by IcennaEmach | Apr 5, 2011 | Uncategorized
Do you ever wonder why you have a great attitude about your career, family, and often-crazy social calendar, but there is a little attitude adjustment needed when it comes to scheduling your daily workouts in? Here’s a secret. You’ve got what it takes – you just need a little fashion-fitness attitude to get you going.
“Fashion is not something that exists in dresses only. Fashion is in the sky, in the street; fashion has to do with ideas, the way we live, what is happening.”
– Coco Chanel
If we can’t take advice from Coco then from whom can we take advice from? Not particularly known for a timid voice, I’m sure if Chanel were alive today, she’d have a few choice words to say about attitude alterations when it comes to adhering to fitness regimens.
I had a little fun with this so you could see how designer Coco Chanel’s successful attitude can inspire all of us to build a fitter, leaner, and more beautiful body today. Take a look and see how you can develop what the French call l’attitude.
Fitness Challenge One: Out of town guests arrive for the weekend and you were just getting ready to take a long run.
L’AttitudeShe Communicated Success: For Chanel, beauty was not just about looking good. It was about presenting oneself in a way that garnered respect from the outside world and allowed one to move forward with one’s own goals. By taking care of your appearance, Chanel believed, you would be able to present yourself as a powerful and successful person, even if you were not there quite yet.
Tell yourself this:My guests will be fine. They can help themselves to cappuccino and croissants – draw a bath – and relax in my beautiful abode. I’ll arrive later invigorated and ready to have a beautiful weekend.
Fitness Challenge Two: You set out to train for an upcoming tri-athlon, but you are having second thoughts. You’ve always wanted to do one, but are thinking it may be a little too challenging this year.
L’AttitudeShe Was Resilient: “Elegance is refusal,” Chanel said,“ refusal to give up.” Chanel never lost faith in herself. Despite having to overcome her age and her ruined reputation, she was able to make a comeback in the industry at the age of 71. She reinvented her designs and gave them a fresh spin, which helped make her company a leader once again.
Tell yourself this:
Be elegant. Mind, body, and spirit are strengthened by challenges.
Fitness Challenge Three: You are at the end of a long day and you are tempted to scrap the workout session with your trainer.
L’AttitudeShe Was Inspired: Chanel once attended a masquerade ball dressed as a figure from a Watteau painting. The compliments she received for her outfit prompted her to turn it into a woman’s suit. Everything from paintings, to men’s clothing, to architectural shapes, to simple flowers served as inspiration for Chanel and wound up in some form or another in her creations. By looking to the ordinary in order to get ideas, Chanel was able to create the extraordinary.
Tell yourself this: I’m in need of a mind-shift. I have the mental flexibility to get inspired by my surroundings even when they seem ordinary. I can do this, and make my life extraordinary.
Fitness Challenge Four: You’ve been traveling all weekends and finding time for fitness has been rough. You know if you wear comfortable shoes while traveling you could sneak in some walking time, a few squats, and maybe a few wall pushups while at the airport, but you think to yourself, “Style is so important- high heels are an absolute must.”
L’Attitude She Was Different: From her style, to her personality, to her marketing, everything about Chanel was unique. She brought a new vision of women’s fashion to the industry and, with its boyish qualities, simplicity and clean lines, she revolutionized the field. She brought fashion down to a practical level, all the while maintaining a sense of class and elegance that appealed to the elitist of women.
Tell yourself this: Confidence is key to pulling off anything. Besides, I’ve got class. I’ve got elegance. I can pull this off. No problem!
Fitness Challenge Five: You have been scrambling all day long at work. You’ve just noticed that you failed to pack the correct attire for your lunch break workout. In your workout bag you have your husband’s gym shorts, an old tattered – shirt of his, and your gardening tennis shoes.
L’ AttitudeShe Was Daring: She fashioned elegant women’s dresses out of the same material that was used to create men’s underwear, and at a time when women weren’t even supposed to be thinking about men’s underwear. She cut her hair and wore loose clothing when society told her she should have long, flowing hair and tight corsets around her body. Chanel was willing to take the risks she needed in order to reach the top.
