Kim's Fitness and Nutrition

What if you could accept with your whole heart, mind, body and soul that you are 100% free? You are so free that you can actually choose bondage, either consciously or unconsciously. I encourage you to sit with this idea and to fully explore it as a possibility. When I took the time to do that, I found the evidence supporting this idea to be staggering. I am so completely convinced that we came forth as freewill beings that I feel confident challenging you. The following is what convinced me.

Taking full responsibility for your life is both exhilarating and terrifying. Personally, I choose to maintain focus on the exhilaration, although there are times when the terror sneaks in. It was a red letter day, though, when I came to the realization that I really am the only one who has any power over my life ... me and only me. Making the decision to give up blaming others, my ill fate and my circumstances for my unhappiness wasn?t easy, but the truth became clear. ?They? only have as much power over me as I am willing to give to them. My life is a perfect reflection of my beliefs, my patterns of thought and my habits of action, all of which I have direct control over. What about that?

I am no longer an advocate of ?diets,? that is any food program that claims to be the ?end all, be all,? and that prohibits you from eating certain foods altogether. It has been both my personal experience, as well as the experience of innumerable clients, that diets are prescriptions for failure. Until you can find your way to eating ?what? you need in the ?amount? you need, it can be, and often is, a roller coaster ride at best.

If winter is when you come alive and are eager to hit the ski slopes, ask yourself a couple of important questions. First, what have you been doing in the off season months to stay in shape for the ski season? If the answer is regular hiking, walking, swimming, cycling, weight training, yoga and Pilates, then you are good to go. If it is one or two of the previous list or comparable activities, then you are probably still good to go. However, if you have not been active at all and work in a profession that is sedentary to boot, you may want to rethink jumping into your skiing gear and right onto the slopes. Secondly, what can I do to prepare my body for skiing? The answer to that is take a couple of weeks, at least, to wake up your body to the idea of skiing. Start a 3-4 hour a week fitness program, and even then go easy and progress slowly. I realize time is of the essence, but the alternative may be way more time consuming. The incidence of injury is startlingly high in people over the age of 40 who do not prepare their bodies first. Don't be among those statistics ... instead be one of the smart ones.

From the time I was a child, the human body has always fascinated me. My family was healthy in general -- we suffered from very few colds or flu. A large part of our success was due to the fact that we thought of ourselves as very healthy. There is a lot to be said for that. We ate pretty basic but mostly fresh versus processed. My dad was an excellent archer, so the majority of our meat was wild game. Still, as I observed other families who were continuously stricken with this or that illness, I couldn?t help but wonder, ?What made us different??

The Buddhist Monks have taught for centuries that true happiness can only be ours when we are completely present. This requires us to surrender our desire/need to dwell in the past or worry about the future. In order to do this we must have a strong conviction, a willing heart and a deep desire for feeling joy predominantly. Sure, if you were to ask anyone if they thought they were happy, most would reply with a routine, yes. However, it has been my experience throughout my lifetime, having worked with hundreds of people, that few, very few, are genuinely happy.

The term "core" is being used all over the place, and yet many people are not completely clear as to what it means. Our core is actually represented by our entire torso minus our limbs. It is not simply the abdominal region of our bodies, but rather the complete front and back of your body?s torso. It is very important to make this distinction, because the balance between the muscles in the front versus those in the back of the body is crucial. Please realize that by doing only abdominal exercises, you will ultimately create an imbalance with the opposing muscles of the back. In other words, we need to be mindful of both sides of our bodies and work them fairly evenly.

Every year I find myself sort of losing steam with less daylight -- it makes me want to eat heavy foods and crawl into my cave. Of course, this hits just as the holiday season is approaching, and that could mean a formula for disaster. Many of my clients are in the same boat, and it certainly does seem the easier, softer way to simply give in and give up -- BUT it actually makes it a longer harder road. Be better than that!

We all have questions about life and just how to proceed in order to obtain those people, situations and things that we think, once we receive them, well, THEN we will be happy. What Abraham, Ester and Jerry Hicks have taught me over the years is that there is only ever one answer, no matter what the question is, and that is ?Alignment.? When we are fully connected to who we are, to our Source Energy, to ALL that IS, then and only then is everything A-OKAY, right with our world. It is then that we know what is to truly thrive. That is Alignment in a nutshell.