DISCOVER YOUR ZEN
Group Coaching Call
VIDEO REPLAY:
CALL TRANSCRIPT:
Welcome to the Coaching Call for Week 3 of the Discover Your Zen Program.
As always, before we start, I need to offer this short disclaimer.
DISCLAIMER: I am a physician, but I’m limited in the ability to perform full exam & work-up on this call. So the information provided here is neither intended nor implied to be a substitute for professional medical advice and is not intended to replace a complete consultation with your physician, nor does it constitute a doctor-patient relationship.
Today’s we’re covering how to find support for maintaining your exercise program and how to make exercise fun!
Surround Yourself with Support
One of the best ways to change your daily habits is to immerse yourself into that community completely and surround yourself with support. A way to do this is to educate yourself as much as you can with all forms of exercise. The more you know the more confident you will feel too. You might even find some information you never even knew existed or an activity that you enjoy doing.
Online Groups
Join some Facebook groups and follow inspirational people on other social media platforms. You have our Facebook group during the DISCOVER YOUR ZEN program and there’s also my FREE Commit To Fit Crew that you can join on Facebook as well. If you enjoy watching YouTube, find someone that inspires you and is active. Thousands of people stream live workouts. Find a few you like and bookmark them.
The more you SEE things related to exercise, the more likely you will want to do it. You can even set up your own social media accounts to inspire other people and keep yourself accountable. If you don’t want to share it with people make it private so you can look at it whenever you want.
Friends & Family
Try to get your friends and family involved as well. Don’t force it; inspire them and show them how much fun it could really be if they all joined in. This will encourage you to go out and exercise more each day. Plus, you won’t even realize you are exercising; it will just feel like another family or friend outing.
Get Accountability
Find an accountability buddy who you trust for support. This person should be someone you can tell anything to. It could even be a stranger from the Facebook groups you joined. There are people out there looking for support because they don’t want to do it alone.
Sharing the same goals with someone will make you both accountable and willing to keep going. Make a deal with each other that you promise to be as honest as possible without judgment or discouragement.
Your accountability buddy could also be your exercise partner. Having a partner will prevent you from ditching that exercise that day. If you do, you would not only be hurting your progress, but your partner’s as well. Knowing you disappointed your partner can feel terrible and you won’t want to let them down.
Make it Fun
Exercise doesn’t have to be boring and grueling. It can be so fun that you don’t even realize you are exercising. Find a form of exercise that keeps you wanting more. This way you are sure to keep up the daily habit. If running or lifting weights doesn’t appeal to you, then find something that does.
Here are a few ideas to make your exercise more fun:
- Workout classes — There are so many exercise classes available that you can find at your local gym or even downtown. Yoga, Zumba, and CrossFit are a few popular ones. There are even spin classes and stepping classes. Go out and give one a try. These classes are full of motivation and are usually affordable. The best part is you don’t have to rely on yourself because there are instructors to help guide and push you through it.
- Swimming/Water Aerobics — Go to your community pool and swim some laps. You could even invite your friends and family out to make it fun. Just keep swimming and stay active. Find a local aquatic gym and try out some water aerobics. This is a great low impact activity which can be great for those with joint issues looking to get into daily exercise as well.
- Dancing — Dancing is a great option. You can do it almost anywhere, including at home or in the car on your way to work (not if you’re the driver, of course). You can also vary the music style to match or lift your mood. You can dance alone or with a partner. If partner dancing is more your style, sign up for a dance class with your significant other or a friend. Dancing is a great exercise because it works your whole body and it’s fun.
- Listen to music/audio books — Use music or audio books to your advantage. Exercise to the beat of your music or speed up when you are reaching the climax of a good story. Who wants to just hear their breathing while they are exercising anyway? You will be surprised how fast your workouts go by when you listen to music/books.
- Get Friends and Family Involved — Find a friend or family who wants to get active with you. Having a support system makes going to the gym or getting out on the track at a lot more enjoyable when you don’t have to do it alone. Challenge each other to a race and or see who can do the most push-ups. Who doesn’t like a little healthy competition?
