Tag Archives: fitness

Fitness over Forty – fitness the right way

This fitness over forty blog is for anyone at any fitness level. The focus is not solely on physical fitness, but emotional fitness as well. Fitness or a healthy lifestyle is all inclusive…body, mind and spirit and soul. You can have a perfectly fit body but your mind could be a mess. The goal is to help people to obtain a balanced lifestyle.

Fitness starts with your mind!

Lets first start with a head to toe self evaluation of where you are today!

  1. How do you feel, physically? are you tired, not at your desired weight, craving sweets or salty foods, don’t feel your best, clothes don’t fit?
  2. Whats going on mentally? do you struggle with anxiety, lack of motivation or even depression?
  3. How do you feel emotionally? are you balanced, do you feel like you have no control over your emotions, are you on an emotional roller coaster?
  4. How are your hormones? up and down?
  5. How balanced are you evaluate yourself – from 1-10 (1 being the lowest and 10 the highest)?

Once you have your answers send them to me ! I can get you started with a free consultation and start you on your journey to a healthy and more importantly a balanced lifestyle.

If you want to get started today contact me here.

PS: I have been working out to a new video “bikini booty workout” and its to die for. Visit it here on Do You Yoga: https://www.doyouyoga.com/sessions/kick-some-butt-workout/

Fitness Over 40 – Get up and get moving

If fitness isn’t your thing but you are so tired of feeling..well…tired and you lack motivation, energy and drive to do anything. Your clothes don’t fit right and you are growing tired of feeling like crap then its time to make a change. You don’t have to love fitness to get in shape, you just have to commit to a fitness program that works for you and your lifestyle.

It is a myth that in order to exercise you have to join a gym. That is complete garbage. You do not have to go to a gym to work out (unless of course you want to). I haven’t belonged to a gym in years. I do Pilates, Yoga, HIIT and Barre right in the comfort of my own home. I go for walks, runs, hikes and bike rides (weather permitting) and I do this all without setting foot in a gym.

In my experience with coaching people on fitness, the first steps need to be small ones. The most important step is that you need to set obtainable fitness goals.

Example of an obtainable fitness goal:

Start with taking a walk. Shoot for a half hour walk 3x a week. Then increase, either by adding a day or adding more time to the duration of the walk. Make it fun by creating a walking playlist or asking your friends to join you. You can do it in the morning, during the day at lunch time or coffee break time or after work/dinner. Wherever and whenever you can fit it, do it. Walk the dog, walk the baby in a stroller, walk to a friends house, it doesn’t matter…just get moving. Adding incline over time will help increase your metabolism and help build muscle.

Set the habit!

Next, after you have established an exercise routing, which usually takes about 26 days for something to become a habit. Then you naturally will want to start eating better, or maybe even stop smoking, or drinking but trust me when I say, setting healthy keystone habits will automatically make nasty habits disappear.

Once you have established your fitness and nutrition pattern you will need to stick to it. If you have to miss a day, make up for it by adding a little more time to your routing the next day. The goal is not to miss more than a few days otherwise you risk falling off the wagon and bad habits will start to develop. It is so easy to fall back into old negative habits because its comfortable and easy and sometimes you are happy just laying on the couch eating pizza and drinking wine. But remember how awful those things make you feel after a week of no exercise. All your progress will be down the tubes.

Don’t fall off the exercise wagon!

So if you are looking for a little motivation, would like to do some virtual personal training or you would like to pursue coaching with me contact me anytime day or night. I am here to help you make your fitness goals a reality

Fitness Over 40

There is no better time than right now to start a fitness routine!

Fitness over 40 is a program I have created which involves exercises for each individual person, over 40, based on their fitness goals as well as their body type.

Together we will create a targeted and, as I stated, an individual fitness and nutrition program which will focus on all areas you wish to work on as well as enhance them and of course we will focus on those stubborn areas that may need a little more work 🙂

Our bodies change with age and therefore your fitness routine needs to be realistic based on your age and body type.

For instance, a lower impact, targeted resistance exercise program is much more effective for a body that is over 40.  High impact exercises do not offer the same results.

Unfortunately, high impact exercises (like running) break down the body with little positive results.  They also can result in an injury to our muscles, tissues and even bones if we are not careful.  So something like Crossfit can be dangerous and is known for many issues like muscle tears.

