Fitness Blog

It’s All in Your Head - From Good to GREAT

So Michael and I were dancing at a communal Arthur Murray event this weekend (disclaimer: the above are NOT us as no amount of Nair and spray tan for him or peroxide for me will make that happen) , and like all endeavors, some days are better than others, but overall we were feeling pretty good about our efforts. Then the “pro shows” happen. The people who do this for a living show exactly why they are the teachers and we are just hoping to get a tenth of this going on one day:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?t=29&v=3qd-jM3JRO0

So that’s pretty intimidating! And much like a first-timer or returner to the world of fitness, you’ve got a few ways to respond to that.

(1) Completely freak out that there’s no way you’ll ever be able to do that and be bummed that you didn’t start this AGES ago and wonder why you’re here trying to pretend you can be good at something when there are all these people leaving you in the dust.

(2) Come back over into realityland and recognize that there are ALL levels of achievement. Some people came to the game earlier than others. Some people may be more naturally gifted, and some people have just worked really hard for a long time to make it look easy.

(3) Tell yourself that you are you, and you can’t really compare your journey to anyone else’s, but that with enough effort and focus, one day that CAN be you IF that’s where you choose to put your focus.

Or you might want to go through ALL those steps! Just make sure you end on number 3 :).

We had a coaching lesson with the above gentleman, and in the way of all great coaches, he showed us how we were good, but let us realize what was holding us back from being great.

So when you are freaking out that you might get called to the Golden Mat in FBI, or trying desperately not to make eye contact with Bill when he’s heading in your direction with a handful of weights, or wishing for Kerri to walk past so you can pop up out of that squat and hold really quick behind her back, just know that holding that pose and trying that weight EVEN if you put it down, and pushing just a little harder for those 90 seconds will all make YOU better. There will ALWAYS be someone stronger or faster or more flexible, but keep chasing that dream, and know that you’re inspiring someone else without even realizing who that is.

All the best,

Marcey

Coach Marcey Tidwell is started as a client with NGPT in January 2011. Joining the team as an accountability coach, she wears many hats in assisting the Meltdown Nation! Nurse Marcey by day, she brings a wealth of knowledge the program!

It’s All in Your Head - Mental Clutter = Body Clutter

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Those who know me know I am passionate about two things: health and organizing. These two topic come together in surprising ways. It’s best expressed by organization guru Flylady in her book “Body Clutter” and follows her housekeeping mantra that “You can’t organize clutter - you can only get rid of it.” So much for Spanx!

But I just completed an audio book called The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up: The Japanese Art of Decluttering. This is as much about the mental clutter between our ears as anything we have hiding in our closets.

STICK WITH ME HERE.

I pulled into the Iron Pit parking lot and had one of those driveway moments where something really profound and/or interesting is emanating from your radio, and you have to stop and hear it to the end.

The author suggested that there are only two reasons we keep things that we don’t love or can’t use.

We are either holding onto the past, or are afraid of the future.

Maybe it’s something someone you once loved gave you, or maybe you’re afraid that a future without this thing might be a less secure place.

People new to the Meltdown are at a critical time in the change process we talked about a couple of weeks ago.

The old things you’re hanging onto might be the habits that don’t promote your health, or an identity as someone who can’t or doesn’t do physically active things, or a mindset that the body you have is the one you are ‘stuck’ with. NONE of these are ‘things’ you _have_ to keep. They may all be things that served you once, but they are no longer necessary and in fact are counterproductive to achieving what you want to do and be NOW.

When you catch yourself hanging onto old thought patterns and ways of self-identifying, stop, acknowledge that that may have been true in the past, but that just like that Color Me Badd poster that once adorned the wall of the room I shared with my sister, it has lived out its useful life and is now a dated relic of old you. (Youtube that one yourselves and don’t blame me when you want to expunge the Earth of every copy of your high school yearbook…) 😀

All the best,

Marcey

It’s all in your head - “Enough is as good as a feast”

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“Enough is as good as a feast”

My dearest friend Barbara attributes this saying to her late Mother who was English, and I remember hearing it growing up courtesy that other maven of politesse, Mary Poppins. Simply put, there is no benefit in going overboard (on food, if taken literally, but can be applied to many areas of life.)

