Week 8: Adding joyful activities to your life

Last week was week 7 on our 10-week journey toward a healthier lifestyle. We have come SO far… and it’s all been in the way of small, baby steps. We took our time and we’ve used every week to make a small, do-able change.

If you’ve made ANY of these baby steps into real habits in your life, you have been successful! Success sometimes comes in small sizes, but the important thing is that when it comes, it’s REAL. You ARE eating more fruits and vegetables. You ARE drinking more water. You ARE keeping a journal. Whatever step became your habit during this journey, big or small, that’s a victory. So congratulations on everything and anything that has become REAL for you so far!

Last week our baby step was to explore spiritually based exercises, specifically yoga and chi gong.
This week, week 8, we are going to be less physical and more mindful and thoughtful, in order to create a healthier life.

About two years ago, I went to see my physician. And I told him about all that was going on in my life. One of my biggest complaints was my that I was feeling very stressed out. Everything, and I mean everything, was a burden. I felt exhausted.

The doctor said to me, “It sounds like you don’t have much joy in your life, Pat.”  I thought about that statement. And the doctor was right. There was no joy! Everything I was doing felt painful. Everything was a drudgery.

My work at that time was INSANE. I was working for a client that must have been spawned from Satan himself. That company was that evil and unforgiving to work for. One of my eyelids actually twitched for weeks because of the stress that I had allowed myself to be placed under. And I have to emphasize the word “ALLOWED.”

This wasn’t someone else fault. This was MY fault.

The doctor made it clear — I was viewing life without joy. It was a CHOICE that I was personally making. It wasn’t that life had no joy in it. It had lots of joy! But I had forgotten a few things along the way of my life.

One thing I had forgotten along the way was the importance of making time strickly for myself.

Only a few years earlier, I had regained that in my life, at least to a degree. I was recently divorced, and my life was no longer about my ex-husband and his life. So I was going out quite a bit, either with my kids or with friends, and enjoying life in a much more full way. I met a wonderful man during that time, and we started traveling a lot, which is something I love to do. In the first six months of our dating, we had taken four overnight trips — including two to Florida and one to Las Vegas. But in a very short amount of time, maybe a year or so, I became, yet again, about everyone else. The economy changed, and I found myself working myself to death to help us maintain our lifestyle. I would spend many late hours at the computer… I would find myself working sometimes until 2 or 3 a.m.; there were even times, I wouldn’t go to bed until 5 in the morning, and then would get up at 7 a.m. to help the kids get ready for school!

When I would go to bed on time, I was having trouble falling asleep. Hours would go by, and I couldn’t shut off my brain. And none of the thoughts I had were pleasant ones. Anxious and ugly thoughts would pop inside my head.

I had forgotten how to count my blessings. And that was a downright sin, because I had so many! Great parents, a good man, wonderful kids… and a comfortable environment.

And yet, I was fixated on work and worried about finances; I was consumed in fear and anxiety. Nothing seemed to give  me joy. I needed a serious attitude adjustment, and luckily, my doctor recognized it and brought it to my attention.

So today’s show is going to be turning around that attitude and reintroducing JOY into your life, as I did that year.

The first thing I did was to recognize the situation. As always, the place to start for change is acknowledging the truth at hand. I had to agree with my doctor — I was NOT finding joy in my life. I wasn’t doing joyful things, and I wasn’t bringing joy into the things I was doing. But now that was going to change.

So to do this, I started exploring resources, because I wanted to gain some support and knowledge on how I would enjoy myself more. At that time, I was feeling extremely overwhelmed, so I thought organization books might be part of the answer, to remove some of the clutter and chaos from my life. In searching for resources, I found and purchased a fantastic book — Hannah Keeley’s Total Mom Makeover by Hannah Keeley. From this book came many of the ideas for taking care of myself that I have used in this radio show. One is to get up earlier than everyone else and to set up a bedtime routine as well, to create some “me” time that I could truly love and enjoy for myself. It also helped me organize my life, so it wasn’t so crazy all the time.