Tell yourself this: If it’s good enough for Coco Chanel, it’s good enough for me!
You can get an attitude! And Chanel can help!
by IcennaEmach | Sep 28, 2009 | Uncategorized
“We are not only what we read, we are how we read,” says Maryanne Wolf, a developmental Psychologists at Tufts University and the author of Proust and the Squid: The story and Science of the Reading Brain. Wolf contends that the style of reading promoted by the Internet puts “efficiency” and “immediacy” above all else and that we may be weakening our capacity for the kind of deep reading that emerged shortly after the printing press came into play. When we read online, she says, we tend to become “mere decoders of information.” Our ability to interpret text, to make the rich mental connections that form when we read deeply and without distraction remains largely disengaged.”
Google, and other search engines thrive on loads of information. Of course it has its pros and cons. As a writer, it is a godsend. I can get research, get quotes and not have to sift through any books or go to the library. The downside is that I have slithered down that superficial road of just finding information, but not really interpreting it or making the mental connections that are necessary for thoughtful reading to occur.
The point is that we may be heading down that same superficial road with diet and exercise. We are, I believe, heading deeper and deeper down that road of trying to be healthy by educating ourselves incessantly with internet health information. Something is missing. It seems to me that we may be confusing the very act of reading health information with actually implementing the health information. Writing in the July issue of Atlantic, Nicholas Carr relates how the London Scholar Group from the University College in London has been studying the behaviors of internet users and that what they found was that people using the sites exhibited a “form of skimming activity,” hopping from one source to another and rarely returning to one source they’ve already visited.
Are we receiving a lot of information, but processing it the same way we are reading it – by skimming? Ironically diet and exercise for good health and wellness calls for just the opposite. We need to design a plan and stick with it. We tweak it only after we have sustained an effort for a considerable amount of time, and additionally have assessed it for it’s worthiness in helping us to achieve our health goals.
It’s ironic, as we get increased information on diet and exercise, we get more of the health problems associated with obesity. The state in which I live, Florida, one news station reports, is the most obese state in the nation. Do we need to consider that there may be a direct correlation between our style of reading health information and the future of our wellness?
Our Wealth is in Our Health
Kim Miller
by IcennaEmach | Aug 24, 2009 | Uncategorized
Thankfully, there’s an ongoing awareness that aging well requires being physically fit. But many people are unsure of what being physically fit actually means. Does being fit mean that you can run a mile in 8 minutes? Or does it mean that you can touch your toes or do 25 push-ups in one minute? There are five prime components to being physically fit and regardless of age, extending oneself in these five key areas of health are critical to healthy aging. There are additional areas not traditionally considered part of physical fitness like balance training and mental training but will be considered in upcoming articles.
Keep in mind that aging well is an ongoing process so although we may get specific testing data on where we should be performing in each fitness category based on gender and age, truly aging well requires expending energy in these five key areas over a lifetime.
Cardiovascular Fitness
Minimum 20 -30 minutes 4 days a week
Heart rate at minimum of 70 %. Formula is 220 minus age multiplied by .70 = HR minimum. Example for a 71 year old minimum at 70% is 104 beats per minute while exercising the heart. *Those on beta blockers will not use this formula and should consult their doctor on exertion levels.
Exercise must use leg muscles and be a continuous motion to be considered cardiovascular in nature. Ex. walking, biking, stair climbing, jogging, elliptical trainer, cross country skiing.
Muscular Strength
How much upper body can lift for one repetition. How much lower body can lift for one repetition. * Should not try this one rep maximum especially if you have not been training. There are rules that apply to this depending on the age of the person.
Muscular Endurance
How many repetitions upper body can lift in one minute. How many repetitions lower body can lift in one minute.
Flexibility
The range of motion in such areas as the hamstrings ( back of legs), upper and lower back areas, shoulders, hips, neck, and quadriceps ( front of thigh.)
