The Rules of Normal Eating

We teach our students that there are 8 aspects of the martial arts way of life:

1. Fitness
2. Meditation
3. Philosophy
4. Yoga & Stretching
5. Health & Nutrition
6. Striking Arts
7. Grappling Arts
8. Self-Defense

A complete martial artist should be putting energy into each of those 8 aspects of their training.

Today, I have a quick video to share with you in one of the areas that is most difficult for people and is often one of their biggest roadblocks to success - nutrition.

In our nutrition and lifestyle coaching program we teach 25 habits over the course of a 1 year program. You spend 2 weeks working on each habit and receive daily lessons (online) that will help you with your current habit. Two of the most important habits in the program are eating slowly and stopping before you are overly full.

This video hits on these concepts. As Dr. Koenig reinforces, this stuff is SIMPLE but not EASY.

The Benefits We Can't Measure As Easily

“I walk taller now.

“My posture is better.”

“I’m so much happier on the inside.”

“I’ve become a better parent.”

 “I feel healthy.”

"I feel confident out in public."

“I feel confident in my food decisions.”

“I’m more organized.”

“I am stronger… inside and out.”

“I’m determined.”

“I'm more focused.”

These are real things that our martial arts students tell us on a regular basis. Sometimes we get too wrapped up in the goals, outcomes, and benefits that we can easily see or measure such as pounds and inches lost, promotions, or the number of push-ups we can do. 

Don't get me wrong - those measurable things are PHENOMENAL too. But we can't lose sight of all the other ways our lives are improved by martial arts training, exercise, or changes in our nutrition and lifestyle habits.

So, what are some ways your life has been impacted by the martial arts way of life?

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This Saturday at our annual holiday sale from 10 AM - 1 PM, we will be offering our lowest price ever on our 1-year nutrition and lifestyle coaching program. This 100% online program is regularly priced at $1,999, and has only been discounted to our students to $999 in the past. We are going to take on 10 additional students into the program to start on Monday, January 1, 2018, and will be offering the entire year of coaching for $899. This price will be available at the holiday sale only.

If you'd like to go ahead and lock in your spot now, email me at dcorrigan@pmaoakridge.com and I will make sure your spot is saved on Saturday. Then we will check you out at the sale (even if you can't make it in person!). 

Learn more about the coaching program here - 

http://www.pmaoakridge.com/nutrition

Check out the event page on Facebook for more information on sale items, and RSVP to make sure you don't miss announcements as they come out this week:

https://www.facebook.com/events/2031918930370641/

The Underlying Reason We Never Change

We want to eat healthily…but we love good food.

We want to exercise…but we like to be lazy.

We want to quit smoking…but will probably just pick up another cigarette.

We want to quit drinking too much…but enjoy drinking.

We want to save money…but enjoy our lifestyle.

We want to eat more veggies…but chips taste better.

We want to read a book…but we love watching TV.

We want to take care of our planet…but still waste because it’s easy.

We want to live in the moment…but are always looking at our screens.

We want to be happy…but we are satisfied with just okay.

We want to make a change…but are ambivalent to do so.

Think about your own life and all of the things within it that you’d like to change. Do you see both reasons to change and reasons not to? If yes, you are not alone. This ambivalence is widespread for us humans, but the good news is that if you are at this stage, you are at least heading in the right direction.

You can view the steps to making a change as:

1. Someone needs to make a change, but they don’t see why.

2. Someone needs to make a change, and they see why, but also see reasons why things should stay the same.

3. Someone needs to make a change, chooses a path to move in that direction, and follows it (no matter what).

Today we are talking about step 2 - the ambivalence stage. This stage is where people get stuck for a long time trying to make a change. It seems with every step you take in the right direction, you are pulled back towards the other side by seemingly good reasons and arguments on why things should stay the same. We like them that way, and they are comfortable, easy, and enjoyable.

