Here’s the link to my Setting Up a Home Gym blog posts.
Category: fitness
Sheltering in Place
My job has shut down indefinitely.
As others might be sheltering in place as well I would like to take about mental health in a time of crisis.
The number-one goal as I see it in this time of staying indoors is to eat as healthfully as possible.
The second critical goal is to keep up your mental health.
You can click on my home gym category to see how you can exercise at home.
I’ve been buying a CSA box of organic produce plus a mound of cheese and carton of eggs via FreshDirect online grocer in New York City.
Type in CSA box in the search bar.
PeaPod is available elsewhere.
As long as you can keep up buying food this is what is imperative.
What matters most as I see it is protecting your mental and physical health.
Today more than every nutritious food can elevate your mood.
I would tell others to stay inside. Only go out to the bank or food shopping or the laundry center should you have to. You might think nothing could happen because you’ve been inside a long time so far. I wouldn’t risk going out.
Stay 6 feet away from others as recommended to practice social distancing.
In a coming blog entry I’ll post a message I posted to my other blog.
It bears repeating that having compassion is the way to go.
Be kind to yourself when you’re holed up in your apartment or house.
The CO-VID19 outbreak will settle down. We will return to normal.
Bruni’s Atomic Habits
About seven months ago I read the book Atomic Habits. I recommend that readers buy a copy. The author lists simple small effective ways to create new positive habits in your life.
Come to think of it this might have been round about when I changed one thing:
In April 2019 I ditched having Purely Elizabeth’s ancient grains mush for breakfast.
Pour granola in bowl; add milk; eat in three minutes. Repeat. Every morning.
That had been my strategy for breakfast for too long.
In April I paid $395 for the services of a Health Coach. She zoomed in on this breakfast choice as one possible root for my lack of energy.
It’s January 2020. And 9 months later I’m happy to report that things turned around.
That April I changed one tiny thing: buying organic ingredients for my morning meal.
Scrambling two Handsome Brook Farms organic eggs with organic diced yellow red and orange peppers, tiny organic broccoli florets, and sliced organic mushrooms.
One month after this eggs-cellent food makeover I changed something else out of the blue.
One morning in May I decided to exercise at 7:00 a.m. Since then I exercise at home in the morning and early afternoon 2x/per week.
On Labor Day I bought the self-cleaning oven. Since this splurge I’ve been cooking my own dinners on most nights.
In November I started using the treadmill 1x/per week–another goal.
This is proof that slow-and-steady wins the race. Because our lives aren’t a race to the finish line–you know where that leads.
I’m not a fan of trying to execute numerous goals all at once.
This is contrary to the fact that a magazine recently touted that new research claims making four or five changes all at once is possible and effective.
I’ll stick to the Atomic Habits guidelines and to the Changeology action plan.
You simply don’t know what’s possible until you try.
My metal Michael Jordan quote paperweight is inscribed thus:
Don’t be afraid to fail. Be afraid not to try.
Changing one or two things at a time has worked for me.
The funny thing is, after executing these new habits, I can say that I have more energy and confidence, and my body is fitter and stronger too. Plus I lost 12 pounds without trying to : )
Not too shabby for a person who will turn 55 in the spring.
I’ll end here by telling readers not to write the ending of your story before you’ve started the first page.
Expecting the worst–that you “can’t” do something or “won’t” be able to do something is a mistake.
I had no idea the direction my life would turn when out of nowhere out of the blue on a Friday morning in May I decided I had to exercise at 7:00 a.m.
This is the reason that planning things down to every minute detail can backfire. This is why telling yourself you need to see results quickly will derail your success.
In coming blog entries I’ll give recipes for healthful snacks. I’ll talk a little about my own “food plan” which has also become a habit recently.
Giving Yourself a Lifeline
Years ago when I was the Health Guide at a website I wrote an article there about goal-setting. Over five years ago I first advanced the idea of giving yourself a lifeline. Instead of a strict impossible-to-achieve-by deadline.
The goal of exercising 5 days a week I would say is unrealistic for most people except athletes and fitness buffs.
The goal of losing 20 or 30 or more pounds also can’t be executed quickly.
How quick is too quick? Expecting change within three weeks is not realistic. 90 days is the Changeology action plan length of time for achieving a goal. And some goals will take years and years to achieve.
The fact is that the cumulative effect of the sub-goals you’re executing week-by-week adds up over time.
You might not notice a difference until 5 months later. Five months later the change might seem to have come out of the blue. And it seems sudden and astounding.
I also know from my own experience that having a fallow period is to be expected.
