{"id":28694,"date":"2017-04-19T23:17:12","date_gmt":"2017-04-20T03:17:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/everydayballet.wpengine.com\/?p=28694"},"modified":"2019-01-21T10:28:25","modified_gmt":"2019-01-21T15:28:25","slug":"a-simple-recipe-for-fit-living","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.everydayballet.com\/a-simple-recipe-for-fit-living\/","title":{"rendered":"A Simple Recipe for Fit Living"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Cultivating a fit and healthy lifestyle can be pared down to this simple recipe:<\/span><\/p>\n<h4><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">DEVELOP GOOD HABITS <\/span><\/h4>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Each morning at the ballet studio I\u2019d do a little stretching, core work, and light foot strengtheners to prepare for class and a long day of rehearsals and performance. Not only was it an appropriately gentle setup for all the physical activity to come, but it also went a long way towards getting me mentally poised for a day full of sweaty unpredictability. <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The payoff of doing small things that are good for us is twofold. First, addressing our physical health&#8211;with a glass of water, a walk around the block, an extra hour of sleep, stretching, mild exercise, or meditation&#8211;makes us incrementally more prepared, relaxed, alert, etc. At the same time, small acts of self-care accumulate into the habit of \u201cdoing well\u201d for you! Over time, showing yourself a little TLC at regular intervals activates a self-reinforcing feedback loop in which feeling good incentivizes more good choices. <\/span><\/p>\n<h4><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">LISTEN TO YOUR BODY<\/span><\/h4>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Do you ever \u201cpush through\u201d for your kids, your boss, the PTA, or someone else only to find yourself run down, overwhelmed, and irritable? Me, too!!! Whenever I find myself feeling \u201cless than\u201d I stop to ask myself these simple questions:<\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Did I get enough sleep?<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">When was the last time I had water?<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">When did I last eat and what did I eat?<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">How long have I been sitting?<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">How long have I been staring at a screen?<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Agnes de Mille said, \u201cBodies never lie.\u201d It\u2019s truly amazing how checking in with the senses to assess fatigue, thirst, hunger, mobility, and and eye strain can uncover meaningful clues to your well-being. Knowing how your body feels also gives you rather accurate information about how to get back to a better state. These are some refresher remedies I go to again and again:<\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">20-minute cat nap<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">10 deep breaths<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">A glass of water \u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">An apple, some cheese and crackers, or a protein bar<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">A \u201cbody break\u201d to get up and stretch before sitting back down in front of the computer<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Closing my eyes and listening to a song<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h4><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">LET JOY BE A PART OF YOUR ROUTINE! <\/span><\/h4>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Doing things that naturally interest and inspire us makes it easier to come back for more! Time and again, I\u2019ve seen people equate their fitness and diet routines to torture. If you want to stick with a healthy lifestyle, it\u2019s worth assessing your true likes and dislikes. You&#8217;ll want to bring the pleasure principle into the equation as much as possible! <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Make diet and exercise choices you can stick with, especially in the beginning. Start with smaller changes&#8211;You can always add to your program as you go. It may also help to pair something you love (e.g., listening to music) with something you find less engaging or extra challenging. Rewarding yourself with small positives along the way can help you better acknowledge your progress and build momentum. <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Be especially careful not to get stuck being hard on yourself if you don\u2019t always stick to the plan. Guilt and self-flagellations take a heavy emotional toll that leaves less energy for what really matters. Holding onto feelings of disappointment or failure can cause discouragement that begets more guilt, disappointment, etc. \u00a0Break negative loops as early as possible! Take time to acknowledge your upset feelings and then try your best to set them down. Remember, you can ALWAYS begin again! Dropping emotional dead weight and realizing there&#8217;s another opportunity already available helps integrate those \u201cbad days\u201d as expected parts of the much bigger picture of your health and well-being. <\/span><\/p>\n<p><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">HAPPY DANCING!<\/span><\/i><br \/>\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">&#8211;Tiekka<\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Subscribe to the Everyday Ballet newsletter and get weekly free EDB workouts, tips, nutritional advice and style-counsel from Everyday Ballet.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Cultivating a fit and healthy lifestyle can be pared down to this simple recipe: DEVELOP GOOD HABITS Each morning at the ballet studio I\u2019d do a little stretching, core work, &hellip; <\/p>\n<p class=\"link-more\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.everydayballet.com\/a-simple-recipe-for-fit-living\/\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading<span class=\"screen-reader-text\"> &#8220;A Simple Recipe for Fit Living&#8221;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":28731,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[87,56,93,20],"class_list":["post-28694","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-journal","tag-ballet-benefits","tag-ballet-body","tag-fitness","tag-posture"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.everydayballet.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28694","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.everydayballet.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.everydayballet.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.everydayballet.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.everydayballet.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=28694"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.everydayballet.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28694\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.everydayballet.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/28731"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.everydayballet.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=28694"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.everydayballet.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=28694"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.everydayballet.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=28694"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}