- Challenge yourself — Every new day is a chance to make progress and advance. Try to go a little farther on your walk or try something new like rock climbing. Not only will this make it fun but you might find something new you never knew you would enjoy.
All exercise is good for your body. Stop worrying about what other people do. Find something you enjoy and do it. Why dread a workout when you could be counting down the minutes until you get to go out on that hike. Find things you think you might like or have always want to do and give them a try.
Getting Started
Changing your lifestyle by adding in daily exercise is the best thing you can do for your overall health. Daily exercise can help control weight, and reduces your risk of stroke and cardiovascular disease. It even improves your sleep and overall mood by reducing stress. It may seem overwhelming and impossible to add in exercise every day, but don’t fret. You just need to break down this goal and create an action plan.
You also need to consider your overall well-being. Don’t over exert yourself because you think you need to be perfect right away or think five minutes of walking isn’t good enough. That simply is not true. Getting any exercise is a great start for now. Eventually, you will improve.
That’s all I have for today. You will be getting your workout plans in your Fitness Plan tonight, as long as you have completed your PAR-Q and Client Agreement forms and have told me whether you want a BURN or a BUILD plan. That means…is your exercise goal more focused on burning calories and losing weight, or are you more interested in building/maintaing mass? So just email me back at team@DoctorVenus.com with your choice of BURN or BUILD.
Any questions?
TODAY’S ACTION STEPS:
1) If you’ve been trying out my suggestion of creating a habit, then you may want to add on to your first step if you haven’t done so yet. Every time you wake up, or finish washing your dishes after dinner, or whatever that regular activity is that you choose as the one to trigger your workouts…maybe you’ve been putting on your workout shoes. Keep doing this. But now, add the next step. If your chosen workout is taking a walk after dinner each night, maybe you need to head to the front door and grab a jacket. If you want to do a home workout from the exercise plan I’m going to give you, then maybe you’ll put on some workout clothes (a top and a bottom). Whatever that next step is just do that. Every day. Every time you put on your workout shoes, after every time you do that trigger activity (washing dishes, waking up in the morning, etc).
If you need a little more time to install that first habit (e.g. putting on your workout shoes), that’s fine. Just keep doing that and don’t worry about adding on right now.
2) Log in to the Fitness App on your COMPUTER – https://doctorvenus.com/app-login/ – and go to the FORMS tab. Answer questions 13 through 17 on the Exercise Worksheet. Be sure to click SAVE, and if you’ve completed ALL of the questions, you can sign it. (You won’t be able to go back to answer any more questions once you sign it.)
3) Remember that next week’s meal plan (the one that starts tomorrow) is the same as this past week. So prepare!
4) If you have any questions about anything…let me know in the Facebook group – https://www.facebook.com/groups/TeamDrVenus/
Previous ACTION STEPS:
(Not a complete list, but some important highlights.)
1) Log in to the Fitness App on your COMPUTER – https://doctorvenus.com/app-login/ – and go to the FORMS tab. If you haven’t completed the Client Agreement form and the PAR-Q form from Day 1’s ACTION STEPS, do that today and sign them. Be sure to click SAVE when you’re done. (You can not receive the meal plan and workout plan when they are released until we have those completed forms on file.)
2) If you haven’t done so yet, send an email to team@DoctorVenus.com and state whether you want a vegetarian or non-vegetarian meal plan. It will be sent to your Fitness App by the next day.
3) We’ll start our exercise plan tomorrow! Send an email to team@DoctorVenus.com and let me know whether you want an exercise plan for weight loss (focused on burning calories) or for building/maintaining your mass. So you just need to indicate whether you want a BURN or BUILD program.
4) Download the Set Your Goals Checklist and complete it. CLICK HERE to download.
5) Download the Program Planner that you can start using, if you wish. CLICK HERE to download.
6) Download the Kitchen Clean Out handout and use it to guide the clean out of your kitchen BEFORE you start your meal plan. CLICK HERE to download.