The Fitness Guru

We are very lucky at the Guru. We have a stunningly talented community, made up of the very best in the arts, theatre, dance, music and business. But I was blown away when I heard the music of one of our own, Jillian Lubow. She was kind enough to let us post one of her new songs, but I STRONGLY recommend check out her other work here and getting a copy for yourself. Check it out!!
Remember/Forget (click the link, hear the song)

The Fitness Guru

www.fitnessgurunyc.com

There is a great article in the New York Times today. Diet betting is all the rage. Go ahead, bet your friend or a member of your family that you can lose more weight than they can and, according to the Journal of the American Medical Association, you will lose more weight than you would if you just tried it without gambling. Apparently, the financial incentive greatly increases the likely hood  for success. Hmmmmmm. That doesn’t quite explain all the people who bought annual memberships for gyms a month ago, only to go two or three times and then retire. Their checking account still has that automatic debit for the next eleven months. That would strike me as financial incentive. So maybe its not the financial incentive that does the work. Maybe its the thought of losing a bet, having someone you know point a finger and say “ha ha I told you that you couldn’t do it.” If our friends and loved ones try to go and lose weight and then fail, odds are we would try and be positive, maybe suggest that they try again only this time they should use this trainer and that diet. But if we are winning their money becasue they have failed where we have succeeded, that’s usually a different reaction altogether.

I’m not saying we have to go negative in order to inspire people to become healthier. Everybody’s favorite, Bob Harper tried to go a little negative on a recent episode of NBC’s The Biggest Loser. The incident got a lot of play because the normally sweet Harper went off the deep end, shouting expletives at a contestant in a crowded gym. This isn’t necessarily the way to go either.

I think Harper, the fitness professional (or at least he plays one on TV) betrays a trust by hurling foul language at his client. He belittles the woman which will do nothing but cement her attitude. His frustration got the better of him and sure enough, accomplished nothing in terms of getting the woman to reach any of the goals that he had set.

So where do you go? I think it is important to set goals but to make them very specific and small. Build a goal for this month and then build off that goal for next month. But, even more important, and I’ll say it agin, it comes down to community. Ages ago we were living in tribes in caves. The sense of community is deep and instinctual. Within the community, there can be jabbing and teasing as a means of pushing members further, but in the end, there must be a sense of trust amongst the members. The gambling isn’t what is creating the change. The gambling is heightening the stakes. The coming together of community members toward a common goal, in this case, to lose weight, is what is bringing about results.

So we have our first Community submission in response to the post, Healthy Foods.

Charity writes:

Here’s a yummy PUMPKIN pudding (tastes like the inside of a pumpkin pie-yum!)
1/2 c sugar
1 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 tsp ground ginger
1/4 tsp cloves
2 large eggs
1 15 oz can pure PUMPKIN
1 12 oz can evaporated milk (non-fat or 2%)
Preheat oven to 350. Mix sugar, cinnamon, salt, ginger and cloves in a small bowl. Stir in pumpkin and sugar-spice mixture. Mix in eggs then slowly add evaporated milk. Pour into shallow greased baking dish (deep dish glass pie pan works well). Bake in a preheated oven for 350 degrees for about 30 minutes, keep close eye on it. Don’t overbake, the center should be slightly wiggly. Cool and enjoy at room temperature or refrigerate for later use.

Think of it as a healthy treat. And check out her blog.

If you have an idea or recipe that you would like to submit, please do so.

There are a couple of crazy things that happen to me when I have the opportunity to travel around the country. Sure, I meet all sorts of people, but that’s not so crazy. Everyone seems to be very much on the same page this time of year. The holidays have ended, the ball has dropped and its time to get back into the swing of things. Everyone is in the middle of his or her Resolution or they are sitting back and joking about all the others who are Resolved. No, that’s not crazy. That is an annual rite of New Year’s. No, the crazy thing when I travel is that I have the opportunity to watch Oprah. See, when I am home, I have business to conduct, but once I get on the road, the day becomes sort of timeless, without a “work time” and “home time”. So TV mid-afternoon works……sort of.

So when I arrived at my hotel yesterday I flipped on the TV just to get a little noise going in an otherwise somewhat uncomfortable little room. And who should be on the telly but Oprah. My relationship with Oprah is somewhat distant: I may not always agree with what she has to say, but I will defend to the death her right to say it. And the number of people that she has been able to help over the past two decades more than impresses me. She has created a fantastic amount of change.

But there she is, in full Oprah soft focus, with little (or, dare I say, no) make up, and she is talking about herself. She is talking completely in the first person about the fact that she has gained 40 pounds and she is miserable. There is nothing uplifting about what she is saying—she is speaking from the pit of despair. And her trainer, Bob, comes on and talks about how, as he was working with her, he saw the life drain from her eyes because she was depressed.

We all know about Oprah’s Battle of the Bulge. She has been up and down and the press is more than willing to keep a running commentary on exactly how large she is at any given time. And she has had a number of victories. I think she succeeded in running the Chicago Marathon a number of years ago. But here is sad Oprah talking about how life has gotten away from her, how she stopped making time for herself, how she kept thinking that she would be able to get back on track until one day the track was so far back in the rearview mirror there was no going back. And that’s when she went to pieces.

Happier times. We didn't know how good we had it.

So here I am in this Milwaukee pre-war hotel room that seems to have been decorated by yodelers, feeling bad for Oprah. Because what she is going through is the same painful trap that a lot of people go through and it is frustrating and depressing. Its particularly depressing if you have already climbed to the top of the mountain top once only to find that you have rolled all the way back down to the bottom.

