One day I may lead a Buti yoga session, or a cardio-quicky class, or offer a shower-dance fitness tutorial… One day I may finally regularly attend a fitness class at the Y or that hot new yoga studio I’ve been meaning to check out. One day I may hire a fun and affordable personal trainer. Soon enough I envision myself on blissful runs a couple times a week and taking a different type of dance class every month. One thing I can say for sure is that I wholeheartedly declare to discover the amazing strength and agility that my body is capable of.
However, lately, I have been more focused on other areas of my life. And I have not yet laid the foundation for the fit and fabulous lifestyle I want and need. I have on many occasions through out the years gotten wildly ambitious and set goals that I could not achieve fast enough for my own non-sensible standards.
Now I know better. Today, I am simply stepping in that direction. My method for redesigning that area of my life is different than it’s ever been. I have learned through all my past failures what I can reasonably expect from myself. And that just like with redesigning anything else, it takes time. At this time I am slowly and steadily integrating new activities, breathing practices, concepts of my desires, and fitness habits into my life.
So right now my Fitness-plan includes things like making a desire map,which is a list of all the must-have/dream-come-true desires of what “body bliss” means to me. I’m also accepting where I’m at and setting SMART reasonable goals and sharing them with others like you (Hey! you can share your SMART goals with me too if you want, (template below) I would looooove a body-bliss buddy) My integration plan also includes tons of plain old, trying, learning, re-trying, and of course hypnotizing myself while I sleep with Kelly Howell’s Sacred Body – Guided Meditation. I love anything by her! I’ll link that Youtube vid at the end of this post as well.
Here is a list of my current slow and steady fitness integrations (and where they happen) :
- Dancing (in the shower.) This is typically a slow-moving, core, quads, and calve workout. The music is usually slow, relaxing, and has a bass-rich beat. Pandora stations like Glass Animals, Chet Faker, or Instrumental Hip-hop. Also, it’s a ritual of mine to wind down at the end of the day with a candle light shower. The darkness is very soothing and the candle light centering and meditative.
- Invisible jump-roping (Anywhere) . I find it easier to “skip” or jump rope with out the actual jump rope. That way I can do it where ever I damn want and I don’t have to worry about forgetting my rope! Plus it’s very entertaining to onlookers. I do all the arm motions even the cris-crosses… I just never trip.
- Cat yoga (In the Kitchen) for 10 mins in the morning while I wait for the coffee in my french press to turn the right color of black. This is when I try to do a sun salutation sequence while my cats lay next to or directly under me and bite each other, my hair, or my ankle. #zenmaster
- Dancing (Laundry room) While I fold laundry. The key here is hard floors and soft socks for ultimate twisting potential! My go to Pandora station for laundry room dancing is the Pandora Hipster Cocktail radio station.
- Burpees & Mountain Climbers (Anywhere there is at least 4×8 square feet of space) These are total body cardio quickies that are easy to bust out anytime I’ve got five minutes. This may happen between cooking timers while I prepare dinner.
- Tag with the kids (Outside) – I recently rediscovered how fun tag is.
- Wrestling with the kids or dance party with kids. (Inside) They get to pick the music.
- 21 day total Goddess Workout (Home) – Video library through Dailyom.com. For a good 20 minutes of guided, total body work out, I can pull this up on my phone. Easy to do while traveling too which is important to me.
- In waiting situations (for example at stop lights) I am starting to do things like realign my posture, deep breathing, and kegle exercises. I use the “waiting-feeling” as sort of trigger reminder to realign and deepen my breath.
- Tracking my steps, stairs, workouts, and calorie burn on Fitbit watch. I just got this watch and I’m still working on just remembering to put the thing on daily and also to remember to wear it in the shower but its a great way to measure my progress and study my habits so I can celebrate little and big wins.
- Win celebration – This is something I do monthly, I make a list of all my wins for that month big or little. Sometimes I share this ritual with others and we all get to celebrate each others wins! It feels awesome!
Books I’m using to develop my fitness-integration plan :
- 4-Minute Fit by America’s Fittest Trucker, Siphiwe Baleka – The metabolism accelerator for the time-crunched, deskbound, and stressed-out.
- Airplane Yoga by Rachel Lehmann-Haupt & Bess Abrahams – This is a simple yoga guide for poses you can do anywhere, airplanes, elevators, living-rooms, etc.
- Mom Hacks by Dr. Darria Long-Gillespie – 100 Science backed shortcuts to reclaim your body, raise awesome kids, and be unstoppable.
- Seven Sundays by Alec Penix – A faith, fitness, and food plan for lasting spiritual and physical change.
- The Women’s Health Big Book of Exercises by Adam Campbell – The pictures and work out plans in this book are incredible.
- Your Ultimate Pilates Body Challenge by Brook Siler – At the gym, on the mat, and on the move!
Inspiration/Resources :
- Sacred Body – Guided Meditation – (free on Youtube, listen with headphones)
- SMART goal’s setting template – Body-bliss buddy! I’ll show you mine if you show me yours (use this contact form to reach out, include your email address and I’ll reply with mine)
Ps. I would be so grateful if you shared your favorite fitness resources with me in the comments.