I’m here to tell you that is completely normal. Inside you though, you know that a change needs to happen. You know the lifestyle that you want to curate for yourself and long for it frequently.

When you’re ready to move from step 2 to step 3, you will finally make that change. When you are fed up with being ambivalent, you will pick a path out of your old ways and follow it. You won’t let the talk inside your head bring you back to sustaining the old habits. Until then, expect to remain stuck at the ambivalent stage.

When you are ready, willing, and able to move on, you will go for it. When you go for it, you will slip and fall and take steps backward. That is okay. You need to have an unlimited re-do button that you just hit over and over again (we call this the clean slate policy). You have to! Because if you are actually struggling with ambivalence, even when you finally decide to make a change, you will double back and fail. 

But what am saying you know this already, right? How many times have you tried to ________________? We often make statements like, “I’m not going to eat any more junk food.” But of course, we inevitably eat junk food (sometimes embarrassingly close to when we just swore it off). Without the clean slate policy, we just give up. We assume we aren’t capable of making the change and just quit…until we get fed up with ourselves enough to try again.

So, what have you been longing to change? Are you ready? Are you willing? Are you able? Are you fed up enough to finally say “I’ve had enough” and do something about it? This time, it’s not going to be a start and stop. This time when you decide to make that change, stick with it for life. Go down that path away from the old habit and no matter how many times you fall, get back up and try again.

“To Fall Seven Times. To Rise Eight Times. Life Begins Now.” - Daruma

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Towards the end of this year, we will begin accepting both male and females into our nutrition and lifestyle coaching program again. Our next group will start on Monday, January 1, 2018.

Input your name and email address below to be one of the first to receive notification when we begin accepting this next group.

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Fitting Down the Chimney Is Overrated Anyway

In the midst of the holidays, temptation is everywhere.  Decadent desserts like pumpkin or pecan pies, fruit cake (yuck), king cake, and cookies of every kind.  Holiday treats like figgy pudding (again, yuck), candy canes, and hot wassail.  Traditional favorites such as honey ham, bread everyway it can be kneaded, baked, and buttered, and potatoes – mashed, baked, fried, au gratin, julienne, sweet, and boiled.  Stockings full of candies and chocolates.   Mugs overflowing with hot cocoa and marshmallows (why have one without the other).  Frosty glasses of holiday punch.  Like I said, temptation is everywhere.

So what can be done this holiday season to avoid the scrumptious delicacies peeking out from every store window and hiding in every relative’s kitchen corner?

The answer is simple (at least to me).  Nothing.

You don’t need to go back and re-read that last line.  You read it right the first time.  I don’t want you to avoid the delicious and decidedly un-nutritious holiday treats we all love so much (because where’s the fun in that).  Instead, I want you to enjoy those holiday treats…I just want you to be smart about it.

Don’t worry; this isn’t a trick.  I’m serious.  Like many of you, I’m only human, and I enjoy every chestnut and cherry cordial I pop in my mouth between Black Friday and New Years.  I have no intention of giving up the satisfying warmth of a peppermint mocha on a cold day to spare a few pounds in the long run.

I am more than a number on a scale.  I am a daughter who loves baking and eating Christmas cookies with my family – hands covered in powder, hearts full of love.  I am a friend who enjoys nothing more than a marshmallow eating contest at a holiday party – cheeks full to bursting with puffs of pure sugar.

I am more than a size on a pair of jeans.  I am a memory maker, and I am going to enjoy every minute of this life that I live even if it means wearing my stretchy pants from Thanksgiving to Valentine’s Day.

That being said, I want to share with you three tricks of the trade to help slow the gaining of those very thoughtful holiday pounds that keep us warm every winter.  They’re easy and painless, I promise.  Are you ready?

1. Have a little self-control.

Do not refrain from eating a piece of fully loaded pecan pie complete with ice cream and whipped cream.  Instead, refrain from eating the entire pie.

