Angie's Corner

Hiking to Improve Your Health- Inside and Out

by Angie Miller

Sometimes, at the just the right time, a vacation comes along and gives you much needed perspective. For me, it was the day after our moving truck pulled away. After living in our Chicago home for nine and a half years and heading into a future full of change, I knew that a break from reality was just what I needed. When it comes to vacation destinations, the mountains, with their unwavering strength and dignity, have a way of making us feel stronger, more powerful, and more at peace with our situation, and the mountains are where I headed.

Hiking through the mountains is always full of adventure. One minute you’re trekking through snow wearing a tank top, trying to maneuver your balance and still keep your eye on the blue diamonds guiding your path. You’re also looking out for the animals that you can’t see, but the oversized, fresh tracks next to your own footprints indicate they’ve been there. The next minute you’re climbing a steep, rocky hill through dense forest, crossing bridges with beautiful streams, and coming out into a clearing with the most breathtaking lake.

Full of sunshine, still waters, amazing scenery, and even a moose- one ran right across our path- hiking through the mountains is a great way to gather your thoughts and gain stamina and strength physically and mentally. I chose Colorado, but you can hike through your local park or at a National Forrest. According to Wikipedia, the United States has 154 National Forests that lie coast to coast and cover 188,336,179 acres. We chose two trails in Roosevelt National Forest, but I’m certain that no matter where you live, available trails are within a day’s drive. Once you lace up your hiking shoes and head out to witness all the natural wonders, you’ll recognize the peace that comes from reflecting on all that is right with the world.

If you’re still not convinced, here are five reasons hiking is good for your health:

Five Reasons Hiking is Good for Your Health

1. Hiking improves your cardiorespiratory and muscular fitness.
2. According to WebMD hiking lowers your risk of heart disease, improves your blood pressure, and helps build bone density.
3. Hiking helps shape your glutes and the muscles in your legs, while also strengthening your core.
4. Hiking helps improve your balance and stamina, and manage your weight.
5. Best of all, hiking can reduce your stress and anxiety and boost your mood.

Summer is the best time to enjoy what nature has to offer, so head to the trails and soon you’ll be on a path to clearer thoughts, a healthier mind and body, and a fresh outlook.

Happy Hiking!

Muscles and mountains just go together.

 

 

 

 

 

  

 

  

- Angie

Angie Miller, M.S., is a fitness educator, university instructor, and Licensed Professional Counselor who blends her skills and expertise to empower individuals, mentally and physically, and provide them the tools they need to succeed. A veteran group exercise instructor and personal trainer, Angie is the star of acclaimed exercise DVD’s, including the Bedroom Body™ workout. Her passion for progressive education brought her to Northern Illinois University, where she teaches in the Dept. of Kinesiology & Physical Education. Outside of the university, she presents at fitness conventions worldwide and leads industry trainings as an AFAA Certification Specialist and Kettlebell Concepts Master Instructor. Angie writes for fitness journals and digital communities, and blogs for Collage Video. Connect with Angie at: http://www.angiemillerfitness.com

Six Ways to Sit Less and Move More

by Angie Miller

Exercise is like a bad word. Everyone has a different reaction when you say it, but they all have some sort of emotional response. Some are immediately filled with dread, some have a list of excuses that go from plain ridiculous to pretty clever, and some (like me) actually love it and can’t imagine their life without it.

The thing about exercise is that it’s really just a naughty name for movement. Naughty because we demonize it in our society by making it all about looks, aka six pack abs, and intense programming that is well beyond what most of us need to get healthy. Movement on the other hand is exercise, but it doesn’t come with the same negative connotation. Movement is a lifestyle. We move to get from point A to point B, and we move because we want or need something. When it comes to movement there are endless options, but all of them are sure to accomplish one thing- the more we move the less we sit, and that’s where the magic lies. Sitting less won’t replace vigorous exercise in terms of calorie burn and heart pumping activity, but it will help us to focus on being less sedentary and more mindful of keeping our body and brain active.

