I love fava beans so I baught a huge bag of them at my farmers market last week.
If you have ever pealed a fava bean you know it's a time consuming two step, rather tedius process.First the outer pod layer then the inner shiny shell. It takes longer to get to the actual bean than it does to saute and eat them.
As I was pealing them, I started equating it to exercise. Implementing and or starting an exercise program can be daunting, it can be frustrating, it can be time consuming and tedius yet once the rewards come along it's so worth it's while.
Anything that takes time and has a reward in the end is worth doing.
Eating well takes time but it's worth doing.
We need more fava beans please.
The definition of food according to Wickipedia is:
Any nutritious substance that people or animals eat or drink, or that plants absorb, in order to maintain life and growth.
Nourishment is becoming harder and harder to find, or is it? Is it "harder" to purchase fresh veggies and cut them up, roast,steam or sautee' them then to open up a box and put it into the microwave?
Is it "easier" to go to Starbucks for a Tall frappichino, extra whip, mocha drizzle, than to brew a pot of coffee at home and add a tablespoon of milk to it?
Is it "hard" to track your food before consuming it? Or is it "harder" to hear your doctor tell you that you are diabetic and have high blood pressure.
Is it "hard" to learn portion control, plan your meals, carry a cooler in your car with your food and be prepared for every meal? I mean you are going to eat right? so why not eat well?
Is it "hard" to not eat fast food? Or does it take you just as long, start to finish to fill a container of fabulous food and eat it when you are hungry.
Is all of this really "hard" or is it just a differerent way of fueling your body? Is it hard or do you just not want to do it?
I was at O'Hare waiting for my flight and what an amazing place to people watch.
The odor in the air was familiar but not imediately recognized until I saw the line for McDonalds.
Of course there would be a McDonalds in the United terminal.
As I stood waiting for my flight, my eyes went to a very young mom with a very small baby in a very large stroller. The mom was looking at her baby while eating her french fries and talking on her cell phone. The baby began to fuss so the mom stopped eating her french fries and with ONE hand was able to prepare the bottle for her child, all the while holding onto her iPhone. Once she propped the bottle up for the baby she got onto her Facebook account, checked in, continued eating her fries and bites of her hamburger never once looking at either.
It got me thinking about mindlessness, or mindfulness.
Do we ever stop and eat and ponder and feel full or do we just fill up because it's there.
I think it's so funny when my clients want to keep me a secret. Of course I respect that and I don't tell others who I train, but to me it's contradictory.
I am hired to provide a wonderful health service, one that will hopefully enhance my clients well being.
I guess it's the stigma attached or the "I didn't know you had so much disposable income that you can hire a trainer" attitude, when in reality, I think Health is THE MOST IMPORTANT EXPENSE AFTER PAYING YOUR MORTGAGE!
I feel that as a personal trainer and soon to be a certified Health Coach, we need to be embraced by society,not hidden, but at the same time, it's ok...I guess....to keep it a secret
Time and time again I hear "I didn't want to come tonight but I am so glad I did" or, "I would never be doing 10 more pushups, but I am because you are telling me to" or, " I'd still be in bed sleeping if I didn't have this appointment with you this morning"
What is it about human beings and the lack of desire to do something, which in this case is exercise, that they know will benefit them?
I myself have been guilty of delaying my workouts, I get busy on Fitness Connect or in my garden but in the back of my head I keep having the same conversation, "you need to go hike, you'll feel so much better when you get done", I know that and so I do it and everytime, I'm right!
So what about people who don't go to bootcamp, or don't have a personal trainer or don't like going to gyms, what do they do for motivation? The catch 22 is that if you don't start and continue for at least 10 weeks, you won't "get it" , you won't "feel the relief". But we as humans love finding excuses and we are so great at "I'll do it tomorrows" that we never really get into the groove.
As I tell my clients, I'ts all mental, it's all in your head. you can do it because you are in charge.
It use to be we'd move around during the day, just little stuff like not sitting in front of the computer, not playing Scramble on our iPods while lying in bed, not watching hours and hours of TV, not driving constantly while eating, we did our own gardening and house cleaning, we bagged our own groceries and actually carried them to the car, we bought real food, not fast food.
We use to move around all day~~PLUS Workout
Now we sit all day and don't want to work out.
And look at what's happened to our obesity rate.
Ten years ago when we said "you need 60 minutes of moderate to high intensity exercise a day" the world protested. Ten years ago our society was still some what "active" during the day. We didn't have smartphones, iPads, electronic billing, one stop shopping at our fingertips, we actually had to move our bodies around in order to get things done. Well, those days are over. The majority of our population sits and sits all day. They don't have to move, everything is right there at their finger tips.
