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Planning for a GREAT 2021

January 2, 2021 / Chris Brown / 1 Comment

My first post of 2020 was full of hope and optimism. WhileI believe this first post of 2021 will help me in planning for a great 2021, I realize that I will temper my hope, enthusiasm and optimism. I have a pivoted my perspective due to the pandemic.

For the majority of 2020 I have been dealing with a “new normal” during the pandemic and I adjusted my life accordingly. Intensified family situations have increased stress. Through all this I learned how my sense of community and loose ties make such a difference in my day to day mental attitude.

Last year my 3 words were declutter, habit and grateful. I regrouped around March 15 and many times just tried to just focus on building mental resilience. I really worked on improving and activating my parasympathetic nervous system with 4-7-8 breathing, yoga nidra and meditation.

As you can see by the photo, my regular exercise – as tracked by my FitBit activity minutes – took a nose dive. My daily activity during the prior four years ranged in the high 70’s/low 80’s for daily minutes. My pandemic year of 2020 dropped to a mere 50 minutes per day. Not exercise, just active minutes.

I feel that the biggest difference was not going to the gym. I used to average 4 or 5 days a week there. Other things contributed, for example, my dog passed away this past year. My usual walking trails became less appealing. My usual bike riding went from 2 or 3 rides a week to just one – a twenty two mile ride that stopped when the weather got nasty.

My goal this year… get activity minutes average back up to high 70’s low 80’s. Definitely one of my 3 words this year will be activity!

While I am planning for a great 2021, stay tuned to my next post for my action plan. This is the where the rubber meets the road and I’m still working this out! I’m going to review the 3 stages of a habit (cue, action, reward) as well as my basics and baby steps plans. I am determined to make fit & strong an important part of 2021.

My 3 words for 2021: activity, fit, strong!

Thinking about New Year Goals

December 28, 2020 / Chris Brown / 0 Comments

I am considering my plan for next year and thinking about making some new year goals. I guess it’s that time of year for many to do New Year goals, resolutions or making a plan.

With such a challenging year filled with struggles and new normals, I can only imagine that everyone is looking for better days. I know that thinking about making a change sometimes proceeds a change, but being committed makes the difference.

I’m reading a book called “Innercise” which is the opposite of exercise. It’s about interior thoughts, your mental game, not the physical, outward motions. I heard about it on a podcast that I often listen to called Marathon Training Academy.

The author, John Assaraf, asks a most important question about commitment vs interest. “Are you committed or just interested?” It is such a valid point. If you’re interested in something – or in my case just thinking about something – you’ll continue to come up with every reason and excuse not to do it. The author describes it as rationalizing or “Rational Lies” which is where I think I’m standing at the moment.

On one of our podcasts, we explained to our guest that we named out community Becoming Elli because we wanted to become fit and strong. The guest, Christine Phillips was talking about the power of affirmations and gently explained that the brain doesn’t click in with trying or becoming. You either do it or you don’t. Just trying isn’t enough.

I believe that is the root of the big question “Are you interested in achieving your goals or are you committed?”

Have you ever struggled with making a commitment? It’s odd that I can know things intellectually, but still not be able to overcome a stuck feeling. I’m taking a few baby steps this morning to get moving in the right direction and get unstuck.

Do you ever get stuck? How do you overcome your inertia?

Rediscovering Intervals on the Treadmill

December 28, 2020 / Jill McCauslin / 0 Comments

Recently I ran intervals on the treadmill in my hotel’s fitness center. I forced myself to go down to the room and do something. When I got there, I decided I didn’t really have the energy to use the dumbbells and decided to just go with the treadmill. I remembered a recent conversation where I said I used to do a lot of interval training on the treadmill over the winter.

I’ve been staying in a hotel over the holidays dealing with some family problems so it’s been a stressful time. I know that taking care of myself is important. This hotel has a nice fitness center and it’s a shame not to take advantage of it.

I was the only person in the room for the whole time that I ran my intervals. It’s a relief not to have to worry about masks and having to talk to people or even just listen to them. Being an introvert means that part of taking care of myself is giving myself some lone time.

Running Intervals on the Treadmill

I haven’t used a treadmill in about a year so it required some mental adjustment. Running inside is certainly different than running outside.

I set the workout to intervals and then selected the pace for the fast and slow parts. Because I just wanted to get in a workout, I didn’t choose anything too strenuous. Instead, I went with something I knew I could do for the whole time without being too challenged.

I listened to music with my Aftershokz headphones. They never fail to make me happy. I decided to listen to music that I just like rather than worrying about a running playlist. The important thing was to make this half hour be as stress-free as possible.