So a good exercise routine should consist of an hour of cardio multiple times per day, 5 days a week with some resistance exercises, light weight training and a 20 minute yoga routine.  This is a much more effective workout and provides proven results over a longer period of time vs. going to the gym daily and pounding away on a treadmill or spin class.

Example:

Morning:  Walk 25 minutes either outside or on treadmill; do 15 minutes of yoga stretches and some light weights (multiple exercises/multiple reps)

Afternoon:  Take a lunchtime walk before you eat (starts the fat burn process)

Evening:  Go for a walk / jog, or use the elliptical; do a 25-40 minute resistance or boot camp routine; end with 20 minutes of yoga stretches

Doing this 5 – 6 days a week will change your life

Again, the workouts will be tailored to your fitness goals and those stubborn areas you wish to work on.

Example:

  • if you are looking to strengthen your core, we will create your routine to accomplish this with strict core exercises mixed with some resistance training and light weights.
  • want to tone that butt of yours, we will work in a number of squat exercises with a fantastic Barre routine.
  • need to lengthen and tone as well as get a good work out?  Power Yoga/Barre is your modality.

We will work together, as a team, to get you started on your fitness goals which will also include a comprehensive nutrition program as well.

No, you do not have to buy special meals or supplements from me.  We will simply talk about healthy eating habits as well as what supplements may be right for you (you will purchase them when and where you are happy doing so).

I specialize in living a healthy and empowered life and in my experience you accomplish this by being a whole healthy being…emotionally, physically and spiritually.

Balance!

Contact us today!

 

Ways to Honor Yourself

I am a self-proclaimed expert in the art of self-love and self-care.  I have gone from abusing myself in many ways to falling madly in love with myself on so many levels.

Self-love is such a personal thing that it is almost impossible for me to tell someone exactly how to love themselves, however, I feel I am educated enough on the topic to be able to make suggestions on where to start when someone is first entering their Journey into self-love and self-care.

Routines are very important because consistency is the key to any successful change.  It takes 21-26 days for a routine to become a habit.  In the beginning you will have to remind yourself that its important to do xyz… however, over time, it will just be a natural part of your day and one that you will look forward to.

For instance, I used to fear mornings…I would wake up with so many thoughts circling around in my head.  I would instantly feel alone and anxious.  So, when I started on my Journey to healing the first thing I created was a morning routine.  I created a beautiful and peaceful morning routine that eased my anxiety, soothed my soul and prepared me for the day ahead.  This routine is so amazing that I actually look forward to my mornings now, for the first time in my life.

So I speak from experience when I provide suggestions and ideas that may help you.

Below are ways you can honor yourself each and every day:

  1. Respect your body – there are so many levels of this topic that I would love to address but will focus on this one area – your body is yours and not to be given to anyone who doesn’t honor you.  Respect yourself and others will follow suit.
  2. Honor where you are at – wherever you are in life, know that you are exactly where you need to be at that moment.  Know that nothing stays the same forever, we have free will and the ability to create change and suffering doesn’t last.
  3. Feel your feelings – whatever they are…feel them.  Anxious, sad, mad, happy, elated, excited, nervous.  Sit with them and feel them.  Let them guide you.  If you are unhappy or anxious do not stuff them or hide them, they will resurface with a vengeance.  Feel them, and then let them go.
  4. Treat yourself – what do you enjoy?  a coffee at the cafe, massages, dinner with friends, a weekend retreat, yoga a few times a week, facials, hot baths?  what is your thing?  whatever it is…do it.
  5. Forgive yourself – we are human and make mistakes, lots of them!   Forgive yourself for those you have hurt, for the bad choices you made, for the hurt you caused yourself, acknowledge these things and forgive yourself.  Then let it go.
  6. Tell yourself how amazing you are – because you are smart, kind, loving, sweet, beautiful, hard working and so many other things.  Tell yourself.  Don’t wait for someone else to validate you, validate yourself.
  7. Celebrate your wins – there is always a win, even if all you did was get out of bed, get your kids off to school, make it to work on time, those are wins!
  8. Support yourself through losses – you will have down days, things that didn’t go as planned, someone will hurt you or you will hurt someone.  Support yourself through those moments.
  9. Relax and rest your soul – take some time for you and only you. Give yourself a much needed time out.  Read a book, take a bath, walk in the park, get a pedicure, go to the gym, roll out the mat and do some yoga.  Whatever it is that fills your soul, do it.
  10. Find quiet time – create a “quiet zone” at home, decorate that space and deem it yours.  Use that space for your quiet time, no screens (TV, iPhone, iPad, etc.).  Close your eyes, meditate, listen to music, read.
  11. Exercise – this topic is in every single blog I write and I will beat it to death. Our bodies need movement.  Find what you enjoy and can commit to and move your body.  Walking, hiking, yoga, Pilates, Barre, HIIT, boot camp, etc.  Get on that treadmill, go to the park, do yoga at home or a studio, download a boot camp app.  Just commit to at least 3x a week of movement.
  12. Do things you love – are you creative – start by doing some DIY projects, enjoy time with people – join or start a MeetUp group, want to learn something new – take a class.  The sky is the limit.
  13. Put yourself first – it is not selfish!
  14. Set goals – goal setting is very empowering and keeps us on task.  It also helps us manifest the things we desire.
  15. Seek solace in nature – nature is very grounding and provides us with a direct connection to earth. Spending time in nature, either on the beach, in the woods, planting in your garden can help ease anxiety and ground us back to a healthy place.
  16. Feed your body nourishing foods – you are what you eat, enough said!