So today when we say you need to workout 60 minutes a day everyday, everyone still freaks out.
SIXTY MINUTES OF MOVING MY BODY? NO WAY: It's too uncomfortable, it takes too much effort, too much energy, and besides, I may miss a text message.
So do we really need 60 minutes a day? Personally Yes, but No if people would simply MOVE more throughout their day. But they don't and we are becoming obese and more over weight by the day.
The concept of time is daunting, the concept of actually moving for 60 minutes can seem overwhelming but let's look at it from the other angle, sitting all day is worse, yet nobody complains when they have to do it.
I know I know, it's been around for years now but I have never been. Just the thought of working out in a really hot room is a turn off. My imagination would take me right to sweaty wet un fit bodies, emitting odors I don't care to inhale.
Alas, I gave in. There is a chain (not saying the name) of Yoga Studios that I have been hearing alot about, so given that I live in Northern California it was easy finding a class. So today I did it.
The studio itself is quite beautiful.Very calming and as a former manager I could appreciate the kindness of the two front desk people. I then entered the room. It was hot and hot and for a moment I thought I would turn around and walk out but I had a very diplomatic conversation with myself and I convinced myself that I could do it so I sat down and waited and watched all the Lululemon girls come in followed by the Lululemon guys who promptly removed their shirts..let the sweating begin.. The next perplexing thing was after this teacher welcomed everyone for coming and said she could appreciate that we were probably really overloaded in our heads from our work day and that we really probably hadn't taken a deep breath all day, she cranks up the music! Music? For Real? So the entire hour she played music while expecting us to focus on our breath and on clearing our heads, meanwhile it's 120 degrees in there with no ventilation, obviously, and the guy next to me is not smelling pretty and his sweat is all over the place (no it's not Bikram), and I could not wait to leave.
I don't care what the reason is. I will never understand the reason to exercise is a room that is so overly hot, and such a waste of energy (electrical) and so unnecessary.Our bodies perspire to cool us down, evaporation is how we cool down, in a room that has no ventilation with heat blasting it's impossible to regulate our core temperature, It's just another "gimic" to get our lazy American populous to think they are getting fit because they are sweating so much when in reality they are sweating so much because its so ridiculously hot. Period.
So I watched the first two parts of this documentary and found myself squirming on the couch, I found myself wanting to fast forward through half of it and get to the "solutions" but I refrained and I was as patient as I could be and I watched and waited and waited and then it was over...No solutions? Gastric bypass? Really?
I was amazed that our food industry was not addressed in the manner it needed to be addressed.
I was amazed that our medical doctors who were interviewed didn't offer advice or a better solution than "A calorie is a Calorie" (which by the way is false), I was amazed that our world of sitting all day was not addressed, our instant answer I need it now mentality was not addressed and I was equally, well, pretty much astonished that it went from nothing about real food choices and portion control right into "mindful eating" of course filmed in the San Francisco Bay Area where the rest of the country thinks we're cooky already..
Don't get me wrong, I do believe in being mindful but it's not that simple, it's not the step that we need right now
We need to get boxed, processed, fast foods, yes, sodas too, out of our "food chain"
We need to get back to basics
We need Michael Pollan
We need to have early obesity intervention within our medical world NOW: When a person is 15% overweight we need to intervene, not when they are 150% overweight.
We need wellness coaches and fitness professionals involved in our medical world
We need to slow down, we need to be honest and real and we need to once again divide food from emotion and victims of their own obesity see that it's not society "doing it to them" it's them doing it to them.
When Pinole Valley Bootcamp started we offered 4 classes a week based on a 6 week comittment.
During the course of two years we have changed this to 2 classes a week based on a 6 week comittment.
It's always the same thing, everyone signs up, excited, can't wait, but then something happens...
It's too hard, it's too much work, it's too "physical"...then the excuses start....about 4 weeks into it..
"I have to work" is the most popular "I'm not feeling well" is the next most popular, " I am stuck at a meeting" is the third most popular.
We are only asking for 12 hours... that's it! and we still can't get every one to bootcamp.
I don't take it personally, because I know our program works. I take it as a symbol of how "lazy" our society has become. The gym mentality, walking on a treadmil, is not what we do at bootcamp
We push and challenge and show you that you can do much much more than you think, yet, humans don't like that, they like comfort, they like kindof working out they like, kindof sweating.
It's unfortunate that so few have it figured out while the rest of our population is getting lazier and more sedentary by the day.