The fact of the matter is that all these habits—the weight gain, the poor exercise habits, the inability to create time for oneself—are all repetitions that we can fall into over and over and over again. When we are prone to that sort of behavior, we have got to watch ourselves, and always watch ourselves. My friends who are recovered alcoholics don’t say, “hey, it’s been six months without a drink so I can go back to having the occasional beer.” That doesn’t happen. They understand that it is in their nature to fall back into their old habits. It is part of the disease of alcoholism. When we have weight and health issues (and, yes, I count myself as one of those people. Don’t believe me? I would show you the pictures but I burned them) we have to keep those issues in mind and understand that we are building entirely new lifestyles for ourselves—new habits to replace the old because those old habits were not working.

So going forth and conquering the health, fitness and weight loss resolution is fantastic. But as you continue to move forward, find ways of cementing new habits in place. Find that community or the structure that you can use for support. AND USE IT!

Oprah rebuilt her schedule and her life, with the help of her phalanx of assistants so that she has more time for herself and she doesn’t run herself ragged. But hopefully she realizes that those pitfalls will always exist for her.

So here’s to Oprah—if I only get to see one episode a year, I guess I’m glad it was that one.

Welcome to 2009 and welcome to the First Annual Fitness Guru Webolution!  Our brand new site is going to be dedicated to helping you achieve your New Year’s Resolution by offering workout ideas, tips, recipes, pod casts and video demonstrations. Each day for the next month we will be offering new information to keep you motivated and involved in attaining your goal. More than that, we are working to bring the tremendous spirit that thrives in our Studio to the Internet. We are expanding our Guru Community into the Web so that, if you should happen to stumble, you will have a place to turn to in order to get back on track. And if you are getting bored or lost, you have a place to turn for inspiration and answers.

A couple of things about our new site: right now, I sort of feel like David Byrne at the beginning of Stop Making Sense (for those unsure of the reference, see below for a visual aid.) I am standing on an empty stage with nothing but an acoustic guitar and a boom box. Slowly, the band grows around me, the music gets bigger, until finally, I am surrounded by a couple dozen musicians and I’m wearing a suit five times bigger than normal and the house is rocking like nobody’s business. OK, so maybe Psycho Killer is not the best theme to get this particular health and well-being party started……..

…..but you get the idea.

As you explore the new site, you will see the foundation of what we have built. All our studio information is on the left hand side of the page, and all our web info is on the right. You can easily ask any questions you like using the Ask The Guru feature, and we can get an answer back to you very quickly. We will be offering both video and audio segments on the pod cast page. And you can keep up with all things Guru on the events page.

If you’re new to the Guru, here is how we work: we never preach from the mountaintop; we are down in the trenches. There is a tremendous amount of health and fitness information out there and many people are willing to try to force that info down your throats, especially this time of year. We are here to help explain all that gobbledygook, and to help you find he path that’s right for you. “8 Minute Brazilian Funkilicous Abs” may not be the best choice for you, but it may work perfectly well for someone else. Think of it this way: in fitness, all roads lead to Rome. The Fitness Guru is your Mapquest. So take advantage of the opportunity. If there is a question plaguing you, be it about cardio-vascular work, weight loss, snacking on the go, post-exercise stretching, whatever, go ahead and ask. I guarantee you that there are probably dozens of people who have the same question, so by asking, you are helping the entire community.

Now let’s discuss the Resolutions. It’s the first of the year. Let’s keep it simple. Your goal for today is to clarify your Resolution for yourself. The clearer you can be, the easier it will be to stay true to your commitment. Here are some quick tips:

• Don’t overstep reality! If you are used to waking up at 10 am every morning and quietly reading the paper with a cup of coffee, then resolving to wake up at sunrise and run 10 miles probably is not the quick road to success. Try to find a path that works with your schedule and your lifestyle.
• Many of us make a resolution to lose weight. This can be a tough one psychologically. We don’t have all that much direct control over our weight. We do have control of various factors that contribute to weight gain. So if I say, “I want to lose 15 pounds”, my focus will be on the needle on the scale and whether or not I can get the damn thing to move, even a little. If that needle doesn’t move, or even if it does move but moves VERY slowly, that can be discouraging, especially if I am putting all this resolve into dropping pounds. And then, if I do lose the weight, the focus becomes “can I keep it off?” It’s a very tough dance to maintain. HOWEVER, if I focus on eating healthier on a daily basis and becoming more active, my weight will start to shift as a natural part of that process. Keeping track of weight loss is a fine gauge of success, but it is only one of several that we will discuss in the next couple of days.
• Create small steps for success. You can’t lose fifteen pounds without losing one first, and you can’t “eat healthy” without going meal-by-meal making better choices. Let’s face it: we spent December in a feeding frenzy and now we see this big mountain of HEALTH in front of us. It can be a little overwhelming. So start small: if you haven’t exercised since fourth grade gym class, don’t start by locking yourself on an elliptical machine for two hours at a time. You will burn out very quickly and you’ll be visiting Godiva.com by January 17^th. Take things day by day and seek out attainable goals that fall within your resolution. “I’m going to have a healthy breakfast” is attainable. “I’m going to go for a 20 minute walk during my lunch break” is attainable. And all these things will lead you to your goal.
• Take advantage of the community around you. Some of us believe that a resolution is like a dirty little secret. We don’t want to let anyone in on it in the event we seem weaker or in the event, God forbid, we should stumble and fall. But our Resolutions are just the opposite: they are commitments that we make to ourselves to improve the quality of our lives. And, right now, everyone around you is trying to make that commitment in ways both big and small. Reach out to your friends, family and the Guru community for support, understanding and inspiration.

That’s enough for now. If you have friends who are about to battle the Resolution, invite them into the community. There is room for all. This is a very electric time and we at the Guru are very excited about what is to come. Thanks for joining us.  It’s going to be a fantastic ride.

Rock on!

Michael