I hope you can identify with a number of these suggestions.

Contact Us for a free coaching session.

~joy~love~light~

-Avesha

Things I wish I did years ago…

But I am putting them into practice now!  So, better late than not at all.

I could share a long story about why these are critical exercises but I don’t feel that is necessary.  We all have our story and my hope here is to provide guidance to those who need it.

So here we go….

  1. Embrace the difficult – there is power in the pain, strength in the struggle and knowledge you receive from lessons you are meant to learn. My advice: learn your lessons the first time and there will be less struggle.   Struggle = success, strength & progress
  2. Exercise Daily! – if you have been following me or have read any of my blogs you know I believe that exercise is the end all be all to happiness or at least the start of it.  I believe the Journey to happiness starts with giving your body the movement that it needs to release the essential endorphins and get the happiness flowing inside you.  We were NOT made to be sedentary.  Get moving, start exercising TODAY!  Take a walk, get on your treadmill, do some yoga, go to the gym.  Whatever you fancy…do it.
  3. Be Grateful – for every single aspect of your life.  Even the struggle.  Wake up and be grateful you are alive, for your hot cup of coffee, for sunlight, a job that pays you, friends that you spend time with.  There is ALWAYS something to be grateful for.  Gratitude = manifesting more things to be grateful for
  4. Enjoy the simplicity of life – wake up with the sunrise, take a walk in nature, read to your kids, cook a nice meal, make a hot cup of coffee or tea and sit on the deck and just listen to the birds, play in your garden, read a good book, take a walk at sunset and thank the Universe for another day.  It is the simplicity of life that brings us the most happiness, believe it or not.
  5. Keep a Journal or two – I have multiple journals…one for my thoughts, one for my goals, a small one that I carry around with me where I jot down ideas, stories or things I simply want to try.   Journaling is a fabulous way to release the ruminating thoughts that take over your brain.  It is also one of the top Keystone Habits (after exercise).  I journal every morning as part of my morning ritual.
  6. Complain less and appreciate more – if things are hard and you are at your end, instead of complaining, which solves nothing, find solutions.  Make small changes (baby steps), start implementing Keystone Habits, you must do something OR accept what is.  Complaining = negative energy
  7. Don’t settle for less than you deserve – if you are not ready for a relationship, do not start one.  If you are dating and you know the person isn’t right for you…let them go.  Learn how to be with yourself.  Figure out what you want in a person and don’t settle for anything less.  You know what you want, and what you are worth so why settle for anything less?  Settling = cheating yourself out of something amazing
  8. Do not judge others – this was and is still a huge lesson for me.  It’s very easy for us to make a judgment based off an encounter with someone.  However, we don’t know their life story and have no idea what their struggle is.  So we make a judgment about them that is completely unfair.  You do not know where a person has been or what they are going through, so be kind and accept them for who they are and where they are at that moment.
  9. Be kind for no reason – smile at the cashier at Target, maybe she doesn’t smile back or even know why you’re smiling, it doesn’t matter.  Say “good morning” to people as you walk down the street to your office.  Compliment someone’s shoes, hair or hat.  Hold the door or elevator.  Do something nice for someone, you have no idea what a person is going through and you might just make their day.
  10. De-Clutter and simplify – you have read this before, but its true…get rid of clutter, remove all items you no longer use.  If you haven’t touched it in three years and is not a family heirloom and it doesn’t hold sweet memories..toss it!  Downsize, live within your means and surround yourself with things that bring out the best in you.
  11. Practice patience – this is another practice I am working on and I admit I am not very good at but it is something I practice daily.  Patience is a skill that we are not born with, it needs to be developed.  For those of us fire signs 🙂  we tend to have less patience and more energy than most people.  There are those with a more laid back approach to life whereas patience comes a little easier than those of us who take a more aggressive approach to life.  However, patience can be taught, learned and implemented.  It is critical to our success to have patience and trust that the Universe knows exactly what we need and when we need it.
  12. Letting go of the past – I have said it before and I will say it again, the past does not define us and it has no place in our present and our future.  If you have learned your lessons and are on the right path you will no longer need to revisit the past, it has nothing to offer you.  You can remember good moments, but don’t focus on them so much that you are not mindful of the present and especially the now, because this moment really is all any of us have.  So “be here now” should be your mantra…if you find your mind wandering to a memory of the past…honor it and say to yourself “be here now” and move on and focus on that moment, as best you can.  Letting go of the past and being mindful is hard and takes work but your brain can be re-trained to not wander off to the past and get stuck there.  Remember…be here now.
  13. Love yourself – madly and unconditionally.  This is a hard concept for some, I know it was for me.  I didn’t understand it until I started a self-love/self-care ritual and I learned how magical it is to put yourself first and to fall madly in love with yourself.  I have written several articles which have been published in Elephant Journal Magazine (love this magazine) about self-love and taking care of yourself and how to ease anxiety.  Read them at your leisure 🙂

