Be nice to everyone because anyone can change your life forever.

Do not abuse and do not put up with abuse. Always listen: decipher and decide what is worth hearing again.  Realize those who seem important are not.  Instead, spend your time with interesting and generous people (because they are important). Cherish anyone and anything that makes you laugh or think. Be honest because it is worse for the soul to lie than to be lied to. 

Experience sadness and then do everything you can to avoid it. Don’t give anyone a reason to dislike you, and accept that someone will dislike you anyway. Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow are inevitable and interchangeable- so instead of dwelling, experience and experiment.  Use every moment to connect to yourself and your surroundings, because future moments are never certain. 

Respect everything. Expect nothing. Dissect anything. Reject something.

As babies we move to learn. We move our eyes to look at the things that interest us. Move our hands to grab stuff and put it in our mouths (which in turn move to chew or to laugh or to scream). We learn how to roll, how to crawl, how to sit, how to climb, how to reach, and eventually how balance on our own two feet. No one wonders why babies move, they are just supposed to.

Since you stood up during that first year of your life what has moved you physically? Do you run? Ride a bike? Play sports? Dance? Spend time at the gym? At the pool? Walk your dog? If your definition of movement is more like standing up from your desk, or raising the remote towards the television, or tapping your thumbs over a cell phone or videogame controller maybe you’re missing out on an important aspect of our human nature-the miraculous ability to move our bodies.

When you break it down, movement is a pretty complicated thing. It begins as an impulse in our brain-we think “bend the right knee” and that idea travels down our spinal cord, contracts the stabilizing muscles of the core, relaxes all four quadriceps muscles, and contracts all three hamstring muscles. All while leaving the rest of the body relatively unaffected. The whole process repeats (although relaxing and contracting the opposite muscle groups) to straighten the knee again. If you want to walk, sit, climb the stairs, or kick something you’ll need to bend your knee-so I wouldn’t take any part of that movement for granted. And guess what? There are over 200 joints similar to the knee in your body that can and want to move.

Ever heard the phrase move it or lose it? They weren’t joking. As we age our bodies naturally lose flexibility and accumulate tension. Our bad habits change our body-in appearance and function, and can even change the way our bones grow.

It is never too late to start moving. Every movement you make requires your body AND your brain to activate-so get healthier and smarter today and join what I like to call the movement movement.

some movements I think everyone should do everyday:
-Inhale as deeply and fully as you can. Exhale the same way.
-try to touch the ceiling with your fingertips
-write the alphabet with an imaginary paintbrush attached to your nose
-try to touch your toes without bending your knees

Have you found a way to move everyday? Post it here to inspire others! 

It would be an understatement to say that I was excited for Part 1 of this movie to premiere. About 2 years ago, I read Atlas Shrugged and it absolutely changed the way I think.  I recommend the book to anyone who will listen, but it is literally impossible to read without time, dedication, a thesaurus and some experience with philosophical text. She is longwinded, overly detailed, and at times downright boring. The fact that most people don’t even have the attention span for the Harry Potter series, did not give me a lot of hope that anyone would actually take me up on reading (and furthermore finishing) Atlas Shrugged. Hence my excitement for the movie: finally a chance for everyone to hear Ayn’s philosophy of Objectivism!  So on Friday, I drug my husband and our most politically-minded friend to see Part 1, and knew immediately that this movie was a farce, because the directors, writers, whomever, made the most critical error of setting the story in the future.

Ayn Rand’s work needs to be examined in the context of the late 1950’s when it was published. Her subject matter revolves around the innovation of metal and oil, the equal opportunity of women, and the astounding communication offered by the radio. Obviously examining those topics in the year 2016 is disorienting. If the protagonists actually had access to iPhones, the story would have been so much different.

Outdated as she may be, even in the late 1950’s Rand was hinting towards human innovations (such as the atmospheric motor) that would lead to cleaner and more efficient energy- the reason that oil tycoon Ellis Wyatt was such a strange character in the “futuristic” version of Atlas Shrugged. I am sure we can all agree that the topic of oil has changed drastically from 1957 to 2011. The fuel of the Industrial Age is no longer efficient, or even realistic. Ellis Wyatt (1957) was moving the world, Ellis Wyatt (2016) is draining it. If Rand was writing in the Information Age, Wyatt would have been working for Microsoft, not Exxon. 

It is also important to understand that “Shrugged” is about the transformation of the protagonists. Part 1 (or Non-Contradiction as it is called in the novel) simply introduces them: high-powered innovative business people sick of being exploited by the “needy”.  Because of this theme, when I first began reading AS, my parent’s response was “Hooray! You actually are a Republican!”. Well, sorry Mom and Dad, I’m really not. Rand was not talking about “conservative economic policy” as we know it.  As one continues through parts 2 and 3, one realizes that her political manifesto was truly about the corruption of the dollar.