Then my dear, newlywed husband, Steve, gave me a fantastic gift. I had always wanted to go to an overnight health spa — one where you at healthy foods and exercised all day long, and lived a truly healthy lifestyle… to know what that would feel like. And he gave me the money to do that. That was his wedding gift to me. I used it to springboard into a better life. That was two years ago, and I still think very fondly about the time I spent there… and next week, I’ll suggest how we can experience the same thing at home. It’s going to be a great show!

Next came one of the best books I have ever found on self-care: Cheryl Richardson’s book, The Art of Extreme Self-Care, a book totally devoted to taking care of yourself. Taking care of yourself… It sounds like this book should never have needed to be written… and yet, there was a need, an important need, as we often forget while we care for others to care for ourselves.

Not long after reading Cheryl’s book, I found The Artist’s Way, the creative methodology to which I adhere and facilitate to others via my workshops. In The Artist’s Way, author Julia Cameron talks about how important it is to fill the creative “well” of our soul, to prevent a creative drought. To do this, she suggests what she calls “Artist’s Dates” — deliberate time set aside solely to do something enjoyable, purely enjoyable.

So I did! It was summer, and I started to create outings with my husband and my children, just because those outings would be fun. I started to think about doing things simply because they were fun. And I didn’t worry about what else had to be done… because right now was FUN time. Just fun time. And when I did enough of those “artist dates,” the joy I experienced did indeed fill me up, and it started to permeate the other areas of my life!

Doing joyful things helps balance out your life and make the not-so-joyful things more bearable. And even with those things, the not-so-joyful things, I tried to shift my attitude, so I would find something wonderful in EVERYTHING that I did. I looked for joy, and more often than not, I found joy!

Because of all of this dedication to becoming more joyful, I started to become a healthier person. I had a true metaphysical epiphany along the way. I started to feel so much better than I had a few short months prior to that day I visited my doctor with all my woes.

And, then… Wouldn’t you know it, that client returned — the client from hell, who wanted me again to work under their hell-like conditions. And as hard as this was, because money was tight and I did need the work, I said NO.

No job was worth jeopardizing my health, my well-being, and my joy. I truly believe we all need to provide in someway… that we all are to be a productive and a useful part of society, and serve others in someway. But serving this company, with all of their outrageous demands, crossed the line into mental and physical abuse, and I, in returned, had also crossed a line — into the territory of my mind and spirit that would no longer allow THAT — the agony of working for such a client — to happen to me. I promised myself “never again,” and when I stayed true to that promise for myself, that alone felt so good and so empowering! I honored my promise to myself, and I honored MYSELF in the process.

So this week, I invite us all to take an artist’s date. Carve out time this week to do something fun just for the sake of doing something fun. It could be alone, it could be with others, but it has to be something enjoyable. Don’t tie it to anything practical! Let it just be a fun and joyful event. And moving forward, let’s try to do that every week, or at least, a couple of times a month.

And let’s also count our blessings and find joy everyday, in everything that we do, so we never lose sight again of the joy that is present in all of our lives.

So let’s list just where we are on the journey, so we can continue being accountable and getting results!

We are:

• developing a MINDSET that will keep us focused and motivated to stay on track with our lifestyle changes.
• journaling our eating and our exercise habits on a daily basis.
• measuring and weighing ourselves to monitor our progress.
• drinking adequate water — up to 8 glasses of water a day.
• seeing a medical doctor, and following his or her drug and /or supplement prescriptions.
• getting to bed at a time that allows for around 8 hours of sleep every night.
• watching our calories, staying within our prescribed limits as confirmed by our doctors, and replacing a lot of the white grain-based foods and fatty fried foods with lots of fruits and vegetables, raw or cooked in a healthy way.
• doing cardio exercise, 3 days a week.
• lifting weights, 2 days a week.
• introducing yoga or chi gong… which include tai chi… into our life.
• creating and participating in deliberately joyful events every week, and continuously looking for joy in our everyday activities!

Now, this would also be a great week to also do some self-evaluation. Think about these baby steps we’ve done so far. If you review my blog, you can see the more about each step, week to week. And ask yourself these questions:

What have you done well? What has become a habit? What are you doing consistently?

