May 2006 Newsletter

An Inspirational Quote

"The secret of success is consistency of purpose."
Benjamin Disraeli, British prime minister

Consistency It’s What You Do Every Day That Counts
by Catherine Carrigan

Doing what I do every day gives me the unique opportunity to witness the effect of human behaviors.

What motivates people? What fitness, nutrition and natural healing approaches actually work? And most important, I see consequences.

We live in a fast-fix society. You can drive down any highway and see signs on telephone poles advertising, Lose 20 lbs. in 20 days. The concept I stress with all my clients is quite simple: Be consistent. It’s what you do every day that counts, and every day counts.

Years ago, I had two clients. Each was 62. Geographically, they lived less than half a mile from each other, and each had been more or less happily married for more than 30 years.

The first client, whose name I keep confidential, had been a regular exerciser her whole life. She didn’t necessarily engage in intense or vigorous exercise she was simply consistent. Although she had a few pounds to lose, mostly from a perennial disconnection from her own innate beauty, her body could have been mistaken for a 30-year-old. We worked together to lose about a pound a week. After a year, she had lost about 25 pounds.

The second client had never exercised before she came to be at the age of 60. Back pain prompted her to start exercising, and she was so stiff it took a year or persistent stretching before her spine would move in any fluid fashion. The type II diabetes she developed seemed almost inevitable given her 60-odd years of inactivity and unfortunate eating patterns. However, she learned consistency from me and eventually lost about 25 pounds. It happened so slowly you could have watched ice melt, but the key thing is it did happen. She did not give up.

When I was studying at Brown University, I never pulled an all-nighter. I had a deep understanding that I personally couldn’t handle the stress of overdoing anything, so I had a simple rule I would work just 8 hours a day. For example, if I had 5 hours of classes, I would go to the library and study for 3 hours, or vice versa. While others were cramming, I would be searching around for a few willing to go out dancing with me so I could relax the night before a test. The habit of consistent but not excessive studying paid off when I graduated Phi Beta Kappa, despite having missed part of college when I was hospitalized for mental illness at the age of 20.

This same habit of consistent persistence has paid off handsomely in terms of my own health. I never give up, but if you watched me, you might think nothing was happening. It took me 9 months to withdraw from 18 years of psychiatric medication. It took me 3 years to write a book about how to heal depression without drugs. Every week, I ask myself how I can get a little bit better.

What do YOU need to do a little bit every day in order to get better and better? I recommend my clients focus on consistent improvement in the following areas:

Nutrition: Are you eating whole foods? Do you have a healthy relationship with food? Do you consistently stop eating before you are full? Have you given up all emotional overeating? Do you eat frequently enough? The goal is to become so in tune with yourself that you know intuitively exactly what you need to eat, exactly when to stop eating and to feel deeply nurtured on all levels by what and how you eat.

Rest and relaxation: Do you sleep well every night? Do you make time every day to enjoy your life? Do you have time every day and every week to relax and turn off your stress hormones? Do you get a total of 10 hours sleep, rest and relaxation every day? Most of my clients learn how to become great sleepers and a large majority become regular meditators.

Strength Training: Do you lift weights 2 or 3 times a week, even for 30 minutes? This is the key focus of our exercise programs because your muscles are the engines of your metabolism.

Stretching: Do you release the tension in your muscles as often as you need to? You receive both physical and emotional benefits from practicing yoga or stretching your muscles frequently enough to release the tension you hold down deep. The goal is to feel completely comfortable in your own body.

Aerobic Exercise: This is an area you can definitely overdo. Olympic strength coach Charles Poliquin, whose interviews you can listen to on our radio show, says you can enjoy aerobic exercise up to three times a week for 20 minutes without compromising strength gains from your weight training program. However, I like my clients to walk frequently enough in the sunshine to stimulate the pineal gland so they sleep well enough, and so many people benefit from rebounding on a mini trampoline, because it helps stimulate the immune system, increase circulation, benefits the lymph system and assists detoxification. Of course, our yoga and Qi Gong classes are true aerobic classes meaning exercise that increases oxygen as opposed to something like running, which is really anaerobic for many people. Do you have enough movement to benefit your health?

Here’s the kicker many people excel in one area, say they eat all organic food, but don’t exercise. Or vice versa. For best results, I like my clients to be well-rounded and consistent in all five areas. I have seen even the sickest, most overweight and discouraged clients totally turn their lives around by being consistent in all five areas not just one.

If you consistently overeat on the weekends, binge before your menstruation or fall in and out of your exercise program, you will end up looking and feeling a certain way. If, however, you are consistent in all five areas, your health will continue to improve, your energy will soar, you will feel good about being in your physical body and the beauty that results on the outside will be a natural, easy consequence. Be consistent: it’s what you do every day that counts.