In a most eye-opening speech made in the novel (and ignored in the movie), Francisco D’Anconia, suggests that it is not money that is the root of all evil, but the love of money that is the root of all evil. His point is that money is nothing but a symbol of human innovation: a tactile tool used to trade the commodities of the human mind, body and spirit. For example, as a Pilates student, you pay me money for my expertise, knowledge, and time because money is a payment I accept. For future reference, I would also accept any kind of barter for YOUR expertise (cooking, drumming, swimming, skiing, sewing, gardening, etc). Money can buy these lessons, but so can your human innovation. If you are confused, go back and read this paragraph again (something you would have to do multiple times during Rand’s version of d’Anconia’s speech). The corruption of the dollar occurred when people’s motivation and production were no longer for knowledge and innovation but simply FOR money. It is no longer our goal as a society to learn, develop, and share our work with others, it is our goal to put in hours and leave with a paycheck.  According to d’Anconia, and reiterated by me, money as a symbol is not evil, but money as a passion most certainly is. Throughout her novel, Rand implies that “money as a passion” is what is destroying the world. Instead of being productive humans, everyone is just complaining that they are poor (something that could easily be extrapolated to today’s society). However, if we take the power out of money, there is nothing to complain about. Bring economics back to supply and demand: have something worth trading for something you need.

I think that Rand predicted our 21^st century society by talking about the corruption of the dollar. Our society does not see money as a symbol: it is our way of life. She had the foresight to envision the evil of the corporation that profited off of other’s hard work, the evil of an overstretched government able to write legislation for it’s own profit, and the evil of the looter who, having nothing, lives off the profits of others. I think that Rand would be turning in her grave knowing that the socially backwards Tea Party is supporting her work, and downright clawing herself out knowing some Hollywood movie producer is making a profit by defiling it.

FINALLY! THIS FRIDAY! ATLAS SHRUGGED!

As a member of the fitness industry, I see people everyday who are looking to make a change towards living a healthier lifestyle. While it is wonderful that people are motivated to start exercising, eating right and losing weight, I think the expectation that a healthy life is an easy feat is unrealistic. However, dear readers, there is no need to be discouraged! Small steps in the right direction make it easy to begin a lifelong healthy journey any time you want.

Our society’s habits for both diet and exercise are worse than we know, and there is absolutely no “quick-fix” or “short-term solution” that will create a healthy body, a healthy mind or a healthy lifestyle. Rather, it takes discipline, time and constant re-evaluation of one’s needs to experience the results of living well.  Here are some quick tips to begin your healthy journey that I like to share with my clients, and anyone else who will listen!

Eat at home. Fast food and restaurant food is a treat, not nutrition. These meals are loaded with unnecessary fat and calories that clog our arteries and our colons, all while draining our wallets. Eat out for fun, not out of habit. That way your body knows you are feasting and not just eating. Think it is too inconvenient to eat from home? There is no way that a fast food burger and soda is any faster or cheaper than good ol’ peanut butter and jelly on grainy bread with water or milk. 
Guidelines: Plan your meals ahead of time, so you cook when you can and have quick snacks or leftovers stocked for when you can’t. Craving that ______? Make it a Friday night tradition to eat anything you want. It will be more enjoyable if you have to wait for it.  

Shop smarter. Read nutritional labels on everything you buy! Fewer ingredients with fewer syllables are always better-if it doesn’t sound like food, it probably isn’t. Knowing what is in what you eat gives you the power to make better decisions about nutrition. Remember, companies pay for marketing, so when they slap a label like “no trans fats” on their product it is probably true, but it doesn’t mean their product isn’t loaded with other bad stuff like salt, fat, dyes or preservatives.
Guidelines: Watch out for added sugar- high fructose corn syrup, splenda, whatever. Try and keep your added sugar intake below 40g/ day. Also, check all foods (even sweet ones!) for sodium. Grams of sodium should never be greater than total calories.  

Move. Exercise does not mean calories burned or iron pumped. Our bodies simply respond the the old adage: move it or lose it. Find any form of exercise (walking the dog, swimming, cleaning the house, Pilates) that you ENJOY and try and do it as often as possible. Anything is better than nothing. When you are feeling inspired..try something new and challenging! 
Guidelines: Find some local group classes that you find interesting. Meeting people with similar goals helps you to stay motivated and track your progress, and you never know when you will make a new friend! Also, buy a pedometer, simply trying to walk more steps than you did yesterday will catalyze a more active lifestyle.

Move every day.

Move slowly. Move swiftly. Move with grace.

Move consciously. Move together. Move with purpose.

Move geographically. Move socially. Move politically. Move spiritually.

Move up and move down. Move right and move left. Move in multiple orbits.

Move forward. Move over. Move in. Move on.

Move for your body.

Move for your mind.

Move in ways that move the soul.