My fitness routine has changed and progressed through out my life. In my childhood fitness was achieved through play, the idea of exercise never occurred to me. I was a very active kid, my friends and I rode our bikes, climbed trees, and chased each other through the neighborhood. During adolescence we spent the summer swimming in the city pool. In the winter we went ice skating, sledding, and we walked or rode our bikes everywhere.
In high school I started running with a friend and we were soon running six miles a day, six days per week. I became obsessed with running. In the winter when it was too icy to run outside I would run up and down the basement stairs and jump rope. My body and brain became addicted to exercise. Though I did not know it at the time, exercise was my medicine. As a child I was always agitated I had a quick temper which was difficult to control. My mom gave me vitamin B to calm me down but it didn’t have much affect. My parents thought I was just a difficult child, but I now understand that I suffered from anxiety. When I was in college I started having panic attacks and they increasingly became more intense. My regular panic attack was a rapid heartbeat along with shallow breathing and perspiration. I would have to find a quiet place to lie down before I passed out. Twice the attacks were so severe I broke out in hives. I never discussed it with anyone because it was normal for me, I didn’t realize that other people did not suffer the way I did. Eventually I understood that the panic attacks happened when I was overwhelmed. I learned that the fear was in my head and I had the power to control it. I would close my eyes, breathe deeply and talk myself down. Physical exertion is a coping mechanism I learned long ago, a good hard run or jumping rope always made me feel better. Even as a teenager I noticed that if I missed a few days of exercise I would feel anxious and restless. In college I continued running both outdoors and indoors, I walked to all my classes but even with all the activity I still managed to gain 20 pounds. I believe beer was the culprit. When I graduated college I joined a gym and started doing aerobics and weight training. I lost at least 20 pounds and dropped from a size 12 to a size 4. I was too thin but I was super fit and I loved the gym! When I met my husband I started snow skiing and water skiing, two things that he loved to do. My husband and I are lucky to have two daughters who never slowed us down. Our girls grew up water skiing, swimming, snow skiing, kayaking, camping and hiking. Fitness through the years led me to become a certified personal trainer I love my work and I work in a gym! Change is inevitable in all of our lives but in my life one thing remains constant; exercise is my medicine.
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I’m not looking for a fountain of youth, I enjoy being just the age I am. When I turned 50 I threw a huge party, living for half a century is a reason to celebrate. My parents didn’t think I would reach the age of 18, I proved them wrong!
Why am I happy to be old? Self confidence grows as you get older, some people are born with lots of self confidence but most of us earn it a bit at a time. The freedom comes from not worrying about what other people think of me. Over the years I have learned to do what I want to do and to not feel obligated to please others. I used to invite my mother, mother-in-law and siblings over for dinner every Mother’s day. One day I thought I’m the only one with small children to look after why am I entertaining mothers who are retired, and siblings who have no children? I started enjoying my Mother’s day with my family and phoning the mothers to say have a great day. I used to volunteer at my children’s school and I enjoyed it. After a while I just started to say no, “I can’t bake 3 dozen cookies for the bake sale.” I chose the events I wanted to help with and I did not get pulled into helping with the rest. Instead of attending fund raisers that I don’t enjoy I write a check to the organization. When children come to my door selling products I give them $5 and send them on their way. With age comes the attitude, “It’s about me.” People may call me selfish but I have learned that if you do something just to please someone else you will resent it, and it is not worth it. When I was planning my wedding many years ago my Aunt Barbara told me, “If you do what you want to do then at least one person will be happy.” It took me decades to embrace this philosophy but it is absolutely true. Happiness is contagious, when I’m happy the people around me are happy as well. Happiness is freedom and I have found both through growing old. I normally pack healthy food when I travel even if I’m going a short distance. My daughter plays saxophone in the marching band at Central Michigan University. My husband and I and the grandparents went to a CMU football game.
On this day I threw caution to the wind and decided to eat stadium food, how bad could it be? I was really hungry after the two hour drive so I ordered a hamburger at the concession stand. The bun was enormous and the beef was wafer thin and charred. I was very hungry so I consumed the crunchy beef and large white bun. One hour later my stomach was growling I could hear the rumbling over the football game, and the marching band. I climbed the stairs back up to the concession stand, obtaining a great deal of exercise in the process. The menu featured a walking taco, pizza, a hot dog, and of course the lovely charred hamburger. I chose a hot dog, it was huge and tasted awful I ate half of it and generously gave it to my husband. The game ended, CMU won and we set out to find a restaurant. Everyone who attended the game was doing the same and the restaurants were packed. We ended up at a bar that had plenty of seating. There was not one vegetable on the menu, no soup, no salad so I ordered Nachos can you believe it? The Nachos were loaded with ground beef, covered with liquid cheese, and topped off with a dollop of sour cream. This was not a personal trainer friendly restaurant. On the ride home I regretted my day off, I felt bloated, sluggish and I just wanted to go to sleep. I consumed so much food because I chose empty calories with no nutritional value. Bread turns immediately to sugar in your body and sugar makes you crave more food. Lean meat, vegetables and fruit which I normally eat really fill you up and keep you full. Eating healthy takes time and effort, you must buy fresh food, prepare it and take it with you. Sometimes you have to load a cooler in the car however; the benefits of eating real food are worth it. You feel much better, you save money and time. I learned my lesson if I attend another football game I will skip the stadium food and pack a healthy meal. No more days off for this personal trainer. The 2016 presidential election is over the new President has been declared. Of course the media will still be talking about it for months to come, but I won’t be watching the news I will be living my life.