Boot campers are nearing their first weigh-in checkpoint, and those doing the “classic” plan are gleefully plotting their cheat days. For the uninitiated, cheat day is the first day after two weeks of following the Meltdown food plan, when newly ‘detoxed’ participants have the opportunity for one day, morning to night, to partake of whatever they want to eat (or drink.) After this weekend, 25 bootcamps-worth of Meltdowners will attest to the notion that there is little comparable to the dietary debauchery of a first cheat day. One long-time friend of the program was famed for his ‘McWenby’s’ combo - three drive-thrus, and a meal fit for a death row inmate’s final feast.

Since Little 500 also happens to fall this weekend, I will put up the most bedraggled Sunday-cheating Meltdowner with a ‘carbover’ Monday morning against the bleariest-eyed participant of Sunday Court. In many ways the effect on your body of suddenly infusing it with mass quantities of sugar and fat is the same as an alcohol hangover. It feels really good, right up until it doesn’t.

Many people find that despite having a culinary wish-list a mile long, they don’t get near the amount of food in after weigh-in that they think they will. As soon as that first meal hits the bloodstream, they hit the couch, sometimes waking up in a panic that perhaps the day has completely passed them by! NO? Phew! Time for one more run - Jiffy Treat, Chocolate Moose or Brusters? QUICK - THE SUN IS SETTING!!!!!!!

That first class the next day will be the real challenge. It’s like your legs are filled with the pureed remnants of jelly donuts. Please, for the love of all that’s good and right and pure in this world, Trish, DON’T DO THE BURPEE SINGLE SET IN T60!

Ooooh - that’s gonna hurt.

Now, I say all this NOT to be a biscuits and bonbon buzzkill. I’m merely throwing out the seed of an idea - I hope it will take root. This is NOT your last meal. You _will_ enjoy your whatever your food drug of choice is again. I’m just asking you to be mindful in your eating, even on cheat day. Especially on cheat day. Stop and enjoy the journey. Ask yourself if the next bite is because you are hungry, or because of something else. Once we are able to ascertain what it is food is doing to us and for us, then we will truly start to gain control over it. Long term, this is not the rote recitation and repetition of a proscribed food plan for eight weeks. It’s the beginning of a journey that I hope will find you healthier in the months and years to come.

Now where’s my carrot cake?

It’s All in Your Head - Just get through the Valley of Despair!

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I first came across this graph in a book called The 12 Week Year - it encourages us to lay out specific plans and reassess goals periodically without having it all hinge on January 1st. Many of us start off the New Year with boundless energy and enthusiasm only to have it peter out by February. Then it seems like the year is shot, and we just revert to our well-worn habits, trudge along, and wait for another arbitrarily-assigned milestone to arrive and kick us in the pants - a birthday, a new week, month, or, hopefully not, a health crisis.

For most people new to NGPT, the boot camp experience mirrors the above pattern associated with Positive Change. At some point, you saw pictures of a friend’s before and afters online, or ran into a suddenly-svelter acquaintance in the grocery store. WOW! Where do I sign up?

Uninformed optimism - you don’t know what you’re getting into, but you want those results!

Then the emails start to come. This is going to take some work. You start to slide into ‘informed pessimism.’ You haven’t yet seen the results in YOU, and this might be harder than it looks.

Then you take your first class. And it was crazy hard but you survived! But then you woke up the next morning - when did the Mack truck drive through your bedroom and run over you?

This blog is coming out right about the time you’re hitting the trough of the graph - AKA the Valley of Despair. You’re sore and you want a Diet Coke and a piece of chocolate, dagnabit! Your spouse/children/dog may be giving you a wide berth. This is where you’re either going to jump off the slide entirely, or push through just a little more.

All we ask is to allow that first full week.

Soreness fades.

The food plan becomes easier.

The classes are less terrifying.

And then you’ll get to that first weigh in.

SQUEEEEE!!!!!

SUCCESS.

And that’s when you find yourself in “informed optimism.” This works for YOU and you’ll have seen the results.

The entire Meltdown nation has been where you are in week one.

We are here for you.

Whatever it takes to get through that first two weeks, do.

Whatever your reasons for coming through our doors, YOU are worth it.

All the best,

Marcey

It’s All in Your Head - The Epic Battle of George Costanza vs. Dr. Seuss

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If you’ve done any amount of reading on the psychology of personalities, you’ve heard of “locus of control.” This simply means beliefs as regards who or what hold the power over our lives.

