My Merry Xmas video from…where else…the gym! Hubby and I thought we’d go do a few squats before our turkey dinner tomorrow….gotta keep those treats off the thighs and butt somehow!

Many thanks for everyone’s support over the year, and let’s look forward to a happy, healthy and prosperous 2012! See you on the other side!

Karen and family!

In Japan, they have a practice called hara hachi bu. Basically, it teaches one to eat only until you’re 80 percent full. This helps them to live longer and stay in better health.

Other cultures practice similar things: the Aryuvedic tradition in India advises eating until you are 75 percent full. The Chinese specify 70 percent full. The prophet Muhammad described a full belly as one that had 1/3 food, 1/3 liquid and 1/3 air. In Germany, they say: “You need to tie off the sack before it gets completely full.”

I learned this practice about 20 years ago and I’ve been practicing it ever since. In our household, we often eat our biggest meal in the late afternoon. Our smaller dinner is done by 6:30 (there are a few exceptions, of course) and we forgo the late-night snacking. If we have a craving, it’s butterless popcorn – the mini bag – split between us.

Problem is, most people can’t (or don’t want to) grasp this concept. They think it’s living in denail, without pleasure. Really? To me, living with a bloated belly and excess weight is not how I want to go through life. Not anymore, anyway. 

I always say, if you want to be fit and lean and stay that way, then you have to think like a fit and lean person. It’s not about denial or going without. People ‘like us’ just think differently. We want to feel good. We want to be well. We see food as both a pleasure and a gateway to an amazingly healthy and vibrant life.  

Try hara hachi bu, if only for a few days. Not only will you feel great, pretty soon you’ll learn what many of us have already learned, that the true path to health and wellness must first come from within.

Change your thinking, change your life!

karen

PS A Reminder that my next Lift n Lose class starts November 7th, and sign up has begun for my monthly Keep it Up Class starts November 1st! Limited class size! For more info, please CLICK HERE!

When I take on clients, I know that the toughest part of my job is not necessarily teachings them how to lift, what kinds of exercises to do, or even how to eat well. The toughest part is helping them to see how their inner beliefs may be limiting their best efforts.

Us trainers repeat our mantras about the importance of ‘commitment’, lerning how to ‘prioritize’, and staying ‘on schedule’, but these things can conjure up more feelings of pressure and guilt.

Let’s dig a little deeper.

The successful client is the one that sees her training and clean eating from another perspective: an empowering one that says it’s good – no, necessary – to train and eat well.

I made this shift awhile ago…yes, I had always been interested in good health but it was also about looking good. But when my son was diagnosed with muscular dystrophy years ago, I was struck with the undeniable truth that he would soon lose all function with time. 

Despite my fit body and clean lifestyle, I was overwhelmed with fear, sadness and guilt – guilt at being able to strengthen my body while I watched my son’s muscles slowly deteriorate. How dare I be so selfish? I didn’t train for a full five years.

Then, one night while he lay sleeping, I sat beside him, stroking his tiny chest, and I made him a vow – to do whatever I could to support him in his journey.

And that’s when it shifted for me: I had to stay healthy for him, in order to help him through his years of declining strength. My being able to train was a gift to him, to all of us. I got rid of the guilt and replaced it with something greater: if good health was my gift, then I could use it to help him.

Today I teach women everywhere that training is the greatest act of self-love you can practice. Park your guilt at the door, nix the excuses, file your doubt away and go in and ‘love yourself into health’ with every lift.

To love yourself means being healthy, whole and all you can be. And that means committing to keeping your body strong and capable.

Do it for them. But mostly, do it for you. And know that you deserve it.

karen

We’re all feeling it these days…more strife, more challenge, more chaos. People are angrier that usual, more selfish, more steeped in fear and anger. Relationships are breaking down at an unprecedented pace. Perhaps yours is one one of the many casualties.

I certainly have been feeling it the last year or so…loads of challenges in my personal and public life, like you. People are less patient, more gossipy…heck, people are even laying on their car horns more these days! It’s like living in Mexico!

It’s all written in the stars. Has been for a long, long time. Some call it the Culmination. Others call it the Time of Reckoning. Still others call it The End.

I call it 2012. That’s when they say the world will change….indeed.

What’s going on? Well, seems we’re shifting from the Age of Pisces, which lasted 2,160 years, to Aquarius, whose birth is taking place as you read these words. In other words, we are in an astrological twilight zone where one age is overlapping with another: one age is dying and another is being born, the old and the new will exist side by side for a time.

The two opposites are colliding: an awakening of the spiritual is hitting up against our traditional material world of power, force, control. This is the root cause of all this madness we’re feeling. For a while, it will feel as though we are being pulled in different directions…crazy, out of line. However, with time, the influence of Aquarius will become stronger and things will settle in. 

I see it as a time of sifting out, really: when all is said and done, there will be two camps – those that elevate into the New Way will live with fresh eyes and a new set of values and beliefs based on inclusion, peace and, yes, love. 

And for those that fight it and stay in the lower energies – anger, control, fear – well, they’ll be having a tough time of it all. 

You may not believe all this stuff but it’s not magical. It’s all quite scientific, really. Mathematical even. It’s like gravity: whether you believe in it or not, it still affects you. Just read your history. Study astrology. No need to be surprised…it’s been predicted for a very, very long time. These times are a’changin’…

How will I weather the storm? Well, I’m practicing bucketloads of forgiveness, trying to stay grounded, trying to stay open and be responsible with my words and actions. Easy? Nope. Necessary? It is for me. How about you?

So hang on my dear friends. It’s going to be a very bumpy ride indeed……

Karen

PS And please, lay off your horns!

When I first started weight training, it was all about the physical…building nice arms, tighter glutes, raising my metabolism, and losing weight.

Then life knocked me off my feet, and my training went with it. After 8 years of ill health, I came back with a fresh persepctive and new appreciation for all things, including my physical health. I made training my spiritual practice.

Most people in the gym want to zone out, to get it over with, to be on their way. After 30 years, I’ve learned to muscle into every moment – both in the gym and outside – with focus and thankfulness. I’ve learned to make my workouts my Zen practice, and you can too.

Enjoy my 4 pointers for making your lifting a true body – mind – spiritual experience which will take you, and your training and results, to new heights.

– Lift because you want to be well.
– Lift to connect to something greater than yourself.
– Lift out of a reverence for all life.
– Lift because you can.