I like to compare the newness of mask-wearing to learning the Turkish Getup for the first time: At first it makes no sense, we do it all wrong and it feels pointless but as we practice it time and again we realize that, actually, it is not as uncomfortable an endeavor as it seems to be, we notice we incorporate some of the movements into our everyday lives and it just becomes something we do because it makes us stronger.

Masks are going to be here for a while which is why today I'm showing you a few tricks to make you feel more confident in your balance. Masks aside, the truth is that if you've had changes to your vision in any way -- cataracts, macular degeneration, any other not-fun condition -- you've likely noticed a huge difference in the way you move through your world, specifically with balance. While with a mask we lose some of our peripheral vision, some of you might also have lost some vision in the center of your field of vision or you may see floaties in one eye... I could keep going. 

The loss of balance can be incredibly scary and that's why I'm here to bring you exercises you can do to help it get stronger! Balance is skill that needs practice. It is not something you have or don't have! So let's get to work! 

Variation 1: Just the Eyes

Variation 2: Kneeling

• ​Get down on the ground and sit back into your heels. Your toes can be pointed or tucked under
• Place your hands slightly in front of your knees and place a little bit of weight into them
• Place your tongue on the roof of your mouth and breathe in and out through your nose
• Look up toward the ceiling and let your head follow
• Then look down toward your belly button and let your head follow
• For look arounds, look UP and over your shoulder and let your head follow. You can totally allow your spine and arms to move with you, too
• Then, look the other way!

Do about 10 of each to make up one set.

Variation 3: Standing

• Stand with your feet about hip-width apart, knees soft (not locked out)
• Place your tongue on the roof of your mouth and breathe in and out through your nose
• Look up toward the ceiling and let your head follow
• Then look down toward your belly button and let your ad follow
• For look arounds, look over your shoulder and let your head follow. You can totally allow your spine, arms, and hips to move with you, too
• Then, look the other way!

Do about 10 of each to make up one set.

Coupling single-leg balance with some good-for-the-brain cross-body action is SO JUICY!

Of course you can do standing cross crawls in a variety of different ways but if we're talking about becoming more confident with our balance and walking while wearing a mask, I really like this variation:

• Root your standing foot into the ground as you pick up your other leg
• Feel that standing leg grow tall and strong as you slowly bring your elbow to the rising knee
• If you cannot physically reach your elbow to your opposite knee, that's OK! The physical tap IS important so use your hand or forearm
• Imagine you're moving through honey: Slowly and steadily

Do this for 1-2 minutes

We spend a whole lot less time on the ground as we age, don't we? This means we stop practicing getting up from the ground and if we fall (especially at a later age), we might not know how to get back up. 

This is why I am a big proponent of practicing "falling" down and getting up  in a safe space so we get used to it! You can do this exercise using all of your hands and feet but to make it more fun, I like to practice getting to and from the ground with the use of either one hand or none! 

The only wrong way to do this exercise is if you get up or go down in a painful way. Have fun with this.

​Put a timer on for 1 minute or 3 or 5! Whatever you do, just practice.

My friends: Masks are here to stay for a while and winter is coming. Let's all stay as upright as we can.

(Like these? Please share this post and let me know what comments or questions you might have in the area below!)

My continuing education goal this year is to be more involved in a company called Original Strength. The company teaches professionals like me how to help people move better and feel better, how to reboot a system that might have gotten stuck. They do not believe getting older leads to bodies falling apart . Aches and pains may very well crop up (as I know many of you have felt or are feeling first-hand) but that should not be accepted as the norm. 

SO I’m reading one of the founders’ books, Pressing Reset, Original Strength Reloaded and this passage came up in the very first chapter. I must have read it 20 times:

“Just to be clear, when we are referring to ‘strength’, we are talking about the ability to live life the way that you want to live it; to be able to move, think, work, play, love and laugh throughout your entire life, regardless of your age.”

As a girl who a few months ago knew nothing much about the Cubs except that I know where Wrigley Field is, I’ve been incredibly inspired by their modern story. The more I learn about the most “cursed” team in baseball, the more I realize that you can make direct parallels about how they went from the Lovable Losers to World Series contenders to how individuals can reach their fitness and weight loss goals. In both cases, they’re stories about seeking out advice, guidance and coaching; gradually collecting more and more wins between losses; and about believing in consistency and staying the course to ultimately reach the end goal and sustain it. 

