Need some motivation to workout?

Most clients who come to see me are hoping to ultimately lose weight.  Yet once that goal has been discussed, the deeper longing rises up, and what bubbles to the surface is a hunger for more energy and confidence.

Saturday, May 7th at 8am,  I am hosting a Restoring Strength hike at Marshall Mesa Trail in Boulder (I am keeping my fingers and toes crossed that the weather will be nice and the trail will be less muddy!) to energize your body with a little technique you can do every day, and to help you revive your “Fun Flair for Self-Care”.  The hike is about 3 miles, and I’ll be there with snacks and beverages to boost your self-care love while you get to walk some amazing Colorado ground with other inspiring women.  Don’t miss the fun. 

After 9 years in private practice as a personal trainer, and over 17 years working in health and wellness… I can tell you that it takes strength to get stronger. 

Weight loss isn’t easy for many people who lead busy lives and who are dealing with hormonal issues.  And isn’t that most of us?

What I see time and time again, is that the dividing factor between those who gain the energy they need to keep pursuing the habits that lead to weight loss, and those who give up, is the strength and resolve a person has to stick with their intentions.

So what’s the secret formula for keeping your mental strength and resolve?

3 Simple Beliefs:

1.  A belief that you are capable of doing what is required.
2. A belief that you are worthy of a positive outcome.
3. A belief that the energy you create will be used to generate something good.

Inside of each of us is a well spring of child-like energy that stems from times before we held limiting beliefs.

Children don’t often care about the outcome, they care about having fun.

• They get curious about how much they can lift at once. 

• They dance around because they feel like it.

• They sprint to entice you to a game of chase (because that’s a really fun way to feel loved).

So where can you find the spark of child-like energy to get you going and to resource when you need a little fuel to keep going?

It’s actually really really simple.  We just make it hard because we’re adults.

Play.

No matter how tired or un-motivated you are, to cure the blah's in your movement get curious about what feels like play to you. 

Balance on one foot, Strike a funny pose and hold it; See how far you can jump; dance around to a silly song.   The endorphins from the smiles and laughter alone will be worth the effort!

And if you are in need of some consistent energy to get the get-up-and-go desire for play, check out my "Consistent Energy to Strengthen Your Body" Video Series to learn how to rise up and move.

Life Worth Living

When looking at your calendar, do you generally have a sense of calm and simultaneous excitement, or do you instantly get overwhelmed?  

Lately, I have found myself checking and rechecking my calendar assuming I have missed something, or that I need to put one more item on my list so I make sure it gets done.

There’s nothing wrong with filling up your days.  The better question is, 

what are you filling up your days with? 

In my last post I talked about using different tools to track progress rather than being laser focused on the scale.  While feedback about what we are doing can be helpful at times, it can also deflate our motivation if things aren’t changing as fast as we like.

While I love helping people set intentions and goals, what I have realized lately is that, inevitably, life happens.  Kids get sick, we get sick, other people need us, work deadlines take over, health concerns pop up, yadda, yadda, yadda.  And we fall short on completing our goals.

Goals can create stress and anxiety as we think about all the changes and steps we need to take to make them happen- or we imagine all the things that could go wrong while trying to complete them.  

When all we think about is the smaller goals we are trying to achieve, we loose focus on the bigger reason for why the goal is so important in the first place. 

What is the deeper reason for why you want to eat well and exercise?  For most of us it is to live a long life loving those close to us or accomplishing a bigger mission or life- purpose.

How are you goals meeting you in your bigger life purpose?

When you align your daily action steps to support your life passions it will fuel you to stay the course.  Working out for the sake of sweating or losing weight can sometimes be nice, but when you base your workout on what is really compelling to you like…

• Having the energy to raise kind and respectful children,
• Growing a business to impact people in a meaningful way,
• Having the strength to fight off disease so you can see your grandchildren walk down the aisle.

Those are things worth keeping on the calendar!

The next time you think about skipping your workout because you are too busy, think about how that workout makes you live closer to the edge of what makes your life worth living.

