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I’ve never been big on the idea of using a publicist to grow my business. I have tried in the past, but after spending some money on it without seeing much in return, I decided that it wasn’t something that worked for my goals at the time. However, recently I’ve realized that to take Brownings Fitness to the next level I need to stop training so many clients and start working on the business instead of in the business. I am beginning to understand that in order to do this I will need some help. In the past, a couple of companies have approached me, but the thought of spending $100,000 up front to become the next “it”, is just not something within my budget.

A month or so back a new client came into the gym who happened to be in the PR business. At the seemingly perfect time, fate brought this person into my life who has been supportive of me in my hopes to grow the business. I started talking to the client and we decided to barter services so that he would train at my gym in order to achieve his goals and, in return, he would help me with promotional work for the business. True to his word, within two weeks he came to me with an organized segment on Fox TV. He asked me for a list of things that I could possibly talk about with ideas like workouts for brides to be or the perfect bikini body. It’s something I love to do so I sent back some of my ideas. He took one of my proposals, “How to banish bloat,” to Fox and they loved it!

The morning prior to my appearance, I was given a little run down of how things were going to go including a list of props that I needed to bring with me. So I stopped at the grocery and bought chicken, asparagus, papaya and all of the things I was going to be showing. I measured out 100g of asparagus to show people what 20 calories looked like and I cooked up some chicken, so people could see the 3oz of protein they should be eating in a meal. I packed everything up that night and went to bed. The next day, I woke up and went to work at 6am. I rushed home to have my make up and hair done, arranged by two of my wonderful clients and by 8am, I was ready to go. I took myself down to Fox on 67th street. I was really excited and looking forward to it but had no idea what to expect. I went in, organized everything on the stage, and did my segment. Based on the feedback I received, it was a great success. I’m grateful that I had spent 8 years in a ballet company performing on stage in front of 800 people and perhaps that is what made it easier for me. I also realized that maybe what really made it easy for me is something one of my client’s said to me. He commented on how some people are narcissistic and look only for fame and glory. I realized that I wasn’t looking for fame and glory for myself. Of course, I need to grow my business and recognition for it would be wonderful but this isn’t what it is all about. After the segment aired, I got instant emails directed from our website. A particularly touching one was from a woman in her 70s who said she had struggled with her weight her entire life and asked how I could help her. She said that watching me made her realize that losing weight looked doable and she had the ability to make some changes in her life. This made me realize that, instead of looking for fame, I want to help people. It’s something I’ve wanted to do my entire life. I want to help people with the struggles I have been through, knowing that it’s an ongoing process but that everything can be achieved. So, what I want to say today to all of you who often doubt yourself, if you really love something and you are passionate about it, you will be good at it no matter what. You will enjoy whatever it is and get the results that you want. This can be applied to your career, marriage, raising children or the struggle that we all share with reaching our goals in healthy eating and fitness. We all can do it, you just have to believe it and love it.

Self Discipline

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I think there’s a very fine line between discipline and pushing ourselves, being kind to ourselves, and just making changes in order to get out of a rut.

For the last couple of weeks, a few things have happened that have made me come to this realization. First of all, I’ve done a few nutritional consultations. Some of these consultations were with clients whom I have met with in the past for a nutritional consultation but came back to me for re-motivation. What became clear to me is that both the new client and the client from the past really lack discipline. They seem to somehow think that the world owes them treats every now and then or perhaps they feel there is something missing inside of them that makes them need these extra treats. It could even be that they just haven’t had enough food and are hungry for more, so they end up reaching for the unhealthy choices. It’s almost as if they’re hamsters storing up for the winter; they need that extra food, just in case.

I can’t criticize them because when I train for a race and know that I will be burning more calories, I always say to myself “just in case.” Just in case what? I’m going to not finish the race? Well, so what? In their case, is it just in case they think they are going to starve? Well, they’re not going to starve. They’ve got plenty of food and, even though I am not an advocate of it, there are people who go weeks, days, and months on very little food. So, when you’re looking at yourself everyday, ask yourself  ”Am I disciplined? Am I hard on myself? Am I in a rut? Am I allowing myself to make changes or am I feeding something that’s missing?”

