How do you lay a foundation for a healthy life?

Over the years, I’ve made numerous l attempts to lose weight and what I’ve come to accept is that my success lies within my habits.  If I want to change the direction of my life or reach a particular goal, I need to let go of the habits that are keeping me from reaching my goals and adopt habits that will move me closer to my goals.

Looking at this idea from a health, fitness, and weight loss perspective, when I look back on those attempts to lose weight I realize that I was trying to do too much, change too many habits at once.  Part of the reason for that was that I never fully realized how many habits I would have to change in order to meet one goal.  Let me give you an example. 

I would decide to eat healthier.  Seems simple enough, right?  On the surface, it appears that eating healthier is just one habit.  But eating healthier involved the following:

·         Eating different foods                                                                                              

·         Shopping at a different grocery store than the one I was used to

·         Changing the amount of food I ate

·         Counting calories

·         Removing specific foods from my diet

See what I mean?  Adopting one “simple” habit really meant changing or adopting at least six different habits.  Whew!  That’s a lot to change, a lot of new habits to change all at once.  After a while, it’s a lot to keep up with.  I would have some success, but eventually I would fall back to my old habits. 

So that’s got me thinking a lot lately about the habits I need to establish in designing a healthy lifestyle.  I asked myself, “What can I do that will help me lose weight while at the same time support my health? What basic things can I do that serve as a foundation for the healthy life I’m creating for myself? What can I do that will not be a drain on my time or my wallet, will not disrupt my life, and be easy to implement?”  My thought process was that these habits would serve as a foundation and that I can build from there.  I was also thinking that if I went off the rails, I’d have a simple starting to point to go back to. 

So, I know you dying to know---what are they?  I like to think of them as the “five healthy habits I can live with” and I believe they will be instrumental in helping me to design a healthy life that I love and enjoy.  And they are:

·         Drink plenty of water

·         When I’m hungry, eat

·         When I full or not hungry, don’t eat

·          Move more---add more physical activity in the course of daily living

·         Get the sleep I need

I’m going to dig into each of these habits individually in separate posts and explain why and how I settled on them.  In the meantime, I want you to think about them and ask yourself:

·         Am I drinking plenty of water? 

·         Do I have a habit of over eating?

·         Do I purposely skip meals even when I’m hungry?

·         How active am I during the day?  Am I spending more time sitting than moving?

·         Am I getting enough sleep?

Again, I’ll explain in later posts why I believe these habits are a good starting point in designing a healthy lifestyle and how I think they can be very instrumental in helping you to reach your goals, and me as well.   But in the meantime, think on them and let me know your first impressions of them. 

Antoinette

What is fun for You??

Do you remember the fun things you did as a child? When you went outside to play what did you do?  Did you jump rope, hula hoop, roller skate, play dodge ball, stick ball or just ride your bike? Can you remember the joy you had in doing these things?  Isn't it amazing that while you were doing any number of these things you were also keeping your body healthy and fit.  You played hard, slept hard and woke up the next morning refreshed and ready for whatever the day held.

Why then as adults  have we forgotten how to have fun. We have taken the joy out of healthy living by doing what we think will gain us the best results. We do a number of things that we may dislike such as, jogging, running on the tread mill, lifting weights, or exercising 2 - 4 hours a day. If these things are your idea of fun then I say enjoy.  But if not, find something that is fun for you.. Because if you don't like whatever form of exercise you select, you will not stick to it.  Several years ago I was introduced to line dancing.  I found that I loved it. It is fun,  the  music is great (takes me back to younger days) and I get a great workout doing something that I enjoy. So when you are planning your healthy life changes put something in your plan that you love and will be fun for you.  Doing something fun will go a long way to ensuring that you meet your goals and keep them. Think FUN!!!

Shirley

Go Hard or Go Home, Baby!

There’s a line dance called, “Go hard or Go Home”.  Where I live, people refer to it as “the Mary J.”  It’s a pretty advanced line dance that was created years ago and it was one of the first advanced dances I ever learned. 

