In Pilates class today, I was struck by how
many people seemed to be showing up 'late' or leaving 'early'.
Those parts of the class - at the very beginning and the very end - are when we do our 'relaxation'
routine...lying on our mats with our eyes closed, the instructor
gently telling us to relax different parts of our bodies, etc.
Yet
the women don't seem to think it's worth the time.
...are they THAT busy? I even had one girl say to me once, "I love this class...BUT I don't like the beginning when we relax...it's so not necessary. I come here for the WORK, you know?"
...and my mouth dropped open and I said something about relaxation being important but she wasn't listening, and I could see that...so I thought "What's the use?" and just sort of nodded and smiled.
I mean, to each his own, right?
But relaxation IS important. It's SO important.
In Pilates, we relax our muscles -- and our bodies and minds in general -- ahead of time to prepare for the work ahead.
Pilates, to be done right, demands your full concentration. Because it's not just about doing the exercises. It's about making sure your form is correct...perfectly aligned...which takes some doing to do properly (your posture, stomach held in, limbs stretched appropriately, toes either pointed or flexed, etc.), but it's also about your breathing as well (Pilates breathing differs from yoga breathing or normal breathing!)
It takes practice just to do the breathing properly. You have to pull in your stomach muscles, and breathe from your chest, inhaling through your nose, and exhaling through your mouth.
It's not easy (took me six months LOL).
And that's not even counting the exercises themselves!
So FOCUSING is important. And that beginning relaxation segment helps me to focus. Get into what I'll be doing.
And at the end of class? You've worked hard...and your muscles need to relax again. You need to re-acclimate yourself to the day ahead.
And here's the thing.
Both sessions - the relaxation at the beginning and the period at the end - take no longer than 5 minutes, TOPS.
Yet these women consider it a 'waste of time'?
Are they THAT busy?
I think that's....sad. It's a sad commentary on our lives today, isn't it, when we can't relax for 5 minutes?
We all NEED to relax. BIGtime.
And I can tell you with absolute, 100% CERTAINTY that learning how to relax and de-stress are KEYS to this program working for you.
There's a lot of other things of course, that make it work....obviously the meals, eaten at the right times, your water, logging your meals, doing the headwork....but STRESS RELIEF is right up there, believe me!
I needed to learn this the hard way. I developed fibromyalgia, in my humble opinion (and that of many medical professionals), due partly to my inability to DE-STRESS.
I was tense a LOT. A lot more than I thought I was. And consequently, I was tensing up my shoulder and neck muscles, involuntarily. And my back muscles. And my arms!
And over time, and years of living like this, it took its toll. Whatever gene that causes FMS (and they do believe there's a gene, they're working to find out which one and 'why') got 'kicked off' and voila, I wound up with fibromyalgia....chronic pain, chronic fatigue. LOTS of fun. (I don't recommend it.... :)
So. One of the first things my specialists have done is work with me on de-stressing techniques. And I've tried many of them.
I've tried meditation, deep breathing, exercise (which obviously WORKS to a certain extent, which is why I'm still doing it!), naps, hot baths, herbal teas, mantras, special breathing techniques...even acupuncture.
I'm always on the lookout for new ways to de-stress!
Some of the things I've tried worked...some not so much.
But when I got to this program and started to do the headwork, one of the things that I determined 'set me off' on an eating binge was TENSION and STRESS.
So having learned some techniques already, I applied them.
And they helped. BIGTIME. They helped long enough for me to get past those few moments of decision....you know the ones...where you're debating with Fat Brain...and she's swearing 'One won't hurt' or 'Just restart tomorrow' or whatever....to the point where I'm strong enough to get to my next MF meal OK.
The next time you get stressed out? Think about it....watch your own body, see how tensed up your shoulder muscles get, and consciously ROLL THEM BACK AND DOWN and take a deep breath. How do you feel? A bit better? Stand or sit up a bit straighter, take some more deep breaths and begin to calm yourself a bit.
It's been my experience that sometimes? This is all it takes. CALM down a bit. Don't automatically reach for the 'whatever' food you ate before. Or whatever you did to relieve stress. THINK about it.
