Weekly Wrap up. Week 45. 2024. Consistency is key!

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Weekly Wrap up. Week 45. 2024. Consistency is key!

There are many positives about running your own business and being your own boss. However, there are some unavoidable bumps in the road from time to time. One of those for me was finding my beloved Labrador Bertie collapsed last night which caused me angst for more than one reason. Firstly and of course most importantly was Bertie's health but immediately I was faced with what was going to happen for everyone who was expecting to join one of 2 classes in the morning while I had to step away and deal with the immediate issue.

It has taken me many, many (many, many!!) years to have the confidence to choose to prioritise me (or in this case, Bertie) and on this occasion I cancelled classes in order to take Bertie to the vet.( I will have to add to our list of functional exercises, picking up and carrying a 38kg Labrador out of the house and into my van.)

However we are a community and support each other and that was demonstrated very much by a) me worrying so much about letting everyone down and looking at where I can add the missed classes back in as catch up's and b) the many lovely kind messages I have received throughout the day offering care and support. Thank you very much for that. It is truly valued. Bertie has had excellent care and the next few days will tell us more. Seadown Vets are just up the road from me and have taken the very best care of me and my fur family for decades.

So.... back to the title of "Consistency is key"... although I think this links in. We all know that in order to get results we need to repeat and repeat again whatever our end goal is. I have lost count of the amount of times people say to me "I have never been able to do xxxx" to which I ask how many times they practise and the answer is always.. never! In which case... what do we expect?

When I was teaching students for their Pilates and Gym instructor exams, one of my favourite quotes with regards to preparing for their practicals was "practise until you get it right and then practise until you cannot get it wrong."

In order to improve, we need to keep turning up. Consistency is the game changer.

There are any number of reasons why we can excuse ourselves and skip a class or training session and I can assure you, I am an expert on this. Despite popular myth, I am not a machine and there are many times I am lying in bed thinking that an extra hour under the duvet is FAR preferable to getting up to do exercise. When we do override the negative voice though and turn up - those are the sessions about which we feel the most virtuous or feel we have really achieved. I know I do. Powering on through the negative voice and turning up and doing it - those are the biggest wins. Having the self discipline to get on that mat despite really not feeling like it... that is the biggest success! What happens on the mat is secondary.... getting there when you really don't feel like it - that is achievement.

The real key is to make it habit - make it a part of our lifestyle so that it is just "what we do". Why wait until Monday or January or until the holidays are over or we have more time or after we have finished painting the hall or once we have finally tidied the loft? Those things will ALWAYS be there and we will be able to add more and more tasks. We know this.

One thing us "onliners" have discussed when we get together is the community spirit we feel online and I really do treasure this. We have all been meeting up multiple mornings a week FOR YEARS and really know and care about each other. It isn't just about the exercise - it is a part of our routine on one or more mornings a week. Getting up, setting up, meeting up and working out. It has become just part of our daily routine. This is what makes taking part so much easier - you know where you are, what to expect and it fits into your daily life, without you having to think about carving out the time.

What is important however is not to lose momentum. Isn't it easy to skip a class because you are too busy or going on holiday and that one class quickly becomes 2 classes to a week and before you know it, rather than your regular habit, it has slid to the back of the pile. From here, it takes SO MUCH more effort to start again and pick it up.

In order to keep moving forwards, just keep turning up. Easy to say? I have days (doing my own training) when the high intensity or weights session I had planned just seems too much and I want to skip. Never more so than now as there are bugs and sniffles and dark mornings and energy levels can dip.

However I have learned through experience to still get onto the mat at the allocated time but I will do a stretch session or even some simple meditation and breath work.

Before, I would have definitely just avoided it altogether but I have found out how beneficial it is just to keep turning up.

I may not be doing what I had originally planned but I am still keeping to the plan - keeping that time for me and not quickly filling it with other things that are queuing up to take over. Skip that one session and it is incredibly easy to lose that routine.

I know what we are like. We think "oh what is the point, if I am not doing much, what will I get out of it?" ... but if we turn up we are still getting some mind body connection, being accountable, sticking to the plan..... just doing half as much, and taking our time will still tick all the aforementioned boxes and we get to leave our mat feeling we have at least "done something"...even if it is a 10 min stretch. If you are not up to doing that tough abs class or do not have time to do a full hour then 15 mins stretch and mobility is still ticking the box and is achieving so much more than avoiding it altogether.

No-one ever regretted the workout they did. Don't let the avoidance become habit.

After the day I have had (writing this on Thursday), I can promise you that my cosy sofa is very appealing but I am now going to practise what I preach and I am heading to my mat for some gentle stretch and breath work. It isn't the tough Pilates sequences class I had planned for 8am or the Back Care work I was teaching at 9am but it will take me out of my head for half an hour, stretch me out, relax me and will keep me on the straight and narrow before Shetland on Iplayer and choccy biccies win the day and talk me out of it.

Members updates.

The Strength challenge has got off to a flying start and I am delighted at how many of you messaged me to say you did a weights class yesterday in place of the cancelled classes.

Tueday and Friday week 1 classes are in your library in the Strength collection.

Also added this week is Tuesday's technique class (Technique collection) and today's 9am stretch will be going up later today as 2 versions - the full 45 mins will be in "All levels" and it will be split into 2 halves as a shorter post class option at the bottom of the "strength" collection.

Next week -

Week 2 of our Tues/Fri Strength classes.

In our Thursday 8am Technique clinic, we will cover Bicycle, Crab, Single and Double leg Kick, One leg circle to name a few.

