First step in weightloss - get rid of the shit

Today I saw a client who said "I know I haven't lost that much weight but I feel lighter inside." We started talking about how she felt about what's she's experiencing and it became clear to me that the work we were doing together was helping her get unstuck. When she came to me a month ago, it was clear to me she had lost her MOJO, her sense of vitality. She's in her mid 50s and she works hard as an accountant. Her career has taken front stage in her life for many years while she single handedly raised her two daughters. She told me that she had to make sure her daughters knew she could handle anything like a super hero single mama. They've both left home and now she was spending more time alone with herself. She wanted to feel better like most of us would like to feel in some way shape or form.

Although she hasn't been attuned to the energy in her body, she knew it was time to make a permanent change. She's spent much of her life on yoyo diets gaining up to 40 lbs a year and then successfully losing weight only to put it back on again. She sought me out because she wanted to find a way to stop this cycle.

It is true that 80% of weight loss is about what you put in your mouth. And it is also true that diets will work if followed to a T. Another truth? Most people who struggle with weight use food for comfort or as a way to stuff emotions down. Eating is a joyous experience in many ways when approached with a healthy attitude towards what we put in our mouth. Sometimes approaching a change like weight loss can leave us feeling stuck. The normal go to strategy is an extreme and short lived change. My approach in working with people is to stop a life long cycle that leaves people feeling like they have failed themselves when they gain the weight back.

What I love seeing in my clients is the life and hope back in their eyes. It's like an awakening when people start moving in a way that is personally designed to give their bodies just what it needs, starting where they are and respecting the change process that needs to evolve in a individual way for them.

My assessment of Sarah's experience feeling lighter? We have effectively moved dense dark energy out of her body and helped remove energetic blockages she has stored up over time from the cycle she has been stuck in. I've been practicing Reiki with her, using fascial stretch therapy and some myofascial release to work on her scar tissue catalogued into her body due to stress and repressed emotions in addition to working her butt off having fun and sweating her 'shit' out. It's so much more than just working out and watching what you eat if you want to make lasting change and feel more present in our lives. We've got to get the blocks out of our bodies both energetically and in our tissues.

She has changed her negative self talk and instead replaced it with a patient voice that tells her it's ok not to get this process 'right' every moment of every day. She has learned to look at her weightloss in a different way and sees this current experience as the start of something new, something healing and something very permanent. There is no finish line in her mind any more. But instead she sees this as a new way of approaching healing her past dieting experiencing with increased awareness, self compassion and self love.

Today is the kind of day that makes me feel so grateful to be doing what I'm doing. Feeling vital again does leave us with a feeling of being lighter, more buoyant and hopeful. It's taken me years of doing what I do and years of working with my own energy to really 'get it'. I know I have more to learn and always will!

My advice to anyone who's been stuck on the yoyo weight gain weight loss cycle? Try a different approach that focuses on healing your relationship with food and with your body but also taking a closer look at what role coping mechanisms have played in your life and that you probably don't need them the way you did in the past.

Top six reasons to sit still every day

About ten years ago I hired a life coach to help me maximize my life and with the idea that I wanted to achieve more. We did remote phone coaching as he was based on Vancouver. He gave me some homework. Actually, it was like the opposite of homework to me at the time and I just didn't get it. In fact, I cuffawed it.

My homework was to sit still on a park bench every day for ten minutes and do nothing.

At the time I was thinking "I'm so busy. Why would I want to do nothing? What exactly am I going to accomplish sitting on a park bench?".

It took me almost ten years to really really really understand the value of the homework I was given. And sadly, I can say I missed a lot of beauty in the last ten years that passed me by in my addiction to being busy (and my need to be busy to 'survive'). I was caught in the idea that being productive and efficient and ambitious was what was going to make my life better. I learned a lot over the last ten years but I also wish I could have taken a bit more of a short cut to get to this point. I might have found value in the simpler things that passed me by. One thing I know is that my daughter only has one childhood. I wish I go back and experience her younger years with the awareness I have now.