I used my heart rate chest strap so I could see my heart rate reflecting the intervals.

I enjoyed my time running intervals on the treadmill. I’d forgotten that this can be a satisfying way to get in a workout.

Is there a workout that you’ve forgotten about and recently retried? Let me know. I’d love to hear from you.

Finding Joy Through Creativity with Tracy Keenan

December 22, 2020 / Chris Brown / 0 Comments

Episode 73

In episode 73 Jill and Chris talk with Tracy Keenan about finding joy through creativity. Jill has known Tracy Keenan since high school. Over the years they lost touch with each other, and then thanks to social media and a high school reunion, became reacquainted. Tracy Keenan is a Presbyterian pastor, an Enneagram-based coach, and sees creative work as essential to sanity, health, and well-being.

Tracy studied music as an undergraduate, and has continued writing and performing music, but she actually has her degree in Early Childhood Education. She has both a masters and doctorate in ministry, has pastored 4 churches in the course of 30 years, and is now a mid-council leader in New Castle Presbytery in Delaware.

We talked about live giving energy and how knowing more about yourself will help you to integrate stress tools to move and grow beyond where you are. Self awareness of your emotions and impulses helps you to make choices with wisdom.

Tracy sparks joy and enthusiasm with music and her writing. She cherishes friendships among a wide variety of people from various traditions,
conditions, religions, and opinions. She and her husband Jim Mehler have two grown daughters. She writes music, fiction, and poetry, rides a Harley, and looks for the joy.

For more information about:Enneagram of Personality, the nine types of personality, and Tracy’s music click through the links.

Holiday Celebration Eating

December 21, 2020 / Chris Brown / 1 Comment

Holiday celebration eating is a always a challenge for me… in more ways than one.

I’m always looking for a festive looking dish, meal or appetizer to serve. I usually struggle to resist some of the more traditional treats.

Yesterday I tried something different using red green and white colors – beets, celery and onions. As it cooked the white onions became translucent and as I stirred, the beet juice covered everything. I added a few left over pasta noodles and a can of tuna for protein.

I actually liked the taste, but this photo is the best looking. If there is one thing I know about food blogging, getting the right photo that looks appealing is a big part of the project.

From an actual must have recipe, this was okay, yummy enough to want to finish it, but not something I would ever crave.

And eating it was way more healthy than the holiday cookies, peanut butter fudge and kulachi that was sent to us from a friend and sat out on the counter all afternoon during Sunday football.

I also scored a win by doing all my dumbbell reps in between episodes during my Netflix binge of a ballerina murder mystery. So all around win.

How was your weekend?

The colors are right, but the food was – well – non traditional. I added some pasta and tuna to the mixture, but this looks way more pretty than the final meal.

Visualize Your Goal

December 13, 2020 / Chris Brown / 2 Comments

This popular holiday video shows exactly why it is so motivational to visual your goal. If you haven’t seen it yet, it’s worth the watch.

I love a lot of things about the video, except the exercise he uses with the kettlebell.

My back hurt just looking at it. I know why the ad agency decided to have him do that exercise, that way, but WOW! OUCH!

The only way I would do the kettlebell push out is after a lot of training, while under the watchful eye of a certified personal trainer and in the squat position, not standing up the way he did. And certainly not that super heavy weight. You’d need a really strong core to not hurt yourself!

Also when he first stood up with the kettlebell (40 seconds), it looked like he was using his back to lift it rather than his quads. He had the kettlebell out from his chest about a foot away. That looks like a disaster to me. When I think of doing kettlebell exercises, I think of the swing, or even the difficult Turkish get up, but definitely not the standing, lifting, front push out like he did.

Not sure how old this man is, but my guess is 70 or so. Seeing him pick up the kettlebell, or try to pick up the kettlebell in the beginning of the video made me think, he needs to work up to that heavy size! While it’s important to visualize your goal, it is also important to work up to it. I know I can’t do a 25 pound until I’ve got a good hand on the 20 pound… and I don’t use a 20 pound, until I’ve mastered the 15 pound. I guess when I visualize my goal, I see it in baby steps.

I did notice in the end when he lifted his granddaughter, he lifted her to a standing position and then tightened his core to do a push press.

*I’m not a personal trainer, or a physical therapist, but I wouldn’t suggest trying the standing push out unless you checked with someone who knows.

Meanwhile, the point is to visual your goal to improve motivation. I’ve heard of vision boards doing just that.