The Ricketts family bought the Cubs from the Tribune company in 2009. As soon as the Rickettses took over, the Cubs started losing more and more games over the years. But the family had crafted a solid, multi-year plan. They met with some of the smartest individuals in the baseball world to learn what steps they needed to take to build their dream team: Who were the best people to fill in their management and leadership positions? Who should they draft onto the team? Who should they trade and who needs to go? Eventually, the Ricketts family decided to create a super young team recruited from the farm system. They brought on Theo Epstein to be president of baseball operations and then, when he was available, Joe Maddon as manager. Eventually, to cap it all off, the Cubs brought on star pitcher Jon Lester. And from the Losable Losers they bought in 2009, the Cubs are currently in the World Series in 2016. These steps were not accidental. They were rigorously plotted out, a plan was set and all the players in the game knew what to do.

So what do the Cubs have to do with reaching our goals?
EVERYTHING. Here’s what I mean:

1. The Ricketts family took the time to meet with experts to formulate and invest in a winning plan. Choosing to make a big, personal life change like losing weight or training for a marathon is a big deal! And, yes, you can read up on what to do via the internet or by books but I would stress the importance of making sure your source is credible. Check credentials, get multiple opinions, choose what aligns with your values. If you do that, you create your own winning plan. (Side note: The Rickettses bought the team for $845 million in 2009; the team was worth $2 billion by 2014. Think they treated their 2009 team as an investment? You betcha.)
2. They stayed away from Shiny Object Syndrome. The Cubs recruited a core group of athletes from the minor leagues. This means they trusted that young players with zero major league experience had the grit to eventually make it to the World Series. Yes, they brought on veteran pitcher Jon Lester, but he was an anomaly. With weight loss and strength training, it’s so easy to gravitate to a Shiny Object that promises fast results like a juice cleanse or Paleo to radically cut carbs or to join CrossFit because your neighbor did it and lost 120 lbs and looks like an Adonis but can’t raise his arms overhead anymore. But here’s a question: Does it work for everyone? Could it work for you? Long term? Or is there a plan that might work for YOU that lines up with your values that you can follow for the time it takes you to reach your goals and beyond, even when things aren't going your way?
3. Practice, practice, practice. I use the word “GRIT” very purposefully. How do young Cubs hopefuls get from the farm to the Big Leagues? By practicing. Did they love every bit of their training? Do you think their awesomeness blossomed linearly? Nope. And there was nothing linear about the modern Cubs’ growth either. In 2012 — 3 years post-acquisition — the Cubs lost 101 games, their worst season since 1966. When we decide we want to lose x amount of lbs, it doesn’t just “happen”, right? We need to take action. We (and by “we” I’m now talking about my own clients and myself) choose specific habits and skills to work on. And just like you don’t win a World Series overnight, you don’t lose the weight and keep if off overnight, either. You hone your nutrition and fitness skills over time, you collect all of the wins you can and learn from the losses. You understand that, in order to be a champion, you need to put in the time, one game at a time.
4. They’ve stayed the course. Ok: So I LOVELOVELOVE my nutrition program, CleanSlate28. But when I tell potential coaching clients that the program is all about developing skills and habits to lose weight and keep it off over time, and that there are guidelines but no hard and fast rules, that they don’t need to eliminate gluten/dairy/soy/corn/fun/taste/life to reach their goals, I lose people’s interest really fast. A lot of people want an immediate answer to solve their “problem”. They want things to happen NOW and I can’t blame them! If you’ve ever told friends/loved ones/acquaintances that you’re working out and making better food choices, how many times have people given you uninvited advice? (“You should do Bikram CrossFit!” “Have you tried drinking wheatgrass shots in a headstand? I lost all of the baby weight in 5 days that way.” There’s always a critic.) But, time and time again, the people who are able to reach their goals and then stay there have been able to make their lifestyle changes ones that they’re personally happy with, that they can make a full life with. The Ricketts family had a plan they were happy with, that they believed in. They were heavily criticized by everyone under the sun and it was at times emotionally draining. But they stayed the course. And they got to the World Series in the time they predicted: about 6 years from their year of purchase. Pretty cool!
5. One of manager Joe Maddon’s many Yoda/Dan John-like philosophies is, “Don’t let the pressure exceed the pleasure.” I’ve learned to coach clients to declare a new habit/skill by filling in the blanks with this sentence, “I am 90-100% confident I can ___________ when I _________.” For example, “I am 90-100% confident I can drink 24oz of water while I get ready for work in the morning.” But what’s usually missing is the word “happily”. If a CleanSlate28 client says, “I am 90-100% confident I will eat zero added sugar at any time of the day, seven days a week,” I will ask them to rephrase the statement with the word “happily”. 9 times out of 10 it changes entirely and the client has a huge AHA moment. Happily? We deserve that? YES. Because if you’re going to experience long-lasting success, shouldn’t you be able to do that WHOLEHEARTEDLY?