Why "breaking up" with your body is ruining your health

"Brain scans of the broken-hearted found similarities between romantic rejection and cocaine craving"- Stony Brook University

Breaking up is hard to do, but the worst of it is that we have no idea just how hard it is on our bodies to go through a falling out with our loved ones.  Similar to cocaine, our closest relationships stimulate key pleasure centers within the brain and causes extremely heightened euphoria- something we crave when that relationship suffers. My question is, what if your core relationship with yourself or your own body is broken? Let me explain, After staring into the beautiful eyes of my little Clara for the last 2 months, it’s like love at first site. Yet after having her in the womb and now out I have had to reconnect with my own body.  I've had to do some emotional and physical relationship 101 work to feel reconnected to my body, my worth, my beauty, and my physical needs. And I know I am not alone.  If you have ever given birth or are one of the nearly 133 million Americans with chronic illness you know what it is like to feel like you have been "dumped" by your body. Nearly all of us experience some form of a break-up with our own bodies at certain points in our lives.  Rather than loving our body and appreciating it for showing up every day we rant about how we would rather be more thin, more energetic, more toned, more healthy, less hormonal or less ill.Can I hear an Amen? Taking care of our bodies and our health is the same as tending to our most sacred relationships.  Except, when you neglect your body, the one who suffers the most is YOU. Breaking up with your body, even in small ways, is terrible for your health. Take this Body Break-Up Assessment to learn more about how you may be sabotaging your health.Trust me, there is a way to regain hope and love for your health and reclaim your body-love. Stay tuned for my next post as give you the tools to mend your Bad Body Break-up and start feeling whole again.

Mothering is an understatement

If someone had told me how hard being a mom was before I was one, I wouldn’t have believed it. As the youngest of three children, I never really had too much of a chance to mother others. My needs were always cared for and I learned from a young age to thrive with independence. Now that I am a mother of three, I have found even my kids are needy, inconvenient, and always demanding- and yet I show up (nearly) every moment as a mom with joy and pride to nurture and play with my kids (who are super-kids by the way). I have often said that mothering ourselves isn’t really all that different than mothering others. It can feel pretty demanding and needy to take time away from work, family, or friends to do something like workout, seek solitude, or simply take a nap. And yet self-care has an incredibly overlooked importance in all of our lives.

Without self-care we don’t have the energy or patience to give to others authentically.

And self-care doesn’t have to take much time, energy, or money.

Here’s a few ideas to get you started, whether you are an altruistic mother, aunt, sister, or friend. It doesn’t matter what your motherly status. Take today and honor yourself for the gifts you generously give to others.

• Take a walk
• Listen to your favorite music
• Journal
• Read a juicy book or blog
• Call a friend
• Sip some yummy tea
• Take a bath
• Eat some chocolate
• Take a nap
• Drink some infused water
• Look through some old photos with your family
• Visit a local art museum or botanical garden
• Meditate
• Go for a road trip
• Book a mini-retreat
• Try a new class (art, yoga, fitness, French, kick-boxing, belly dancing, etc.)

Whatever you choose, choose it for you. As a mom (no matter whether you have birthed or reared kids of your own or not), you are a nurturer and giver who deserves to take a few moments each day to focus on feeling great in your own skin. Sort of like giving yourself a little hug each day.

“Of all the roles I’ve played, none has been as fulfilling as being a mother.” -Annette Funicello

For all of the "mom's" out there who have loved me, nurtured me, believed in me, and supported me.  This post is for you.  I sincerely hope that you can take a few moments today and give yourself a mommy hug that lingers.  I love you all.

Ever feel stuck in your body?

I worked out for the first time on Tuesday since Clara was born 5 weeks ago and I am incredibly sore.  That kind of soreness that makes you look like you are injured when you try to sit down on the floor or get out of a chair.  Of course, the physical soreness will fade, but it’s the emotional realization of how little it took to make me sore that cripples me. Have you ever been there…where it feels like you have a mountain of changes to make but not enough time, resources, motivation, or energy to do it?  

It can be easy to believe that it’s not worth it, or it’s too hard, or that it won’t work, or that you suck so why even try, or worse yet…that your body is a lost cause so why even bother.

For those who struggle to lose weight or who have a chronic illness that limits what the body can do, it can be maddeningly frustrating to feel stuck in an irreversible state.

It’s like being claustrophobic in your own body.

What can you do to find hope?  I have a few tricks I use that have worked like a charm to recharge my clients.

Find freedom and motivation again by checking them out here…

1)    Silence: There are two steps to this one.  A) literally find a way to get where you can quiet your mind.  Take 5 deep cleansing breaths.  B) visualize a knob that allows you to quiet the voices and beliefs that are saying you are too fat, lazy, broken, sick, etc.

2)    Reframe: Get the images out of your head of big thighs, tight clothes, tired eyes, or injured body parts and reframe what you see to include the most positive things you can think of about your body, your mind, and your heart.