Friday 9am Stretch - please bring your roller and resistnace band.

I do ask you to check the calendar for class info so that you konw what to expect and to allow you to prepare. Always give me a call if you have any questions about the classes.

Wrapping up in the words of James Clear from Atomoic Habits -

"True behaviour change is identity change. You might start a habit because of motivation but the only reason you will stick with one is that it becomes part of your identity.

Anyone can convince themselves to go the gym or eat healthily once or twice but in order to stick with the long term you need to shift the belief behind the behaviour. Improvements are only temporary until they become part of who you are.

Have a great weekend x

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Weekly Wrap up. Week 8. 2025. There's none so easy to delude as oneself....

By juliet • February 20, 2025

Ok, full disclosure. I think it was me that dropped the clanger yesterday morning... those of you who joined me would have seen that I was not at home, and when I arrived at my destination the night before, I realised I didn't have a magic circle with me and went into the 8am class and edited it to avoid the little hiccough and I THINK I may not have saved the changes. I may be wrong as I am in and out of the library ever such a lot but I am going to put my hand up and say it was me. I could probably wing it and get away with it but I have never been very good at lying and dishonesty does not sit well with me. Mind you, I say that..... I remember many moons ago... many, many moons ago when I was 15. My parents had a bar at the side of the lounge - terribly "all the rage" at the time, then terribly naff and I believe, quite the rage again now. Anyway, I was home on my own, I was bored and I started looking for mischief. I took the carefully hidden key ( hidden above the door as we all knew very well) and let myself into the little bar. I worked my way through the optics of many, almost certainly past their sell by date bottles of revolting sticky liquid and tried each and every one. Needless to say it was not long before I thought I was going to die. I staggered out of the back door to find somewhere to hide (and possibly die) and spied my sister's Hillman Minx which I crawled into and gratefully slept. When I woke, the effects were swift and I just managed to wind down the rear window and get my head out before events overtook me. As I was walking slowly back up the garden, my mother and sister arrived home and my sister was horrified at the state of her car. I still, to this day do not know how I did it but without missing a beat, I just informed her that there had been a load of seagulls flying overhead and they must have poo'd down the car door. Im still laughing now, some 42 years later, at how I just came out with that line and that, as I was staggering up the stairs "with the start of a bad cold", I heard my mother and my sister discussing how shocking it was that the seagulls had done that.... dear reader, we lived in Enfield, North London. There is not a coast for a hundred miles. My mother told us stories about when we were little and I recall the story of how my sister furiously denied writing all over the new wallpaper in her bedroom with a crayon. It was the fact that she would not back down and insisted it could not be her that saw her sent to bed. "But how did you know it was me?" she sobbed and my mother told us that the writing was, quite literally on the wall - all around her bedroom in wonky letters read "Louise 4" Yet, as the saying goes, there is none so easy to delude as oneself. I can say for fact that I have on many occasions talked myself into or out of situations, telling myself I could justify that cake because I deserved it, I could have that drink because I had earned it, I could slack off work because I had earned the right to... How many times have you gone to do something and then given yourself permission not to because of the story you came up with? I guess that can go too far and I know more than one or two who have lied for so long that they started to believe their own warped narrative. One such was my ex husband who lied to me about his age... when he asked me once to get his passport from his laptop bag, I flipped to the photo page to see how bad his picture might be, only to be confronted with a date of birth quite different from the one he had told me.. and he admitted that he had been telling me for so long that he had actually convinced himself he was indeed 8 years younger... Mind you, I still married him so who's the fool!! We all tell white lies and we don't want to cause unnecessary discomfort - if someone has just spent a fortune on a new outfit and they are thrilled, would we honestly tell them we didn't like it? ..... on that note though.... when we were teenagers, a friend of mine's mum and her neighbour went down their road to the church to watch the arrival of a bride for her wedding. Maybe it was because they hadn't been invited and were a bit miffed but they were less than complimentary and I can honestly remember this to the word and I am laughing as I write this ..."Crikey, the bride has clapped some weight on, hasn't she? I thought brides were meant to lose weight in the run up - do you think she has already eaten all the wedding cake? I would definitely wear sleeves with those arms" ... "And WHAT is Sheila wearing on HER HEAD? Call that a hat? ".... all this said unfortunately, very close to the videographer, back in the days of wedding videos being very new and with none of today's editing available. Every word was captured and saved.... on their ACTUAL wedding video... I kid you not... Learning to be brutally honest with ourselves is one of life's greatest lessons. One of my favourite books is Rachel's Holiday by Marian Keyes. Marian is an addict in recovery and weaves addiction of many forms into all her novels (also brilliant - Again Rachel and Grown Up's) and she talks with such candour on the subject of addiction - I have heard her interviewed many times and it is the power to delude ourselves that is so shocking. The lies we can tell ourselves when all around us can see through it. Another great speaker on the subject is the mighty Edith Eger, who I have mentioned before. A holocaust survivor, she continues to lecture as a psychotherapist in her 90's - her books The Choice and The Gift are absolute must reads. She talks about healing without distraction - whether that is alcohol, drugs, food, shopping, exercise, scrolling social media... it takes so many forms but it is only when we remove the many distractions that we can start to sit with ourselves, get to truly know ourselves and then, and only then may we move forward. We know the need to be present, to be still, to be quiet but sometimes it helps to hear it delivered in a different voice or explained around another approach for us to see how it may benefit us. Anyway - my name is Juliet Nicholas. I am 56 and when I was 15, I vomited down the outside of my sister's car. There are no seagulls in Enfield.