Month: November 2013

Misc

Six Super Safety Tips

Kayla Goldwag

self-defense

Earlier this month we were treated to a fantastic self-defense workshop from Leslie Bockian.

Although you might have missed the opportunity for hands-on practice and entertaining, but practical self defense with everyday objects (including a pen, a toilet tank lid, and a flashlight), you can still up your odds of successfully avoiding being a victim by studying these Six Super Safety Tips!

Follow these easy strategies from Leslie Bockian to increase your security:

1.  PRACTICE BEING AWARE

The single most important idea for personal safety is awareness of your environment.  Every attacker, regardless of the type of crime, looks for the easiest possible target, and being able to take you by surprise gives the assailant a huge advantage.  The more alert and aware you are, the less likely a criminal will even try to target you.

2.  LISTEN TO YOUR INSTINCT

Trust your instinct.  If something just feels wrong – with a person, a location, a situation, etc. – something IS wrong.  You’re not imagining it, and you’re not being “paranoid.”  Don’t waste time trying to analyze exactly why you feel uneasy, just change the situation:  leave the area, move away from the individual, reschedule an appointment – whatever it takes to make the uncomfortable feeling go away.

3. BE MINDFUL OF YOUR BODY LANGUAGE

Make it a conscious practice to move with an air of confidence and a sense of purpose.  Attackers look for people whose body language looks weak, confused, off-balance, or distracted – in other words, an “easy target.”  Don’t let that be you.

4. MAINTAIN A SAFE SPACE

As much as possible, keep a cushion of open space around yourself. If an assailant can’t reach you or your belongings (cell phone, laptop, jewelry, purse, etc.), you are much safer. Keep in mind that attackers OFTEN use tricks to try to get too close to you, usually asking you for some kind of help (“Please, have you seen my missing child?  Here’s a picture!”).  Don’t let them use the fact that you’re a nice person as a way to harm you.  It’s OK to refuse to help if doing so will put you in danger.

5.  USE YOUR VOICE

Your voice is a wonderful self-defense tool.  You can yell “Fire!” to get attention; you can give the assailant a direct order (“Stop right there!”); you can yell a name to make the attacker think someone will be coming out to help you; you can even outwit an assailant.  You’ll hear amazing stories of these kinds of strategies in every self-defense workshop.

6. TAKE A SELF-DEFENSE CLASS

Being the victim of a violent crime disrupts someone’s life in a truly devastating way, and to a staggering degree.  Take a fun and convenient one-day women’s self-defense workshop!  Send Leslie your email address to be notified of the dates and times of upcoming classes (cspselfdefense@myway.com)

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Diet

Do you ever CHEAT?

Kayla Goldwag

chocolatecakeMy newest client this week was having a really productive session.  She was working hard, breaking through mental barriers about what she could physically do and doing great.   Then she looked at me incredulously and asked, “Do you ever cheat?”  I was taken aback.  I have found people share all kinds of personal info during a good sweaty workout, and not wanting to make any assumptions, I asked her to clarify what exactly she meant by cheat.

“I mean, eat cookies, cake, ice cream, chips, things like that…You know, cheat on your diet.”  Totally relieved she wasn’t confiding about her married life,  I answered “Oh, of course I eat cookies, cake and ice cream sometimes. In fact, I ate so much vanilla ice cream with each child, my husband exclaimed how astonished he was each one was born without a cone.”  “It was just about the only thing I could tolerate without gagging from morning sickness,” I confided.  We chuckled.  Then I got serious.

The thing is, I don’t consider it cheating.  I don’t even like the term “cheat food.”   If you live life on and off of a diet all the time then you have to make these kinds of black and white, good and bad distinctions and call eating high calorie nutrient-poor foods “cheating.”   The goal though is to make a healthy lifestyle, where you can incorporate all kinds of foods without having to feel like a bad person.  You simply work the food into your calorie allowance…and it can be done even if you don’t like to count calories.
For instance, I try to fill my days with a combination of proteins and carbs at each meal to keep my blood sugar stable throughout the day so I don’t crave sugary, salty high calorie foods.  When I want to eat a high calorie food like a piece of cake, I go ahead and enjoy some; a reasonable portion and I eat lower calorie more nutrient dense foods the other days.  For instance, a kale salad and tuna for lunch, instead of pizza on that day…and I do a little more exercise.  I try to keep it in balance.
That said, I’m not trying to look like a swimsuit model.  If I had to do that for my career, I would need to be a little more stringent in my diet and probably need to cultivate the ability to live with more deprivation.  For me and most of my current clients, we just need to live life in balance is all.  No cheating.