Category Archives: Attitude

Workout Inspiration Leads to Weight Loss

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It’s exciting to be getting into shape and on my own terms. People who see me regularly have been noticing the subtle changes to my physique. Sure it’s my responsibility to maintain healthy nutritional standards and to hit the gym with dedication. But thanks to some iPod inspiration, 5 tunes keep me in motion for my 30-minute daily cardio workouts. Without them, the exercise might just be a lot of heavy peddling, but because of the repetition of inspirational lyrics, sounds, beats, and musicians, the whole experience becomes meditative and healing in ways beyond the physical. If you should incorporate cardio exercise into a healthy lifestyle, try finding some music that gets the blood pumping for you. It’s like letting your iPod become your motivational assistant.

Here are my five selections in playing order:

1. Silicone Soul’s “The Answer”

I have a thing for deep House music. And this piece of music really is ‘the answer.’ Actually, it’s refrain, “love is the answer” is one of the things I love to hear first thing in the morning when I drag myself down to the gym. You can’t make changes to what you don’t love. So through love comes the abandonment of fear, and the ability to improve. This is really what exercising is all about for me. So I’ll take all the help I can get from the beat and the message.

2. Massive Attack’s “What Your Soul Sings”

Sinead O’Connor is a controversial artist for many. But I am not one to let the messenger cloud a good message. By the time this tune is playing I’m sweaty and ready for its electonica vibe and for O’Connor’s clear voice to give me some more inspiration with these words:

Don’t be afraid
Open your mouth and say
Say what your soul sings to you
Your mind can never change
Unless you ask it to
Lovingly re-arrange
The thoughts that make you blue
The things that bring you down
Only do harm to you
So make your choice joy
The joy belongs to you
And when you do
You’ll find the one you love is you
You’ll find you love you

Don’t be ashamed
To open your heart and pray
Say what your soul sings
To you
So no longer pretend
That you can’t feel it near
That tickle on your head
That tingle in your ear
Oh ask it anything
Because it loves you dear
It’s your most precious king
If only you could hear
And when you do
You’ll find the one you need is you
You’ll find you love you

Now how can you argue with such words like that? And the music is fantastic and makes me want to burn calories!

3. Swing Out Sister’s “Better Make it Better”

I’m a huge Swing Out Sister fan. They’re really a lot more popular in Japan than they are here in the United States. This is probably a risky thing to say because Naomi Campbell and Alyssa Milano have more successful recording careers in Japan, too. Except Swing Out Sister is a truly talented act, but that’s beside the point…

“Better Make it Better” inspires me to keep peddling because the music is totally upbeat, the sentiment inspiring me to live life fully and with no regrets:

Make the most of what you’ve got
For it’s better than to not have anything at all
Take each day as it’s your last
Or you’ll find the future’s passed as you’re left
With nothing at all

4. Angie Stone’s “No More Rain (In this Cloud)”

I admit it. Life hasn’t always been so peachy keen. It’s gotten a whole lot better. And Angie Stone’s neo-soul approach to life’s difficulties is nicely summed up in this song. But of all the lines, I just love it when she sings at the song’s beginning, “My sunshine has come/And I’m all cried out/And there’s no more rain in this cloud.” No matter how challenging life can be we have this choice to move out from under the clouds and to get some sun! A very good message for a Leo like me.

5. Cher’s “Love So High”

This is the song that means the most to me in my workout. It was two years ago when my mom passed away. I made a promise to her on her last birthday that I’d take care of myself. And while it has taken me all this time to make the effort to do it on my own terms, it’s finally happening. She’s the real inspiration behind this drive to get into shape. I’m sure Cher had Sonny in mind when she sang it, but when I hear it, in my own way, I think about Mom and how she loved me.

A love so high
I could reach out a touch the sky

I want my workouts to honor my mom and dad’s lives so that I can carry on their legacy and continue to do what I am on the planet to do. And in 30 minutes, I burn 360 calories, bringing this loving, meditative cardio workout to a cathartic full circle.

In just over a month, I’ve lost 8 pounds and am feeling great. As the rest of the weight loss happens, I’ll update my progress.

As an image consultant, it is very important to take this personal approach to share these anecdotal experiences, including the struggles of self-worth. The journey of self-improvement is a shared experience and should be celebrated. If you are going through such a transformative period, I honor your pathway.

Designing your image is the secret science to your success.

Joseph Rosenfeld helps professional men and corporate workgroups create effective visual brands. Visit JosephRosenfeld.com for details.

Ashkenazic Abs

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Life is such a journey. And so much of mine has been lived in fear. Especially when it comes to health. When I was 15 my father, who was barely 43, had a sudden and massive heart attack. In 15 seconds he was gone. By the time I was 37, I became an orphan after my mother’s vigorous seven-year cancer battle finally ended. With such odds, I felt like I should do as I did as a child: protect myself from the outside in. Being an appearance expert, I was able to use this as my own personal avoidance tactic.

