The Fitness Motivation Monitor
April 2007
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Dear Fitness Friend
With spring in the air and summer on the way, April always feels like a great time to re-evaluate, gain perspective and reset the compass on our lives. There is an exciting feeling of rebirth at this time of year that inspires introspection and action towards a new or refined direction. This issue of the newsletter is dedicated to providing you with tools to move forward in the direction of your true self—to empower you to become the person you are meant to be at this time in your life.
Best of health,
Katie Katz
In today's fast-paced culture, it is easy to forget who we really are and the gifts we were meant to give. It is easy to get caught up in the urgencies of life or an old value system that no longer serves us and wonder why we feel lackluster and exhausted. Oftentimes, this lackadaisical feeling has less to do with how much we do in our daily lives and more to do with what we do in our daily lives. So many of us have been programmed to live up to the expectations of others and avoid thinking about what would really bring personal joy and inspiration in our hearts. When we are true to ourselves, we are far more productive, focused and energized in everything we do.
Even the positive impact of exercise and energizing nutrition planning can be short lived if your overall approach to the activities you do in your life are not grounded in your personal authenticity. So, what can you do to begin to change the compass on your energy and inspiration in your life? Let's begin taking a look…
What Does Your Value Hierarchy Look Like?
A significant step to becoming your 'TRUE' self is to identify your value hierarchy--a list of your top "I am" statements you would say about yourself when you think about the best you want to be. Values cannot be judged-they are personal truths about your personal best. Here are some examples of "I am" statements. See if any generate inspirational feelings for you:
"I am a loving wife/husband/partner."
"I am a nurturing mother/father."
"I am financially secure."
"I am a trusted friend."
"I am a balanced person."
Once you come up with your top 8-10 values, prioritize them according to the ones that are most important to your true self. To assist you in this exercise, ask yourself the following question, "If I could only live one value in my life, at the sake of all others, which one value would I live by?" This would be your top value. Then, ask yourself, "If I could only live two values in my life, which one would be number two?" Prioritizing your values is a critical step in becoming your true self.
Moving your value list into action involves assigning goals and daily tasks related to each value. Goals are milestones you aim to achieve that help you live your life values. By assigning objective, measurable goals to each value statement, you further personalize your value hierarchy. An example of a goal for the value "I am financially secure" might be, "I will contribute $400,000 in total to my retirement plan over the next twenty-five years." Then, your goals need to be broken down into daily tasks. In this example, the daily task might be to begin by saving $500 a month ($17 a day) into an account for the IRA contribution this year and increasing it by 10% each year."
Life will continue to throw you curve balls. Your value hierarchy will help you in dealing with them. Rather than making rash decisions based on emotion, pressure from others or old value systems, clearly defined and prioritized values will make tough decisions easier. While some decisions may be unpopular and painful in the short run, if they are based on a value hierarchy that truly represents your authentic self, you will feel lighter and more energized once the storm has cleared. If not, it's time to reconfigure your value hierarchy.
Revisit your value list every six months or so. Life changing experiences like chronic illness, acute injury, getting married, starting a family, getting a new job, losing a job, divorce or death of a loved one, and moving where you live, usually alter our value systems. Also, entering subtle, expected, new phases of life, like children going off to college and celebrating a milestone birthday, like ‘50', can alter your value system. Maintaining awareness of your evolving values will support your zeal for life and help you find the true joy you were meant to experience (most) every day.
Authentic fitness means that you are fully aware of how your exercise regime supports your value hierarchy. Research proves that people who exercise for deeper reasons than mere physical change are far more likely to stick to their fitness programs. long term, and succeed.
Authentic fitness also supports your lifestyle. It is creative and flexible enough so that exercise fits into your life. Authentic fitness puts health and wellness into perspective—into a bigger picture--so as to avoid any self-shaming for not achieving certain exercise tasks in a day or any particular week. Why? Because any decision to alter your exercise program is based on choices related to your value hierarchy.
How do you create authentic fitness? Take a look at your value hierarchy and identify which of your values would be supported by specific benefits of exercise (e.g. preventing or reducing disease like diabetes, heart disease, stroke, arthritis or osteoporosis; feeling more grounded and confident in yourself to grow your career or business; or reducing stress to better cope with interpersonal relationships and other stressful circumstances). These benefits will become your goals related to your values. Once the goals are identified and associated with your value list, with the help of your fitness coach, a daily exercise program can be customized and progressed to achieve those goals. In the end, authentic fitness is an empowering tool to help you live out your value hierarchy and be your ultimate, true self.
over food.
Imagine never again feeling guilty about foods you want to eat. Imagine savoring everything you eat knowing that your choices will bring you closer to achieving your life's values including your optimal body size. Do you deprive yourself the pleasure of enjoying foods like chocolate, ice cream, filet mignon because you think that these foods will make you fat? These negative thoughts create a vicious cycle of psychological and physical abuse toward ourselves and our bodies. In turn, we blame the foods we love for our overweight, unfit bodies rather than a poor value system that no longer serves us.
In the Intuitive Eating Teleseries that I teach you learn how to use certain tools that help you to address your eating, and approach it in an entirely different way than traditional dieting. Throughout the Teleseminar, you are given the opportunity to change the way that you have been thinking about food. It is an exciting and long-lasting way to manage your weight forever.
If you would like to know more about my Intuitive Eating Seminars, email me at katiekatz@verizon.net, and specifically state that you are interested in Intuitive Eating Seminars only.
For more info about Katdance Fitness by Phone, email: kblumkatz@verizon.net,Or call 410-757-8830
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