What hasn’t gone as well? What are you not doing that you really WANT to be doing? Why aren’t you doing it? What would get you past your roadblocks so that you would start doing it?

Use these answers to improve on the successful changes you’ve already made. And again, congratulations on everything you’ve done so far!

The changes, while they are small, are steady and for me, they are producing results! I still have a long road ahead of me, but I think doing this journey with the rest of you has made an impact on my life. So I thank all of you who have listened to this series. You have kept me accountable, and my life is changing in a positive way because of it. Thank you. You are all a blessing and joy to me.
Now, I have to tell you — you will want to listen to NEXT week’s episode for sure, or at the very least, listen to the archive or come here to read the blog. It’s going to be such a FUN episode! The activity that we are going to be doing is going to take a lot of creativity and planning to pull it off, but I want you to try to carve out the time for it, because it’s so worthwhile and fulfilling.

We are going to create our own, at-home, health spa experience. It will start on a Friday evening and go all the way to Sunday morning. During that time, right at home, you will recreate what a day at a health spa actually feels like. To be honest, it’ll be very different and maybe even a little difficult to do, because it tends to jump into the extreme, and up until now we’ve been in baby-step mode. BUT NOW… it’s time JUST for you. You can do this with a friend or your significant other as well, so it can be time just for the two of you! There will be some investment of money, but you won’t have to pay the arm and the leg you have to pay when you actually reserve accommodations at the health spa/resort. And you’ll gain many of the same benefits, including the teaching of your subconscious of what a healthy lifestyle feels like, looks like, and sounds like… to the point of creating a vision for your mind’s eye that can make a healthier lifestyle even EASIER as you move forward. It’s a one-of-a-kind episode… I’ve never seen anybody else try to present such an opportunity — I’m going to teach you and show you how to do this for yourself, and you can do it anytime and as often as you can do it. 🙂

Don’t forget that I am  available as a profession life coach to help give you the support you might need in reaching any of your dreams and desires, including the journey that we are currently on!
So if you need that sort of support, you contact me by writing me at lacroixcreative@comcast.net. I give a FREE consultation to everyone and anyone who would like one.

I invite you all to stop by BlogTalkRadio.com again on Tuesdays at 11 a.m. Central time for my next show, as we continue this life-changing journey to healthier habits and weight loss! The next one is our health spa at home show — do not miss it!

Dream big everybody!

Week 7: Adding spritually based exercises

Last week was week 6 on our 10-week journey toward a healthier lifestyle. We added weight-baring exercise, or some call it weight training or weight building… and we are now doing that on the two days that we have OFF between are cardio exercising.

So since I do my cardio exercise on Monday, Wednesday and Friday… I do weight-baring exercises on Tuesday and Thursday.

This week, week 7, I’m going to introduce you  to spiritually based exercises. These are exercises that not only address your physical state but also your spiritual and mental state of being.

Let’s talk first about yoga. Yoga refers to traditional physical and mental disciplines that originated in India, and are associated with the meditative practices in Hinduism, Buddhism and Jainism.

There are many branches or types of yoga, and I’m not going to get into all of them here. And it is tied to a spirituality, but I’m going to focus primarily on what yoga is as a physical form of exercise that can also bring a lot of peace to your mind and spirit.

So, generally speaking, yoga is the practice of specific physical poses. Some of these can be quite easy… other poses can be pretty challenging. In doing them, you’ll be stretching your body… you’ll be making your body more flexible.. and you’ll be breathing deeply, taking in a lot of oxygen. You’ll also be centering your thoughts and your mind at the same time, and that can bring an enormous amount of peace.

Yoga poses create BALANCE in  your body, by developing that flexibility and also your strength. There’s yoga for beginners and advanced yoga, and I’ll admit that I’ve had trouble finding DVDs that really address that beginner level. But you are always encourage to start by doing just what you can do, and slowly, your flexibility and strength will increase, and your ability to do the poses well and optimally, will also increase.

The instructor of a yoga class will usually determine how much non-physical, meditative work is included in the class. Some classes and DVDs are simply physical. Some do dive more on the spiritual side. So if you want to explore yoga, decide how much of each would make you happy, and find a class that suits your style.

