Wednesday, March 22, 2017

Motivating Others Is Beneficial!

Greetings Dear Reader!
 
While keeping with the theme of blogging about motivation for March 2017, I want to share that sometimes you will not feel motivated to get to the gym, or exercise at home or park, or wherever you perform your workout.
 
Yes, there will be a day or two, or six out of the year when you think: "I don't want to workout even though this is a scheduled workout day."
 
While it's okay to ONCE IN A WHILE, break from your fitness routine, you want to adhere to your schedule as much as possible. Recently, when I felt this way, I thought of all the people I say motivational words to regarding making health and wellness part of their lifestyle. Fortunately, remembering my own words of motivation helped me get to get a workout in anyway. This is because...motivating others is motivation for the motivator! Read the highlighted text again...slowly.
 
Aside from fitness motivation, think of an adult imploring a teenager to not text and drive. When that same adult is at a red light and hears an alert for an incoming text message, he or she, remembering what they told the teen, will be more likely to not attempting reading the text or replying. Instead, they will follow the motivational advice/encouragement they gave the teen driver. 
 
The reason motivating others is motivation for the motivator is because the motivational thoughts, words, writing shared has to come from within. Thankfully, having motivational inner thoughts and inner dialogue provides a well for us to draw from. 
 
The main take away from this post is that by motivating others, you, too, are motivated as you believe in the advice and encouraging words you share with others. Now do yourself a huge favor and find someone who needs motivation and is open to receiving it. 

Best wishes for your --and the person you find to motivate--optimal health and wellness!
Kaja Green-Tovar 😊


Friday, March 17, 2017

Thanks to Exercise, You Can Handle A Full Schedule!

Greetings Dear Reader!

I worked out for 3 hours at the gym on Wednesday, March 15th. The following day, I only worked out for an hour because it was all my schedule allowed for. On Thursday, I had a very active schedule. After the gym, I got dressed and went to a Toastmasters meeting where I gratefully won the Best Evaluator ribbon. I did my best at Toastmasters without thinking of winning. However, it was fun as always and I'm grateful whenever I'm awarded a ribbon for performing well during my speeches. I know for sure that exercise helps with my ability to be front and center in front of an audience. 

During this week, thanks to exercise, I was able to cope with everything I had going on. Without the flow of endorphins, which results from exercising, I might have felt drained, annoyed, frazzled with all that I had going on. Thankfully, instead of 'woe-is-me' thoughts, I was able to maintain positive and peaceful perspectives. I was able to be RESILIENT!

Thanks to exercise, I was able to be fully present at Toastmasters, get some necessary shopping done afterwards, have coffee with an acquaintance in one city, and then drive to another nearby city--without feeling tired--and have dinner with a close friend from my Air Force days.

Exercise requires ENERGY; and energy in motion, stays in motion! This is why when we exercise we can handle a lot more activity, a fuller schedule, than we can handle without it.

Therefore, dear reader, do yourself the favor of incorporating routine exercising into your schedule. By doing so, you, too, may handle whatever comes your way.

Best wishes for your optimal health and wellness!
Kaja Green-Tovar

Tuesday, March 7, 2017

Boost Your Confidence

Greetings Dear Reader!
 
Confidence is a feeling that you can do or accomplish something. When you feel confident, you improve your appearance (posture and facial expression) as we often look the way we feel. This is why someone will look at you and ask, "Wow! What are you feeling so great about?" Or, "Whoa! What's going on? What's bothering you today?" depending on how you are feeling.
 
A simple way to feel and look more confident is to take action, to get up and move. You can't slump and feel intimidated when you are busy doing something. This is why exercising on a routine basis is beneficial. The opposite of being active is being sedentary which is a form of being stagnant. When we are stagnant, we feel less hopeful, less trusting of a better outcome, less confident that we will eventually accomplish our goal.
 
Luckily, at any time and pretty much any place, you can do some form of exercise (walking, stretching, calisthenics...something) to help you feel more upbeat, more capable. More confident!
 
Once in a while I have a morning when I don't feel like getting up to workout at home or at the gym. Unless, I planned to give my body a rest day from physical activity, I feel uneasy, a little off-centered. Feelings of being uneasy or off-centered are the opposite of feeling confident.
 
