IN THE ZONE, THE MENTAL SIDE TO FITNESS

Posted by Lisa C. on Jun 14, 2012 in HEALTH & FITNESS, SPORTS | 0 comments

I am SO LOVING Equinox South Beach and am so grateful for the talented professionals I’m meeting there all helping me work towards my fitness goal. I have a bunch of FREE 3-day passes that I can share with readers who are interested in checking out the gym so drop me a note at lisag@lcg2.com

Ok so here’s the deal, manfriend told me when we first met, almost a year ago that he cannot date a woman who doesn’t work out. I didn’t realize how much of a dealbreaker this was for him. Since our friendship I totally have connected the dots. When you work out you release stress not to mention you just look good. There’s totally a mental component to fitness. You mentally push yourself but you also start working stuff out in your head.

Some people want to lose weight others may be training for a marathon. Me? I’m just trying to chisel and tone so I can have the best body of my life. I already see changes in my legs and butt. I feel better, leaner, stronger less sluggish. However, I noticed though that when I work out my mind goes into a zone. During each class I think about different things.

When I’m on a spin cycle my head dissects relationships. I pedal through all the twists and turns like an unknown road. I’m on my own little personal Tour De Bullshit mentally weaving my way through for 45 minutes. I did a few other classes. Kickboxing was awesome because I got to beat the shit out of all the CRAP life is dishing me. I beat up this little flea of a man who knows nothing about marketing, is socially awkward, yet in this town, for some reason I cannot figure out, people consider him an influential person. Blech! Whatever…I’ve yet to see anything that impresses me. He’s a little fish in a little pond. Whatever, during kickboxing, his face got wrecked. I did an AWESOME strength and conditioning class which involves a weight bar, weights, weight ball, a mat a towel and some Gatorade. During this class my mind is more about work, focus and pushing myself. It’s physical strength and mental strength all in one 45 minute ass kick.

I’ve read that people who work out regularly often remain sharper into their elder years. They are less forgetful, more likely to succeed in their careers, and less stressed. The mind absolutely matters when it comes to working out. Even if you zone out and replay conversations and plot and plan the next chess move in a relationship, or talk to yourself telling yourself…c’mon 3 MORE, ok 2 MORE, there, look, you did 5. You see? Good girl. Oooh look at that hot sexy body in the mirror. Look at it work. WOW! The one two punch of the physical and mental is a great one. I’ve noticed…it’s certainly made me more in tune with my body.

In 2003 I was diagnosed with HPV (along with 85% of other women). By 2005 I was undergoing a LEEP procedure to scrape away potentially precancerous cells off of my cervix. Yeah. Not fun. After that procedure my HPV remained dormant. It is always in your system as a virus once detected but the longer it lies dormant the less likely the chances of developing cancer. In 2011 I got an abnormal pap which led to a colposcopy, a biopsy (which came back normal). In 2012 I got another abnormal pap which led to another colposcopy, no biopsy this time just a giant q-tip swabbing away HPV cells on my cervix that the doc saw through the scope. “I got it all. You should be okay now. Come back in 6 months and we’ll see.” UGH!

I decided right then that mentally I need to address what is going on physically. I truly believe in the mid body connection and I find it interesting that my anger or stress has collected and my cervix is serving as its host. I read the book “You Can Heal Your Life” by Louise Hay who is as bad ass as they come. The lady is in hr 80’s, looks 65 and healed herself from cancer. The book says that health issues are linked to anger and the need of forgiveness and letting go. This can be forgiving a person or yourself. We are hard on ourselves. I have been very hard on myself. I’m not where I once was financially, yet I feel like I’m on the verge of something even bigger. But still, a $515 doctor bill doesn’t make matters easier. So now that I have this amazing opportunity to work out at Equinox, I can also “work out” the mental side too.

 

Once I switched my head on this I noticed people change towards me. I met a guy a few months ago at Foxhole. He fell off the face of the earth after we exchanged a few texts so, I wrote him off. Then when he reemerged interested in hanging out with me I immediately was guarded and defensive. Turns out after spending more time with him, I was pleasantly surprised to learn that he’s a really soulful, spiritual dude. He’s 39, doesn’t want a relationship (shocker) but he’s a good guy and when he isn’t traveling the world and back in Miami, someone I’d happily hang out with. Then I started to look at the ratio between dipshits to cool people that I’ve met and the cool people far far outnumber the dipshits. YET…why do I dwell on the dipshits? Why do we humans let the bullshit get to us?

My manfriend started doing yoga. He was doing P 90 X, working out with weights, playing basketball and added yoga to the mix. He’s like the 5^th person in my circle who has been doing yoga suggesting I should try it and learn to reeeelax and breathe. So this week I’m going to try to quiet the mental clutter a bit and do a class at Equinox called “Stretch and Center.” I figure if the spin cycle class has me riding through the uphill curvy road of relationship bullshit, and the kickboxing has me releasing wrath on little shittards who seem to think they own this town, then maybe the Stretch and Center class will turn me onto Yoga where I can learn to settle my mind and heal myself from the inside (and lift and sculpt my ass at the same time). We shall see. If not I can always count on Equinox to make me sweat.