Recently, I have been reading a book called “The Rules of Life.” It is an amazing book, an international best seller, and what I love about it is each day it gives me new readings:

Be flexible in your thinking.

Be your own advisor.

Be the last to raise your own voice.

Only dead fish swim with the stream.

Dedicate your life to something.

Know what counts and what doesn’t.

Accept yourself.

You get older, but not necessarily wiser.

Keep it under your hat.

It’s okay to feel big emotion.

Life can be a bit like advertising

Have a sense of humor.

Never be too busy for loved ones

These are just a few of the readings from the book. What all of these readings do for me each day is remind me how I can easily fall into a rut in my life. Is it that I’m stuck in the rut? Or is it that I’m just scared that I won’t be seen as disciplined, if God forbid, I should get out of bed fifteen minutes later, sleep in, or say “no” to a client when my body is tired and exhausted after I really have done enough. Am I being lazy? Am I actually not being disciplined? It is hard to see which one from the list above is the right point to focus on but all of the readings definitely leave me with food for thought. While reading each day, I think about how I’m living my life and the decisions I’m making in everything that I’m doing. The readings can apply to all aspects of life from nutrition and physical exercise to little, everyday things.

I hope that when you think about your exercise (and your eating, but in this particular incident, your exercise) you ask yourself, “Am I disciplined? Am I in a rut? Am I pushing myself? Am I being lazy? Do I deserve more?” When it comes to physical exercise, I think it definitely is one of the things in life that takes the most discipline. If you don’t actually make yourself push hard and just do it, physical activity is something that you are going to be accused of being lazy about. It really does take every little bit of energy, especially when you’re unfit and haven’t been working that hard, to do just thirty minutes of cardio when you really should be doing fifty minutes because your trainer says so. It also takes all of your energy when you know that you need to and burn those extra calories, or if you’ve got that race to train for. Whatever you are doing, it requires discipline to get up there and do it, but I can assure you that once you get going on that roller coaster, it does get easier and easier. Physical activity isn’t one of those things where you will find yourself wanting to do more because you are feeling you don’t have enough. Also, because it takes so much energy to do, you will find that it’s not something that will make you feel like you are getting stuck in a rut.

On that note, last week was the More Half Marathon and I have two women in the gym who were preparing for the race. They are both truly amazing examples of what it is to be disciplined. For the past months, they have disciplined themselves to get up everyday and get out there without too much training to work for this race. For those of us who find running more natural, we’ve always run and it’s part of our life. It comes so naturally to push our bodies that just running can even seem easy at times. However, for those people who aren’t natural runners, it can be one of the most difficult physical activities and requires a lot of discipline.

So, to my two girls who finished the race, I am so proud of you. I’m proud of you because of your discipline. Discipline is something that we need everyday, not just in physical activity. We need discipline when we’re doing other things in our lives. It takes discipline to wake up that extra half hour earlier to be somewhere on time. It’s easy to say no or deviate from your goals, but next time, think twice about whether you should be more disciplined. Back to nutrition, when it comes to whether you should have that extra food, think to yourself “Am I being disciplined or do I really need this?” You know the answer. Go do it.

Give Everyone a Chance

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A few months ago I had knee surgery. Typical of me, I decided I would rehab myself and be able to fix it. Because I was strong I could start working out only a few days after. I really convinced the surgeon that he should give me the clearance because I was feeling perfectly fine. I really can’t blame him that my recovery hasn’t been as quick as I’d like it to be. Even though yes, I am able to run and bike it is not pain-free. So, as life has it, I had to go backwards and start physical therapy. Lucky for me I met a great physical therapist, and I have to be honest, I don’t often say physical therapists are great, but I actually met one who was! Like me, he is top of his field and therefore not always available, so they gave me somebody else who works in their business. I wanted to say no way! In fact, I think the first session I did say no way! But then I thought about it. I tell my clients, “my trainers train under me, they know what they’re doing, they’re great.” And actually the truth is, they really are great. So, I took myself off to the physical therapist named Janelle and worked with her. To my amazement when I asked her to come to see me where I was she said yes! She totally accommodated me. Not only once, but twice. The second time was on a Friday afternoon, lots of snow, she lives downtown in Tribeca, her office is on 61st, I live up on 78th, and she came all the way up work with me. That in itself really speaks volumes about her and her professionalism. What was also so interesting to me was that she proceeded to tell me she had only been in the city two months, but she had religiously been reading my blog and was trying to find out all about me. What I loved so much was, not only had she been doing that, but her feedback as to how positive and inspirational she felt the blog was. She said it made her feel good and motivated her to make good choices.