Most people veer toward either an “external” or “internal” locus of control - that is believing that things happen to them, or that they MAKE things happen. Truth is, there’s a little bit of both in most things in life. Wile E. Coyote may occasionally drop an anvil on your head even when all your best planning is in place. Every so often, though, we may stand under a piano tied to a quickly-fraying rope and stare at it, waiting for it to thwack us, and then are surprised when that happens!

Last week we talked about “future you” but we also need proactive strategies for “present you.” You miss your alarm clock and dash out the door barely dressed, never mind with food. What do you do? If you didn’t seed your desk, car, or locker with non-perishables (raisins, nuts, tuna pouches, bars, shakes) then you may have to venture into the world for sustenance. If you’re anywhere near civilization, there’s a guarantee you CAN find something on plan - the question is, will YOU choose it?

When Cardio Bill sends out his emails during boot camp, he always capitalizes YOU. This is because we can have the best toolbox in the world - the best and most efficient way to lose weight and get stronger and healthier - but is ultimately up to US to choose to follow it. Many of these decisions are made in a split second - a series of small choices each day that cumulatively result in success or not.

In that moment when you’re standing at the Subway counter, will it be the spinach and chicken salad, or the meatball sub? When you hit that accursed alarm, will you get vertical and go to class, or roll back over and go to sleep? I know which one your inner child wants, but the adult needs to assert control. You are not weak-willed. To quote the spiel that every boot camper gets at orientation - it’s a matter of your WHY being stronger than your “why not.” Visualizing yourself doing a full push-up or fitting into that dress or getting off of medications (outcome visualization.) But you must also imagine the steps you need to take, the obstacles you are bound to find in your way, and how you will respond to them in the moment (process visualization.)

Take a moment whenever you need to consider a choice you are being faced with, and imagine yourself making the choice that promotes your health and gets you closer to your goals.

YOU have the control. Will YOU choose to exercise it?

All the best,

Marcey

It’s All In Your Head: Harnessing the Power of “Future You”

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OK - so you know how when someone asks you to do something 3 months down the road it’s NO PROBLEM! I got this! Then a week beforehand you’re having a stroke because you don’t know WHY you agreed to do this and OMG how am I going to get this done???

Future you is an optimist that makes Chris Traeger from Parks and Rec look like Oscar the Grouch. Future you is massively motivated. Future you, when given the choice of a piece of fruit or chocolate for tomorrow’s box lunch order, will always let the better angel of your dietary nature prevail. Then when the pre-ordered lunch rolls around it’s all, “Where’s my cookie??”

Key to your success is knowing yourself. You wouldn’t leave a pot roast to cool on your counter and walk away with your labrador retriever untended in the kitchen. He eats it and it’s hard to be surprised - that’s just human (errr…dog) nature at work. Your toddler will probably not exercise any self control if her supply of Halloween candy is left for her to ingest as she sees fit.

Remember Bill and Ted’s Excellent Adventure? Ted went back in time and laid out helpful objects for himself to find later. You can be your own time traveling hero. You KNOW what you SHOULD do. Make it easier for ‘future you’ to make those decisions.

You’re at the grocery store. Shopping when you’ve just eaten means you will make better choices in the now for your near-term future. Who are we buying those cookies for? Who is going to eat them? Future us, unless that temptation doesn’t readily exist.

Scheduling your classes and weigh-ins NOW for the next two weeks or month means you’re already locked in. Don’t leave it to ‘present you’ to have the intestinal fortitude to pull yourself out of a warm comfy bed without that ten bucks hanging in the balance! (Past, present _and_ future me are all very thrifty - late cancels best involve being carried somewhere on a gurney ;).

One of my favorite things we do is collect video testimonials, often at the end of bootcamps, with people celebrating their wins. Watching these later can remind you of your enthusiasm for movement and clean eating (or at least the RESULTS you get when you are practicing those!) If you don’t have that to refer to, consider using this as a little time capsule for future you:

https://www.futureme.org/

Send an email to yourself a week, a month, six months from now.

Where do YOU want to be in those time frames?

It all starts with today.

Coach Marcey Tidwell

Friendly Feasting: Mixed-Berry Dutch Baby

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Let me share something with you that I’ve been giving a fair amount of thought to in recent years. In many cases, there is little difference between breakfast and dessert. So much is carb heavy, sugar laded, and high fat. Pancakes, waffles, donuts – who decided these were morning foods?! But cake, cookies, and pie are for after dinner? What is a Meltdowner to do? While most of the world seems content to eat the same sorts of foods throughout the day, we Americans have to have our “breakfast foods” and, though plenty of NGPT clients do it, most of us can’t imagine eating a chicken breast and peanut butter for breakfast. Eggs feel like a good compromise. Definitely breakfast-y but much can be done with them. This recipe is another is-it-breakfast-or-is-it-dessert item. Eggs meet fruit with sweetness from Splenda or Stevia, for you PRIMErs out there, in this one-skillet dish.