It may be a very long time until I talk about major league sports again. But I couldn’t let this go. The Cubs’ modern story seems so other-worldly but when you break it down, it could be any one of our own.

​And with that, I will leave you with two words: GO CUBS! ​

I ***HATED*** PE throughout school. Instead of going to PE, I did my best to find a way to go to the nurse’s office because of a headache/cramps/hangnail/somemadeupreason (and once I actually DID fall down the stairs on my way to the nurse in high school — fell hard… Karma). I managed to miss every single swim class we had in high school because I wasn’t comfortable in a bathing suit and hate being under water; the mile test was the WORST day of the year because I ran about a 12-minute mile while the kids that smoked a pack of cigarettes a day could somehow run it in 6; rugby was the only sport I contributed any points to because, since you pass the ball back vs forwards, no one ever realized I had the ball. ​

But then, in 11th grade, a new world of PE classes became available to take for credit. I could choose from such classes as Rock Climbing, Adventure Learning, Lifeguard Training, Sea Kayaking, Fitness Training, Yoga and — my two personal favorites — Dance and Stretching & Relaxation. I took those two favorite classes junior year and then somehow I managed to talk my teacher into letting me co-teach those classes senior year. I didn’t know it then but that was my introduction to coaching (so thank you, Ms Simpkin, for that). And the great thing was: It taught me that I didn’t need to hate exercise.
Here the thing: In traditional PE classes, you don’t get much of a choice when it comes to what exercise is. We all kind of learn that the important things to know are how to run a mile and that the more sit-ups and pushups you can do in a minute the better, and that it really sucks being picked last on a team. (And it’s really embarrassing when you fall on top of your PE teacher during the tumbling class in front of everyone…)

Why do I bring this up? Because too often I hear people say, “I don’t like exercising but I know I need to.” 

Sound familiar? If so, you might have experienced the dread I felt in PE classes. You might not have been in an environment that made you feel like you were a part of a community of peers made up of different fitness levels that could work together; you were probably not in a place where you believe you could excel and feel competent even if you weren’t “good” at first; or in a place that even gave you a choice to do certain sports over others. 

So why on earth would we put ourselves in a position to relive the dread of high school PE in adulthood? When a potential client contacts me, I know that they might have been thinking about contacting someone for a long time. Taking the step to finally make that contact is brave, it takes guts, it puts them in a vulnerable position and I absolutely do not take that for granted because I know that client put herself/himself in that position because they need HELP. 

If you’ve read this far, thank you because I’m finally getting to the point. You or someone you know, reading this now, might be in the “I hate working out but know I have to” position. What I want to ask you is:

1. What about working out do you hate? (And if you say, “Everything,” I’ll challenge you to be more specific.)
2. You’ve determined the WHATs; now determine the WHYs. Why do you hate those points you just wrote down?
3. Who says you have to work out by doing the things in #1? Your doctor? Your partner? Your friends? Your HS PE teacher?
4. Are there any ways you LIKE moving your body? Is there anything that feels good, either during the activity and/or after? Yoga? Dancing? Walking? Kickboxing?
5. Once you’ve determined ways you like to move, see if there are any classes or coaches in your area that offer those options! (Action steps below)

Listen: It’s 2016 and almost anything is an exercise class now so I feel confident there’s something out there for you. It might be Zumba or Bollywood dancing; it might be martial arts, tap dancing or training for strong(wo)man competitions; it might be aerial arts or pole dancing (not at all kidding); it could be hoola-hooping (also not kidding) or tennis. It might even be strength training with me or any of my colleagues at TruFit, wink wink!

