Expe Training

Are you the type of person who wants to see results immediately? Don’t worry, almost everyone wants to see immediate results. Even me 🙂

One week I taught a special group outdoor education group. In this group, was a girl who was using crutches. The cumbersome crutches got in the way of the hands-on outdoor education activities. I tried my best all week to adapt the activities because I wanted all my students to feel included and enjoy the experience. However, I didn’t see that much enthusiasm from her (at all), and I believed that I wasn’t successful. 

At the end of the week, the chaperones led a postcard activity with the students. The students were instructed to write a postcard and give it to someone with a sentence or two and a picture showing their favorite part of camp. Many of my students gave their postcards to me, so I wasn’t surprised when I received a postcard from the girl in crutches. What surprised me was that she didn’t choose one of the activities like her classmates had. Her favorite part about camp was — blush — me! 

While it was happening, I wasn’t able to see the impact I was making on the girl. But obviously I was making an impact. Fitness is similar. It often takes a while to see the progress you are making in improving your body and mind.

Get after it and stay on it. Your postcard moment may be just around the corner.

Thanks for reading. I hope you have a safe and healthy week.

I was singing a children’s song to a bunch of children. Thankfully another adult was leading the song because — unbeknownst to me — the song had gestures. Since I didn’t want to accidentally lead any children astray, I sang along and watched. It seemed like this was a song that many of the children were already familiar with because most of them effortlessly moved their arms to the music.

For a moment, I felt incompetent. I wanted to move to the back of the room so no one would see my shortcomings, but I didn’t. Looking back, I am proud of myself for doing what I could — sing and try to learn the gestures for next time. Maybe there was a child in there who was still learning the tune, the words, or the gestures, and I made them feel more comfortable.

Fitness, like singing a new song, isn’t all or nothing. You don’t need to know the words to enjoy humming along to a song, and you don’t need to be able to run a six minute mile to enjoy walking a mile. Are you letting your perceived incompetence hold you back from living life to the fullest? If so, I encourage you to do what you can to join the song.

Thanks for reading. I hope you have a safe and healthy week.

I’ve led and played a lot of games and activities. I’ve found that speed, agility, coordination, and strength are all helpful skills, but the most helpful skills are mental. I’m not referring to strategy — or at least not the kind of strategy that readily comes to mind when referring to playing a game. 

Challenging and overcoming our own limiting beliefs is an incredibly valuable skill. 

As an outdoor educator, I taught a group of boys and girls during the day, and supervised a cabin of girls overnight. There was a girl who was very reluctant to participate in all the activities — especially physical activities. She felt she wasn’t very good at them.  During our first physical activity I had to recommend that she not put herself down. She stopped saying things out loud, but it was obvious that she was still thinking negative thoughts.

Mid-week, when my group learned Beyonce Ball for the first time, she took a back corner. Beyonce Ball is a variation of volleyball. It is played on a volleyball court and the ball is thrown over the net and caught. If the ball is caught by the opposing team, the player who threw it is out.   

Right away, the ball came sailing straight towards her and she caught it. Her teammates cheered, and a look of surprise crossed her face. Buoyed by her supportive teammates, she moved away from the back corner and took a more prominent position. She continued to dominate that game — catching any balls that came anywhere near her. Her teammates were thrilled and even one of her opponents, who she had taken out of the game, cheered her on. Her team ended up winning — she and one teammate standing triumphant on the court.

After that game of Beyonce Ball, she was suddenly eager to participate in all the other activities. She excelled at some games, and she struggled with others — but her newfound enthusiasm didn’t waiver.  Winning individual games didn’t really matter, because she had won the big game — the mental game.

Thanks for reading. I hope you have a safe and healthy week.

While I was in school, I worked at an upscale retail store, which required me to dress up for work. I would come home tired and sore. At first, I thought I just needed a better pair of dress shoes. I did need new shoes, but the new shoes didn’t completely solve the problem. My lack of energy and busier schedule prevented me from working out as much as I had before taking the position, and I was afraid that my health would deteriorate.

