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A Note From Fran
Firming up your Energy for Fall

The days are shorter and the leaves have fallen. Is your energy melting away like the daylight? Most folks these days agree it's hard to keep up your stamina with so many demands and deadlines to meet. So what are you doing to recharge yourself…and while sleeping is good it doesn't always count (since most of us rarely get enough of that either).

Last month I told you I'd recently returned from a mind/body fitness conference that really got my juices flowing. Would you like to hear some of the great tips I learned and am now using.

Well, here they are:

1. Practice self reflection - Ask yourself, "In this situation am I really the hero, victim or scapegoat or is that part of the script of my life?"
2. Practice intentionality – Focus on what you wish to create, rather than what you wish to get rid of.
3. Take purposeful retreats (like this one I'm co-sponsoring in Hawaii –YEAH!!!)
4. Practice appreciation, patience and forgiveness.
5. Listen without judgment or stories.
6. Say "no" without feeling guilty. Say "yes" without feeling obligated.
7. Laugh out loud everyday.
8. And most of all remember to dance!

Myequilibriumcoach.com is an online weight management and fitness tracking resource where you can track your daily activities, monitor your calories and set and achieve personal weight goals!

This program consists of 90 day personal challenges (challenge yourself or a buddy) that keep you motivated and on track. Plus 24 hour access to our personal fitness coaches and trainers, you will have all the tools you need to meet and sustain your ideal fitness ability.

Here's what you get with your myequilibriumcoach.com Membership:

Track Your Calories
Our extensive database of foods has all the nutritional data you need. Use the drop down menu to enter the foods you eat and we'll update your journal with the calorie content.

Monitor Your Activity
We've got thousands of activities in our database. Just select the activity and the duration, and we'll calculate the calories you burned!

Travel the Country
Tracking your pedometer steps daily will move you across a virtual map route. If you walk the minimum average steps per day, you will complete your route in 90 days or less!

Access a Personal Fitness Coach
Use our bulletin board to contact fitness professionals 24 hours a day!

Do you BOSU? BOSU Balance Training is sweeping the fitness industry! It is the only piece of equipment which works in endurance, strength, stability and balance.

BOSU acronym stands for "Both Sides Utilized". The Balance Trainer is like an exercise ball that's been cut in half with a platform on the bottom. You can use it dome-side-up for cardio, lower body strength, or core moves. Or, you can turn it over and use the platform side for upper body exercises, like push-ups, or more core moves, like planks. The possibilities are endless.

Doing exercises on the Balance Trainer requires you to maintain your center of gravity over a surface that is constantly changing. Just standing on it is challenging, as your body moves and shifts into and out of balance.

Why should you care about balance? Well, for starters, it's the basic skill needed in practically every sport. From soccer to tennis to rock climbing, changing your center of gravity to match your moves is the key to efficiency in sports. The technical term is agility. Agility is what allows us to move gracefully, wasting little motion. It allows our joints to move through the full range of motion smoothly and confidently. While the start of hiking season might require that your entire attention remain focused on the trail to avoid falling, after several weeks for hiking, you may notice that you are more confident in your ability to adjust to the terrain by foot feel alone, and you need to pay less attention to the trail. In this way you increase your kinesthetic coordination, and in turn your balance improves.

The CORE: Through a wide range of core stabilizer exercises on the BOSU you will be challenged with isolation exercises, or stabilization exercises, where the goal is to maintain a neutral and properly aligned spine. Maintaining spinal alignment is very important to low back health and sport performance. The Bosu is a great piece of equipment to have in your home gym. Due to its versatility of use and small size it can be used just about anywhere and stored neatly out of site during non-use. Most of all, the Bosu will allow you to perform terrific cross training exercises. This is a secret great trainers know and often drill their clients on for interval training.

Need a Bosu or an in home personal training session to learn how to use it? Give us a call at 703-820-0217 today or send us an email.

Has this newsletter inspired you to take wellness to your workplace? Learn more about our corporate programs by clicking here.