As we’re approaching the new year, I am getting ready to pick a new word (or 3 words) for 2021. This past year my word was resilient. Next year my word may be visualize. Or maybe it will be kettlebell?

The First Steps to Losing Weight

December 10, 2020 / Jill McCauslin / 0 Comments

What are the first steps to losing weight? You’ve decided that you need to lose some weight and now you need to figure out what the first steps are. Sometimes the hardest thing to do when you’re trying to make any kind of change is to simply start.

Do You Need to Lose Weight?

The first step is probably to determine if you actually need to lose weight and why you want to do so. If your doctor has told you that you need to lose weight, then you probably need to do so. When you realize that your clothes have become tight or you need to buy larger sizes, you probably might consider losing some weight. If you just don’t like how you look, maybe you need to do some strength training instead of dieting.

Once you’ve decided that losing weight is appropriate, what do you do? If you’re like many of us, maybe you decide that you’re going to quit eating everything you like and only eat celery sticks because you remember being a teenager and someone saying that you burn more calories chewing celery than you intake from the celery. (I don’t know if that’s true but I still remember being told that.) If you end up with a diet of celery, sugar free jello, and some wilted lettuce, you need to rethink this.

Before You Start

If you’re going to do this, make sure you can determine how you’re doing. Before you start, do all of the following:

Weigh yourself. If your goal is to lose weight, make sure you know where you started.

Measure yourself. I suggest measuring your chest, waist, at your navel, and hips. You will be able to see results if you measure, even when the scale doesn’t seem to be moving.

Take photos. Use some judgment here because you might want to share some of these later in before and after photos. I suggest that you wear a bathing suit or sports wear. You want to be able to see your body but you want to be able to let others see as well. Don’t forget to take a full body shot and get a good picture of your face.

The First Steps to Losing Weight

Here are some things I’d suggest that you do first.

Track what you’re eating

Use an app like My Fitness Pal or LoseIt! to track your food for a few days. You can also log your food in the Fitbit app as well. The software will tell you how many calories you’re eating, how much fat, protein, and carbohydrates you’re ingesting, and some sense of what kind of nutrition you’re getting. Do that for a few days and then look at the numbers. Where are you overeating? When are you eating? Just get a sense of what you’re doing and what is the easiest to change.

Start Small

Look at what you’re doing and figure out something you can change. Maybe it’s to eat fewer potato chips and substitute in an extra vegetable at a meal. Maybe you see that you’re taking in a lot of calories at that late night snack. If you really want that snack, is there something you can eat that’s a bit lighter? Maybe you can just eliminate that snack.

Drink More Water

Drink some extra water. If you read enough or listen to people about losing weight, they’ll tell you to increase your water consumption. Before you begin drinking a gallon of water every day, just increase what you’re drinking moderately. Let your body adjust to a bit more water. If you’re drinking soft drinks, try to replace some of them with a glass of water.

Look for some support

Making changes in your life can be challenging and finding others who are doing the same definitely helps. Feel free to join the Becoming Elli Facebook group and post there. We’ll help you as best we can. You can pay for a community. For example, WW (formerly Weight Watchers) and Noom both offer communities of people who are doing the same program. This might be a good place to turn when you’re starting out. Remember that you’re not obligated to do the same thing forever so use what works for you now and worry about next year when it gets here. A free option is the LoseIt community on Reddit. There’s lots of free information there and lots of support. I bookmarked that subreddit years ago and still pop in to see how people are doing.

Be Willing to Make Changes

I think when you’re first starting to work on losing weight, you don’t need to decide you’re going to go Keto or vegan or paleo. Certainly, you may decide at some later point to try one of these ways of eating but when you’re first starting, I think you need to just give it a try. You can begin to learn more about healthy eating and different ways of eating and then begin to try them out. There is plenty of this kind of information in our podcast. Go through the old episodes and pick out some that you find interesting.

Here’s an important thing to remember. It’s better to make small changes that you can sustain than to totally revamp your life, do it for a few weeks, and then give it up because it’s too hard. You can make changes that help improve your health. Slowly figure out what works for you and don’t be afraid to change what you’re doing.

There you have what I think are probably the first steps to losing weight. Did I miss something? What would you suggest?

Mountain Biking and Being Fit with Jane Crawford

December 8, 2020 / Chris Brown / 0 Comments

Mountain biking – Episode 72

In episode 72, Jill and Chris talk with Jane Crawford, a mountain biker and a Recreation Therapist who lives in Calgary, Canada. She walks the talk about wellness and healthy living. As a Recreation Therapist she has learned the clinical tools to support those with chronic health conditions and been able to use those tools in her own life.