The President of the United States is a powerful person but so are we as individuals. We control our thoughts and our actions. We can have a great influence on our families, our co-workers, and our friends. Your attitude determines who you are and how you will live your life. I choose to be happy and grateful for all the blessings in my life. I choose to celebrate a beautiful sunset, a walk in the woods with my dog, and a phone conversation with my daughters. I choose to move forward, I will be peaceful and happy while the world rages on. What will you choose? In 2006, the International Academy High School opened within our local High School. It is the best High School in the country and I really wanted my daughter Raena to attend. There was an entrance exam, which she passed, and a lottery. Many of the parents went to the lottery drawing but I didn’t go because I knew Raena would get in. I was not the least bit surprised when we received the email saying she was accepted; however, the way the Law of Attraction works is that you cannot draw something to another person. You can only draw the negative or positive energy to yourself. My daughter Raena must have really wanted to go to that school, she manifested it, and her lottery number was drawn.
You can choose to participate in another person’s misery or joy but you can only draw things to yourself. It’s called the vortex; once you get started with the positive energy it grows and affects everyone around you. "Ask and it is Given, Learning to Manifest Your Desires" is a step-by-step guide that teaches you how to create the life you want. It was written by Ester and Jerry Hicks, Ester is a channel and she channels Abraham, meaning his spirit uses her body to speak My favorite quote from Abraham is, “If it’s not a hell yes, then its a hell no,” which means you need to do things that bring you joy. If you are dragging your feet on starting something it’s because you don’t really want to do it. You feel you should do it but your heart is not in it. If your heart is not in your work, even if you do succeed, you won’t be happy. Oprah states in her book, "This I know for Sure,“ that "If you don’t know what your passion is, realize that one reason for your existence on earth is to find it.” I’m passionate about personal training, writing, and public speaking. I wrote this article and I’m sharing it with you. I have learned to follow my heart — the only true guide. You have to be happy to create happiness. I made an art project the other day that made me very happy. Cooking makes me happy and eating makes me even happier. One of my friends made a set of mini goals for herself. Sitting by the pool with a good book for an hour was one of her goals. She wonders why we only make lists of things we have to do? Make a list of things that make you happy. Do one of them everyday and check them off one by one. Maybe it’s eating a piece of chocolate, soaking in the bathtub, turning on the radio and singing, or reading a good book. Whatever lights you up you should do daily. I have a good friend named Julie. I watched her walking out on the frozen lake with her dog Max one day and they were so happy I could feel the happiness radiating off of them from inside my home. I called Julie and said, “I have a nickname for you and its Joyful Julie.” We all need to surround ourselves with joyful, happy people. We need to be grateful for all the wonderful things and people in our lives. Did you ever notice that successful people are really happy? It's no coincidence that if you focus on the positive things in your life you will draw more positive things to you. It’s the Law……of Attraction, now you know the secret! Another means for drawing good things into your life is keeping a vision board. This is a collage of all the things you would like to achieve or obtain. I created one a few years ago and I included a picture of a Labrador on the board. I took the picture of the dog off my vision board when we adopted Cora because one dog is enough responsibility for me. Shortly after I put a picture of a vegetable garden on the vision board, a community garden opened near my home and my daughter Alyssa and I grew vegetables. I had never grown anything in my life; we put some small plants and a few seeds in the soil and up came vegetables. It was amazing.