On the internet, yoga.about.com has a great reference with videos and information on all sorts of styles of yoga.

So why bother with yoga? Physically speaking, having flexibility and strengths are wonderful physical attributes that will improve your life. Think of the activities you could do if you were just a little stronger and a little more flexible. You’ll also avoid more injuries if  your body can handle more flexibility. So those reasons alone are a good reason to consider adding yoga to your exercise routine.

That strength and flexibility can also ease up pain, especially if you do a lot of sitting, and get back aches often from working at a desk. And the poses also encourage good posture. You become aware of your body and how the muscles and bones all work together, and your alignment improves over time.

Yoga also helps move fluid into your joints, and often, it helps keeps your joints working properly and also keeps them pain-free. As we get older, caring for our joints becomes more and more important.

You’ll be breathing more deeply, and bringing in that extra oxygen really helps wake up the brain and the body’s organs. Deep breathing also has a calming effect. And, all of this helps reduce STRESS. Yoga is a great tool for stress management. In fact, all forms of exercise are great stress busters. I find that when I’m doing my workouts, I can’t think about any troubles. So at least for that half hour, my mind is clear from any anxiety.

Another spiritually based exercise that you might be interested in is chi gong. Tai chi, which you may have heard of, also falls under chi gong. Both tai chi and chi gong are Chinese exercises that combine movement, mediation, and rhythmic breathing to improve the flow of energy through the body. The Chinese word for energy is CHI. And in both tai chi and chi gong, you are working to improve the flow of CHI — the flow of energy — in your body.

There’s been research in the areas of tai chi and chi gong that are proving that these movements really do have a significant affect on our physical health, including reducing stress, lowering blood pressure and improving posture, balance and strength. There was a chi gong study which showed that participants who participated in chi gong actually lowered their blood sugar levels without otherwise changing their lifestyle. It is said to also improve SLEEP for participants.

And the New England Journal of Medicine published a study that asserted that tai chi could help manage the pain from fibromyalgia. It’s nice to have an alternative to medications that have awful side affects, and it seems like tai chi and chi gong might be the way to go to help relieve pain and other symptoms of disease, while not introducing any harmful effects.

The difference between tai chi and chi gong is that chi gong is a medicinal style of the art, while tai chi actually has some martial applications. Personally, I’ve found tai chi to be a little to slow in movement for my taste. Chi gong, on the other hand, is something I’ve loved and it has changed my life. I actually saw an improvement in my physical health and my level of energy AFTER I started to practice chi gong. I’ve had a lot of GI problems over the last 5 years, and many of the symptoms and effects started to go away after I started to practice chi gong on a regular basis.

The nice thing about tai chi and chi gong is that older adults usually can do some forms of THESE exercises, when they can’t do anything else.

Now… how do we fit this into the schedule. Well, for some of us, that won’t be easy.  I personally feel like I’m already tapped out of time. But it IS still possible. If you have elected to make your MORNINGS your exercise time, perhaps evening would be a good time for this stress-busting exercises. Or… vice versa. You could do them every day… a couple of times a week… on the weekend… I’d say, since we are doing baby steps, if you could just find a couple of days a week to squeeze in this sort of exercise, try and do it. And see what works for you. The beauty of chi gong is that it doesn’t take a long session to make a big difference.

I’ve become a fan of Lee Holden. And he has an AWESOME DVD called “seven minutes of magic.” In it, he has a morning program and an evening program… a session that wakes you up, and another that relaxes you! And each one is only seven minutes long. So when I can’t squeeze in a 30 minute session, I always feel like I can do a seven minute session.

To check out all of Lee Holden’s DVDs, you can go to his website, www.exercisetoheal.com.

He has chi gong (also spelled qi gong or qigong) DVDs for just about everything — back pain, weight loss, healthy joints, stress relief… he has one specifically for seniors… And he has some meditation CDs as well.

So if you are at the stage where you can add some more exercise, give yoga or chi gong a try. If not now… stay open to the thought for the future. You might be VERY surprised what changes occur in your body for the better.

So where are we now on the journey???