Here are a few ways to find options that might be right for you:
Class Pass
The MindBody App 
Yelp
Your local park district (if you have one)
Your local YMCA
MeetUp
Me! If you’re looking for something and can’t find it, email me! I’ll do my best to find what you’re looking for.
​
Here is the bottom line: There really is something for everyone. Disliking pushups or running a mile doesn’t make you suck (Usain Bolt has never run a mile; he doesn’t suck). You’re just on the verge of finding what might lead you to a more full, happy and healthy life! So get after it!

Most clients come to me looking to lose weight: sometimes just a few pounds and sometimes a significant percentage of body weight. The call usually comes after the client has already tried other weight loss programs that just haven’t worked (or sometimes have caused weight GAIN). Now, as many programs, nutritional systems and workout fads as I see out there, there is one weight loss method I’m not seeing enough of: Getting people to love and respect their bodies NOW so making healthy choices day to day becomes EMPOWERING, not threatening.

But first, here’s a crazy story: One of my Evanston clients had just joined a new gym near her house so she went to her free assessment because, she thought, why not? She met with the training manager, they chatted briefly and then he put her through a workout. Even though my client told him about her medical past, injuries and surgeries, the session ended up being a variety of totally inappropriate exercises that would have been difficult for most people.

Back in the office the manager told my client that:

• She’s VERY out of shape (she’s not)
  
• She desperately needs to lose weight (she doesn’t)
  
• That it would take her at least a year to get anywhere with her training and based on what he had just witnessed and that:
  
• She needs to train 3 times/week with a trainer that would be assigned to her for one year and, “You can sign this 12-month contract right here and now.”

She said, “No, thanks,” and left in pain and feeling completely deflated and shamed. The killer is that many people give in to that kind of sales tactic and don't get what they need.

Here’s the thing: We get so hung up on this idea that we need to weigh a certain amount (and we all have that exact number, right?) or fit into those high school jeans or we run ourselves crazy just so our thighs might no longer touch (Lululemon CEO Chip Wilson is not helping much with this).

We sabotage ourselves by saying things like, “I’m so fat I don’t deserve to be happy”, “I’m disgusting, I can’t believe I let this happen”. And then we watch shows where obese people are constantly berated and ridiculed, where their success is measured in weekly double-digit weight loss, how many times they puked during their workout or how bad they hit their head on the treadmill they just fell off of. Everything these days is extreme and no matter what we do, it isn't enough.

This is not a recipe for healthy, long-term, sustainable weight loss. This is a recipe for misery.

So here’s what I propose: Instead of pouring all of your energy into deprivation and loss, what if you focused on positive gains and milestones hit? 

Let's rewrite the script, shall we? Here are 5 tips to get you started: 
1. Give yourself credit! When you catch yourself doing something you couldn’t do last month because you got stronger or more flexible, take a moment to really reflect on that and thank yourself for getting yourself there. Sounds cheesy but taking those few seconds to reflect on how far you’ve come can go a long way.

2. Pick an exercise that you want to conquer: Doing a pushup or a pull-up or feeling better in a certain yoga pose. Do some research or consult a trainer to craft a plan to get yourself there. Instead of focusing on a number on the scale, you’re now constantly improving your performance.

3. Along those same lines, plan to do something you haven’t done before at the gym before you go; make this attainable but challenging. It can be a brand new exercise you’ve been meaning to try or lifting a heavier weight you haven’t lifted before. Then do it. It can be just once. But do it and then soak in the awesomeness.

4. Instead of banishing “bad” foods, incorporate more good foods to your plate. Start by adding one extra serving of vegetables every day for two weeks. (BTW, 1 serving of vegetables = 1/2 cup raw, chopped veggies or 1 cup raw, leafy greens.) Then continue with the veggies and choose another good habit to add for two weeks. Good habits add up.