This fallow period can last a year or two and not just a week or two weeks or a season.
That’s why getting hung up on achieving goals quickly is a mistake.
A fallow period or a plateau is to be expected and planned for.
A setback is the cost of doing business in the real world. It’s why I don’t like to use the word failure. Thinking you’re a failure sets you up to not want to try again when the first option didn’t work out.
When a goal doesn’t go as you planned that’s a sign that you need to adapt your strategy.
Life will tell you what to do if only you stop to listen.
Taking time to slow down is imperative. It’s called practicing mindfulness and I wrote about this in here a year ago. You can use the search bar of this blog to type in the word mindfulness to find this blog entry to read.
The fact is that rush, rush, rushing through your goals, your activities, and your life only serves to backfire.
Italians have the ethic of “piano-piano” which is doing things slowly slowly.
See if what I’ve written makes sense. Giving yourself a lifeline might just be the secret solution to achieving your goals.
Quick is often the antithesis of lasting when it comes to making changes.
Going at your goals rat-a-tat-tat and firing away at them every single minute of the day might also impede success.
Voila–extending to yourself a lifeline.
How to Motivate Yourself
My sincerest hope is that I can do some good in my time here by using this blog as a motivational platform to educate, empower, and entertain readers.
My contention is that taking action sets in motion positive thinking. Which spurs a person to take more action. And so on. Like a peppermint stick thoughts and actions swirl around each other to reinforce goal-setting habits.
This December at long last I followed through on a long-held goal. Meeting a person who had competed in a marathon gave me the kick in the training pants to take action.
Before the holidays at the end of the year I achieved my goal of doing a walk/run on the treadmill 1/x per week. I did this for 4 weeks in a row.
Achieving this simple goal gave me the confidence that I could achieve other goals. Even ones not related to physical fitness.
Executing one goal–hopping on the treadmill–fired up my mental energy and alacrity.
It gave me the chance to think differently about myself and my skills, strengths, and abilities.
Always I’ve seen that by first taking action it leads to positive thinking. The physical act of doing something creates a positive cascade of thoughts flowing in the right direction.
Danica Patrick in her book Pretty Intense calls this your “mind river.”
I realized that I’m an innovative thinker. It’s easier to have self-acceptance.
My ulterior motive in keeping my two blogs is to empower readers to have self pride and to like yourself in a world where there’s still a lot of judging and stereotyping going on.
Living on earth it’s a better world precisely because everyone’s different.
The saddest waste of anyone’s “human capital” is for a person to try to change who they are to get other people’s approval.
I’m done with that. I’m done with caring what other people think.
Set a goal. Use the Changeology 5-step 90-day action plan to aid you in achieving the goal if you want to use this guide. See what happens.
Simply by doing a walk/run on the treadmill I started to internalize the powerful message that what makes me different gives me a specialty.
So too this is for everyone: what makes you different gives you an advantage.
You don’t have to be anyone other than who you are to succeed.
How to Start Making a Change
I want to clear up something in terms of a common mistake people make:
Acting harsh towards yourself–a form of negative reinforcement–only serves to keep you stuck in old thought patterns and behaviors that are holding you back.
Viewing yourself with a compassionate eye is the first order of business when seeking to execute a change for the better.
First, forgive yourself and have empathy. It’s possible that the current behavior manifested as a habit because it originally served a purpose that might have benefited you.
Over time, the need to change could crop up. My strategy is to change as I go along in life rather than waiting until a drastic change becomes necessary.
As regards food and fitness goals and resolutions, this is where each of us needs to be kinder and gentler on ourselves.
Making positive changes is possible when you first psych yourself up mentally to make the change. This is Step One in the Changeology book.
To motivate you to change your thinking, thus improving your ability to change your behavior, I want to quote from the book Pretty Intense. You could benefit from buying the book, which is why I quote Danica Patrick here:
“A study in the World Public Health Nutrition Association Journal found that the increase in ‘ultra-processed’ food–food that includes ingredients that aren’t, in fact, food–may be the main cause of the rise in obesity around the world.”
Isn’t it helpful and reassuring to know that a simple change in our eating habits can have dramatic health benefits?
I’m going to end here with a scenario from my own life to motivate readers to consider making this one positive change.
Exhibit A: My mother’s eating habits which should hit closer to home for readers.
She snacks, snacks, snacks on cookies, chips, cake, and pastries. She has chocolate Special K for breakfast that contains artificial flavors. The food marketer for this cereal lists on the box that the cereal has “150 nourishing calories.”
I didn’t know that artificial flavors were nourishing. Please step away from this particular cereal box. Or any kind of cereal box.