But I made a promise to my mom in 2006. It was not a dying wish of hers. It was a birthday wish. It took me two years to honor this wish, but it is a wish fulfilled for her — and most of all me. I finally went to visit a doctor.

Helping people as I do, and because my own imperfections may be like a microcosm of the larger world around me, I have been working with a fantastic therapist for nearly the past two years since my mother passed. This amazing journey helped me see how much my deep connectedness to cultural Jewishness had contributed to certain ‘holding patterns’ in my behavior.

I would hold on to the feelings of victimization, old aggravations, grudges, and especially fears. This year has been all about conquering deeply personal fears and visiting the doctor to get a baseline on my health was facing the final frontier of my fears.

Fortunately, the news was hopeful. The cholesterol needs to be improved, but it can be done – my doctor thinks – by continuing with my good diet, and improved exercise. In fact, all ready in just 18 days since first visiting my doctor, I dropped five pounds. He wants me to drop a total of 27 pounds. I stand just 5’4″. Losing this weight is going to be very noticeable. In fact, just losing the five pounds has all ready made a physical difference.

My (Jewish) doctor told me I had an ‘Ashkenazic belly’. I think he probably didn’t realize just how much those words affected me given all the personal work I’ve done over these last two years. No longer did I want to feel like I was waiting for my personal Holocaust to begin. When would my heart attack happen? When would my bad news come? This is simply no way to live. So Ashkenazic belly be gone.

Several years ago, while living in Dallas, I faithfully worked out with a fantastic personal trainer named Rod Hensley. Rod always wanted me to keep up on cardio exercise, which I always felt was boring. I just wanted to train with weights. But now I see the value of cardio training more than ever. I remember having a conversation with a Jewish guy who knew I was working out with a trainer. He was a lawyer and was an avid golfer, as I recall. He made a comment then I never forgot. He said, “Jews aren’t supposed to have abs”.

And this brings me to the moral of this post. No matter what negative stuff you’ve been told in the past, let it go. If you’ve stored this kind of information for any reason, it should now be used for some positive purpose. I truly do believe in a holistic approach to self image improvement. But this approach does involve the entire body, inside and out. So I’m following my own advice, and hope you’ll do just the same. I’m going to get some Ashkenazic abs!

Designing your image is the secret science to your success.

Joseph Rosenfeld helps professional men and corporate workgroups create effective visual brands. Visit JosephRosenfeld.com for details.

Get Your GLOW on

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It’s been nearly a year now since joining an organization dedicated to supporting the goals of women business owners, entrepreneurs, and professionals. eWomenNetwork is, at it’s core, all about giving members access to one another. Access has created the spark for friendships, supportive partners, and even clients.

Access also brought “The GLOW Project” to me and I watched it with a preconceived question: As a man, will I connect with the messages of 15 women who had to fight their way through adversity. The answer came quickly. YES! I found it to be very moving. It was easy to connect with their experiences because life has not always been so easy for me either.

As a result of watching the movie, and after having the pleasure of interviewing Sandra Yancey, I wrote about this movie in my latest ‘Style’ column in Metro Silicon Valley. If you haven’t read it yet, you can read it here: The Power of GLOW

Consider this an opportunity to take some energy from my lit candle and light your own by sharing your thoughts about the article and your reactions to the film.

Designing and managing your image is the secret science of your success.

Joseph Rosenfeld helps professional men and corporate workgroups create effective visual brands. Visit JosephRosenfeld.com for details.

Grooming is Good

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Today I received an inquiry from a company interested in providing its employees a wardrobe and grooming seminar. It sounded like grooming is a sticking point for some in this company’s office. It’s not yet clear if the offending employees’ poor grooming habits are culturally based; or brought on by ignorance or laziness.

Hopefully the company will hire me because I want to help these employees develop better personal grooming standards and habits. It’s good to give everyone an overview, but the few employees with particularly poor habits should have some 1:1 time with me. It can be wounding for one worker to hear from a colleague that s/he has chronically bad breath, for example. It’s hard to recover when the employees work with each other daily.

Skills are a really important component to achieving success. But poor grooming habits are barriers to achieving success, regardless of the skill level. If someone can outgrow poor habits then it is possible to reach one’s full potential.

Designing and managing your image is the secret science of your success.

Joseph Rosenfeld helps professional men and corporate workgroups create effective visual brands. Visit JosephRosenfeld.com for details.

