Has Procrastination Become Your Daily Workout?
One of the number one ways to procrastinate is to over think. We spend so much time thinking about a decision that we end up losing the moment to act.
I begin each day of my life with a ritual: I wake up at 5:30 AM, put on my workout clothes, my leg-warmers, my sweatshirts, and my hat. I walk outside my Manhattan home, hail a taxi, and tell the driver to take me to the Pumping Iron Gym at 91st Street and 1st Ave, where I work out for two hours. The ritual is not the stretching and weight-training I put my body through each morning at the gym; the ritual is the cab. The moment I tell the driver where to go I have completed the ritual.
Turning something into a ritual eliminates the question, why am I doing this? By the time I give the taxi driver directions, it’s too late to wonder why I’m going to the gym and not snoozing under the warm covers of my bed. The cab is moving. I’m committed. Like it or not, I’m going to the gym.
The Creative Habit by Twyla Tharp, Pg 14
When I read this quotation I was so intrigued and inspired. It made me think of the time in business school when I was training for my first marathon. I was so busy with meetings, job interviews and classes, but I always managed to fit a run into my day – and each week I got stronger. I was more committed to that race than I have been to any other and the training seemed easier. I remember one particular week that I managed to run for two hours straight, came home, packed a bag and flew across the country to California for a job interview (too bad I can’t do that anymore). I look back at that time and realize that the ease came from my commitment to myself. I never wasted any energy questioning whether I was going to run that day. I just put it into my schedule and did it.
We spend so much of our energy questioning our actions. Am I really going to go to the gym today or could I just stay and finish more work? Do I really need to get up or could I just hit the snooze button? And with every argument, we waste precious energy and time deciding if and when we are going to do something instead of just doing it.
Now, I’m not a believer in committing to something blindly, without thinking about it. But I do think that once you’ve decided that something is healthy and feels right, like exercising, commitment and focus is the best way to stay consistent.
What part of your exercise routine could become a ritual for you? Look for the time that you question yourself, where you have the most doubt and where you are most likely to skip that day’s exercise. That is the place to establish a ritual. For one of my clients, a mortgage broker, the most difficult part of his exercise routine is turning his phone off at 6:30 so that he can leave the office in peace and go to the gym. Once he turns the phone off, he is officially closed for the day, and he is constantly plagued by the fear that he will miss a precious business call. His ritual has become turning the phone off and walking out the door. Once he has surmounted that part, going to the gym is easy.
Try committing to a ritual this week for a goal that you have been working on. Don’t question it – just make the move in that direction and go for it. Enjoy actually getting it done.
Founder of Ideal Balance, Monica Shah is a holistic nutrition and life balance expert. She helps busy professionals find simple ways to eat better, exercise and find more balance in their lives. Often called “the irreverent nutritionist”, Monica’s approach to being healthy is simple, fun and long-lasting. To find out more about her program and to sign up for her FREE initial consultation and FREE nutrition tips please visit http://www.idealbalanceinc.com.


Women and Body Sculpting: How To Get Started
With women and body sculpting, there can be amazing results in a short amount of time. But a lack of good information and resources can hinder this progress. To help you create a workout plan that not only helps women, but also helps their fitness goals, you need to keep a few things in mind: time the program will take, finding exercises that work, and ways to stick to the program. Women and body sculpting can make a great team, but getting started on the right foot will help to keep the workout going for the long haul.
Few people seem to have a lot of time to spare these days ? especially women. This is why women and body sculpting doesn't always work. To help women fit this kind of routine into their lives; there are adjustments they can make. First, the equipment needs to be portable and inexpensive. Many body sculpting exercises can be done without any equipment at all, while others require just the use of some resistance bands. When a woman can bring their workout with them, they will be able to fit in a few exercises whenever their schedule is free ? even between meetings at work or during their children's naps at home. These kinds of workouts don't have to take hours to complete when they're configured to include whole body exercises too.
Exercises that work for women and body sculpting is another subject altogether. Any resistance exercises will work for the one that does them, but they need to be performed correctly and regularly. For example, if a woman simply goes through the motions of a routine, they're not engaging their muscles, so they're not really getting any benefit. The exercises need to be done slowly enough that the woman feels the muscle straining, but not done in such a way that might cause injury. Having a personal trainer to show them the exercises first can be a great way to increase their exercise success.
Sticking to the program is another problem for women. And body sculpting routines that don't recognize this can be stopped before they're even begun. To help in this problem, women should try to schedule their workouts as they would any other appointment in their lives. Writing it on a calendar or scheduling it into a PDA can make it seem like a commitment that they can't miss ? no matter what. Women can also workout first thing in the morning before the rest of the day tries to steal their workout time away.
Women and body sculpting can add up to increased levels of fitness. With these proven strategies, women no longer have to wonder if that new workout is effective ? they're going to know from their own hard work.