My mother happens to be overweight and out of shape. I love her with all my heart. I care about her and her health.
The number-one lesson I learned from my mother by watching her is that the food we eat impacts our mental and physical health more than any other factor in our lives.
Making simple, incremental, and lasting changes that are effective is possible.
It doesn’t involve going on any kind of restrictive diet. I never went on a diet, and I lost 20 pounds in my twenties and kept the weight off.
I use my family history as an example to make this point:
It pays dividends to be kinder and gentler on yourself when you first start making changes and follow through on continuing with the new behavior.
Find the things that motivate you to make a change. For me, my family history was the alarm bell ringing in my head.
For you, you might want to change so that you can live to see your kids graduate college.
Or you might want to change so that you have the energy to get out of bed in the morning without feeling tired and cranky.
It can be as simple as this.
Find your specific why you want to change.
Lastly: we need to remove the blame that is the stigma–“a mark of shame or discredit” from the conversation.
Feeling good is the life goal that counts more than anything if you ask me.
And you can control how you feel by changing what you eat. Which is what I did “piano-piano” as we Italians say or slowly slowly.
In coming blog entries I’ll detail the methods I employed that boosted my mood, elevated my energy, and reshaped my body.
My goal is to empower readers to make your own positive changes.
Breakfast at Bruni’s
Since April I’ve been having an organic food breakfast of scrambled eggs and veggies plus a navel orange.
I found out by accident by buying a regular orange that a regular orange has no taste. The organic orange is citrus-y.
For 9 months so far I’ve been having this food for breakfast.
I also started meeting with a new personal trainer at the gym for him to create routines I do on my own every week.
Since 2011–going on 9 years–I’ve had different trainers create routines that I do on my own.
This ties into the mind-body connection in numerous ways:
First, the more exercise you do, the happier you feel. Even should you not lose weight.
(I lost 12 pounds since April, yet that wasn’t my goal.)
Second, when you exercise consistently it’s easier not to stress about things that are happening in your life.
Ever since starting to follow-through on one of my fitness goals it has been easier not to give a sh*t about things I used to agonize over.
For one I’m coming up on 55 years old. I’ve stopped caring that I might not get my old 32-year old energy level back.
Yet a curious thing took place: I’ve been doing a walk/run on the treadmill. This had been a goal of mine for a couple of years.
Last month I was finally able to add this activity to my fitness repertoire.
Ever since then I’ve stopped dwelling on my energy level.
It might be that I’m getting back some of that energy.
I would like to empower readers to choose to live a healthy lifestyle.
Making positive changes is possible even when you’re older.
I can tell you without a doubt that you don’t have to be a size 4.
You don’t have to look a certain way or fit into skinny jeans the size of a garden hose.
Forget the number on the scale or how clear your skin is or how perfect your hair is.
What counts more is being active.
Being fit and active will help you achieve your goals inside and outside of the gym.
Even doing only one new thing to change for the better can improve your outlook.
I did only one new thing: hopped on the treadmill 1x per week.
This tiny change had a dramatic outcome:
I feel better – I’m happier – I think I can do what I set my mind to do.
In the coming blog entries I’m going to return to talking about goal-setting.
January is coming up and a lot of people appear to still be taken in with setting New Year’s Resolutions.
I say the New Decade calls for New Dreams.
Making Changes
One other thing I did was to start cooking my own dinners again.
For years I had an old regular oven that had to be cleaned using oven-cleaner cans.
The fumes were toxic. It was a chore to use the cleaner. Food got caught underneath the burners.
In any number of “green cleaning” books there are alternatives to using oven-cleaner cans.
Try The Modern Organic Home by Natalie Wise for starters. It might be able to be checked out of the library.
It might seem extreme yet my solution was to buy a self-cleaning oven.
I’ve cooked my own dinners three or four times a week so far.
I find that when you have a disappointment or two in your life it pays to focus on something else temporarily.
My goal of publishing a career handbook will not happen any time soon.
While I wait to make this happen I want to devote the blog to health topics.
In terms of the mind-body connection food is fuel for your body. Your body is a workhorse that can help you achieve goals.
Without health what does a person really have? Life is difficult when you don’t have your health.
Which is why compassion needs to be given to those of us who aren’t shiny happy people with photogenic Instagram feeds.
My fitness level is linked to my efforts. Yet for a lot of people it can seem like the luck of the draw that they become ill.
We shouldn’t blame each other. We shouldn’t judge each other.
All in all in this Flourish blog I want to talk about mental health and physical health to educate, empower, and entertain readers.
