The Blog
Posts by Penny Hoff
November 6, 2011
Put That Extra Fall Back Hour to Work(out) For You
Welcome to your Extra Hour Day -- a day that always feels wonderfully like it is yawning and stretching and in no hurry to end.
During the day, that is. Then, if I remember correctly, 5pm arrives and brings with it full and instant blackness, which makes me keep looking at the clock wondering when I can go to bed.
When my teenagers were babies, I associated this time of year with getting them in their pajamas at 4:30pm and having them asleep by 5:10pm. Ah, those were the days. (Now none of my teens catch their second wind until 10:30pm, no matter how many hours are added to the day.)
Let me ask you this: Who was in charge this weekend at your house? You or your sweettooth? Hopefully, the leftover candy is finally out of the house. All of the good stuff is pretty much gone anyway.
Now it's time to move on, as in moving one hour on. I like to think of Daylight Savings Time changes, both in the spring and in the fall, as a time to switch up your workout, much in the same way that many people switch their smoke alarm batteries.
September 27, 2011
10 Tips for Getting Back on Track After a Fitness Break
Fitness is my life. Or perhaps I should say that fitness is my paycheck. I am one of those lucky people who get paid to exercise and to exercise other people. I have been a personal trainer and teaching exercise classes since the days of Elaine Powers and Jane Fonda. I am also lucky to say I still love my job.
But that does not mean I look perfect or feel perfect; I will always battle the belly bulge and I sometimes get stuck in a fitness rut. I even have days when the last thing I want to do is sweat.
August 23, 2011
Turn Out The Lights: The Gift of Friendship
During these past few months, following our decision to sell our house, you'd think I'd be dragging myself out of bed and crawling into work -- but quite the opposite is true. There are no words to describe how I felt when my neighbors and friends heeded the Call of Duty - The Forestall Foreclosure Call of Duty, to help us fix up our house for our heart-breaking resale.
Like one in five Americans, my husband lost his job over 18 months ago and our financial squeeze has cruelly subjugated us to choose: either our house or college for our three teenagers. We have a son newly graduated and twins who are going to be seniors and they remind me of a trifecta of teen-age shaped planes in a holding pattern over a busy airport landing strip, waiting for clearance from traffic control to land--1,2,3--in college.
August 4, 2011
Tips on Tweaking Your Thoughts to a Better Life
Which thought sounds more like one of yours:
A. "Okay. I'll do it. Even though I don't have the time or the energy because I don't want to disappoint them. I hate it when others are disapproving."
B. "Is this request reasonable? If it is, I can handle it even though I don't like it. Uncomfortable feelings are temporary."
Do you hear the difference in how each thought is framed?
July 22, 2011
Ten Fitness Tweaks To Help You Sleep
Are you interested in waking up morning after morning with all the energy you need to get ahead? Would you love to be an early riser? Would you like to get those someday projects done? Wouldn’t it be nice to stop running behind and get ahead? When your day is front-loaded, you are ahead of the rest of the world.
It may sound ridiculous to think of changing some of these life long habits but change is possible and here are some tips to make it probable.
July 15, 2011
Faith-Based Fitness
I got the call a month ago. Chemo to the brain, my brother told me. When my sister-in-law Dori came on the line, she complained that she was bored and wanted to get up and walk the hospital corridors. "How do you feel," I asked. "I need to get home and get back to my walks," she said. She's always called them "my" walks, which I hadn't noticed until now. "Time for my morning walk." or "Oh, I missed my walk today!" People who walk for exercise call it "a" walk. People who hate to walk just.... walk. But people like Dori who are passionate about moving their body claim them as their own, a part of who they are.
June 22, 2011
What Can We Learn From Feeling Hungry?
Do you just want to eat, or do you want to stop being hungry? There is vital distinction between these two desires. Mostly when we eat, we're not truly hungry. We eat because food is right there or it’s meal time or because we associate eating with doing something -- like eating popcorn at the movies or having dessert after a restaurant dinner. We eat because we are social creatures and it's part of the most basic of social rituals. It can also be a stress release from what’s happening in our daily life. Eating is one of the most physically enjoyable things we can do in a public place.
May 27, 2011
Don't Fight the Bulge Sitting Down
How’s your fitness level? I thought mine was pretty good. Then a few weeks back some shocking studies came out about the detrimental effects of sitting. I don’t remember the exact details but I think the bottom line was that all of us exercisers are going to end up dying just as early as we would if we’d never exercised at all if we don’t stop sitting around so much.
May 13, 2011
Friday the 13th and Fitness Superstitions
Superstitions abound in the fitness world. They usually evolve accidentally when an athlete has a good, or sometimes, bad performance and then attempts to establish cause and effect by reviewing the facts of the performance. Formerly inconsequential activities like what they ate or wore are examined as possible connections to the victory, especially if it’s unusual, like baseball great Moises Alou, who urinated on his right hand prior to stepping up to the plate, which he claimed help him control the bat.
May 11, 2011
The Hacker’s Guide to Losing Weight
Today, use of the term "hacker" mainly refers to computer criminals. But many hackers are not lawbreakers. Often, hackers are people who get a kick out of figuring out ways to buck the system.
Hackers thrive on finding back door entrances to cryptic systems. They find better methods that save time, energy, money or all of the above. Likewise, in the health and fitness world, there are smart techniques we can use to improve our health and fitness level.
April 28, 2011
Relationship Fitness: How to Want What You Have
As a fitness professional, I can tell you that if you don't move your muscles in a challenging way, you lose them. In the same regard, if you don’t stimulate your relationship in challenging ways, you forget why you are together in the first place.
Not only are Americans putting on the pounds more so than ever, marriages and long-term relationships are out of shape too. Despite a bigger population, less people are marrying and more are divorcing.
"Searching For Cecy: Reflections on Alzheimer's" by Judy Prescott t.co/4d1JUfUn
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Inspiration to Start Your Day... t.co/Y4MfrZsS
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