Getting Your Pilates Body Back After the Holidays

"Friends, children, lots of food and drink; Hey, I had a great time! Now I have to punish myself and start a strict regimen of diet and exercise. Maybe I should pay to join that weight loss group...."

I am so glad you had a great time! Reveling in the love and joy, overlooking little irritations, laughing your head off! I hope you did all that and more. But lets back up and think about our intentions going forward.

You may have put on some weight or reached a plateau. You know your pilates exercise and online workouts could improve. Some of you may have really overdone it...yeah.

Lets, right now, try and shift our thinking from being hard on ourselves to a feeling of compassion. You've given so much to others, worked so hard making friends and loved ones have a Merry Christmas. You are amazing. At a certain level, you know that. 

Holding those good feelings, you are ready to receive some wellness tips.

• Don't fast. A protein packed breakfast within 30 minutes of rising is the best way to start. Every day. Maximizing energy, staying mentally sharp, and moving toward your perfect weight, are only three in the long list of advantages of keeping blood sugar stable.
• If you've had too much to drink, don't lay around. Do your best to move (walk, run, play with the kids) and drink pure water. Take the best antioxidant supplement you can find several times during the day. Think of over-drinking as poisoning your body. It is.
• Don't over exercise. Your body is a finely tuned machine. Pushing any system beyond its limits, even with pilates classes will only set you back. -Especially if you are over 50.
• We are culturally programed to be consumers. The goal of that weight loss program is not to graduate you to independence. It also adds to the food obsession that made some of us fat in the first place. Lets go within and make independent decisions that grow our character toward lasting change.     

And feel good now.

Judy Farmer is an online pilates instructor offering over sixty different expert mat pilates classes and relevant wellness advice as an online membership at Great Pilates Now.

Visualize Your Perfect Body With Your Online Coach

I have never made a New Years resolution in my life. My will was so weak, I begin to feel guilt just thinking about it. Yet somehow, I’ve become one of the more disciplined and fit people I know.

How and when did this happen? I was never an exerciser. Not even in college. Yeah, I tried Jane Fonda at 6:00 am a few times. I made myself go jog during college; once. I bought Richard Simmons videos and tried to sweat to the oldies.

After number six came along, I was, lets just say, REALLY NEEDING SOMETHING. A friend encouraged me to try soccer. It was fun. I met lots of people and discovered my bladder wasn’t ..... but then some real magic began to happen for me.

I began to see myself as an athlete. I put on the uniform, visualized myself scoring goals, and started playing with women half my age. In my mind, I was buddies with Mia Hamm. I then began running regularly because I was an athlete. I taught myself Pilates because I was an athlete. I became self-motivated because I was an athlete. I became more confident because I was an athlete.

This new identity came from a strong vision. It was the vision that made me read hundreds of wellness and personal development books and get certifications.

Many women I teach buy equipment and start workout and diet programs because they have strong negative feelings about what they see in the mirror. Sadly, these people don’t tend to finish their resolution. This is because, for them, working out brings more self criticism, even loathing.

I believe that these negative thoughts toward their bodies brought the very fat or weakness they experience. Can you see how this cycle keeps them starting pilates classes without getting results?

Zig Ziglar tells a story of a 283 lb, unemployed, divorced man. With Zig’s coaching, this man developed such a strong vision of his ideal lean, healthy body that, when a little girl pointed him out as “that fat man”, he turned to see who she was referring to. Before long, he reached his ideal weight and income. I bet he found a nice lady to share his happiness with.

So really, take a moment...what is your vision of your perfect body right now? Are you at the beach in a bikini digging in the sand with your grandchildren? Are you bike-riding  on a breezy sumer day with your tan muscular legs and strong back? Are you laughing while making love with the lights on? Do you feel a drop of sweat slide down your cheek as you complete that 5K?

Hold that vision. Write it down and contemplate it daily. Feel good now and let the magic start.

Judy Farmer
Certified Pilates Coach and Wellness Instructor
Great Pilates Now

Staying Healthy on the Run with Your Online Coach

Oh YES.  We love that word during the holidays. "Can you come to my cookie party? Should I send cards to all of them? Do I shop for gifts for those less fortunate?"

If you're like most of the women I meet through pilates classes, the word "yes" adds a good bit more running in our schedules this time of year. Attendance at my pilates studio tends to go down during the holidays.

We need to create as many hours as we can in each day. Having mental clarity and energy creates time. So what are some ways that we can keep energy flowing naturally throughout the day?

