3 Ways To Stay Healthy And Fit For Life

Easy for me to say right? Having 20 years of sports behind me it’s in my blood, I don’t even need to try.

I’m sorry, I have to tell you that you are WRONG. Any habit can be undone if not practiced, practiced and practiced some more.

And it’s so easy to stop when the tough gets tough. But today I am not going to preach about this, I am going to give you food for thought, as always but today a bit more.

Staying healthy and fit for life is not difficult. We make our own lives difficult by trying to do what others do and what others say, and we never go with our instincts.

Here’s what I mean. Some people really, really love the gym, and they like to be really toned and some like to bulk up and that’s ok. That’s what they like and motivates them and that’s good.

However many of us don’t want HD muscles, we just want to stay healthy and be happier as a result.

But here’s the thing, we struggle to get to where we want, healthy, fit and happy, because of a few simple reasons, you already know and I will remind you:

1. We make health a goal.

I said it before and I’ll say it again, health is not and should not be a goal. Health is there all the time, it’s like the nose on your face. We should never make a purpose of it.

I don’t really know how to emphasize this more. It’s like oxygen, it should always be there, it should be natural and we should not think about it.

Health comes as a result of your habits. Your life is a bundle of habits. Focus on them instead.

2. We struggle too much to follow thousands of rules.

Many of the rules, which I call health fashion, come and go (i.e. fats are bad for you!). We listen and put into application everything out there, just in case they are all right and you are wrong.

And this makes us miserable because we are virtually not allowed to eat, do or have anything according to the rules. You already know what is good and less good through common sense. You already know!

May I give you an example from my life? I hope so… 😀

I travelled to a few countries, working and studying, so I’ve been on my own for a long time. But no matter where I go and what I do, how the new world I find myself in tries to change me I always, always go back to the habits I developed back home, with and by my mother.

You know why? Because my body is programmed to eat certain foods and not eat others. And I am programmed to exercise on a regular basis otherwise I start gaining weight and feel miserable.

I first noticed when I left home and went to US in 2007. I began putting weight on and I realised that my eating habits had changed because I allowed the environment to dictate what I should do.

So I went back to what I used to eat home and I came back to normal. That’s the story in a nutshell.

That’s what I believed to be good for me and I stopped listening to everyone around saying this is good and that is bad. I just went with my common sense. And it worked of course.

So this is my advice, stop listening to everyone (yes! that includes myself) and follow your intuition, the habits you grew up with (because I am sure most of them were healthy) and move as if you were a child again (that means leaving the car home more often).

The exception to this rule is if you train for a specific purpose, marathons, competitions etc. That’s a different story. But if it’s health you are looking for then common sense is a good way to go.

3. We force ourselves to do things that everyone else does even if we hate it

And here I have “going to the gym” in mind.

As I said before, some people love it and it works for them, but it will not work for everyone. It never worked for me.

In the past I’d go to the gym 3-4 months and then get bored. Even if changing routines I’d see the same place, the same scenery, roughly the same people, never changing, always monotony, never having a purpose. It made me unhappy to be there.

Try instead looking for a sport you like. There are hundreds of sports you can take on. Learning a new skills is personal development and we, humans, are made to learn and evolve, not stagnate. That’s what makes us happy.

Examples: rock climbing, cycling outdoors (actually going somewhere!), running (learning from a coach), target shooting, archery, swimming, squash, badminton, tennis, Martial Arts.

I suggest you have a coach, you learn more, you are accountable and a coach never lets you get bored.

Finally spend more time outdoors. If you can take your training outdoors it’s even better. You’d never get bored of it, because every time yougo out there everything is different, from day to day, even within the day.

You have so much to see and do, to listen, to feel, to smell (good stuff that is). And be creative, your life is more colourful when you allow your creativity to flow.

Do those things that make you feel ALIVE

This is how you stay HEALTHY AND FIT FOR LIFE. Bring creativity, diversity, intuition and happiness in your life and everything else will take care of itself.

Furthermore look to be coached by someone who will teach you how to do things by yourself, who will educate you rather than just train you. This way you will know what to do when you finish your program.If it works for me there is no reason why it would not work for you as well.

As you already know this is what I do, I train you outdoors, I help you get fit and healthy and I spark your creativity on one of my 12 weeks programs, 1-2-1 or groups, and then you take it from there because you LEARN HOW.

Book a free call with me to see how we can get you out of boredom and monotony and release your creativity to get you healthy, fit and happy.

February 17, 2015February 17, 2015

Purpose vs Goals

You know I always mention about “the purpose behind your training” and I always say the purpose is not the same thing as a goal.