I have a picture of Oprah on my vision board because I plan to be interviewed by her. I have grand children on the board. My daughter Alyssa noticed that I have many symbols for money on the board. I love money! My sister calls me GB — short for greedy bitch. You have to love money and think positively about it in order to draw it to you. I recently won $500. I really wanted to go to a local charity event but I could not make it. I gave one of the organizers $20 as a donation. The organizer said, “This enters you in a drawing and the first prize is a $500 gift card to Kroger Grocery Store.” I said, “I could really use that gift card because I’m having a graduation party for my daughter.” I won the first prize and it was right before my daughter’s party. The $500 paid for all the food, beverages and paper products. I manifested this. You can do it too. It’s imperative to keep your thoughts and your energy positive. Focus on the good things in life, the things you do want instead of the things you don’t want. I have another example from my life and this one is really positive. I never had a dog growing up and although I always wanted one I thought it was too much responsibility. When I turned 53 I wondered when I was going to get this dog? I better get a dog now. My husband and daughter were very excited that I was finally willing to accept the responsibility. As a family we wanted a very specific dog. It needed to be one to two years old and fully trained because we had no experience with puppies. We wanted a medium size dog, and it had to like cats. We had a cat named Shadow at the time. You are probably thinking yeah right like they found that dog. My husband was looking on line at animal rescue sites but none of the dogs fit our criteria. He told his co-workers about our search. One of his co-workers fosters dogs for the first year of their lives and turns them over to Leadership for the Blind training. Jay called us and said one of his dogs failed the leadership training and if we wanted her he could bring her over in two days. If not, there were 20 people on a waiting list who did. Two days later Cora was delivered to our home. She was one and half years old, a small Labrador so she was medium size, she was completely trained, and had spent the first year of her life with a cat. Perfect! We attracted this wonderful dog into our lives. My daughter Alyssa and Cora are best friends. I call them soul sisters. They have the same color eyes, the color of a chocolate tootsie pop. They are always together and Cora will lie on the floor with her face right against Alyssa’s face, which is the sweetest thing. Cora was meant to be placed in our home. We manifested Cora into our lives. I will publish another Law of Attraction excerpt next week. We have all heard the expression "be careful what you wish for." I’m living proof that the Universe is always delivering what you focus your attention on. This is one of my life experiences. I always wanted to have twins. Twins run in my family and I used to say, “I want to have twins when I’m 30 — one pregnancy, two babies and done.” My husband and I disagree on many things but one thing we did agree on was that we did not want to raise a handicapped child. We both had experience with special needs children, and we did not want to raise one. We went so far as to have genetic testing done before I tried to get pregnant. I turned 30 and became pregnant in the same week. At 16 weeks of pregnancy we learned that I was carrying twins and one twin had a serious birth defect. After a very traumatic pregnancy I delivered one healthy baby and her twin sister died a few minutes after being born. Do you think this was a coincidence? Trust me the Universe will always deliver (pun intended) what you focus on. One of my childhood friends used to always say, “Wouldn’t it be awful to have a weird kid.” She used to say that all the time when we were teenagers and I always wondered why she was thinking about that then. She has a child with autism and OCD. Click Here for Laws of attraction #1 The Law of Attraction: Excerpt One
One of my favorite books is The Secret by Rhonda Byrne. I have read each page a dozen times. The premise of the book is; you attract whatever you focus on. If you focus on wealth and happiness you draw them to you. If you focus on poverty and sadness you will draw those to you. This is not a new concept the most successful people in the world have practiced the law of attraction some of them without even knowing it. Oprah has lived her life in this way and her book, What I know for Sure, is a perfect example of it. Henry Ford said, “Whether you think you can or you think you can’t you’re right.” How can you make The Law of Attraction work in your life? Buy the book and read it, keep a gratitude journal and write down five things everyday that you are grateful for. I started my journal in 2012 and I have written things as small as I’m grateful for the beautiful sunset, and things as large as I’m grateful that my daughter doesn’t have bone cancer. Oprah keeps a gratitude journal. In the book, The Secret, James Ray writes; “Gratitude has been such a powerful exercise for me. Every morning I get up and say “Thank You.” Every morning, when my feet hit the floor, “Thank you.” And then I start running through what I’m grateful for, as I’m brushing my teeth and doing the things I do in the morning. And I’m not just thinking about them and doing some rote routine. I’m putting it out there and I’m feeling the feelings of gratitude.” Your brain is a muscle you and you can train it to think positive. It takes 17 seconds to create a positive or negative vibration. Start with something small like a great parking spot. You may need a great spot because you’re running late or because the weather is awful and you just did your hair. Concentrate on it and visualize the parking spot while you’re driving. What could you possibly have to lose by trying this? My favorite example from the book The Secret; is told by a single woman who longs for a mate. She is ready to start a serious relationship and she realizes that there is no room in her home for another person. She parks her car in the middle of the garage, she sleeps in the middle of the bed and she has filled her whole closet with clothes. She decides to make room for another person by parking on one side of the garage, sleeping on one side of the bed and rearranging her closet. Shortly after making these changes she met and married a wonderful man. It sounds so easy and it is easy. More exciting Law of Attraction information to come…… |
AuthorNancy McDaniel P.T. International Sports Science Association |