So, when you meet people in your life, just because they don’t happen to be the most expensive or the best looking or the richest or the smartest or what you would consider the top of the field, it doesn’t mean that these people are not actually really amazing. And if you don’t give them a chance, who’s going to?

I know it’s hard not to judge people based on your own standards, but look at them and remember how hard you’ve had to work to achieve what you have. And if people hadn’t given you a chance, you wouldn’t be where you are today. I am truly grateful for that.

Writing this blog has reminded me that it is now March thirteenth, and we are going into spring. I have made some progress this year, but I have realized that unfortunately, I still have a lot of work to do in improving myself and my issues I feel that I have that need to be addressed. So with that said, I am going to surround myself with people and remind myself that I am not perfect. And I am going to continue to work and be positive and grateful for all I have, because that is the only way I am not going to be negative about life or myself or how I feel, and my world and my years will continue to get better as I get older. The theme of today is yes, I have said it before, be grateful. Don’t take anything you have for granted.

2013! It’s going to be a great year!

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I truly believe this will be a great year, but I also think that if you put out positive, you get positive back. If everybody goes around saying that things are so bad, nothing’s going your way, well, nothing is going to go your way. But if you go around telling everybody things are great and they go and pass it to the next person and the next person, the positivity will spread.

So I decided 2013 is going to be a great year and I have to say that so far it’s going my way. Within my business, within my own life, the things that I am achieving and, just like everybody else, in the Browning Fitness New Year Challenge that we do each January. This year we have record number of people participating. Clients, staff, everyone is starting the year on a healthy note. This challenge requires I give up the things I love the most: sugar, bread, and of course my tequila drink. Alcohol is out across the board. Additionally no cheese, nuts, and anything else one would consider sugar, like raisins, dried fruit and honey. As always with this challenge I’m amazed at how much I struggle with it. I find I’m tired, I’m lethargic, I have no energy, and I really am just in a bad mood. Even though I insisted that this year was going to be a great year, and it is, I do notice that this challenge is not an easy thing to do.

One of the things I notice, which is what I’ve always told everybody, is how much I miss and feel the difference without the simple carbs like bread, pasta, rolls, and my fiber light English muffins. These simple carbs that will turn right to sugar. Instead of these I’m having sweet potato or quinoa in the morning or doing juices. (I got a juicer from my staff for Christmas this year, which was fantastic!) I’ll throw in beets, greens, raw sweet potato, brussel sprouts and all sorts of things. But even with this somehow an hour or two later I’m shaky, light headed, tired, can’t concentrate, which is something I never find when I start my day with the toasted light english muffin I’m used to. Of course, I know it’s not the ideal choice, but it is 100 calories, it does have 6g of fiber, 7g of protein and only 1g of fat. Even if it’s psychological, (just like I was saying about the positive,) it does start my day off great and I don’t find myself dipping in my energy because there is not too much sugar in it. I am definitely noticing a difference in my mood on the challenge because these simple carbs, like the bread and pasta do effect our seratonin levels and they are uppers. I see often that people who eat like this on a regular basis, all protein and no carbs, are often more depressed and have mood issues.

Doing this challenge and giving up these things I really see how hard it is. It reminds me how it must be for those people out there who have illnesses and have no choice but to give up certain things based on their dietary needs. I have a client who has recently been diagnosed with a particular acid reflux issue and has had to totally change her diet from what she eats, drinks, even to how she combines foods. I see how hard it is just for me to do this challenge and it’s just for fourteen days!

That’s where positive thinking comes in. Look at your life and no matter what you have, this year going into 2013, be grateful for what you have, because when you are grateful, you are always, as I’ve said, time and time again, happy. Happy leads to positivity and positivity makes the world go round in a great way.