Today’s lunch just might be a Table 87 margherita pizza 🙂
Making Fitness My Priority
I’ve come to make fitness a priority.
Health equals wealth. The true definition of wealth is abundance.
With health you have what you need to achieve your life goals.
Being ill makes it that much harder to succeed.
Over the years through a series of events I’ve come to prize having a fit mind and a strong body.
The mind and body work together to give us optimal health.
I’m 54. Two years ago when I was 52 and started menopause my energy tanked. Would I have to accept that my old energy was gone for good?
My body is getting older. My mind is still youthful.
Could bridging this divide help me get back my energy?
At about the time I turned 52 and started going through “the change” of life as a woman other things happened.
I stopped taking any kind of vitamin or supplement. I had wanted to believe I could satisfy my nutritional needs solely through food choices alone.
This is also when I stopped cooking my own meals for dinner. I relied on boxed frozen food packages that were supposed to be healthier choices.
Folks, I ate a lot of this prepared junk for too long. To compensate, I started ordering food to be delivered to my apartment for dinner.
The restaurant food was healthful yet way more expensive every week.
The remedy came on in April of this year 2019 when on a whim I hired the health coach.
After scrambling eggs and veggies for breakfast for the last six months my mood improved.
By exercising in the morning in my living room 2x per week my body got fitter too.
Last week I wondered if perhaps I could use other help. I ordered Vitamin D tablets from the FullScript link my health coach had sent me online.
I’ve started to take one Vitamin D pill in the morning with breakfast.
Would I see a return to my old energy level or at least an improved energy level?
I was motivated to resume taking a Vitamin D pill after reading the Eating Well special edition magazine Eating for Energy.
This book is a common-sense guide to doing what it says: eating for energy.
I also changed one other thing for the better. I’ll talk about what I did in the next blog entry.
My intent is to give readers hope that making positive changes is possible at any time in your life and your recovery.
You might not be in such great health. As always I recommend the book Changeology: 5 Steps to Realizing Your Goals and Resolutions.
I’ve achieved numerous goals in the last year by using the 90-day action plan detailed in this lifesaver of a book.
In coming blog entries I’ll continue to report on the results I’m achieving by making these small, consistent, incremental changes.
Making positive changes isn’t easy. It’s natural to resist doing what’s in your best interest when it’s easier to adhere to the status quo.
Only I tell you readers: the status quo wasn’t working in my life.
It was time to do things differently. I’ll tell you how things turned out: better than I expected.
Read on for the results.
Chris’s Credentials
I’m 54 years old. I was born in 1965 in the first year of the Generation X cohort.
When I was 52 I started menopause. I haven’t gained weight or had hot flashes. My thinking is still sharp as a tack.
I was 50 years old when my father died. The cancer killed him. He has Stage 3 colon cancer that spread to his liver.
This was the deciding factor in my desire to continue to exercise and eat healthfully.
In 2011 when I turned 46 I started lifting weights. Before then I hadn’t lifted one 5 pound weight. In January 2014 three years later I could dead lift 205 pounds.
This is how I know it’s possible to make positive changes at any time in your life.
I believe in the beauty of making fitness the number-one priority.
Living in health harmony and happiness is predicated on having fitness of body, mind, spirit, career, finances, and relationships.
Over the years through a series of events happening to me I’ve come to figure out what my life’s purpose is.
I’m here to advance my vision of recovery from whatever it is a person is in recovery from.
My mantra for the blogs is: “No Judgments.”
When I was 22 I was diagnosed with a medical condition. I’ve been in remission for over 27 years so far.
What happened to me I wouldn’t want to strike any other person.
After I recovered fully, my goal was to aid in healing society of stigma.
It’s my belief that healing is possible when each of us honors, accepts, and embraces our individuality and that of others.
I’m a Girl on the Left. My favorite color is Green. I have 12 books I want to publish before my time here on earth ends.
And I think the world needs less judging and more compassion.
I’m going to record my journey to get fitter and remain healthy.
First before I detail the changes I’ve started to make I want to relay in the coming blog entry a scary event I witnessed in New York City.
I want to talk about what happened to dramatize the truth that no human being living on earth has anything to be ashamed of.
Wanting to better yourself is not a sin.
What I’ve learned is that sometimes you can’t make it on your own.
My goal in wanting to help others live full and robust lives springs from the fact that I had no help in my own life. I pulled myself up by my bootstraps at a time when it was thought recovery wasn’t possible.
What I know to be true: choosing to make fitness the number-one priority in my life has made all the difference.
Who are you? Stand up straight and tall and tell the world.
Full and Robust Life Hacks 