We are:

• developing a MINDSET that will keep us focused and motivated to stay on track with our lifestyle changes.
• journaling our eating and our exercise habits on a daily basis.
• measuring and weighing ourselves to monitor our progress.
• drinking adequate water – up to 8 glasses of water a day.
• seeing a medical doctor, and following his or her drug and /or supplement prescriptions
• getting to bed at a time that allows for around 8 hours of sleep every night.
• watching our calories, staying within our prescribed limits as confirmed by our doctors, and replacing a lot of the white grain-based foods and fatty fried foods with lots of fruits and vegetables, raw or cooked in a healthy way.
• doing cardio exercise, 3 days a week
• lifting weights, 2 days a week
• Introducing yoga or chi gong… which include tai chi… into our life.

If you have any questions about this life-changing journey we are on, please write me at lacroixcreative@comcast.net and I’ll answer those questions for you directly.

I am also available as a profession life coach to help give you the support you might need in reaching any of your dreams and desires, including the journey that we are currently on. If you want to learn more, please go to my website, www.lacroixlifecoaching.com.

Next time, we are going to be doing something really neat. We are going to talk about bring JOY into our lives… Joyful events that remind us that life is not all about work and suffering, and doing things we dislike, but instead, about doing things we love, and turning things around so that everything, even things that are mundane, can bring some joy and happiness into our lives.

I invite you all to stop by BlogTalkRadio.com again on Tuesdays, at 11 a.m. Central time for my next show, as we continue this life-changing journey to healthier habits and weight loss!

You CAN create a life that you LOVE… and we are doing it! Step by step! Dream big everybody!

Week 6: Adding weight-baring exercises to your week

Last week was week 5 on our 10-week journey toward a healthier lifestyle. Oh my goodness. I don’t think I even realized last week that we were half-way through the journey. And if you’ve made ANY strides forward with the steps we are taking… Awesome. You are creating your life to be healthier and as a result, happier and more fulfilling. There’s an old saying… if you don’t have  your health, you have nothing. So if you’ve made your life healthier in the last 5 weeks, you’ve enriched it. So YAAAYYY! Let’s celebrate, because that’s a milestone. You weren’t here 5 weeks ago, But you got here. Keep it up… keep moving forward.

So let’s do that… let’s move forward into week 6. I’ve changed things around from our original outline of the journey. Originally, we were going to talk about diet again, but we actually pretty much covered everything in week 4, our diet show. So we are moving on with exercise for this week, and that is adding another TWO days of exercise into our week. Last week, week 5, we added CARDIO exercise three times a week. This week, week 6, we are adding weight-baring exercise, or some call it weight training or weight building… and we’ll be doing that on the two days that we had OFF last week.

So if you are doing your cardio exercise on Monday, Wednesday and Friday… you’ll be doing your weight lifting on Tuesday and Thursday.

We already discussed this subject a little bit last week when we talked about the cardio exercise. So I’ve already listed out the benefits, which include building muscle mass for strength, building bone density for bone health, and even burning calories as you will be increasing your metabolism.

And it’s really YOUR job, as the creator of you own life, to investigate what works best for you, so I’m not going to tell you HOW to do this step. That’s for all of you to explore and figure out. So I’m not going to be very long winded with this episode, and I can guarantee it won’t be a full hour. But I will point out some resources you can go to so that you can start creating that plan.

Last week I mentioned about.com. They have a great section on weight lifting exercises that you might want to check out. And then there’s sparkpeople.com, my favorite site to go to for anything regarding weight loss and fitness. They have a TON of information there that can help you craft a plan for the exercises you’ll want to do.

A typical program would be upper body one day, lower body the next day… that way you give the other muscles time to rest. Some exercise programs do abs both days… some programs do abs just on one of these days. You probably should do abs at least one of the days, to get those muscles involved and worked on as well. Sparkpeople has all that information on their website, so if you aren’t already a member, join… it’s completely free, and you’ll want to take advantage of everything it has to offer.

There is also a wonderful DVD that exists that is perfect for beginners. Jorge Cruise has a workout that is only 20 minutes long. And in it, he does the upper body workout for day 1 — 20 minutes long… and then for day two, the lower body workout — another 20 minute workout.