Stress is a big big factor.....and here as well as in life. We overstress over the program. We analyze to 'death' what we're doing or how come the scale didn't move as fast as we'd like. We question ourselves constantly. But maybe, just maybe, we need to just RELAX and be PATIENT and just keep working the program and try and have some faith in it.
Instead of questioning, always questioning, maybe this doesn't work for you....maybe you're the one in a million who this program BACKFIRES on (very unlikely) and you WON'T lose weight. Maybe you need to do something else instead. Maybe you need to try calorie cycling or carb cycling or change your meals up or .... and on and on and on it goes.
When in actuality....9 times out of 10? What I found was just leaving well enough ALONE, and STAYING THE COURSE, everything was fine the next day or the next weigh-in!
Your body will lose the weight when it's ready to lose the weight.
It won't do it on a schedule that YOU set....no matter how much you want to. Believe me, I've 'been there'. I used to get out my calendar....and go "Let's see, at 2 lbs a week I'll lose 8 lbs a month which means by my birthday I'll be down to 190, and then by July 4th, I'll be at 180" etc etc.
Then I'd get ANNOYED when I didn't lose according to my 'set' schedule and decide maybe the plan wasn't working.
I had to LET GO of all that anxiety and stress and "I need to do this NOW my way right now" and just take it one day at a time, one meal at a time.
And trust that my eating habits WOULD change over time....with repetition (a lot of it is just repetition, believe it or not!).
Our brains need to LEARN a new way of working....we are literally 'rewiring' our brains from the inside out to respond differently to the situations that used to set us into binge-mode.
But that process can only work if we LET it.
So today I'm letting the process WORK for me. I responded to a situation that normally would've sent me on a binge differently....and was astounded! I walked away, I calmed down, I did my deep breathing and I thought 'THIS is how to handle stress in my life. NOT running to food for solace all the time. But relaxing through it and realizing and recognizing that 'this too shall pass' and the feelings I'm feeling, while uncomfortable, WILL NOT LAST'.
Keep on keepin' on! IT WORKS. Patience...calm....deep breaths...the program WORKS. Give it time. :)
...are they THAT busy? I even had one girl say to me once, "I love this class...BUT I don't like the beginning when we relax...it's so not necessary. I come here for the WORK, you know?"
...and my mouth dropped open and I said something about relaxation being important but she wasn't listening, and I could see that...so I thought "What's the use?" and just sort of nodded and smiled.
I mean, to each his own, right?
But relaxation IS important. It's SO important.
In Pilates, we relax our muscles -- and our bodies and minds in general -- ahead of time to prepare for the work ahead.
Pilates, to be done right, demands your full concentration. Because it's not just about doing the exercises. It's about making sure your form is correct...perfectly aligned...which takes some doing to do properly (your posture, stomach held in, limbs stretched appropriately, toes either pointed or flexed, etc.), but it's also about your breathing as well (Pilates breathing differs from yoga breathing or normal breathing!)
It takes practice just to do the breathing properly. You have to pull in your stomach muscles, and breathe from your chest, inhaling through your nose, and exhaling through your mouth.
It's not easy (took me six months LOL).
And that's not even counting the exercises themselves!
So FOCUSING is important. And that beginning relaxation segment helps me to focus. Get into what I'll be doing.
And at the end of class? You've worked hard...and your muscles need to relax again. You need to re-acclimate yourself to the day ahead.
And here's the thing.
Both sessions - the relaxation at the beginning and the period at the end - take no longer than 5 minutes, TOPS.
Yet these women consider it a 'waste of time'?
Are they THAT busy?
I think that's....sad. It's a sad commentary on our lives today, isn't it, when we can't relax for 5 minutes?
We all NEED to relax. BIGtime.
And I can tell you with absolute, 100% CERTAINTY that learning how to relax and de-stress are KEYS to this program working for you.
There's a lot of other things of course, that make it work....obviously the meals, eaten at the right times, your water, logging your meals, doing the headwork....but STRESS RELIEF is right up there, believe me!
I needed to learn this the hard way. I developed fibromyalgia, in my humble opinion (and that of many medical professionals), due partly to my inability to DE-STRESS.
