Updated Pages

If you have signed on to receive e-mail notifications of my posts, THANKS!  I do not know if that means you will also receive notifications of newly added page tabs and/or if when I update the pages you receive notification, so be sure to notice any newly added tabs when you log on to read new posts as well as monitor tabs/pages you are interested in for updates.

I have updated the Current Fitness Challenge page so be sure to check out the details of the January 6th - March 30th Challenge!

Hope everyone has a Happy & Blessed 2012!!!

Running Challenge Anyone?

In posting yesterday the 21 Day Yoga Challenge (thru Yoga Journal) starting January 9th and preparing the upcoming 12 Week Challenge (thru this blog) starting January 6th, I would be remiss if I didn't offer up some running inspiration for those of you who would like to train for a 5k, 10k, half or full marathon.  I don't have a specific "challenge" offering, but do have some sites/apps you can check out to get you on your way to run the race of your dreams.  Cool Runnings has all kinds of couch to race plans on their site (coolrunning.com) (specifically: coolrunning.com/training); they also have apps for your smart phones with the running plans mapped out for you.  An app that I use when I run is Joggy Coach.  There is both a free and pay version of this app.  It is great because it works with your music, uses GPS to track your run terrain and distance and gives you verbal cues throughout your run.  It also tracks and saves all of your runs so you can see your improvement over time.  Even if you have never run before, these programs can literally get you from your couch to a race methodically and safely.

21 Day Yoga Challenge

For those of you who have worked out with me know that I am a big proponent of yoga for its numerous benefits.  Flexibility of course is one that gets mentioned along with increased mental development.  There are numerous research supported benefits.  The increased muscular strength, flexibility, and balance control are the ones I most appreciate from my personal yoga practice.  Yoga is an excellent way to counterbalance the muscle shortening that occurs in resistance/strength training that absent a regular stretching practice can lead to strained joints and muscular imbalances. 

Yoga Journal has a free web site (yogajournal.com) that is a wonderful resource to various yoga materials, articles, practices, podcasts, poses library and challenges.  I took their 21 day challenge last year and loved it.  They are offering another 21 day challenge beginning January 9th if anyone is interested, you need to register at yogajournal.com/21daychallenge.  It is free and available for beginners and intermediate levels. 

Namaste

New Year Fitness Challenge

Be sure to keep tabs on the Current Fitness Challenge page for details on the upcoming 12 week New Year Fitness Challenge starting January 6th!

SMART Goals

Are you resolving weight loss and fitness this new year?  Do you have a plan?  Have you heard the saying that without a plan you plan to fail?  The best thing you can do is examine where you have been so you can properly assess where you need/want to go.  Plan your nutrition, plan your workouts, and plan your destination.  Make SMART Goals: Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Relevant, and Time-bound. 

Maximize your time with very effective & efficient training!  Invest in yourself today & let me help you achieve your fitness and weight loss goals!  Contact me for your Initial FREE Consultation and Assessment! 

Christina Gibson, ACE-CPT

cagib1@charter.net
(615) 944-8181

Stages of Understanding

Is life perfect?  No, and nor will your fitness (and/or weight loss) journey be perfect.  Nothing in life is about reaching perfection but about doing your perfect best every opportunity you have to do it and understanding what that means.  Your perfect best changes from moment to moment as your circumstances change....but mostly as your understanding of your journey changes.  I was reading an article some months back that said "before you can know something, you first have to learn it; that understanding is necessarily a process of steps; and that this process takes time...everyone has to progress through certain stages of understanding."  It went on to draw the analogy of learning to play the piano or knit....one starts out very crudely but with practice and ongoing understanding improves and evolves.  In other words, with each stage of understanding of any craft, profession, or journey the start is always crude and then the destination is always further the closer we get to it because not only does our ability improve and evolve and become less and less crude but also we understand that one's learning, development....journey is never at an end (as the saying goes, the more you know, the more you realize you need to learn).  So, know that however clumsily any week/effort/workout goes you can learn something from it and move on to the next, better equipped to succeed further.  As this is not about the destination but the journey itself....The destination helps us set goals, but the journey is what makes us who we are and appreciate what we have.

"Not that I speak in respect of want: for I have learned, in whatsoever state I am, therewith to be content.  I know both how to be abased, and I know how to abound: every where and in all things I am instructed both to be full and to be hungry, both to abound and to suffer need.  I can do all things through Christ Which strengtheneth me."  ~Philippians 4:11-13

What's Holding You Back?

"It's not who you are that holds you back, it's who you think you're not."  ~Unknown .... "Don't focus on what's holding you back, but what's already there."  ~Kathryn Budig

That is not to suggest you shouldn't also examine what your limitations are and why they are limitations; only that you shouldn't be debilitated by any such limitations.  Use your strengths to assist you with your weaknesses and at some point they will not longer be weaknesses.

"It's never too late to be who you might have been."  ~George Eliot

Your Children are Watching!

"Be the person you want your child to be.  Children are apprenticed to parents in the business of growing up.  They develop their values by observing the way you behave as a person."  ~Betsy Brown Braun

Are your habits the habits you would want your children to have?  If not, let that be a focus as this new year approaches and see how that changes how you feel or act towards unhealthy temptations.  God and family are my priorities and in that so am I a priority to them!  I will continue to put myself on the list of things to do and in doing so will teach my children it is important to take care of oneself physically, mentally, and spiritually!!

Live each day as the best total person you can be!  Be present in each God given moment!  Live out loud and with purpose every opportunity you are given!!!

Balance

"Balance doesn't mean that things stop moving....it simply means that you are more able to deal with the fluctuations as they come up."  ~Kathryn Budig

If we reach a balance in our lives, a true balance, enjoy it but also be prepared to make necessary adjustments as life is ever moving and so too does your focus need to be as well.  Balance isn't something you figure out once and bam you are set.  Balance is something that is fleeting if you do not work at it to keep it in check.  All of the constant obstacles in life assure us that balance is fragile and something to strive for and maintain and honor once we reach it.  Don't get discouraged if everything is hard.  Use it rather as an opportunity to step back and get perspective on what is making it hard.  Once you are able to grasp perspective on your existence and obstacles is when you can truly apply your hard earned and fought for life lessons to achieve your balance.

"Whatever we focus on we become--We also become whatever we practice.  We need to focus on balance whenever something comes along to tilt us off balance, we need to be grateful, because it allows the opportunity to practice our focus.  When you're in the middle, you don't go to either extreme.  You allow both sides to exist."  ~Lakota

"We must live as we think, otherwise we shall end up by thinking as we have lived."  ~Paul Bourget