One day, as I was bustling across the store to rehang an arm full of heavy pea coats on a high rack, it hit me — I was exercising. It wasn’t a great workout, but it was a workout. Once I realized this, I was able to embrace it. I focused on the muscles I was using during each task, and in doing so, l clocked out each day knowing that I was getting healthier.

A study by a Harvard professor found that hotel housekeepers improved their health if they saw their work as exercise.

Daily life often involves some form of hidden exercise whether it is folding laundry, vacuuming, gardening, playing with the kiddos, or walking up the stairs. I encourage you to see these activities for the exercise they are, so that you can get the most out of them.

I also encourage you to complete some kind of formal workout as well. A good formal workout prepares you for these hidden exercises. Therefore, the next time life presents you with hidden exercises — the kiddos want to play!, trash day already!?, the car’s looking dirty:(, etc. — you can complete them with more ease and less chance of injury.

Thanks for reading. I hope you have a safe and healthy week.

One of my first jobs required me to host camp dances with two other camp counselors. One of us would play music and make announcements, one of us would screen song requests to make sure they were appropriate, and one one of us would be a motivational dancer. I learned a lot during my time as a motivational dancer.

What the heck is a motivational dancer!?

As a motivational dancer, I was completely vulnerable to criticism and rejection. I would dance by myself as attendees chatted amongst themselves on the fringes of the dance floor. In addition to motivating others to dance by dancing, I would ask the onlookers to dance with me. Some would oblige for a song or two before returning to the safety of the sidelines. Others would reject me outright.

For me there was no safety of the sidelines. After I received many rejections, the dance floor would eventually fill up.

Rejection hurts — whether you have been refused a dance, are picked last for a pickup team, didn’t make the cut for team tryouts, or noticed that no one wants to meet your eye when a PE teacher said you need a partner.

While each of the rejections at these dances stung, I was eventually able to shake it off (literally) and have some fun.

Are you letting a past rejection prevent you from living life to the fullest? If so, I encourage you make the most of what is open and available to you — even if that means that you’re dancing on the dance floor by yourself for a while.

Thanks for reading. I hope you have a safe and healthy week.

Many years ago I wanted to get healthier and decided that running was my ticket. I had read all these success stories of people who had lost pounds and regained their health by running, and I was inspired. I decided to run at a track near my house because I could easily measure my distance. (This may as well have been wooly mammoth time — before smartwatches and smartphones.)

On my first running adventure, I did what I could. It wasn’t much, and I was soon back at home. I did this day-in and day-out, week-in and week-out. As time went on, I was able to run a little longer, but I wasn’t seeing any other results. I still felt bulky. I still felt weak. I still felt stiff. I still felt unhealthy. Instead of varying my cardio or adding strength and flexibility work into my fitness plan, I was literally running around and around in circles. I was running on a track, but my health wasn’t on track. 

I wish I had gotten some help from someone in the health and wellness field. Someone who would’ve helped me find a direction, a plan, a system that was optimal for me. Instead, I just gave up.

Are you running around in circles with your exercise routine? Maybe for you it’s the treadmill, the elliptical, the stairmill, or the bike. Don’t give up, but accept the need to change direction. And there are fitness professionals — including me 🙂 — who are happy to help you.

Thanks for reading. I hope you have a safe and healthy week.

In yoga, there is a pose commonly called humble warrior. There are many interpretations of the pose, but most involve taking a staggered stance, joining the hands or arms together in some fashion, and folding over your torso. Due to the positioning and the difficulty of the pose, it is hard to see what others in the class are doing.

When I teach humble warrior, I always encourage my students to release their hands to steady themselves if they need to. I do this because I struggled with it when I started my yoga practice. At that time, I didn’t have the strength or balance to hold humble warrior for more than a breath or two. After that, the pose became uncomfortable, and I began to wobble. Despite my discomfort, I didn’t want to release my hands to steady myself. I was so caught up in the idea of the pose (how it looked) that I overlooked the reality of the pose (how it felt). Even though it was unlikely that anyone would notice (or care) if I released my hands, I was still concerned about looking incompetent.

I was not practicing humble warrior; I was practicing proud warrior.