Mixed-Berry Dutch Baby http://www.foodandwine.com/recipes/mixed-berry-dutch-baby

3 large eggs
½ tsp finely grated lemon zest
1/3 cup Splenda
Pinch of salt
2/3 cup almond flour
2/3 cup almond milk
1 cup raspberries
1 cup blackberries
2-3 Tbsp oil

Preheat oven to 425° and heat a 10” cast-iron skillet over med heat. In a medium bowl, whisk eggs with lemon zest, Splenda, and salt until combined. Add almond flour and milk and whisk until smooth. Add the berries. Heat oil in the skillet and add batter, spreading fruit evenly. Bake in the center of the oven for ~22 min, until edges are browned and puffed and the center is lightly browned in spots. Transfer the skillet to a trivet and dust Dutch Baby with powdered sugar if you like. Cut into wedges and serve with remaining fresh berries. The whole recipe has 1.5 protein servings, 3 fat, and 4 carb. Eat ¼ of this dish with an extra half protein serving to fill in. Experienced NGPT chefs may want to use another flour type that is a carb to remove the fat so this dish works on more than just levels 0-1.

I used a normal oven-safe skillet Slice it up!

Ok readers, you decide when in the day to try this recipe. Whichever you choose, be sure to feast for breakfast, feast for dessert, and as always…FEAST ON!!!

~Coach Lauren

It’s All in Your Head: I get by with a (lot) of help from my friends

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As we come off Meltdown 24 and there is a rush of placements in 3P (our free online accountability program available to anyone who has completed an 8 week program) I am reminded of a great book I recently re-read: Vital Friends, the eight types being well-summarized here.

The author posits that many of us have a handful or fewer of close friends who largely influence our lives, for good or for ill. Those who influence for the good may inhabit one or more of the following categories:

Builder
Champion
Collaborator
Companion
Connector
Energizer
Mind Opener
Navigator

When I think of the people who most affected me in the beginning of this program, Cardio BIll was certainly my builder. Jen Goins as my food coach was my champion, cheering on each day. Leah Mathews excelled as a collaborator as a fellow first-time Meltdowner - we shared a lot of the same classes and were working toward similar goals. David Fletcher has been a mind-opener.

Who are the people in your life - whether in the studio or your 3P group, or at home, who are there for you in your wellness journey? In the inimitable words of Telly Savalas, “Who loves ya, baby?” Promoting those relationships is like shoring up your defenses against the Huns. Or the Honey Buns.

Who are YOU to other people? Is someone else in need of your guidance? The most common concern I hear from 3P members is what to do when someone is clearly struggling. “You’ve got this” only goes so far day after day. I suggest start with asking questions - it can be as simple as an open-ended, “Can you tell me about that?” You may be surprised what comes out.

Need a Vital Friend? Reach out! The Meltdown Nation stands ready.

Coaches Corner: Food Isn’t Just Food by Coach Marcey

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I was 5 years old when we lived in Florida - a pecan tree graced the front yard of our naval base housing, and a pair of squirrels would chase each other up and down the tree, hiding nuts from each other. It was way better entertainment than TV. Mom would go out front and pick some off the ground, and we’d patiently work our way through them, Mom cracking them open with a hammer, and the kids working them out of the shells.

Anyone who thinks food is JUST food was never a child.

Grandma’s fried mush sampled only on rare trips home to PA when we traveled with Dad during his service career. Baloney sandwiches on Wonder bread to keep three growing children quiet in the car during the interminable ride back from the commissary. Arteries forgive me - SCRAPPLE consumed on the weekend while little brains ingested the Creature Double Feature.

Evolutionarily speaking, to survive ya gotta eat, so it stands to reason that taste is probably the most developed sense, but in fact it’s the least in terms of brain wattage devoted to it (vision, hearing, touch and smell _all_ trump it in that order.) So WHY are we obsessed with food?