I was tense a LOT. A lot more than I thought I was. And consequently, I was tensing up my shoulder and neck muscles, involuntarily. And my back muscles. And my arms!
And over time, and years of living like this, it took its toll. Whatever gene that causes FMS (and they do believe there's a gene, they're working to find out which one and 'why') got 'kicked off' and voila, I wound up with fibromyalgia....chronic pain, chronic fatigue. LOTS of fun. (I don't recommend it.... :)
So. One of the first things my specialists have done is work with me on de-stressing techniques. And I've tried many of them.
I've tried meditation, deep breathing, exercise (which obviously WORKS to a certain extent, which is why I'm still doing it!), naps, hot baths, herbal teas, mantras, special breathing techniques...even acupuncture.
I'm always on the lookout for new ways to de-stress!
Some of the things I've tried worked...some not so much.
But when I got to this program and started to do the headwork, one of the things that I determined 'set me off' on an eating binge was TENSION and STRESS.
So having learned some techniques already, I applied them.
And they helped. BIGTIME. They helped long enough for me to get past those few moments of decision....you know the ones...where you're debating with Fat Brain...and she's swearing 'One won't hurt' or 'Just restart tomorrow' or whatever....to the point where I'm strong enough to get to my next MF meal OK.
The next time you get stressed out? Think about it....watch your own body, see how tensed up your shoulder muscles get, and consciously ROLL THEM BACK AND DOWN and take a deep breath. How do you feel? A bit better? Stand or sit up a bit straighter, take some more deep breaths and begin to calm yourself a bit.
It's been my experience that sometimes? This is all it takes. CALM down a bit. Don't automatically reach for the 'whatever' food you ate before. Or whatever you did to relieve stress. THINK about it.
Stress is a big big factor.....and here as well as in life. We overstress over the program. We analyze to 'death' what we're doing or how come the scale didn't move as fast as we'd like. We question ourselves constantly. But maybe, just maybe, we need to just RELAX and be PATIENT and just keep working the program and try and have some faith in it.
Instead of questioning, always questioning, maybe this doesn't work for you....maybe you're the one in a million who this program BACKFIRES on (very unlikely) and you WON'T lose weight. Maybe you need to do something else instead. Maybe you need to try calorie cycling or carb cycling or change your meals up or .... and on and on and on it goes.
When in actuality....9 times out of 10? What I found was just leaving well enough ALONE, and STAYING THE COURSE, everything was fine the next day or the next weigh-in!
Your body will lose the weight when it's ready to lose the weight.
It won't do it on a schedule that YOU set....no matter how much you want to. Believe me, I've 'been there'. I used to get out my calendar....and go "Let's see, at 2 lbs a week I'll lose 8 lbs a month which means by my birthday I'll be down to 190, and then by July 4th, I'll be at 180" etc etc.
Then I'd get ANNOYED when I didn't lose according to my 'set' schedule and decide maybe the plan wasn't working.
I had to LET GO of all that anxiety and stress and "I need to do this NOW my way right now" and just take it one day at a time, one meal at a time.
And trust that my eating habits WOULD change over time....with repetition (a lot of it is just repetition, believe it or not!).
Our brains need to LEARN a new way of working....we are literally 'rewiring' our brains from the inside out to respond differently to the situations that used to set us into binge-mode.
But that process can only work if we LET it.
So today I'm letting the process WORK for me. I responded to a situation that normally would've sent me on a binge differently....and was astounded! I walked away, I calmed down, I did my deep breathing and I thought 'THIS is how to handle stress in my life. NOT running to food for solace all the time. But relaxing through it and realizing and recognizing that 'this too shall pass' and the feelings I'm feeling, while uncomfortable, WILL NOT LAST'.
Keep on keepin' on! IT WORKS. Patience...calm....deep breaths...the program WORKS. Give it time. :)
--
Linda
Linda Leiby
Take Shape For Life Certified Health Coach
"Keep on keepin' on!"
For Orders: www.Catlover77.tsfl.com
My blogs: www.lincoach.blogspot.com
Linda
Linda Leiby
Take Shape For Life Certified Health Coach
"Keep on keepin' on!"
For Orders: www.Catlover77.tsfl.com
My blogs: www.lincoach.blogspot.com
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