Have a great 2013!

Self Motivation

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I have talked before about self motivation, and I completely understand why people have trainers. They’d much rather go for a cup of coffee, so they need a trainer to motivate them when they get there. Otherwise they’d indulge and do what they really want to do, which is nothing, instead of what they need to do, which is get their workout in. Of course if they really didn’t want to do it they wouldn’t have shown up, but the actual doing it requires the trainer to be there to push them. I’m always impressed when I meet somebody who can truly motivate themselves, come to the gym a little earlier, do their cardio prior to working with their trainer, or even better, come in on days they are not with their trainer and do their own workouts.

Self motivation is something that is hard to do, but is so important. We need to instill it into the younger generations so that they don’t always do their homework with a tutor or their work outs with a coach or only in team practice. For example if they are a tennis player they should be able to pick up their racquet all on their own, go find a wall and hit the ball against it by themselves, or go out and find a track and run by themselves.

Self motivation a is a rare gift, and for me it’s always really amazing when I find somebody who can actually do it. It was so fantastic when the New York City marathon was cancelled, and still there were people in the park on Sunday morning, hundreds of thousands of them out there all running their own marathon. They had trained that hard, tapered down, done the eating and there was no way they were not going to go out there and run that distance. I would have done the same!

I am inspired when one of my clients, a man who’s in his 50s, goes to the park on a cold, dreary, Saturday afternoon and runs his marathon all by himself without telling anybody and then comes back so proud to tell me he’s done it! And I never would have thought him the type to go out and do it on his own. He’d done a couple of triathlons in the past, I had been out biking with him. I can remember taking him for the first time across the George Washington bridge. He was a trooper, hung in there with me. You would think he’d been out there a hundred times but he hadn’t. He didn’t fall off his bike, didn’t kill anyone didn’t get killed and it’s not the easiest ride to do. So I guess I should have seen the signs in him. I was so proud!

When I see that gift in somebody it just really reminds me how lucky and blessed I am that I do have that self motivation in myself as well. And it makes me want to remind everybody out there, especially those with young children, if there’s one gift that you can give to them that is not something bought at Christmas time in the toy store, is that gift of self motivation. Instill that in them young, and for the rest of their lives wherever they are, whenever they want to feel good they are going to get out there and do it on their own.

If they want to be great at whatever it is they want to do, one of the things required is practice, practice, practice. They won’t always have a coach or tutor there with them, so they need to be able to, and want to get out and do it on their own.

So the gift of Christmas I give to all of you is to go out there, instill in yourself that power of your mind to motivate yourself to do those things that you might not want to do, and remember how good you’re going to feel when they’re done.

Keeping Together When You Feel Out Of Control

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Though I don’t necessarily target a specific clientele, it happens that it has worked out that a large percentage of my clientele are women between the age of 40 and 60 years old. The Browning Method is designed to change your body shape and most women carry their weight in the stomach, thighs and buttocks. Because the Browning Method is successful at targeting these areas I have always attracted women in their late 30s and mid 40’s, the majority of who are the Wall Street variety. These women work all the time and are very focused on success and career and often don’t have the time to create a relationship or family. They figure they will become successful and then in their 40’s be able to enjoy their success and at that time settle down and focus on things other than career.

Unfortunately as it happened the market crashed and a lot of women woke up and realized suddenly they’re 40, and what a surprise, men who are also in their 40’s are looking for women in their 20’s. Suddenly finding a husband is not as easy as these women once thought it would be.

Often when women come to terms with these realizations they begin for the first time in their lives to feel out of control and resort to self medicating to regain the feeling. Whether it’s taking prescription medication, drinking or attempting to throw themselves back into work as a distraction. I have seen it in myself. Recently divorced, I am at a point in my life that I am realizing that there are certain things that I have to give up and things I need to start doing to take care of myself. I often have a hard time sleeping and don’t want to rely on sleeping pills, but recently certain events have shown me that a drink or a glass of wine works for me, and as long as I can keep it in control, it’s ok.

This past week I have been dealing with some significant changes in my life and I had a busy day at work and I came home and I just really wanted to go to sleep. So instead of turning to prescription medication I went and made myself a nice hot bath and I made myself a Brownings Lean and the tequila had an effect and I got to get some sleep. At 5am I woke up feeling great and proceeded to have a great day.