The hippocampus is the part of the brain primarily tasked with memory, and connecting senses with emotions, AND has receptors for hormones associated with appetite. It also connects the brain and the gut in ways we’re only just beginning to understand, but anyone who has ever had a bout of food poisoning or similar negative association with a taste knows all too well how the mere thought of that item can send the belly into anticipatory revolt.

And despite our rapidly evolving culture, our brains and bodies are pretty slow to catch on that MOST of us don’t need to pack on weight to get us through the long hard winter. We don’t have to worry about times of famine. But skipping breakfast is enough to trigger your body to slow down the metabolism just in case the next meal isn’t forthcoming.

It is ALWAYS my hope that the cerebral brain trumps the reptile brain; that our higher thought processes drown out the deeply-buried childhood associations we may no longer even be cognizant of. Being aware of the efficiency of our body in storing calories for “later” lets us know we’ve got enough to fight against with biology without letting also 35 year old ad jingles sabotage our success now.

Coach Marcey Tidwell

Coaches Corner: The #1 Difference between Adults and Children with Coach Marcey

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A comedienne used to joke that the dividing line between childhood and adulthood is the willingness and desire to take a nap. Kids: can’t force ‘em. Adults: is there anything more you desire on this plane of existence?

IF the thought of a good night’s sleep fills you with a simultaneously joy and heartbreak only commensurate with an until-now-unrequited love you know will never EVER be, you may be sleep-deprived.

IF you fall asleep the second your head hits the pillow. Or the couch. Or the headrest of the car(!) You may be sleep-deprived.

IF you are hauling butt in every other respect of your fitness regimen, working out, eating on-plan but hit with cravings you may or may not succumb to, and NOT getting the results you want, you are most assuredly sleep-deprived.

There are a couple of different categories we can shuffle you into - can’t sleep and won’t/don’t sleep.

Either way, your hormones are working against you, and ladies, I’m not just talking to you. Leptin and ghrelin are two hormones connected with appetite and satiety (feeling of fullness) negatively affected by lack of adequate quality sleep. Insulin resistance is increased with chronic sleep deprivation, potentially leading to diabetes and the many attendant health problems associated with that disease. Blood pressure increases as well as your risk of heart disease. Even if you DON’T cheat in response to the signals your body is sending trying to get lost energy needed from sleep replaced by calories instead. Even then - your body will hold onto fat.

It’s all well and good to say you need to get more sleep, but how does that actually happen?

Institute a screen-free time after a certain hour of the evening for the whole family? Smart phones, laptops, Ipods, TV - the whole shebang? Aside from keeping us up via distraction, light from screens does interfere with our ability to get to sleep (keeping your phone at the bedside as an alarm can have the same impact - consider going old school with a wind-up clock - no worries about power outages!)

Have an evening routine that allows for a more streamlined exit in the morning? Lay out all items that need to leave with you in the morning, as well as your clothes. Did your Mom make you do this? She knew she didn’t have time to chase you and your siblings around before school :).

JUST SAY NO.

I challenge each of you to lay out a time budget of your current life the same way you would lay out a financial budget. How many hours of your day are taken up before we even allot a few minutes to tinkle and shower? If you’ve ever been faced with the choice of shaving one leg or the other because you don’t have time for both, you _might_ be overcommitted. 24 hours. That’s all each of us has no matter how we try to fold space. Faced with a true accounting of the ins and outs of our days, the next question is what needs to give? We’ve all heard the old saw, “If you want something done, give it to a busy person.” It’s OK to acknowledge the limits of your day. If it makes you feel better to put something on a to-do list as a placeholder until you can face NOT doing it (a personal fav strategy), trick yourself with this psychological sleight-of-hand. You will be around a lot longer to do good if you don’t burn yourself out now.

Be well - as always, write with your thoughts and strategies! [email protected]

Coach Marcey Tidwell

Fitness Blog

It’s All in Your Head - From Good to GREAT

It’s All in Your Head - Mental Clutter = Body Clutter

It’s all in your head - “Enough is as good as a feast”

It’s All in Your Head - Just get through the Valley of Despair!

It’s All in Your Head - The Epic Battle of George Costanza vs. Dr. Seuss

It’s All In Your Head: Harnessing the Power of “Future You”

Friendly Feasting: Mixed-Berry Dutch Baby

It’s All in Your Head: I get by with a (lot) of help from my friends

Coaches Corner: Food Isn’t Just Food by Coach Marcey

Coaches Corner: The #1 Difference between Adults and Children with Coach Marcey

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