You follow along with his assistant. You get everything right by checking yourself against her. And Jorge is right there, coaching you on… it’s like you just ordered your own personal coach.

The name of the set is the 12 second sequence… I have the 2-volume set, and I really like it. A real workout in a short amount of time. Do it and get on with your life!

Do you need a lot of equipment to do weight baring exercises? Not really. There are ways to be creative about that, and I’ll talk about that in just a minute.

But if you do follow Jorge Cruise’s program, you will need is an inflatable rubber exercise balls…  you know, those big balls that you can literally sit or lay on top of? You need one of them… You’ll need just a few free weights or dumbbells to start. You need to start out small, and you can buy them and move up as you improve, so you don’t have to have a whole weight set to start, and frankly, most women won’t move much above 10 lbs., if even, so don’t sweat that. Many start with 3 lb weights… if you find them too heavy, you can even start out with one pound weights. It sounds crazy, but I know of people who have used canned foods as weights! If you can’t afford weights, why not? Pick on that is truly 1 lb, like a can of soup, one that you can hang onto comfortably without dropping it, and start with that.

He also uses a chair… something like a folding chair. Most people have a few of those around the house, for parties and get-togethers… and he uses a broomstick. Sounds funny… but it’s true. And most of us have a broom around the house.

You are doing it right in your home… all you need is the DVD player and the TV. No gym membership required! And not much space, either, which is great.

Some exercises exist that use YOUR weight as the weight. Push-ups are a great example. Squats – same thing. So doing more of those types of exercises eliminates the need for weights. Sparkpeople probably has a few of these on their site, if you search them out.

So as always… there are NO excuses. It’s time to get moving, and do what we CAN do, and focus on that, rather than focusing on what we CAN’T do. It’s time to get creative and think of ways to bring healthy exercise into our lives. We CAN do this… We can ALL do this. We just have to be creative and come up with the ideas… and then we have to put them in motion.

If you have been listening to my radio show, or reading my blog… I AM personally challenging all of you to step up to the plate of a healthy lifestyle. I don’t even know you, and I believe you can do it, because I believe we can ALL do this. The question is, do you believe that? I suppose that’s what I’m asking and my real challenge to you IS to believe that, and act upon that belief. Start today… no time like the present. In fact, there is NO time… except the present.

Everything I’ve been doing so far is documenting on these radio shows and in my blogs. Have I been perfect at it all? No. None of us are or will be. So that’s a moot point!

Have I given up? No! And my radio show has been MY motivation to keep my will up and to keep moving forward. It’s keeping me accountable.

What keeps you motivated? What keeps you accountable? Think about that this week… the answers might be life-changing… but you have to get to those answers first. They are inside you… and part of our quest on this journey to discover such things inside us.

So this is the week… we will start to do the weight training two times a week, with a break in between and gain all the wonderful benefits from doing it… the wonderful benefits of truly being FIT and WELL.

Where are we on the journey of gaining a healthier lifestyle? Where did we start and what have we done so far?

We are:

• developing a MINDSET that will keep us focused and motivated to stay on track with our lifestyle changes.
• journaling our eating and our exercise habits on a daily basis.
• measuring and weighing ourselves to monitor our progress.
• drinking adequate water – up to 8 glasses of water a day.
• seeing a medical doctor, and following his or her drug and /or supplement prescriptions
• getting to bed at a time that allows for around 8 hours of sleep every night.
• watching our calories, staying within our prescribed limits as confirmed by our doctors, and replacing a lot of the white grain-based foods and fatty fried foods with lots of fruits and vegetables, raw or cooked in a healthy way.
• doing cardio exercise, 3 days a week
• lifting weights, 2 days a week

Next week… we are going to add some spiritual-based exercises to our routine. It’s amazing what they can do for your body, mind and soul.

I invite you all to stop by BlogTalkRadio.com again on Tuesday, Nov. 9, at 11 a.m. Central time for my next show, as we continue this life-changing journey to healthier habits and weight loss! And if you’d like to get in touch with me, my e-mail address is lacroixcreative@comcast.net.

Until then, remember that you that you CAN create a life that you LOVE… and we are doing it! YEA!

Dream big everybody!