When I say sitting still every day I don't mean sitting at your computer on Facebook or sitting in front of the TV. I mean sitting still in quiet filled with a sense of calm and peace. This might mean mindful meditation to some people. This is what it means to me. And I'm not saying that I'm sooooo great at sitting still. It is a constant struggle for me to make the time but, finally, I need this stillness and peace in my spirit like I need water.

I'm not trying to get all Eckhart Tolle on you. I just think hearing from a fitness 'pro' about the need for stillness carries more weight than coming from some other people because fitness people are the doers, the movers, the people who buzz like humming birds and need motion to get back to stasis. We are the more wound up ones who like pushing ourselves physically more than most people. So after my long history working in this kooky industry of mine, I have journeyed a vast distance to get to where I am now.

Some people think they are mastering this stillness thing too. But sometimes we can even approach this simple task of getting better at stillness with the energy of a type A personality. Go to a packed yoga class and check everyone out. See who is there for the stillness and peace and who is there because it's another should on a long list of shoulds. Normally the chatty ones that buzz at the beginning of class are the type As in disguise. So beware of turning this mastering of stillness into yet another thing on your long check list of what will make you a better person and instead let yourself let go.

These are my top six reasons for sitting still every day:

1) After a long period of stress and sleep issues, I have suffered from adrenal fatigue to varying degrees for years. Calming the nervous system with activities that promote a sense of being grounded and peaceful are a very important part of healing the adrenals.

2) I can't listen to myself if I'm always distracted. Sitting still every day lets me hear what my wisdom wants to tell me. I can't run away from myself. You can tune into what your body needs to be in balance with this stillness too. Listen up. Your body is always talking to you.

3) We can start experiencing our true essence in this still place and might start to shift our consciousness by tuning into the present. We might even find it more possible to tune into the present in the rest of our lives gradually as we practice more stillness. This translates into more enjoyment of the smallest things that matter the most in life.

4) Sitting in stillness allows new creative ideas to come in. It creates space for new energy to enter into our beings.

5) Creating stillness in us also balances out our culture's constant focus on productivity and helps us not get swept in in the tidal wave of busy-ness that surrounds us. It's a way to stay disciplined from getting caught up in the current.

6) If you are on your own hamster wheel and don't know how to get off, the only place to start is with a little change every day. If you only have 5 minutes to sit still every day, it's a start towards a larger transformation. You don't need to do a complete facelift to set change in motion.

Nobody likes homework but...

I see many clients who suffer from chronic back pain, joint pain or have other injuries that require a lot of TLC. The funny thing is that most people would rather find a way to pay someone else take care of their issues through passive treatment AKA chiropractor, massage therapist, whomever instead of realizing that to see benefit from said treatment, they need to do lots of their own homework.

It never fails to frustrate me when someone comes in for a session and almost every time complains about the same thing over and over and over again without actually taking my advice or doing something about it. Plus it's totally unrealistic to expect 1 to 2 hours per week of strength training and mobility work to 'cure' long festering issues.

Sometimes, it is clear to me that someone's core is imbalanced and their posture all off. When I'm unsure, I always send clients to someone qualified to tell me what's up exactly. The homework I give people is very simple and can do no harm to them. Perhaps of set of 3 core training exercises to start coupled with a couple stretches and maybe a bit of self massage on a physio roller. I'm not unrealistic about what is doable in terms of fitting fitness in. I get it. I'm not expecting people restructure their day in order to take care of themselves. Thus the KISS principle.

Recently, I had to stop working with a client because her pain was getting worse and she wasn't going to get a diagnosis or treatment and not doing any regular and sound core training homework. It saddened me greatly because I get too invested in affecting change in people. It's like a reflex I can't seem to shut off even in my private life. This impulse to help. Sometimes I just can't help my clients either perhaps because they don't buy into my advice or because they don't have the will to help themselves. Because if people really believe something is going to make their lives better, they will generally tend to do it (there are exceptions to the rule I know). So my personal work is to stop trying so hard all the time and let people go on their own journeys.

Sometimes the really shitty part is that people will blame me for repetitive strain injuries even when I've warned them they need to get a diagnosis, treatment or do simple things to prevent issues from getting worse. But somehow the 1 hour a week or maybe two they spend with me has been the cause of their repetitive strain injury.