I never trained myself without a purpose. I always had something behind, a purpose for training, a purpose for competing. Training or working out for the sake of it was never an option for me.

This is what I believe or how I feel the difference between the purpose and the goal.

Defining the Purpose and Goal

First let’s define the two terms.

A goal is the object of a person’s ambition or effort; an aim or desired result.

A purpose is the reason for which something is done or created or for which something exists. A person’s sense of determination.

So from the definition we can tell that purpose is the big picture.

When we look at weight loss, exercising for health or toning, goals are very important, but if there’s not purpose behind your weight loss or toning you will get bored and stop, or simply give up when the tough get tough.

Then of course you want to reach your goals so you start again. And because there is no purpose you stop and so on so forth..

You need to find the purpose behind your training, so you give meaning to your training.

So here are some differences between Purpose and Goal and I see things. I suggest you actually take your goal now and try to find the purpose behind it.

1. A goal has a deadline, in many cases a purpose doesn’t

2. The purpose is the reason you want to reach your goal

3. Purpose gives meaning to your actions, and even your life

4. Goals have a specific aim, the purpose doesn’t

5. You can have many milestones and goals to get close to your purpose

6. Your purpose will influence your goals

7. Your purpose is your mission. Purpose is personal and it’s who you are.

8. Goals are, or should be, aligned with your purpose

For example…

I’ll try to give an example from my life right now. In obstacle racing my purpose is to become an elite racer.

My purpose has no deadline and it’s not really measurable.

The immediate goal, which has a deadline and it is measurable, is to finish at least one race in top 10 by the end of the year.

My purpose will gives meaning to my actions: training, nutrition, mindset, lifestyle of an elite racer.

Becoming an elite racer is the reason I was to achieve my goal.

And my purpose influences my goals. If my purpose was different than the goal would have changed. Does that make any sense at all?

How do you find the purpose

I am sure there are loads of ways to do this. But as I like to keep things simple, as much as I can, I always ask “WHY” many, many times.

I learnt this from my coaches. I just liked the simplicity and put it into practice and it works.

Plus I can see the results when my coach Amanda asks “why” 100 times to get to the roots of what I am doing, so I can see it works even on myself.

Need to find the REAL purpose behind your training so you can reach your goals with less pain and resistance? Then book a free call with me.

February 14, 2015February 17, 2015

Struggling to stay motivated? This is why…

When I ask my clients what is their greatest health and wellness struggle in that point in time I often get this answer: finding it difficult to stay motivated to exercise.

And the usual reasons are:

1. They don’t really know what to do

2. They know but they find nothing interesting in what they do

3. It’s boring to go to the same place, do the same thing (even if they change exercises), see roughly the same people and have the same view all the time.

There are many other reasons but there are probably the most common I get.

However there is more than that. These reasons that lead to lacking motivation are just the surface. Underneath there may be many other reasons, such as:

1. There is no purpose behind your training or exercising.

If the reason you do what you do is not strong enough, when you hit the wall you will most probably give up. There is nothing to keep you going. Read my blog on Purpose vs Goals to get an idea of what you should look for.

2. You do not grow.

As human beings we are always on a path of learning. Once we stop doing that we lose interest. Progressing from 10 press ups to 20 is not learning. Learning is developing the technique or learning different techniques. Here you also need creativity and colour in your workouts.

If you have a great purpose (goals are not purposes! – will write about this) and you learn and develop then the motivation will be there for longer and will be stronger.

3. There is NO accountability.

You can be accountable to yourself up to a point. When the tough gets tough and life gets in the way many people slide back and then have to start all over again. And that is a motivation killer itself. Are you one of them?

Why do you think top athletes still have coaches? Do you think they cannot train themselves at their level? One of the reasons they do, and one of the reasons I have 3 coaches training me right now in Karate, Obstacle Racing and running and business, is accountability.

There are moments in your life when you want to stop, when things are so difficult in your life that you cannot go any further.

That’s when your Coach comes into the picture. She will always be there for you. Of course you will always be responsible for your own actions and thus the results but a Coach is critical for you to keep on the path and move towards your purpose.

So are you lacking motivation to exercise and stay healthy?

I am an athlete and I know exactly what that means and how it feels. I’ve had loads of ups and down in 20 years of competitive sports. I have also had many, many coaches who supported me along the way.

I know how to coach you so you stay motivated and you will also learn how to stay motivated even after we finish our program.

With me you have a purpose, you grow and learn and you are accountable. Of course you will also reach your goals and milestones.

Book a free call with me so we can talk in more detail about your purpose and goals.

January 29, 2015January 29, 2015

Why your workouts are boring and 4 ways to make them exciting

I used to be a Personal Trainer in a gym. I loved it and I learnt a lot. However I could not help but noticing how many people would come to the gym and seem bored by what they were doing.