What makes a line dance advanced?  An advanced line dance will have:

·         longer rotations, meaning it will be a long time before it starts over (for you dancers out there, probably more than 64 counts)

·         complex steps

·         and sometimes, but not always, a faster tempo

 

I love advanced dances!  They get my heart going, I love the complexity of the routines, and they usually have great music.  Doing an advanced line dance is like doing a high-intensity workout, so I decided to call our high-intensity dances and workouts, “Go Hard or Go Home”.  Depending on the workout routine, I might sneak a “Go Hard or Go Home” dance into it (like the one I’m going to start in our live class next week J).  But I’ve also put together some “Go Hard or Go Home” workouts and all I can say is, “Whew!”  Get ready!  

 

Antoinette

Let's Get This Party Started!

I'm going to change gears this week and talk a little about exercise (and anyone who knows me knows that I can't talk about exercise without talking about line dancing, lol).  

Remember your clubbing days?  You didn't jump right in and go all out on the dance floor the minute you got the club, right?  You put a lot of time into getting dressed--picking the right outfit, putting on your makeup, picking the right shoes.  Putting on your favorite body lotions, creams, and perfumes and getting your hair just right.  You didn't want to ruin all that work that by sweating it all out on the dance floor within the first 15 minutes of your arrival.  So you took it easy and you warmed up with a two-step, a turn every now and then, a little booty shake.  If you did anything more complicated than that, you took your time with it.  I would call this part of the night low intensity-you're working but it's manageable and you can probably talk with being too out of breath.  In an exercise class, this would be the warm-up.  At Hustle Fit we call it, "Let's Get This Party Started". 

 

Every workout begins with a Let's Get This Party Started dance however, we also have entire workouts created with just Let's Get This Party Started dances. Let's Get This Party Workouts are a great way to learn basic steps at a good tempo.  I use the above dance, "As Good As I Am" as way to help people learn the "kick and cross".   That's a tricky move for some and learning it slow for the
first time is definitely better than learning it fast and while traveling...
 

I hope this gives you a little insight into Hustle Fit.  I can't wait to see you in class or online (we'll be launching soon!).


Antoinette

Movie Moments That Inpire Me

Inspiration can come from anywhere.  Over the years, there have been a few movie moments that inspired me to start or keep working out. 

Se7en

When the victim who represented gluttony was being autopsied, it occurred to me that one day I’m going to end up naked on someone’s autopsy and/or embalming table.  It seemed right that I should look my best.  I found a picture of that scene, it’s too graphic to include here but do a google image search for “se7en movie gluttony” and you’ll find it. 

Disclosure

Demi Moore looked amazing in this movie.  Her character was sexy and powerful—I was a plump 180lbs.  I thought to myself, “I can do better”. 

G. I. Jane

Demi Moore again!   I was over 200lbs when this movie was released.  She was so physically fit; I didn’t want her body, but I did want MY best body. 

Let me just say, I don’t aspire to have anyone else’s body, just my own but at its best.  I’m not there yet but I’m on my way.  Shirt size XXL in 2010, XL in 2011, L in 2013. 

What movie moments have inspired you to fitness? 

Who Complains About Dancing?

There is only one physical activity that I can think of that people do not complain about—dancing!  Think about it. 

1.       At a party, people dance for as long as the music lasts. 

2.       People don’t complain about dancing all night but,

3.       People do hope the music is good enough so that they CAN dance all night. 

And when the DJ plays great song after great song after great song, people keep on dancing.  Even when our feet hurt (high heels were not made for dancing).  In fact, don’t we judge the skill of a DJ by his or her ability to keep the dance floor packed?  And more importantly, people are happy when they are dancing—happy and laughing as you can see in the picture below.  That’s me, center, in the red top, feeling the groove. J

 

When you think about it, isn’t dancing a form of exercise?  We just don’t think of it as such because it’s something we WANT to do rather than something we think we have to do. 

Why can’t working out be the same way?  Why can’t it be good for you and fun?  That’s what Hustle Fit™ is all about.  It was born out of my love for dancing, particularly line dancing.  It’s a lot of fun--try it out and let us know what you think. Just go to www.hustlefitonline.com and you can sign up to receive three free videos.  Enjoy!


Antoinette