Six Ways to Sit Less and Move More- at Home and Work:

1. Standing Desk- You don’t need to invest in an expensive desk that promotes all the benefits of standing vs. sitting while you work, because the truth is that standing for too long comes with its own set of risks. Instead, set a timer or use your fitness tracker to remind you, and every hour make it a point to stand up while you work. Stand for five or ten minutes, or as long as you’re comfortable. You’ll wake up your brain and body and you’ll feel better being in full extension vs. slouched in a chair.
2. Make an Excuse- If you’re in an office, rather than email your co-worker who is in the same building why not walk to where they are and deliver the message in person? If you work from home you can make your next phone call while you move around your house, straighten your cupboards, or even stand up and fold a load of laundry. If you’re vegging in front of the TV, get up every thirty minutes or so and grab a glass of water or stretch your body so your mind doesn’t turn to mush. They key is that you avoid sitting or lying down for extended periods of time by making an excuse to get up and move.
3. Stability Ball- If you’re going to sit while you’re at work, while you watch TV, or while you’re in front of your computer, who says you have to sit in a chair? Wouldn’t it more beneficial to sit on a stability ball where you engage your core and actually improve your balance and posture while you work? You can also swap out your dining room chair for a stability ball. Think better breathing and better body awareness.
4. Walk While You Work- Maybe you have a meeting with a co-worker or a brain storming session with your client. Whatever the reasons, a walk might be just what you need to connect with people in your business on a different level. Walking gives everyone a breath of fresh air and it gets positive energy flowing. If you work at home, take a ten a minute walk once or twice a day to clear your mind and help you connect with the world outside of work.
5. Take the Stairs- If you work in office building take the stairs. If you’re going to the store, to the doctor, or wherever you’re going, take the stairs. Stairs step up your heart rate, give you a little energy boost, and help you avoid the claustrophobic feeling of elevators. Not to mention, you don’t have to stop on every floor or stand elbow to elbow with perfect strangers.
6. Meet for a Movement Date- The next time you meet a friend for coffee, how about if you grab it in a to go cup and window shop while you walk? Or maybe you grab lunch at a quick café and rather than linger at the table, you head out the door and finish catching up as you stroll through the streets. A movement date can be a tennis game, a golf game, or sharing a fitness class together. Traditional lunch and coffee dates are fun, but movement dates are much more memorable. They connect you and your friend on a different level and allow you share experiences that engage your mind and body.

Make it a goal this week to sit less and move more for better health.

- Angie

Angie Miller, M.S., is a fitness educator, university instructor, and Licensed Professional Counselor who blends her skills and expertise to empower individuals, mentally and physically, and provide them the tools they need to succeed. A veteran group exercise instructor and personal trainer, Angie is the star of acclaimed exercise DVD’s, including the Bedroom Body™ workout. Her passion for progressive education brought her to Northern Illinois University, where she teaches in the Dept. of Kinesiology & Physical Education. Outside of the university, she presents at fitness conventions worldwide and leads industry trainings as an AFAA Certification Specialist and Kettlebell Concepts Master Instructor. Angie writes for fitness journals and digital communities, and blogs for Collage Video. Connect with Angie at: http://www.angiemillerfitness.com

Fit Tips For Your Week

by Angie Miller

Monday Motivation:

Rise and Shine: Did you know that the most successful people are often early risers? It's the difference between staying up late and struggling to “finish” something, vs. getting up early to “start” something fresh. I'm by nature a late-night person who has had to work hard to turn this around, often reminding myself that there's nothing so important that it won't wait until morning when my body and brain have had rest. I'd rather be an early morning person who wakes up and says, “Let’s do this!” than a late-night person who says, “I can’t do this.” Discipline, leadership, and success require a good night's sleep and a fresh mind. Tonight, sleep well and start your week off right! #MondayMotivation

Tuesday Transformation:

The Best of all Three- (These are the top three questions I get asked, and my top three answers):

1. What's the best time of day to work out? The time that's best for you.
   2. What's the best type of workout? The workout that you enjoy, that will motivate you to do again and again and again.
   3. What workout the burns the most calories? The workout that you do consistently- (as opposed to the one you do once and hate every minute of because it’s not any fun.)