I used to talk to many of them, and although they had a good training program in place, one that got them results, and change it every 6-8 weeks to keep getting results, they were bored….bored of everything.

To be honest until I went to USA for my studies I never stepped into a gym. Really, why would I? I was practicing sports, Karate and others, 6 days a week, sometimes twice a day. And I had a purpose, I had variety, I had excitement. I never thought about health or weight loss, those came with the purpose and excitement.

I went to the gym in the USA and after a few years here in UK. Everything the beginning was exciting, new stuff, new things. But after a while no matter how I changed my routine it was still boring.

And I dare to believe that there are many of you who feel the same. So I wanted to give you the salt and pepper of efficient, always interesting and never boring training routine.

1. Purpose

I will begin by saying that health and weight loss are not part of your purpose. Sorry girls, but it’s not.

Health should be there all the time, we should not make of it a goal. Health is the foundation of success in business, life, career and whatever you want to excel at. Health is not a milestone.

Weight loss is something many of us want but we never consider that this is not one of those things you will have forever, it’s not there to stay for the rest of your life. You lose weight then at some point in your life you gain, then lose again, then gain.

I tell you this because I had many ups and down with my weight. But because I always had a purpose behind my training I never stressed to much about it.

Weight loss comes as a result of health. And health should always be there, you should not even have to think about it, it should be automatically part of your life. If should be your life for that matter.

So what’s the REAL purpose?

When I coach my students I give them a purpose. It can be a challenge to learn and master a technique, or a run, or any other event, or something they’ve always dreamt about doing or achieving but never could.

Training outdoors is a challenge for most so that itself can be a purpose for a while.

Personally, the purpose behind my training is to get really, really good at what I do. And the milestones are races and competitions.

For a while my purpose was to condition myself enough to train outdoors in the winter in shorts. Achieved this winter!!

But do you know why those are purposes and weight loss is not? One of the reasons is that when you master a technique, you cross a finish line or you get that medal no one ever can take that back from you.

That’s an achievement for life, while a slim body (which you will get anyway because you train with purpose) with come and go throughout your life.

So train hard but train with purpose.

Photo Credit: Michael Cohen / Wild Forest Gym

2. Variety and creativity

This is one of the reason the outdoors are such a big part of my life. When you train outdoors you will never, ever experience 2 identical sessions.

Even if you try and replicate it going in the same places and doing the exact same exercises, it will always be different. And these are some of the reasons:

– weather will be different from day to day, even from hour to hour

– the earth will be different, muddy, frozen, dry or wet.

– the ground is never flat, you will go up and down, left and right and you will need to adapt

– if you get bored of one place you run 2k and you find something totally different. The difference can be from field to thick forest. This is what one of my students said to me once. And he was right.

In a gym environment the trick is to be very creative. When I was coaching in a gym it was difficult not to fall into monotony like others.

I was always coming up with new stuff and so my clients stayed with me for months and some of them are still with me now after 2 years.

One of the reasons they liked training with me was because I bring variety and creativity wherever I train. Outdoors is my most creative environment though.

So, no matter where you train, be creative and search for variety. Don’t fall into routine and monotony, it’s not exciting.

3. Experience every moment

No matter how much purpose and variety you have if you don’t experience the moment you will not love what you do.

This means to breath, feel, see, touch, smell. And so many times we don’t do it. But when we are outdoors the different aspects of nature automatically make us open up our sense.

Because everything is different all the time we suddenly need to become aware of what’s around us. There is no monotony.

No matter what you do don’t do it for the sake of it.

Have a purpose and experience the journey. Then the results, whatever they may be will soon follow.

Photo Credit: Michael Cohen / Wild Forest Gym

4. Learning

And finally whatever you do never stop learning, developing, evolving. We are humans and learning is part of our evolution. We are hardwired to continuously learn and develop.

Take you training routine as a personal development journey, because that’s what it actually is.

Stop being a little robot and use your cognitive skills to be creative, develop and learn something every time you do your training session.

Combining 20 years of sports, particularly Martial Arts, and bringing natural movement training and running as well yoga, in my coaching gives me the possibility to show my students so much about movement and make them enjoy every moment they spend with me and then working out alone.

This way they:

– always have variety

– always experience the moment

– always look forward to our sessions and…

– always have a purpose behind their training – learning more and more and getting better and better if we don’t have an event planned for them ;).

Hope this inspires you to take your training sessions to the next level and actually enjoy them if you aren’t already.

As always if you want to chat with me feel free to book a call with me or if you want to learn more about my philosophies read my free ebook The Merisoiu Technique