5. STAND UP FOR YOURSELF! For every mean thing you tell yourself, talk back. Write out a mean phrase you keep telling yourself on one side of an index card and then put the rebuttal on the back. An example: Front  “I can't believe I ate this whole burrito. Oh, well, guess I’m screwed for the rest of the day so I might as well keep going.” Back: “The rest of the day is actually filled with whatever I choose to fill it with and I choose to stand up, dust myself off and continue on with good choices because I know I can and I’ll feel so much better.” Read the card any time those negative thoughts pop up in your head.

Here's the bottom line (hence the bigger font, haha):
No matter what your weight loss goal is, you are always working on getting stronger whether you know it or not. Inside AND out. I tell people one of my training specialties is weight loss but really, I specialize in getting people stronger. And once I get my clients focused on that, too, that's when the magic happens.

F%^K leaving the gym feeling hurt and sad.

LEAVE THE GYM FEELING LIKE YOU COULD TAKE OVER THE WORLD BECAUSE YOU RULE.

Have thoughts or comments? Leave them below! And if I can help you in any way, don't hesitate to email me at izzy@izzyfit.com or call at 312-497-8999.

I was recently asked to speak at a CRAVEChicago event about how to deal with freakouts and I thought, Well, the most stressful time of the year is almost upon us so I should share what I talked about!

There is a lot of stuff out there in the world that makes us freak out. From current events to what’s going on in our own overly-scheduled lives, I’m sure there isn’t a week that goes by when our hearts don’t stop beating with anxiety.

So why do we freak out in the first place? I think it's because we feel that we have no control over the situation at hand.

And why do we have no control over said situation? I think it’s either because we don’t have enough information to see the big picture (“I’m going out of town for the holidays and don’t know how I’m going to keep up with exercise!”) or we really don’t like the information we have and don’t know what to do with it (“There’s a freak storm coming and all flights have been canceled and I’m stuck at the airport with nothing to eat but McDonald’s!”).

3.   Appoint and then call your personal crisis manager. If you don’t have someone in your life that holds that title, appoint one ASAP. My bestie Kate is able to step aside as my friend and calmly ask questions about what’s going on and then she helps me craft a plan with several options that tackle how to take care of the crisis at hand. Sometimes you need fresh ears from someone who is super smart who cares about you/your success and can also support you without judgement.


4.   Complete a single task that helps you gain back control. To be completely transparent, I was FREAKED OUT after spending most of October out of town and then sick. I felt like I’d lost control of IzzyFit and that surely business had gone downhill and there was no way out. After going through steps 1-3 I was finally able to pin-point the task I needed to do: Take a hard look at my numbers. So I pulled up my spreadsheet, worked on numbers from the last month and a half for an hour and finally had some information to analyze. From there I was able to calmly form a plan of action to make sure I got back on track and now I can’t be more excited about things to come!

Freakouts are going to happen. Just know that they can be temporary if you allow yourself to go through the appropriate steps to regain control and rewrite the dialogue. 

What are some ways you calm yourself down? Share your tips in the comments below!

While we’re on the topic: Do you want to know how to survive the holiday season without going insane or gaining weight? I’m hosting a Holiday Survival Workshop in Evanston in November. Check out more information on my Events page here!

When we approach something new, some of us get SUPER excited/eager/impatient about the journey that we want to do EVERYTHING we can RIGHT NOW to get to the good part. Patience is a virtue and some of us (like myself) just don't have it. So, appropriately, I'm going to skip ahead and tell you the moral of the story: 
When we do asmuchaswecanrightnow, we b u r n  o u t. 

This brings me to Meredith's first five weeks of training. As long as I've known Meredith (going on 13 years), she's been someone who gives 1000% to her projects. It's not a stretch, then, to understand that she is 1000% dedicated to getting back into shape now. Which is great. Until it's not. 

I'm speaking for everyone alive here when I say we have days when we can crank up the volume to 11, days we can't get out of bed and many days in between. The trouble, my friends, is when we expect ourselves to perform exactly the same way day in, day out, whether we feel awesome or just plain awful. Some days, Meredith is full of energy, in a great mood and her workouts are supercharged. Other days, after she hasn't gotten quality sleep, is feeling an incredible amount of stress or feels like she's coming down with something, she STILL feels like she should perform the same way as when she feels like the mom from The Incredibles.

READ AND REPEAT: it is OK -- encouraged, even -- for our energy to undulate. That's how we humans are built to work. Because we are not robots.