Enjoy, thoroughly, one large piece with all of the fixings, but don’t go back for seconds…or thirds…or fifths.  You can still enjoy all of your favorite foods while making good (or at least good-ish) choices.

2. Eat until you’re sluggish, but don’t actually be sluggish.

Get up and get going.  Don’t neglect your physical fitness during the holidays.  Spend at least fifteen minutes a day getting your heart rate up.

This isn’t as hard as you might think.  With all that time spent with family, get them up and moving with you.  Go outside (in a coat) and throw a football around with your brother.  Give a piggyback ride to your niece or crawl around the floor with your newest nephew.

This next one is my favorite.

3. Don’t drink your calories.

I’m not telling you to cut back on your holiday beverage of choice (remember, I’m a peppermint mocha kind of girl).  I’m simply suggesting that you limit yourself to one cup of Irish Cream at the party.  Try replacing soft drinks with water.  Use fresh juice in your holiday punch.  Make your cocoa with skim milk.

We can easily cut out a few calories and a few buckets of sugar by changing what we drink this holiday season.

This year, as you sit down with friends and family, in your extra stretchy yoga pants, to stuff your face with your favorite Christmas goodies, remember these simple tips.  Enjoy!

Plateaus

If you always put limits on everything you do, physical or anything else, it will spread into your work and into your life. There are no limits. There are only plateaus, and you must not stay there, you must go beyond them. - Bruce Lee

I think you could argue that plateaus are one of the toughest opponents when training martial arts, losing weight, or strength training. I have seen many students get stuck on a plateau and give up. You are training consistently, doing everything that you should be doing, but you feel like you just hit a wall. No matter how hard you try, you feel like you aren't improving.

This can happen off the mat as well. People hit plateaus in their jobs, in their diets, and even in their relationships. Have you ever felt stuck in the same place at your job? Do you feel like you aren't moving forward anymore? What about with your diet or weight loss? Is there a number on the scale that you just can't seem to pass? And in your relationships? Do you ever feel like you and the other person just aren't growing together anymore? Maybe you are just bored?

The key to getting past any plateau is remembering that it is only a plateau. It is not a wall. You will get past it. Let's say you've been stuck in a rut with your training, and one night you just feel like staying home. I promise you this will not get you past the plateau! It's funny how the brain works. When things get difficult, we want to give up. Never give up on a plateau! Sit for a second and consider all of the benefits that you will get by persevering, and then make the choice to get up and go. (If you haven't read the post on choices - go here)

If you hit a plateau in your career, the first step to getting through it is to recognize it. The solution may be a career change for some, but for others it is not. You may need to reassess your goals, objectives, and what you want out of your job. I've talked to many people that say once they changed their outlook on their job, the feeling of being on a plateau disappeared. The hard truth is that in some jobs the plateau may be moving up the ladder, and that may take a good 20 years or so! But for many people that is ok. You have to sit down and ask what you want out of your job. If the answer is family stability, a stable paycheck and health insurance than the plateau may not matter.

The divorce rate in the United States is over 50%, and I think that plateaus are a huge factor here. My father told me growing up that when looking at a relationship, you have to remember that some things will occur no matter what person you are with. Never leave the person you are with over something that will happen in your next relationship too. I don't like to compare people to objects, but the analogy of a new car is perfect here. Your new car isn't so new and exciting a year after you buy it, and 5 years down the road it could be very boring. The car may still be fully functional and look exactly the same as it did when you bought it new, but it isn't new so it is boring. This in essence is a plateau. If your solution is to go out and buy a new one now, just remember you are going to inevitably hit this same plateau with the next one!

So what do you do about it? In your relationships, I think the key is to always keep the initial spark alive. Treat every date like the first one. Be kind, listen, appreciate one another, and respect one another. In speaking to couples that have been together for 20, 30, 40, or 50 years, these are the keys.

With your training, you just have to push through. Talk to your instructors. They will most likely have a different perspective on your plateau, and in many cases, have the directions you need to get through them.