Of course having a glass of wine or one drink is not the best way for everyone, but I have learned for myself what works. For me it has never been looking to alcohol to make myself feel better when I’m down, my addiction is exercise. Control over my body is control over my life.

What I would like to say to all the women out there is that you can learn to pull yourself up, and you must, otherwise you will stay down and depressed. I know it’s hard sometimes and it’s scary to face reality but letting yourself fall will only lead to worst case scenarios. As hard as it is sometimes, you have to look at the positives you have.

In the long run, going home every night and drinking or taking those pills is not going to help. They will stop working and then things will get worse. I ask for you to try and trust me and believe that each day will get better if you can get up the morning, exercise and face the world.

Brownings Fitness Triathlon Coach Ruth Payne’s Ironman Experience

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I love Ironman!  I love having a specific training focus.  I LOVE that I was able to design my own training plan this year – it helped me understand more about training and periodization which improved my training and my overall experience.  I love training because it takes so much time.  I train mostly by myself, and I use this time to connect spiritually with the universe and with all people.  The training brings structure to my life that helps me to stay focused and healthy.  Through the entire Ironman experience I feel a depth of connection beyond myself that is hard to describe.  Ironman training and competition brings me a joy like nothing else.  It enhances my marital relationship and my relationships with the rest of my family, friends and the universe.

This year I was able to achieve the goals I set for myself after last year’s competition.  I improved my time by over 30 minutes and more specifically, I became a better runner.  Although I suffered from stomach issues in the middle of the run, I was able to get through them much more successfully this year while keeping my form and focus.  Last year I was taught about the benefits of smiling through competition and continued to draw on that inspiration through my training and the event this year.

Ironman confirms my belief that we can do what we once thought was impossible if we have motivation and commitment.  BELIEVING we can succeed, we will.

-Ruth

How Athletes Eat

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There was an article by a doctor in the New York Times recently that said that the Olympic athletes that burn 4000 to 5000 calories in an event should be eating ice cream, french fries, hamburgers, etc. I had to ask myself ”does this man work for McDonald’s?”

If you take at an athlete like Lance Armstrong, drug allegations aside, he did two things: he worked like a dog and he changed his diet. If you look at people like Michael Phelps or any other high caliber athlete they will tell you that they had to change their diet. When I came to this country doing Iron mans I would see everyone cycling out to Nyack, eating all these full fat muffins and I would look at them and think they have just done 100 miles on the bike, why don’t they look ripped and shredded? A lot of this is related to diet. Yes these people are great athletes but if they ate better they would be amazing athletes. Lance Armstrong proved that point. Chris Carmichael took over his training and diet and completely leaned him out, still feeding him his 3000 or 4000 calorie diet but quality food instead of foods that were high in bad fat and would leave you feeling sluggish and with no energy.

So everyone out there that read that article and is doing huge amounts of exercise, imagine what you want to look like. You want muscle and you want to be lean and you don’t want to have a high body fat. You will have much more power and energy if you are eating quality food and calories. All of those things that this doctor is telling you to eat are high in sugars and fats make you lethargic and do not give you any energy. If you need to take in extra calories get them from foods higher in protein and carbs but foods that are not high bad sugars and fats. Eat lentils, brown rice, lean protein shakes, fig newtons. I don’t believe in huge amounts of fat in foods but yes your body needs carbohydrates, then protein, and then last of all good fats. If you run out of carbs I don’t care how much fat you have but you are not going to be finishing that race.

To Stretch Or Not To Stretch?

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There are so many theories stating whether you should stretch or not stretch and my answer is this: if you have never stretched before and you are about to go and do a race then no I don’t suggest you start stretching. If you have always stretched and have gotten good results from it then yes continue to stretch the way you have always stretched.  There will be times in your life however where the stretching will not be aggressive enough or it is too aggressive.  You must guide and feel what your body does.  It is like massages, sometimes they feel really great because you need them and other times they aren’t very good because your body didn’t really need it.