Truth- it doesn’t benefit us to focus on these things. There is no best workout, best time, or best calorie burn. Anything you do will burn more calories than if you don't exercise at all. #TuesdayTransformation

Wednesday Workout:

Is Exercise Dangerous? One of my favorite sayings is, "Exercise isn't dangerous, people are." It's not the kettlebell, step, dumbbell, barbell, or any other piece of equipment that are dangerous. It’s people, and potentially poor application of a piece of equipment that when used improperly can cause injury. The key here is, "when used improperly." When bad posture and muscle imbalances meet a piece of equipment, dangerous things can (and often do) happen. Bottom line, alignment and execution are pivotal in order to get the best results and to remain injury free. Start by building a strong foundation with no equipment at all. Just your body against gravity. Focus on alignment, weight distribution, and core strength among other things, then add resistance. I love kettlebells, they have transformed my body; but before you use any piece equipment make sure your posture and alignment is top notch and seek proper instruction. #WednesdayWorkout

Thursday Thought:

Thought for the day: I've shared this one before, and it still rings true. Exercise for self-care, self-preservation, and self-control. You know when you're flying on an airplane and they're going through emergency landing procedures- they tell you to put on your mask first before your child's, right? Because they know that you can't save your child (or anyone else) if you don't save yourself first. That's how I look at exercise. How can we care for others if we aren't caring for ourselves? Put on your mask first- exercise, eat well, sleep, and take time out once in a while for self-care and self-preservation. Only when we’re feeling out best can we give our best to others. #ThursdayThought

Friday Fit Tip:

Mindset Matters: Do you work out because you feel guilty if you don't, or because you feel great if you do? If you want to make exercise more enjoyable take out the “shoulds” and bring on the coulds. There’s a big difference in how we feel about exercise when we say, “I should work out today because __________________ “ (you fill in the blank), vs. “If I could ____________________(run one mile today, finish the entire workout DVD I just purchased, lift weights for twenty minutes, etc.) imagine how good I could feel. Shoulds make us feel obligated and resentful about exercise. Coulds open our mind to possibility. Replace shoulds with coulds to take away the guilt and change the way you feel about exercise! #FridayFitTip

- Angie

Angie Miller, M.S., is a fitness educator, university instructor, and Licensed Professional Counselor who blends her skills and expertise to empower individuals, mentally and physically, and provide them the tools they need to succeed. A veteran group exercise instructor and personal trainer, Angie is the star of acclaimed exercise DVD’s, including the Bedroom Body™ workout. Her passion for progressive education brought her to Northern Illinois University, where she teaches in the Dept. of Kinesiology & Physical Education. Outside of the university, she presents at fitness conventions worldwide and leads industry trainings as an AFAA Certification Specialist and Kettlebell Concepts Master Instructor. Angie writes for fitness journals and digital communities, and blogs for Collage Video. Connect with Angie at: http://www.angiemillerfitness.com

Mental Motivators to Maximize Your Workouts (2)

by Angie Miller

Last week I wrote a blog titled, Four Mental Motivators to Maximize Your Workout. This week I want to continue in that spirit, and give you two more mental motivators to maximize your workouts.

5. Reframe Your Resistance- Negative self-talk is a form of resistance that interferes with motivation. Negative self-talk might prevent you from starting your workout, or it may prevent you from enjoying it once you begin. The only way to defeat negative self-talk is to reframe- to redirect your thoughts and turn negative statements into positive ones. Here’s a simple exercise to practice reframing:

On a piece of paper make two columns. In the left-hand column write down negative self-talk that affects you personally- things you say to yourself that bring you down. In the right hand column write a more positive, encouraging way to look at the situation. Pretend it’s your friend who said the statement on the left. How would you respond to make your friend feel better?

Here are a few examples:

 6. Park Your Thoughts- Sometimes stress and worry can suck the motivation right out of us, and it’s those times that “parking” our thoughts can be a powerful tool. When we “park” our thoughts we give our mind a respite from our worries, if only temporarily. Parking our thoughts is a way to put them aside, or compartmentalize if you will, so that we can focus on what we need to do- which in this case is to enjoy our workout. Sometimes we need to park our thoughts at the door, right before we walk into the gym, or we need to park them at work, before we leave the office. The bottom line is that exercise will clear our mind and better prepare us to face our stress with more clarity and a healthier perspective, and that’s the power of parking. I’ve parked many negative thoughts on my way into the gym, and when I leave and come back they don’t seem nearly as overwhelming.