Are you practicing proud warrior in some aspect of your life? Is the pressure to keep up appearances preventing you from living life to the fullest? If so, I encourage you to embrace humble warrior, even if you think you might be perceived as incompetent.

Thanks for reading. I hope you have a safe and healthy week.

Have you ever found a recipe online, read though a long narrative with precise cooking tips, looked at all the exquisite pictures, realized that the recipe required some special cooking instrument you didn’t own, and decided that making that recipe is way too difficult? Then, in hopes of finding something easier, skimmed through several other recipes only to find that they are even more complex? I’ve been there. I rarely have the desire (or time) to spend several hours in the kitchen just to prepare one intricate meal.

Following intricate recipes isn’t realistic for most people, which is why I rarely use or recommend them. I cook the majority of what I eat from scratch, but I cook basic meals, using basic ingredients.

I often hear people proclaim that they can’t cook, and after scrolling through all these convoluted recipes, I can see where this belief comes from. However, basic cooking using basic ingredients isn’t nearly as hard or as time consuming as many people think.

If the idea of cooking something overwhelms you, start with something basic like eggs with salt and pepper. Then, as you gain confidence, experiment. You might try adding some other spices to your eggs or serving them with an avocado.

Few people understand that cooking is an art — it is subjective. By experimenting with different amounts of flavors and ingredients instead of following a complicated recipe, you can discover (and recreate) what you and your loved ones find delicious.

Happy cooking! Take it easy 🙂

Thanks for reading. I hope you have a safe and healthy week.

I can still vividly recall the weeks I spent playing in a badminton tournament in middle school PE. The tournament took place on courts labeled one through seven. Our teacher had randomly paired us with a teammate. We were instructed to play against the opposing team for fifteen minutes. Whichever team had more points when time was up would move up a court, and the losers would move down a court.

I was excited when I found myself paired with my good friend, and my excitement grew when I found out we were randomly selected to start on the second court.

Neither of us had played badminton before. We tried our best. We frantically ran around the court trying to hit the birdie over the net into the other court, but we kept missing — over and over and over again. It seemed like every time we managed to hit the birdie before it hit the ground, it wouldn’t make it over the net or it would fly out of bounds. It wasn’t long before we made our way to the last court — where we remained for the rest of the tournament. I felt defeated and decided that badminton just wasn’t my sport. 

Years later, I wasn’t too thrilled when my high school PE teacher announced we were going to have a badminton tournament. This time my partner and I were assigned to start in second to last place.  After the middle school debacle, I wasn’t expecting to advance. Much to my surprise, after a succession of wins, we found ourselves hovering at or near the first court. 

I hadn’t realized it at the time, but the tennis lessons I took the summer between the tournaments made me a better badminton player. In my tennis lessons I practiced making my way around the court, timing my swings, and aiming my shots—all skills you use in badminton.

It is easy and tempting to dismiss things that we aren’t initially good at. You may find that with a little practice, you enjoy the activity. If you’re avoiding an activity because you had an unpleasant experience that left you feeling defeated, I encourage you to give it another try.

Practice makes you better.

Thanks for reading. I hope you have a safe and healthy week.

Once I had the opportunity to lead an animal mask craft project with a bunch of young children. Before we started, I showed them an example of what the finished product could look like. The children didn’t seem very interested in the example. They briefly glanced at it before they turned their attention to the materials.

Once they were given their materials, the children began working.  Some were avidly gluing as many items as they could onto the masks. Some were so engrossed in adding glue to their mask that they hardly stuck anything onto the glue. Some children attached items in an organized manner while other children went with the flow. Most opted to place the ears above the mask handle. One child decided to place the ears on only one side of the mask handle, so that the mask could be held out to the side. The masks had the children’s names on them, but there was no need for this. The masks where so unique you could tell them apart.

There are many brilliant and creative ways to interpret things. Sometimes we get so caught up in the example or what worked for someone else, that we fail to see what other possibilities are out there for us. 

Are you exercising on a regular basis week-in and week-out following some exercise routine that worked for John Doe or Jane Roe? What works for one person may not work for someone else. Are you getting the results that they got? Is it time for a fresh perspective?