Client Testimonial: Chris Strange

Before going to Total Fitness and meeting with Catherine, I felt anxious, nervous, everyone got on my nerves, I was tired and extremely depressed.

Before working with Catherine, I thought working out for two hours everyday, skipping meals and drinking lots of coffee could keep me thin and keep me from being depressed.

What I did not realize was the way I "yo-yo dieted" and over exercised used to work when I was in my 20's, but was depleting my body and damaging my mood in my 40's. When you turn 35 (as Catherine explained) your body needs nurturing and kindness, the way I exercised and the way I ate needed to be smarter and kinder to myself.

We worked hard together and I worked hard to feel better. I finally was able to allow myself to rest and say "no" more. Trying to be "Super Woman, Super Mom (we have a 5 year old) and Super Wife" was trashing me and would not work anymore.

Now, I eat 5 small meals a day, never feel deprived, exercise less and have lost nearly 12 pounds in 6 weeks of working with Catherine. I am much happier, I look and feel healthier, and more importantly, with Catherine's total approach to health, she is working with me on what my passion in life is, what type of work I should be doing.

Total Fitness is the total plan to helping you feel better, starting on your inside and then working on the outside. If you have struggled with depression, anxiety, weight fluctuations or just not "knowing what to do with your life," Total Fitness is for you. It's not easy, it does not happen over night and Catherine has a tough love approach which works. Total Fitness has made a total difference in my life!

Delicious Food For You!

Nina Lynn’s Bodybuilder's Meat Loaf

Ingredients:

• 1 lb. organic grass fed ground beef
• 4 organic baking potatoes
• 1 organic egg
• 1 organic green bell pepper and 1 red, thinly sliced
• 1 organic onion, thinly sliced
• 1/4 c. minced organic parsley
• 2 cloves organic garlic, minced
• 1/2 c. fine dry organic bread crumbs, (millet or rice)
• 1 tbs. Worcestershire sauce
• 2 tbs. organic coconut oil
• 18 oz. can organic tomato sauce

Directions:

Preheat oven to 400 degrees, use coconut oil to grease a 15X10 in. roasting pan. Place the potatoes, peppers and onion in the pan and toss with the 2 tbs. of coconut oil. Bake for 20 min. Meanwhile, combine the egg, ground beef, parsley, Worcestershire sauce, garlic and bread crumbs. Mix thoroughly and shape it into a loaf about 8X4X4 in. Once the vegies have cooked for 20 min., reduce the heat to 350 degrees, and add the meat loaf to the center of the pan, pushing the vegies to the sides. Pour the tomato sauce over the meat and vegies and bake uncovered for 30 more min., or until done.

Grass fed organic beef is a good source of protein with a healthier ratio (3:1) of omega 6 to 3 Fatty acids than conventionally raised beef. It is also free of hormones and antibiotics and lower in fat. Bell peppers contain beta carotine, and lycopene, both powerful antioxidants that help reduce the risk of cancer. The onion and garlic help to lower high BP and cholesterol, with garlic adding antibiotic and antifungal benefits. Parsley increases the antioxidant capacity of blood and helps dissolve sticky deposits in veins while maintaining the elasticity of blood vessels.

Total Fitness Radio

Have you been listening to our great guests on Total Fitness radio show? All you have to do is tune in to www.voiceame rica.com LIVE every Friday at 10 a.m. EST/7 a.m. PST OR you can listen to the archives for FREE 24/7 at www.totalfitness. net. Here’s our calendar for June:

June 2: Catherine Carrigan, president, Total Fitness, Flower Essences for Weight Loss
June 9: Rob Mottram, president, The Golf Health and Performance Center, Palm Desert, California, "How To Train For Golf"
June 16: Danny Dreyer, author, Chi Walking, "Chi Walking"
June 23: Eric Braverman, author The Edge Effect, "Your Optimum Brain Type"
June 30: Ralph Sanchez, acupuncturist and naturopath, "Brain Fitness"

Total Fitness Classes in Atlanta

Yoga Classes: Every Tuesday and Thursday, 7:30 p.m. Holy Spirit Catholic Church, 4465 Northside Drive, Atlanta, GA. $15 per class or $65 per calendar month.

Qi Gong Class: Every Wednesday, 5:30 p.m. 1951 Northside Drive, Atlanta, GA. $15 per class.

Booking appointments with Total Fitness

To schedule an appointment to find out about a personalized fitness, nutrition or healing program that will help you get results, please contact us:

In Atlanta

Catherine Carrigan catherine@totalfitness.net

James Williams james@totalfitness.net

In California

Nina Lynn nina@totalfitness.net

You can also visit us on the web at www.totalfitness.net