Stay Inspired~ Angie

Angie Miller, M.S., is a fitness educator, university instructor, and Licensed Professional Counselor who blends her skills and expertise to empower individuals, mentally and physically, and provide them the tools they need to succeed. A veteran group exercise instructor and personal trainer, Angie is the star of acclaimed exercise DVD’s, including the Bedroom Body™ workout. Her passion for progressive education brought her to Northern Illinois University, where she teaches in the Dept. of Kinesiology & Physical Education. Outside of the university, she presents at fitness conventions worldwide and leads industry trainings as an AFAA Certification Specialist and Kettlebell Concepts Master Instructor. Angie writes for fitness journals and digital communities, and blogs for Collage Video. Connect with Angie at: http://www.angiemillerfitness.com

Keeping Your New Year's Goals

by Angie Miller

4 Steps To Keeping Your New Year's Fitness Goals on Track

Who is your support group?

Don’t wait until clients get off track…Educate them now on how to avoid exercise relapse.

As a new year begins, our group fitness classes are packed and our personal training schedules are filled. We have more clients than we have time, and they are motivated for change and eager to train. While setting goals with these motivated people holds tremendous potential, equally important is educating them on exercise relapse and how to identify and overcome barriers such as injury, temptation and negativity to minimize their impact.

As part of goal setting, I always discuss exercise relapse with clients, many of whom can relate to the struggle. They’ve started a routine in the past and were determined that exercise was going to be a lifelong friend, only to fall off the wagon 6 months or a year later. Learning how to avoid relapse is similar to learning to turn in to a skid in driver’s education. If we understand the resistance, we can work with it rather than against it. It is vitally important to engage in this discussion when a client is beginning an exercise program, rather than waiting for something to cause them to veer from their goals.

1. IDENTIFY HIGH-RISK SITUATIONS

Temptations act as resistance to exercise. If clients can identify situations that put them at risk, we can help them develop contingency plans for action.

Reflect. Encourage clients to think about past situations where they fell off the wagon and stopped exercising. What was going on in their life? What happened? What circumstances led to their relapse?

Write down their barriers. Have clients write down the situations or obstacles that got in their way. Common barriers include:

• vacation
• holidays
• work travel

Develop a plan. Once clients identify the situations or obstacles that got in their way, you can help them develop a plan for how they’ll deal with them in the future. Make sure that their plan involves action–a way that they will change the situation, their thoughts and behaviors in response to the situation, or all of these. 

- Angie

Angie Miller, M.S., is a fitness educator, university instructor, and Licensed Professional Counselor who blends her skills and expertise to empower individuals, mentally and physically, and provide them the tools they need to succeed. A veteran group exercise instructor and personal trainer, Angie is the star of acclaimed exercise DVD’s, including the Bedroom Body™ workout. Her passion for progressive education brought her to Northern Illinois University, where she teaches in the Dept. of Kinesiology & Physical Education. Outside of the university, she presents at fitness conventions worldwide and leads industry trainings as an AFAA Certification Specialist and Kettlebell Concepts Master Instructor. Angie writes for fitness journals and digital communities, and blogs for Collage Video. Connect with Angie at: http://www.angiemillerfitness.com

Learning to Love Yourself~ An Ode to Valentine's Day

by Angie Miller

- Angie

Angie Miller, M.S., is a fitness educator, university instructor, and Licensed Professional Counselor who blends her skills and expertise to empower individuals, mentally and physically, and provide them the tools they need to succeed. A veteran group exercise instructor and personal trainer, Angie is the star of acclaimed exercise DVD’s, including the Bedroom Body™ workout. Her passion for progressive education brought her to Northern Illinois University, where she teaches in the Dept. of Kinesiology & Physical Education. Outside of the university, she presents at fitness conventions worldwide and leads industry trainings as an AFAA Certification Specialist and Kettlebell Concepts Master Instructor. Angie writes for fitness journals and digital communities, and blogs for Collage Video. Connect with Angie at: http://www.angiemillerfitness.com