https://www.elephantjournal.com/now/5-simple-grounding-exercises-to-ease-anxiety-the-stress-of-daily-life/ and

https://www.elephantjournal.com/now/how-to-practice-self-love-daily/

I pray a number of these exercises resonate with you.  You don’t need to identify with all of them, but you should find the ones that do resonate with you and put them into practice.

Just do the best you can to be your best self every day and you will start seeing changes and start feeling better about yourself and the choices you are making.

If you would like to work together to focus on these, please contact us.

Namaste

Creating a workout routine you can and will stick to

Morning, afternoon or evening, it doesn’t matter.  What matters is that you get moving!

The first step to creating a workout routine you will commit to and that will become a Keystone Habit is to figure out what works for your schedule and will fit your lifestyle.

You must be realistic.

If you set a morning workout routine but you dread getting out of bed in the morning, the odds of you sticking to your routine are low.

If you have a demanding job and you never take lunch and you join a gym close to work with hopes you can work out at lunch, it will never happen.

If you have responsibilities such as kids, a home, a husband and night-time commitments the odds of you working out in the evening are slim so creating an evening workout routine is futile.

So take some time to figure out where you can fit this routine in and how it will best work with your lifestyle.

Once you have accomplished step number one, then the next step is to evaluate where you are physically and what your core goals are with regards to fitness.

What is it that you are hoping to accomplish?  and what are you capable of?

If you are overweight and can barely walk up a flight of stairs without huffing and puffing, then you want to start off slow with some cardio to get the heart pumping and get your body used to exercise.  Then slowly you can add different low impact cardio exercises which will accelerate the impact of the exercise and you will start seeing more results.  Overtime you can add more resistance and muscle toning exercises once you have reached your desired weight loss.

In the event you are at a desired weight ~good for you~ but need some muscle toning and conditioning then in addition to cardio you want to look at adding power yoga, Pilates, weight training, boot camps, HIIT etc.  Adding them to your cardio workout will give you the desired results based on how many days a week you work out as well as how long you are working out for.

My rule of thumb is 20-40 minutes a day of cardio with strength training or body sculpting 5/6 days a week is better than pounding away on a treadmill for an hour a day.  Especially if you are over 40.  I find low impact, muscle lengthening/strengthening exercises provide a more dramatic result in terms of toning and leaning out your body.  I also think its beneficial to work out more than once a day if you can fit it into your schedule.

Lastly if you are only looking to add some cardio and just want to get your heart pumping for a few minutes a day I find walking 2x a day is an incredible way to accomplish this.  You can walk down the street, on a treadmill, in the park, with a friend, alone, etc.  with walking, the options are endless…and if you tweak your diet a bit your results may be exactly what you are looking for.

There are many articles and websites geared toward fitness so I empower you to spend some time searching to find what may work for you.

Good luck and get moving!

Namaste’

Contact us at:

http://www.aveshaempower/contact