seaside weekend

I spent the last two days in Varna, which is right on the coast of the Black Sea with a dear friend of mine who left Bulgaria to live in Vancouver. It's been peaceful and relaxing, my body has needed sleep and recuperation. It's interesting how tiring swimming a long distance felt, and my back feels great today. I believe every now and then we should challenge our bodies to unexpectedly practice skills we haven't used in a long time. It's a wonderful celebration of being in good shape!

The cape of Kaliakra




Fortress walls on the cape of Kaliakra




Balchik, the coast and part of town




Just jump off the boat and swim!




Going back...



...and making waves

Comfort Zones

Personal training has a lot to do with comfort zones. I think of them as still frames of (not necessarily) pleasant satisfaction with the world. They are heavily defined by familiarity. Sometimes your comfort zone is a place of comfort only compared to other zones. You can find comfort in misery, self-pity, guilt, sympathy, work, ambition, even mediocrity. A key function of comfort is that it freezes change and doesn't allow one to grow. Personal growth is the truest reflection of inner desires and dreams. Sometimes people drift into comfort zones they don't even consider natural, but familiarity makes them easy to accept over time.

dream-->desire-->breaking-->action-->end result-->feedback-->corrected action

Breaking equals acting. As a personal trainer I deal with action, and I teach people to act on their dreams. Whether it's asking for help, inviting the girl next door out to coffee, changing your job or changing your body, act now. Practice stopping the still frame that life sometime becomes.
Do you have a dream you haven't fulfilled? Do you have a goal you haven't reached? Write down the steps to achieving your dream or getting to your goal and act by breaking the familiarity of today. Dare to challenge, learn, succeed or fail.

A trip with the end in sight

I was traveling on a bus back to Sofia this weekend. The vehicle was meant for 20 passengers, yet somehow held over 40 of which I was one - stuck way back at the end with a wonderful book, smiling neighbors and the determined desire to last the trip which promised to be hot and stuffy. It was more than that, there were swirls of humidity and droplets of heat that danced like crazy around me. I took my hat off, and sank deeper in my book, knowing the end of the trip was near. 3 hours is not a long time, I thought.
Sometimes you have a goal that you can clearly see, yet when you set off to reach it, you find yourself thrown mercilessly out of your comfort zone, way out there. It takes the secure knowledge of a promised happy end for you to stay and persevere. It's crucial then, to be on the right bus.

The Future of Stubborn Fat

Looking in the mirror every morning I see little positive changes in body composition, nicer deeper curves of muscle or gentler skin folds here and there and then I rejoice, I leave for work triumphant.
At work the scale awaits. God forbid the possessed instrument shows a higher number than the one I have carefully implanted in my sensitive female brain and my dreams all turn to dust.
This is still a part of me. The little ballerina wanting to dance in the front row, the part that was told if you weigh less you dance in front and if you work really really hard and then if you weighed less that the others...well, then, the sky is the limit. It's also the part that gave me discipline, direction, focus and unusual patience, so it's not all bad.
I have taught hundreds of women to throw the scale away, to look in the mirror and celebrate the growing beauty that their leaner self brings. I've taught them to disregard numbers, cultivate happiness and focus on action rather than observation.
I sometimes become aware of my own emotional dependence on numbers and just sit and marvel at the little ballerina that won't grow up.
Last night I was listening to the fat loss teleconference that Bill Hartman had and later lied in bed thinking the only thing that separates regular fat from stubborn fat is time.

(time x effort)+happiness = change

24 hours is not enough

I am ending my week thinking that 24 hours is not enough to work, write, train, create, dream and connect. Sundays are doomed to late mornings, later and richer breakfasts, late schedules, afternoon workouts, article deadlines and empty laptop batteries. Mondays are a blessing.

A new home for thoughts and visions

It has been an exciting day. I'm starting a blog, I'm ending a workout cycle, I just cooked the first four meals of a new project. I am at the beginning, midst and end of countless things all rolled up into a warm summer night. Life is endlessly exciting, every minute counts. Be inspired.