The greatest gift we can give ourselves when we work out is that of self awareness. If working out full force feels like it's going to knock you out for the rest of the day, scale back the exercise choices and knock the intensity down a notch, otherwise you're compromising your system and probably preventing your body from making the changes you want it to make. While Meredith yells at me in protest when I do this for her, saying I'm letting her "off the hook", I'm really just doing her a huge favor. She's still getting a great workout and her body will be better able to recover. And here's the secret: change happens in recovery from a workout, not during the workout itself.

While Meredith understands that lasting results come at a steady pace and we need to take it step by step and alter the plan from time to time, it doesn't take away the anxiety of: WHAT IF IT DOESN'T WORK? which is a very real, valid and natural concern. And while you're waiting for the physical evidence to prove that the occasional "slower day" is OK, you just have to trust the process.

Life is full of stressors and things you can't control. The only thing you CAN control is knowing you did the best you could that day to get you toward your goal, no excuses. Sometimes the best means taking it a little slower so you don't burn out.

Ok, week 5 measurement results time. I usually take measurements every 6 weeks but since Meredith went to San Antonio for 10 days we took them early. Drum roll please...
As of October 4 (I know, I'm really late with this post), Meredith:
Lost 5.62 lbs of fat (averaging about 1 lb per week) and
Gained 4.02 lbs of lean muscle that will help her burn even more calories!
[Enter thunderous applause here, she kicked butt!]

So keep tuning in for more updates and tips and, as always, email me at izzy@izzyfit.me if there's anything you'd like to see covered as I blog about Meredith's journey!

Right now we’re ramping up Meredith’s muscular and cardiovascular endurance with a mix of bodyweight strength training and cardio work as well as taking small steps to introduce more optimal eating habits and weeding out the bad. More on that later :)

We kicked off our Wondermom Journey on August 29 and it will officially end March 1! I’ll be blogging about Meredith’s progress, the challenges we might face and the tactics we use to get through them that might interest you. If you’ve got specific subjects that you’d like me to address, drop me a line at izzy@izzyfit.me!

It still feels like “back to school season” (especially in Chicago where we’re wondering when the kids will actually go back to school) and I am reminded of my good ol' "what I did this summer" assignments of years' past.

Well, here's a 2012 adult version:

It all started on the Friday afternoon before Memorial Day. My six-year-long romantic relationship ended abruptly. I thought we were going out of town for the weekend but learned that I would soon be moving out instead.

The following weeks were spent on autopilot so that I could continue training my clients while packing up my life in Redmond, WA. I can’t say I was taking particularly good care of myself.  I lost at least 10 pounds (probably all muscle) and my hip, which I’d spent the first half of the year rehabbing, started hurting again.

I moved away from Redmond and spent some long-overdue family time on the East Coast as I carved out my next steps. I also started going to the gym regularly again and in particular, lifting. In the 45 days I spent in PA, I hit and then surpassed every fitness & health goal that I had set for myself at the beginning of 2012. I had intended on accomplishing these goals by my birthday in October. I gained back almost all of the weight that I had lost, but my clothes were still loose (which means I gained some muscle back!!). My hip hasn't hurt since. BOO-YAH.

By the time I moved back to Chicago in late August, I had no trouble hoisting my heavy suitcases around, moving those super heavy IKEA boxes up to my second floor unit, and putting my place together without any trouble or injury.

Training made me strong. And not just in the "look at my guns” way. What training did is make me feel like a whole person again. More than anything, it reminded me why I am a personal trainer. 

I’m not just writing this post to let you know I’ve moved IzzyFit Personal Training to Chicago. I'm writing this post as a re-dedication to all of my clients - past, present and future. I know now more than ever what training can do for your whole self. The IzzyFit philosophy has always been that fitness should be an integrated part of your everyday life. Part of my job as your trainer is to figure out, with you, what that means. 

Still, regardless of what it means, my number one priority is, and always has been, to make you STRONG. We all have one body and it is our vehicle with which we can achieve the kind of life we want. 

You might want to be able to keep up with your 2-year-old without huffing and puffing; or to run a marathon without hurting yourself; or to make guests at your wedding gasp at how amazing you look; or to be able to walk around the streets of Paris without your knees hurting. You can have that.

I'm getting there - and now it is my mission to help you get there too.