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Machelle Lee owns and operates, The Invisible Gym in Santa Cruz, CA. Her mission is to inspire people to become physically active and enjoy the benefits of a balanced, healthy lifestyle. For more information and questions you can visit her website. http://www.the-invisible-gym.com/


Can You Lose Weight Using the South Beach Diet?
You can lose a little weight with any diet whatsoever and the famed South Beach Diet is no exception, of course. What is more important is whether you lose fat and how much of it. The initial weight loss caused by the South Beach Diet may be of water, and not actual fat. Phase 1 restricts most carbs, and without energy coming into the body in the form of carbs, the body will use energy that's stored with water in the muscles, and as a result, the water loss may make you appear thinner.
The main problem with this diet is all the low-fat dairy snacks. The book doesn't provide options for people who don't like or can't eat dairy products because the eating plan prohibits soy in the first two weeks. Two options that can make this plan work for you, if you have problems with dairy, are substituting those cheese snacks with healthy nuts, or substituting with whey protein shake and flaxseed oil. This way you still get a protein/healthy fat snack.
Some of the meals that are suggested in the book can take a lot of time to prepare and they are not really fit with an active person's lifestyle. Some of the foods that the diet recommends can be quite costly, such as pistachios, mahi mahi, and chocolate-dipped apricots.
The diet is fairly new and doesn't have years of support to back up its claims. Insufficiency of scientific data on the South Beach Diet – there is only one study that Dr. Agatston conducted with some of his own patients, but it was not a long-term study and the patient-sample was not very large. Dieters should be monitored long term, as high protein intake makes the kidneys work harder and strip the body of calcium.
Phase 1 is the most restrictive and has some inconveniences:
- Ketosis might occur due to the lack of carbs resulting in fat burn. Effects include weakness, gastrointestinal problems, fatigue, dizziness, glucose body depletion, dehydration.
- The lack of fruits results loss of vitamins and minerals.
- Eliminating all carbohydrate-rich foods during this phase will also cut out some other good sources of fiber, vitamins and minerals. Wholegrain breads and cereals are rich in fiber, B vitamins and iron, while milk is an excellent source of calcium and zinc.
Since there are no guidelines as to how much carbohydrates to eat, "carb crash" could also occur, depending upon the individual dieter's food selections. This diet leaves a lot up to the individual, which is good in the long run, but is probably harder to handle by novices. Also, some people just aren't all that tuned in to their bodies' signals and might not be motivated to become so.
And quite a few aspects of the diet don't really fit together well. Why is more saturated fat allowed in Phase Three? Why say that portion size of low carb foods should be left up to the individual, but then recommend counting individual nuts (and it's a different number depending upon the nut). You might want what you can't have. You may find yourself binging on the carbs you couldn't have in Phase 1 by the time Phase 2 rolls around.
And what's the deal with couscous? This is a highly processed, high glycemic form of wheat, and yet Agatston recommends it and has many recipes that include it. Other high glycemic foods are in his menus and recipes, which may send, at the least, a mixed message.
You can obtain results with this diet, no doubt. But a lot depends on your own dieting mentality.
If you already have a healthy lifestyle, you certainly don't need a South Beach Diet to create imbalances in your metabolism by cutting good and bad foods altogether. If you want to achieve a healthy lifestyle, again this diet might not be the best idea after all. People cannot eat plain apples or tomatoes or skinless, boneless chicken breasts. And the theoretic glycemic index of foods is changed by the real-life recipe you use.
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