Body Composition
Being at a weight that is comfortable for the individual given his lifestyle needs. It includes being at a weight that does not contribute to elevated blood sugars, lack of energy, cardiovascular risks, osteoarthritis, and other increased body fat health issues.
Includes being at a body fat that is considered within normal range. This varies but typically men should look at a range from 10-18% depending on age and lifestyle needs and women at 18-26%.
Regardless of age, extending ourselves in these five key health areas, studies have shown, reduce premature aging and are vital for aging well.
by IcennaEmach | May 24, 2009 | Perspectives in Aging Well, Uncategorized
“Most people would agree that our body would rebel if we asked it to go from an eight-minute mile run one day to a six-minute mile run the next. Yet in our fervor to diet down to the perfect weight, we ask our brains to do the same by drastically changing our lifestyle habits in one day. Consider that our brains, like our body, will break down under similar demands.” Kim Miller
I only ask that you think about this. It takes more than willpower to change our habits. It takes thoughtful consideration for who we are, patience, and strategic planning for us to make lasting lifestyle changes. Consideration for small incremental lifestyle changes is an absolute must for long lasting behavior changes. Let the old way of dieting be out and the smart way to a healthier life be in! You can do it. There’s no hurry.
by IcennaEmach | May 20, 2009 | Perspectives in Aging Well, Uncategorized
There are three primary reasons why we may not have a vision for living happily, productively, and relatively disease free into old age:
1. We believe that healthy lifestyles and specific lifestyle habits are too difficult to change so we abandon the idea of living well into our 90’s and 100’s
2. We are unsure if it is too late to make lifestyle changes due to age and health circumstances.
3. We are unsure whether the payoff of healthy living will increase our life’s quality and longevity to the degree that we would like.
These are legitimate concerns. Let’s look at the first point today: lifestyle habits are too difficult to change. The following are a few questions that you may ask yourself when addressing this point:
1. How long will it take to make a specific lifestyle change? A Specific lifestyle example may be consuming 1800 calories daily compared to 2500 calories daily.
2. How long must I implement this specific lifestyle habit? Should it be a lifelong habit or can I sustain it for only a short duration? There are many instances when short duration lifestyle changes are perfectly appropriate.
3. What can I reasonably expect in terms of life quality and lifespan when I implement this change?
4. How much of my life am I “giving up” to implement this health change?
5. Is there a systematic approach that may help me obtain this lifestyle change that is not drastic as in many fad diets?
6. Will I adjust to the lifestyle change or will I feel deprived continually?
7. How will I feel about myself after making this lifestyle change?
This last point is something for us ponder. There is no guarantee that certain lifestyle changes will increase our lifespan, but most experts agree that we can tip the scale in our favor to a higher quality of life and perhaps an extended lifespan by avoiding habits we know are counterproductive. Such habits may include but are not limited to: smoking, lack of physical exertion, lack of sleep, stressful life patterns, lack of meaningful friendships, eating and drinking in excess, emphasis on eating saturated fats and simple carbohydrates, and lack of whole grains, vegetables, and fruits in the daily diet.
We are rarely told that lifestyle habits are difficult to change. Lifestyle changes take great effort. We must keep in mind our methods of change however. Changing our lifestyle in such a way that is systematic, thoughtful, and intelligent, can bring about changes that become not only a part of us, but a way of life for us – a way of life for us that seems not only easy and healthy, but more vital and vigorous well into our later years.
For those of you that are not familiar with the coaching method in lifestyle management and have health related lifestyle issues such as overweight, high blood pressure, high blood sugar or diabetes, that you need to manage, call me at 904 501 6002. It is not necessary to belong to a gym or travel for consultation. Most coaching sessions are 30 minutes in length and address weight and health questions through ongoing dialogue. I have a wide range of various programs starting at $140.00 monthly. It would be my pleasure to help you!
Feeling good, looking good, and performing great at any age. It’s what we are about! You have what it takes! It’s my job to find it!
Our Wealth is in Our Health
Kim Miller
