New Week, New Month…

Happy Monday and happy March!  Again, a new week, a new month, a chance for YOU to start ANEW.  I always feel extra motivation when a new month starts on Monday.  I am personally savoring the last couple of hours with my special friend, Carole, who returns home today.  We had some quality time just being and also had a great day at the Morikami Gardens in Delray, yesterday.  We ate and drank things we don’t eat and drink most of the rest of the year and will have to work a little harder at the gym, this week, but WELL WORTH IT ALL!

I’ll be heading back to work at 11:30 today- I WILL be teaching my back-to-back SilverSneakers classes at Bally and will be seeing my clients this afternoon.  Though I am always sad to say good-bye, I will look forward to jumping back into work and my own workouts as well as flushing my body with lots of water, fruits, veggies and some very lean protein!

There are several things I am excited about this morning.  Biggest Loser returns tomorrow after a couple of weeks of Olympic pre-empts.  The last episode we saw was a “to-be-continued,” so we will see someone go home at the beginning of the show and probably someone else at the end.  Beyond Biggest Loser’s return, I look forward to my 2 favorite days of the year, later this month.  Mid-month we change the clocks and SPRING AHEAD.  That adds the extra hour of daylight at the end of the day.  I know not all of us enjoy that as much as I do, but to me it gives us lots of time AFTER the 9-5 gig, to get outside.  This means, for many of us,  we have time to walk, run or whatever it is we enjoy outdoors, well after the work-day ends.  Shortly after we change the clocks, winter turns to spring.  After a long, cold, wet winter almost everywhere in the country, we will welcome spring this year, even more than others!

If you stuck to your new year’s resolutions, you are a full 2 months into them.  If you fell of the “healthy eating and exercise,” wagon today is a PERFECT day to jump back on.  If you change up your eating and your workouts, you have 3 solid weeks before the first day of spring. If you have a pair of “just a little-too-tight” jeans in your closet, try them on today.  Still too tight?  LEAVE THEM VISIBLE IN YOUR CLOSET.  Look at them every morning before you get dressed.  If you are oh-so close to them fitting, try them on again next week.  If you are far away, give it a month before trying them again.  Don’t get frustrated, just think positive and when you get a craving for something you know better than to eat, close your eyes and think of those jeans.  Remember that YOU ARE THE BOSS OF YOU!  YOU CONTROL YOU!  If you are already working out religiously, just stick with it.  Change up one or two aspects of your workout.  Make it longer, more intense or do it more days a week.  Add something new and different.  Try a new class.  Try a new machine.  Increase your weights.  Add some light jogs into your walks.   Already maxed out?  Try a different order–do your abs before your cardio.  Do lighter weights and more reps.  Take a rest day and come back twice as hard the next.

I have one client, Jane,  who I see 3 times a week.  I love the weekly routine we have these days.  One day is indoor cardio, heavy weights…one day is half hour of walking/running and half hour of yoga…the third day is aerobics and body sculpting.  We never get bored and by the end of the week she has gotten in a pretty well-rounded workout.  A couple of times a week, when I am not with her, she does some of her own cardio either on a treadmill or an elliptical.  In a perfect world, I would recommend the JANE routine.  There is no abuse to her body and combined with healthful eating, she maintains her ideal weight.  Of course, just when her body gets used to this “routine,” it will be time to change it up again.

Have a productive yet peaceful Monday.  Make this a marvelous March.