Exercise from the Inside Out

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I wrote a recent column that concluded with a suggestion to accept yourself as you are and that you reject trendy notions that don’t work for you. It’s a lofty resolution to kick off a new year. That may have been the end of that column, but it is only the beginning of a holistic approach to self-improvement. As gym memberships and sign-ups for diets spike at this time of the year, you may do well to heed some expert advice to prevent good intentions from morphing into a cliché.

Shane Esposito owns CORE Definitions in San Jose. As a private personal trainer, Shane puts an emphasis onnutrition counseling. He’s very fit, has a great smile and an unpretentious personality. If you’re serious about physical wellness, you may benefit from an enlightening conversation we recently had that made me see how there is a better way to care for the body.

Take a five-part approach to redefining your body. Combine smart nutrition with resistance training, flexibility development, cardio, and what he refers to as recovery.

“The word diet is a bad word because a diet is something you will eventually go off. You need to go from the diet idea to daily discipline.” He says that many people don’t eat enough of the right foods at each meal, and that people need to know how to properly portion their meals. The 1970’s ushered in the era of larger portions served with a side order of greater inactivity. Combine that with misinformation about what’s really healthy to eat, and you’ve got a recipe for nutritional chaos.

As an example, carrots, tomatoes and potatoes are high on the glycemic index, and as a result, each got a bad rap. However, they are actually very good foods because they are very low in calories and provide the body with glucose, which feeds brain function. Shane claims that “nothing is going to replace hard working good food” that comes from the earth and is filled with healthy nutrients, and cautions his clients on the use of expensive supplements.

Improving flexibility is important because it positively affects your overall good health. “If you can’t move it you can’t use it,” he says. If your hips and upper legs are stiff, you’re prone to having lower back pain. If your shoulders and neck are stiff, you’re likely to get nasty headaches. Forget for a moment about wanting to look hot. How good would it be to consistently have a tension-free body?

As for recovery, if you’re not getting seven to eight hours of sleep nightly, you’re body is not being given enough of a chance to eliminate waste. Also, your brain is not getting enough of an opportunity to produce serotonin and norepinephrine, both of which affect mood and energy levels, as well as to produce growth hormones and replenish cells. Esposito assures that, “the best energy drink is your bed.” Yum (or yawn).

Since clothing tends to fit tightest around the stomach, we tend to focus on wanting the elusive 6-pack abs. Shane insists that no diet or cardio program can give you what every fitness magazine promises on every single cover. Ah, those pesky fantasy moments! However, with a good exercise program you’ll first notice slenderizing along your cheekbones and neck. Moreover, you’ll lose weight from all areas of the body, especially from the inner thigh; upper chest; mid and lower back; and stomach; all of which are areas where most fat is stored.

It’s so important to remember that your body type dictates its potential physique. If your body type can yield the six-pack, more power to you and to your abdominal muscles. Whether you covet the covers of Self or Men’s Fitness magazines, or if you want those firm abs, sculpted calves, or pumped biceps, your personal trainer will be worth his or her weight in gold when they help you set realistic goals about what you can successfully achieve with a healthy nutritional and exercise program.

Shane advises that, “it’s better to have three mediocre workouts than one super hard workout,” and advocates slow, gradual changes to developing a successful exercise routine. He also points out that two types of goals go into devising a regimen that works for you. First there is a body goal that is all about making physical improvement, like increasing flexibility. The second goal is fitness, or performance, based, such as being able to bench-press a certain weight. But both goals have a very special component in common: they are about more than how you look; they are about how you feel physically and emotionally.

Your body is your temple. Be kind to yourself from the inside out.

Designing and managing your image is the secret science of your success.

Joseph Rosenfeld helps professional men, women, and corporate workgroups create effective visual brands. Visit JosephRosenfeld.com for details.

Thanksgiving

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If ever you’ve experienced a lapse in self-esteem, the holiday of Thanksgiving provides a great backdrop upon which to take stock of your image. And it costs you absolutely nothing to do so. When you consider what you are thankful for on this holiday, be sure to revel in all of who you are: your soul, your intelligence, and your whole body, from your hair follicles to your toenails.

The holidays can put so much pressure on us to be ‘perfect.’ It’s more important to communicate, behave and to dress for the best parts of who we are now and not become overwhelmed by our big, long term goals. It’s just like when our parents told us to put our ‘best foot forward.’

Last Thanksgiving my partner and I were in Chicago, enjoying the holiday with my sister, brother-in-law, stepfather, and mother. It was to be Mom’s last Thanksgiving, and her final night out. Close to death, she looked only at living. She could barely eat a morsel, but she managed a way of smiling and enjoying the moment.

I’ll always remember her energy, her spirit and her smile from that night. And a year after that Thanksgiving, I’m remembering and still learning from her shining example. At the end of her life, how she lived and loved herself encapsulates life’s fragility and its beauty.