So sometimes I have to cut people loose when I realize I might be the fall guy. And it sucks because it's my reputation. But at the very least, us personal trainers can't do harm to our clients. As a basic principle in life, we should aim to not do harm to others.

So next time something goes awry in your life, including something with your body, maybe it's time to look in the mirror and see who needs to take responsibility.

Now for a little workout to pick up my dampened spirits.

Jane

The Link Between Emotional Challenges and Chronic Pain

I've become more and more interested in somatization as I try to unravel people's physical issues. Before I continue, here's a bit more info.

Somatization disorder is a long-term (chronic) condition in which a person has physical symptoms that involve more than one part of the body, but no physical cause can be found.

The pain and other symptoms people with this disorder feel are real, and are not created or faked on purpose (malingering).
Causes

The disorder usually begins before age 30 and occurs more often in women than in men. The disorder is more common in people with irritable bowel syndrome and chronic pain.

In the past, this disorder was thought to be related to emotional stress. The pain was dismissed as being "all in their head."

However, patients who have a somatization disorder seem to experience pain or other symptoms in a way that increases the level of pain. Pain and worry create a cycle that is hard to break.

People who have a history of physical or sexual abuse are more likely to have this disorder. However, not every person with a somatization disorder has a history of abuse.

As researchers study the connections between the brain and body, there is more evidence that emotional well-being affects the way in which people perceive pain and other symptoms.

In my limited sample size of clients, friends and family, I believe that everyone somatizes to various degrees. Stress is obviously a major cause of somatization. I also believe that prolonged stress will tax the nervous system (AKA keep us in fight or flight mode for way too long) to the point that people's physical and mental health will deteriorate and may even develop more serious illness potentially even life threatening.

My interest in somatization is also very personal. We teach what we need to learn. I go in and out of suffering from irritable bowel syndrome. My body will reflect exactly what I'm going through emotionally and spiritually. My achilles heal is my tummy and my head. When I'm depleted and trying to do too much, I get head aches, stomach aches and have even faced a life threatening illness years ago I believe in part due to prolonged stress and physically stored trauma.

More specifically, I've noticed that many of my clients prone to lower back pain will always have a flare up of pain when they are under prolonged stress or struggling with inner conflict. Often these clients are hyperfunctioning. They can't slow down. They have a problem saying no to more work or career opportunities, or they have convinced themselves that they need to operate the way they are in order to hold their house of cards together.

I also work with people with auto-immune issues and have found that in times of hyperfunctioning or prolonged stress, their disease will flare up. Same thing goes for people with shoulder injuries, chronic neck pain, head aches like I get. Just about any physical vulnerability will act up in times of stress or in times when we are overdoing it.

I'm pretty open minded about these things. I studied Reiki this summer and know that there is no way to compartmentalize the physical, mental or spiritual. And as we get older, our physical selves start warning us louder and louder that we are going off our path, or ignoring what we really need. We just start vibrating at a lower level for too long. Reiki is a form of vibrational medicine as is exercise in my mind.

Exercise when done in a way that is designed to improve the flow of chi in the body, move stale energy or blockages out, improve posture and alignment, reduce tension and calm the nervous system will help people move away from somatization. Exercise and conscious movement is an excellent way to help people learn to listen to their bodies more so that they can avoid manifesting issues as physical symptoms. The more conscious we are on the physical level, the sooner we can hear the warning signs that we need to refocus, shift gears, learn to practice stillness or even take action in some way.

But I don't have a recipe that can be rolled out across the general population. It is truly an individual process that is best facilitated by someone very attuned to the power of movement in healing. I know that movement is an essential component in the process of pain management and true healing. Exercising in a conscious, thoughtful way is essential in my life. Sometimes my body is asking me to lift heavy weights. Sometimes it's asking me to meditate more, do more self massage on a roller. Or sometimes my body craves yoga or more balance oriented exercises that centre my energy. And even sometimes I feel like I need to bang the heavy ropes on the ground or punch a bag to release pent up anger or frustration or emotional pain.

My advice? Sit still for five minutes in meditation position. See if you can ask your body what it needs. Maybe images of the type of movement you need will pop into your head. Don't judge it. There is such a wealth of inner wisdom in all of us just waiting to be accessed.