In 2008 she set the goal of 10,000 steps a day and continues to do this today. In 2010, she used a simple check mark on the kitchen calendar of completing 30 minutes most days for physical activity. This simple way of holding herself accountable has lead her to become a triathlete and a passionate mountain biker.

We talked about the challenges of staying fit. She shared with us tips and tricks that she uses to stay fit, including:

Strength Training
Cardio
Exercising before getting home from work
Ways she gamifies exercise

Links mentioned in this podcast:
Zwift app for indoor cycling (Please let Jill know if you want to ride in a Becoming Elli Group)
Becoming Elli Private Facebook Group – You’ll need to answer a few questions before joining the private group.

Like so many of us, Jane has fun and works hard at staying fit after 50.

Getting Back to Basics

December 5, 2020 / Chris Brown / 2 Comments

After a really busy November, a conversation I had with Jill made me think it’s time for me to get back to basics. I find it’s easy to get caught up in the extreme or the minutia of exercising, healthy eating and motivation. Sometimes when I start overthinking, I stop doing.

What is back to basics? For me, back to basics means seven things:

1. Drink water. I like to feel my bike water bottles, and put a rubber band around them so I know how many bottles I finished per day. Using my bike water bottles also reminds me of all the fun I have biking.

2. Stand up and walk at least 250 steps each hour. My FitBit around my wrist reminds me at 50 minutes past the hour if I’ve been sitting from more time than I should have. When I was really fit, it meant go biking or running or some other form of cardio 50 to 60 minutes a day, however, that is not my current situation.

3. Get 7 1/2 hours sleep. Again I check my FitBit that tracks the dreaming and deep sleep and I always am hopinf for at least an hour of deep sleep and an hour of REM sleep. When I get good overall hours, as well as at least 60 minutes of each deep and dreaming sleep, I have a great day the next day. If not, I find I’m moody and more hungry than I normally am.

4. Eat my vegetables. My easy way to do that is to make a veggie salad, or if I’m feeling too lazy to chop lots of fresh veggies, I buy a bunch of frozen vegetables already sliced.

5. Skip desserts and excessive amounts of bread. I try to eat carbs early in the day and after exercise. They just seem to burn up better.

6. Count my blessings (at least 10) every day.

7. Listen to some music. I will get on a kick and listen to the same songs but there are some that always it the sweet spot, particularly my running playlists. I used to name my playlists for the race I was training for or a goal that I wanted to achieve.

These 7 points helps me stay on track… or get back on track. As you can see they are a blended combination of eating, exercise and motivation. I’m sure I could list 7 more, but these are my usual “go to” basics.

What are your basics? Leave a message below or shot me an email at Chris@BecomingELLi.com.

UPDATE: Less than an hour after posting I was thinking… why didn’t I include tracking and accountability? Good question…

Walking the Dog Adds Lots of Steps

December 3, 2020 / Jill McCauslin / 2 Comments

I just realized that walking the dog adds lots of steps to my daily totals. I knew that, of course, but when I looked at my Fitbit numbers, there was the proof.

Remember when I got my puppy, Penny? I wrote about her last summer when she was a baby. Now Penny is about six months old so still a puppy but she’s more like a pre-teen these days. She keeps me very busy with taking things out of her mouth and stopping her from chewing on things.

My expensive She Fits sports bra no longer zips because Penny chewed the zipper. She also got the back of my newest pair (and most expensive) pair of running shoes. Fortunately, I caught her with the shoe early enough to save the shoe.

Walking the Dog Adds Lots of Steps

As Penny has gotten older, her ability to walk has obviously increased so she requires longer walks. Besides chewing on things, she also requires more exercise. I’ve noticed that my daily steps increased once Penny came into the house. Penny became a member of the household in mid July of this year and you can see that my monthly steps have consistently increased as she’s gotten older.

The thing about having a dog is that she has to go out for a walk regardless of the weather. We had our first real snowfall recently and Penny was enchanted. She loved the snow and frolicked the whole time we were out walking. It actually made having to be out walking in the snow a lot more enjoyable. I would not have gone out first thing in the morning for a walk in the snow.

Walking in the cold is not great but I make a point to carry gloves and a hat so that if it’s colder than I expect, I’m prepared. This comes from not being prepared when it was cold and wet.

I’m hoping that Penny will eventually be able to run with me. I know that’s going to take some training but it would be fun to have a running companion.

Life with Penny is turning out to be a lot of fun and a lot of steps.