3)    Commit:  Change is typically a slow process. By celebrating every small step- no matter how small or insignificant it may seem, you are generating more positive influence to take another step forward.

There’s a quote I’ve had hanging in my house for over a decade that says,

“Adversity does not build character; it reveals it.”

What kind of character will you let shine when you have a mountain to climb?

6 secrets to making less more

12 days ago I delivered a healthy 8lb 5oz little miracle we named Clara Joyce Irlbeck.  Having delivered twins almost 3 three years ago to the day, lots of people were telling me how this one would be a "piece of cake" and how much easier it will be raising a singleton. I want to believe them, I really do.  However, when my kids started getting a barking cough and fever the day we came home from the hospital, I knew we were in for a whole new experience in dividing our time between a new precious baby, our adorable two 3 year olds and...oh yes, managing to notice my spouse too.  I find myself hanging on to bits of advice like, "spending even 10 minutes of one on one dedicated time with your three year olds will be adequate in the beginning".  Now that I am in the midst of nursing a newborn, I can see how that is almost all the time I have!

We all have our own daily distractions.  Those things that keep us from tending to our needs, that pull us from doing the things we keep re-adding to our to do list, and that make us feel small because there is "never enough time to get it all done".

I am a recovering perfectionist.  I am haunted by the belief that who I am and what I do is never good enough.  But when faced with adding a third child on top of my dreams to build up confidence in others by empowering and strengthening their bodies...I will admit I am anxious about how much it seems there is to do in so little time.

What I am learning, is there is SO much to be said for doing less to gain more.  From your relationships to your workouts, this mantra is where I believe we all need to start to begin finding our freedom and confidence again.

I've summed up my secrets to how to make less more here:

1) Get out of the way.  In giving other people more responsibility in my life I have realized the beauty of collaboration.  Not only does it empower others, it allows you to reap the reward of bestowing purpose to others.  During my maternity leave, I have referred clients to trusted trainers who have turned out to be an amazing fit.  In my own need to be seen and find value, I had to let go of needing clients who needed me and instead trust that there are many other people who are capable of stepping up.

2) Forget expectations. When I find myself being pulled down the rabbit hole of postpartum blues, I remind myself that there is no play book for my life, or anyone else's for that matter.  Every day we get to create our own expectations and vision for what we will allow and what we will embrace in our lives which adds to the enjoyment and mystery of being truly present in the moment.  And yes, my kids are watching entirely too much Thomas the Train right now...but in the end, my sanity is saved and they are happy little guys.

3) Nap more. There is a plethora of research showing that even in our sleep deprived world, taking a nap of 10-30 minutes can boost our brains, improve our mood and feelings, and is good for our heart, blood pressure, stress levels, and surprisingly, even weight management.  Even if you tend to run on too little sleep, taking a quick nap will boost your energy and brain power more than caffeine!

4) Power pump.  This applies in so many ways in my life right now.  Pumping out work should be like pumping out milk for a new mom.  A quick lesson...the more a new mom's breasts are stimulated to produce milk, the more milk they will produce.  It is better for a baby, or pump, to have short frequent sessions than long stretches of nursing/pumping and then no stimulation.  We tend to believe that they harder and longer we work, the better output we will create.  Nope.  Crank out as much as you can in as little time as possible, then take a break.  Breathe.  Stretch.  Get some water.  Your mind and body will thank you.

5) Apply the minimum effective dose (MED) principle. Tim Ferris popularized this priniciple in his book, the 4-hour body. The MED is the smallest dose that will produce the desired outcome and anything BEYOND the MED is wasteful, and could even be a detriment to the body.  For example, water will boil at 100deg C at standard air pressure.  Turning up the heat beyond that won't make water "more boiled", it just wastes heat.  The same is true for our bodies.  You don't need to do crazy workouts 6 days per week to accomplish incredible results.  You do, however, need to focus on getting a total body challenge that includes a variety of intensities to stimulate strength gains and fat loss or improved metabolism.  That's why hiring a trainer is so great...we can help you find your MED!  And here is a great example of how MED works.

6) Practice Being.  My biggest take home and ah-ha from maternity leave so far is this:  challenge yourself to just be.  As I look into little Clara's eyes, all I can think is how beautiful and amazing she is- simply for existing.

You are the same.  You are a beautiful gift to this world beyond what you look like in the mirror, beyond what your resume or your checking account says, beyond any diagnosis or past trauma.  Take 5 minutes and let go of all need to be more than just the living and breathing YOU.

No need to do more.  Just sit back and let your less be your most.