If you are a starting out and you are a young runner and are starting to learn what you need to to keep your body going strong for years to come then yes, with stretching you are going to have a longer life of exercise and fewer injuries. Look at the older generation of runners who are now 45 to 60 years old and most of these people hobble and can barely can get around.  This is mainly due to the fact that they never stretched. It is a generation where marathon running was big and no one stretched and people are suffering from it.

I once met a very famous triathlete and coach who had done numerous ironmans.  He was talking to one of my clients and proceeded to tell the person that stretching was not necessary.  I wanted to tell him to come back and talk to me in a couple of years. Recently I heard that his career has come to a stand still because he had torn his achilles tendon and ACL. I have to wonder how much is due to him not stretching.

I currently have a meniscus tear and I have had three surgeons tell me that I need surgery because it has gotten worse, but the truth is that I know that a meniscus tear is something that would heal if I would just stop running so much. But I feel that the pain is bearable as long as I keep stretching.  What happens is that my hips get tight because I am running in bad form, my ITB and my quads get tight and pull on my knee and then the pain comes. If you have knee pain start with looking at your shoes, then your shins, calf’s, quads, hamstrings and what is tight and is pulling on those tendons and ligaments that run through and around the knee cap.  If you work on these things many of your injuries will go away.

Should you do active stretching, static stretching, or something as aggressive as I do such as yoga assisted stretching where I put clients into different poses and literally push, pull and shove their bodies. Sometimes some of my clients just need a restorative type stretch where their muscles can relax into it.  I have a client who I’ve trained for many years and we have stretched and not stretched. He recently was on vacation and just got back and did not stretch much while he was gone and he says he felt great.  But he was on vacation and I know he did not workout as much as he could have which is why he wasn’t as tight or sore as he is when he works out daily. He came back and worked out and then went and sat in his office and he was glad we had stretched after the workout or he would have been sore again the next day.

There are many situations where stretching is key and whether you spend 5 minutes or 10 minutes or whatever time you have it will only help. If you are active and you want to be active for a long time and be injury free then yes, I will say 100% say you need to stretch!

Exercising While Pregnant

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This week I have decided I am going to talk about being pregnant and no I am not pregnant.

Being pregnant is something that comes into many woman’s  lives and how each person goes about it is an individual thing. I think how we decide go into it is very much a mental thing. Some people think that being pregnant is a time that they should eat a lot more and not exercise. They think that this is being good to themselves, but really it s not taking care of themselves. Being pregnant is not a time to let yourself go. This is not just a disregard for your own health but your baby’s as well.

For example, two people in my life that I am very close with are currently pregnant. One is my head trainer Rhoda who is 6 months pregnant and she has proceeded to live her life as usual. She gets up at 5am and takes the train to work everyday.  She is often here from 8am to 8pm, working as a trainer, on her feet and then she takes the train home. She also runs with her clients anywhere from 3 to 8 miles a day.  I know that Rhoda was worried for a little while about all the exertion but her energy is continuously amazing. She ran a 5k with her husband in her third trimester.

The other person is my dearest child Devon who was one of my very first clients and in the perfect way that Devon is perfect she planned the perfect pregnancy.  Beautiful legs, beautiful bum, full of energy, occasionally tired but what is so amazing is in our sessions we train like she isn’t pregnant and just keep track of her heart rate. We are out there running 6.5 on the treadmill, she is doing plyo work, and lifting heavy weights. There are some things we don’t do because it’s uncomfortable like rotational work, or sit ups, and if something feels to heavy we change it.  She swims, she does pilates, she goes to work. She is a living example of how we can use our minds to decide if we are going to get fat and put on 60 pounds or we are going to put on the correct amount and we are going to feed ourselves healthy food She understands that by doing so her child will comes out with healthy start to life. She too now is in her third trimester and feels frustrated she does not have as much energy but when I remind her she has two people to breath for, she smiles.

Both Rhoda and Devon don’t want their children to spend the rest of their lives fighting the fat cells, the low energy, the bad hair, the acne, and the brain sluggishness so they are taking action from very beginning.

I thought that this could remind us all that so much that we do in life is mental and you can decide to be a certain way or not. The mind is strong. You can do it if you decide, of course making the smart choices and following the healthy path.