust themselves with exercise regularly.

Is there something wrong with Ms. 'Bucket'?

NO!  She is not alone.

What to do?

Rather than answer this question in one post, I am going to dedicate Thursdays to the dilemma of Ms. 'Bucket'.  I will start by saying that for those of you whose bodies are in friction with conventional exercise, you must jump from convention and  exercise with a level of either functionality or playtime.  In other words, DO NOT EXERCISE!  (Get something done or play!)

I am at the JW Marriott in downtown LA.  My son is having his convocation at USC School of Cinematic Arts today.  (Am I proud?  Hell yes!)  So, I will sign off for now.

NOW, DO 20 PUSH-UPS, 50 CRUNCHES AND HOLD ONTO YOUR DESK AND FINISH WITH 20 SQUATS.  OR, WASH YOUR FLOORS!  (Don't think, just do!)

How I Live BODECI!

I had a rough day Tuesday.  My oldest son, visiting from college, battled a hideous stomach flu.  (We thought he was hung over.)  I listened as he vomited (or dry heaved) for more than twenty-four hours.  I could hear him while I trained clients even though my studio is detached somewhat from my home.
When I wasn't training or teaching my class, I was running ice chips to him as he was becoming severely dehydrated.  By midnight, I finally climbed into my bed and passed out.


I have early clients on Wednesday, so I was up a 4:30.  I didn't sleep enough and felt it.  By the time I could take a nap, a friend came by.  We blabbed for about an hour until I finally begged off.  It was now almost 5:00 PM.  A nap at this hour is not such a good idea.  I also wouldn't be able to relax knowing I had a ton of things I needed to tend to.

I decided to live BODECI!

With BODECI, you don't think, you simply BEGIN!

I ORGANIZED my home and only cleaned what truly needed cleaning.  I ORGANIZED all of my work related stuff so I could easily work on my blog, finish emails and deal with the mountains of paperwork for my son's college financial aid. (Will this ever end?)

I needed to DRINK a lot of water to get my energy flowing again.  So I filled one of my favorite bottles with water and sipped it constantly from my favorite glass.



I moved quickly and with purpose, creating a kind of EXERCISE for my body.  The best kind of exercise for me is when I'm getting things done.

I felt like having some of the Coke my son had in the fridge, (I know, me?) but I also wanted to enjoy one of my favorite drinks, the Bodecitini.  So, I CHOSE my poison!  (Isn't it pretty?)

Bodecitini

In a shaker:  Ice, 1 jigger vodka (1 1/2 oz.), a splash or more of pure pomegranate juice, half cup of Perrier.  Shake well and pour into a martini glass.  Nice anti-oxidants to that of the vodka!  

The entire time I ran around, I IMAGINED I was in Tuscany, Italy.  I live in the most beautiful place! Why not appreciate it's splendor and feel the richness of being so grateful?

BODECI is loving your life, just as it is now.  To not wish away what you have, but to embrace all of what you are right now, at this very moment.  I am grateful to be!

E stands for: Exercise. To have Energy!

If you aren’t too keen on it, I really want to challenge you to change your mind (Yes, we’re talking about exercise!). I certainly wasn’t an “A” student in P.E., and I know how tedious conventional exercise can be for some of us. However, it should be enjoyable and/or purposeful, so whatever floats your boat is OK! The only rule is that you need to do something 6 days a week for one hour a day. Now don’t freak out, you can work up to that slowly. In no time you will be looking forward to your workouts as you will come to view them as time spent with the most important person in your life….you!  And for some it is the time spent with others, friends old and new and family.

The key to enjoying exercise is finding out what kind of movement you enjoy doing. Ultimately it should be balanced and beneficial to your whole being.  And, it should burn more calories than your usual day to day activities as well as work your cardiovascular system for better endurance. 

I personally abhor "cardio" equipment but love to walk (really fast), bound up stairs, hike beautiful hills and mountains and dance with abandon both on the "floor" and off! And, I am fortunate to teach my BODECI method workout several times per week. I'm not dissing treadmills  and I know plenty of people who really dig jogging on a treadmill or zipping along on the elliptical trainer; it affords them personal time to catch up on reading  a book, catching the news, or to simply "zone out". Your choice is personal.

Fitness isn’t just cardiovascular exercise, however; it’s also maintaining muscular strength and endurance.  The average person loses about a pound of muscle per year after the age of 25, which will not only weaken the body but slow down the metabolism. Simply put: Aging!  Your body ages many ways, but, not rebuilding it is a slow death.  I want to be alive at an old age to see my great grand kids, too, but I don't want them carrying me to the event.

Helen, my Bodeci body of the month, has lost a total of 26.5 lbs. on the scale.  But, she has gained an amazing 17 lbs. of muscle!!  Her total fat loss is 43 lbs.!  

Resistance training is for building strong muscle. Strong and healthy muscles act as a machine for our structure as they fuel movement and function. For every pound of muscle gained, one can burn 50 to 100 calories more per day. One may notice they are getting leaner, but may not even see a drop on the scale because they may have gained five pounds of muscle and lost five pounds of fat.  Now, at the same weight, a person could burn two hundred fifty to five hundred extra calories per day!!  That can add up.  Once muscle muscle is developed, one can lose half a pound to 1 pound of fat and not have to give up a whole lot!  But, let me be very clear here, working out is not a complete means for weight loss especially when one has been working out for a while and they only need to lose five to ten pounds. 

Exercise, whether structured or playtime, is one of the most positive things you can do for yourself.  A shaman I studied ‘myself’ with years ago said it is hard to have an unhealthy mind in a fit body.  Exercise gives us confidence and a wonderful sense of wellbeing.  On those days you’d rather sleep in or run home for a glass of wine right after work, you are missing out on more energy and more relaxation. Yes, exercise does both. I call it relaxed energy and it is the best feeling one can have.  The ability to comfortably move through your day with a lack of stress can make you more productive and happier. So never think you don’t have enough time in a day to exercise, you won’t have much energy to get the job done if you don’t.

I love being here right now!

Nancy came up to me after my Bodeci workout class Saturday morning and said, “I really appreciated a comment you said this morning.  You said, ‘I love being here right now!’”

(Nancy J., my amazing Bodeci workout substitute teacher, performing a reverse crunch.)

I had been performing a particularly grueling exercise and was close to exhaustion.  Nancy went on to tell me, “It made me stop my usual strand of self-talk and be present.  It made a huge difference in my experience with what was happening at that moment.”

Like me, many of us regularly project away from “the moment” with self-depreciating thoughts or ruminations of past or future experiences.

For the rest of the day, I purposed to “love being here right now” and I felt a sense of peace and fulfillment moving through me. While at a big engagement party later that day, I became aware of an old feeling of anxiety.  But I remembered my focus and found myself enjoying moments shared with friends, old and new.  Instead of, “I hope so-and-so isn’t offended I haven’t been over to talk to her yet.” or “I probably shouldn’t have worn these shorts” or  “shoot, I didn’t finish my Bodeci thought” I slowed down my mind and stayed “in the moment”.

Slow your thoughts.  Look where your feet are.  That is where you are supposed to be:  In “the moment”!  

Helen, started with me February 1st

 Bodeci body of month 

Today, she has lost 41 pounds of fat and gained 17 pounds of muscle.

Andiamo!