Eating well while stabilizing our blood sugar can be difficult when we're in and out of the car, stores, and all the other giving that many of us do. Here are a few tips that can help.

Keep low glycemic snacks in the car, your purse, and in backpacks. I do not mean carrot sticks and fat free snack bars. GORP (good old raisins and peanuts) minus the M+Ms, nuts, even cheese sticks will stay fresh this time of year. You can boil and shell several eggs, sprinkle a little paprika or salt on them in a ziplock bag and there's your energy through the afternoon until dinner. Turkey jerky is a great satisfying snack. Very dark chocolate with some almonds can boost energy without boosting and crashing blood sugar. Invest in a nice large travel mug and get in the habit of filling it with some wonderful tea before leaving the house. You'll be less tempted to get highly sweetened drinks.

Be creative and make a plan. All these will will reduce cravings for the endless sweets we are exposed to this time of year. You will also feel a sense of peace in controlling your eating that many of you haven't felt in a while.

Have more energy. Enjoy the people around you. Accomplish more. What could make you feel better than that this holiday season?

Killer Fat

When we hear the word "diet" we often think about regimens, group meetings, and paying money. What we know is that eating is part of living every day for all of us. Why are those two pictures so different?

For the last two weeks we have been discussing ways of eating so as not to spike blood sugar. We used a glycemic index chart to begin to make sense of it. One of the comments on the film was that foods that are white and mushy create white and mushy around our middle. Biochemically, storing fat in the tummy is most often a symptom of insulin resistance. Lisa's story illustrated the point in our filmed discussion (found in the greatpilatesnow.com library) two weeks ago.

     " I was in my thirties and the fat-free craze was in. Up to that, my weight was fine but I thought 'maybe I should'. Then I quickly gained probably about 10 or 15 pounds, and for me that was a lot of weight. It probably took be about five or six years to loose that weight."

Why did this happen? When we reduce a food group in our diet, we naturally need to compensate for that. Taking away fat often means eating more carbohydrate. Consuming more carbohydrate without the fat which buffers its effect on our blood sugar, means we need more insulin to handle the eating pattern. The result is not just weight gain.

What Dr. Ray Strand calls "killer fat" is symptomatic of impending cardiovascular disease, diabetes mellitus (adult onset), and lots of inflammation in the body. What many scientists are agreeing on now is that insulin resistance is the true underlying cause of high blood pressure and rising levels of bad fat in the blood.

It's so much more than looking good ladies. Its about extending our healthy days on this planet. More days to tell people we love them. More days to write that book, feel sunshine and wet feet; to read, to create, to snuggle.

More days to feel good.

A Better Way to Manage a Meal

Since we now understand why a calorie is no longer a calorie, lets look at how to more effectively manage a meal.

Simply put Glycemic Index is a number ranking given to a food based on how quickly it causes blood sugar to rise. Anything with an index above 60 is to be avoided. Glycemic Load means finding out the sugar impact of a combination of foods, like a meal. The base for the ranking is glucose, which has a Glycemic Index of 100 and glycemic load of 10. The load is based on the complexity of a carbohydrate and its fiber, fat or protein content.

Low Glycemic Load foods are those foods with a value of 10 or below; medium Glycemic Load foods are those foods with a value from 11 up to 19; high Glycemic Load foods are foods with a value of 20+. Since foods that are low in Glycemic Load are typically fruits and vegetables, whole grains, legumes, and lean proteins, a low Glycemic diet is a healthy, balanced diet.

Fruit sugar has an index of 19 and a load of 2 (fruit juice is substantially higher). Table sugar has an index of 61 with a load of 6. Some foods will surprise you. a fresh peach has a glycemic index of 22 and load of 3. Mashed potatoes have an index of 92 and a load of 18! Happily this doesn't mean that you must never eat mashed taters again.

The combination of foods and order in which they are eaten can absolutely bring that number down. For example, If you have a meal of turkey, a small portion of mashed potatoes and a bigger portion of broccoli or squash, the mashed taters won't spike your blood sugar the way they will if eaten first or without other foods. This has to do with the level of fat, protein, and fiber in that combination. This is why I always suggest that you add a good fat or protein to your snack. Many people think that this will make them put on weight. On the contrary, if portions are kept small, you will be surprised at how satisfied you become after only a small snack. With a little practice, you will learn how to manage any party or food buffet that comes your way without binging or being distracted by the tired feeling of overeating and feel really good!