What about you? How do you feel when you do those ten push-ups or stretch your muscles? What about when you take a bike ride or go for a swim? Don't you feel more upbeat, more aware of being able to do things; hence, more confident?
 
Think about the last time you went for a hike, or canoeing, or river-rafting. You probably felt a sense of achievement for having done something. Well, this is the reason to implement routine physical activity (a.k.a. exercise) into your lifestyle.

Start your exercise regimen and boost your confidence.

Best wishes for your optimal health and wellness!
Kaja Green-Tovar

Saturday, March 4, 2017

Better Body Image Regardless of Your Age of Size!

Greetings Dear Reader!

Do you want to feel better about your body? We ALL have days (be it rarely or frequently) when we complain about how our body looks, how our clothes fit, or how we want to be thinner or more voluptuous.
 
Fortunately, you can have a better body image regardless of your age or clothing size! Body image is the way you see yourself and how you think and imagine you look. Luckily, you can boost your body image. You will have a better body image if you do the following:
 
1) Be grateful for even having a body! Yes, you read that right. Be grateful for having a body because someone somewhere is or has become a quadriplegic and can't do the things you can with your body. Be grateful if you can walk, hold yourself up on crutches, or roll yourself in wheelchair. Basically, be grateful for what your body can do!
 
2) Talk nicely to your body parts! No, I'm not crazy. At least not certifiably. When I was in my twenties and gained a lot of weight, I used to complained about my body when I looked in the mirror. But once I decided to be grateful for even having a body, I intentionally stood in front of the mirror and said nice things to my body parts.
I would look at my now slender, toned thighs--which were not slender at that time--and say, "I like that my thighs are strong."; "I like how my thighs play a part in me walking and jogging." I would say to my stomach, "I like that you can digest food without a feeding tube." I would look at my stretch marks and say, "Wow! You carried a beautiful baby in there!" I could cover this whole page with all the nice things I said--and still say--to myself but for the sake of efficiency, I won't.
 
3) Exercise and eat well. When you take time to exercise your body and strive to eat well (at least most of the time), you feel better about your body--how it looks and feel. This is because you are doing something to take care of it, to improve it. Taking action feels good and is good, which is why exercising and making healthy food choices boosts your body image. 

So, go ahead do all three of the above to get a better body image regardless of your age or current clothing size!

Have a great rest of your day or evening, and best wishes for your optimal health and wellness!
~Kaja Green-Tovar~

Wednesday, March 1, 2017

For Motivation to Exercise, Find Your 'WHY'


Greetings Dear Reader!


My blog posts for the month of March 2017 will be on health and fitness motivation. Getting and staying motivated to exercise will be easier once you determine WHY it is important to you.

As each person is a wonderfully unique individual, it is natural to be motivated for different reasons. Your ‘WHY’ for implementing routine exercising into your lifestyle could be about having a more positive attitude, feeling better, and or not being chronically stressed. Fortunately, exercise can improve each of these!

Exercise releases endorphins—the feel-good hormones. Endorphins have a positive, uplifting impact on your attitude, the way you think and feel. A positive attitude helps you to have a more nurturing inner dialogue. Having a kind, nurturing inner dialogue is emotionally soothing, which will help you to feel less stressed about the challenging situations or people you have to deal with.

Exercise, which is often defined as sustained physical activity--be it a short or long timeframe, is like taking a happy pill, but without the exorbitant cost and potentially harmful side-effects! Exercise can entail strength training, running, biking, hiking, swimming, and the like. Exercise also includes less structured physical activities such as dancing, playing Ultimate Frisbee, golfing (especially, if you walk rather than drive the course), or going ice-skating or rollerblading. Oh yes, bowling counts, too!

So, go ahead and do something physical. Make time for exercising (even ten minutes, two or three different times throughout the day is beneficial). Do this for yourself and you will have an improved attitude, more inner peace, and better physical health.

For more motivation, check out this little gem of fitness motivation at: https://www.amazon.com/B-C-Book-Health-Fitness-Motivation/dp/1481091409
 

As always, best wishes for your optimal health and wellness!
Kaja Green-Tovar