Total Energy Makeover UPDATE: Learning Mindfulness Through Simple Steps

Ashley Koff, RD set the winner of HuffPost Living's Total Energy Makeover up with a personal trainer to help her make more mindful, deliberate choices around fitness and food. She's actually having fun!
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Ashley Koff, RD paired me up with Pooja Mottl from Mindfully 21 to help shape my workout. Aside from yoga, I'm bored by my traditional cardio routine and welcome anything that will make it more exciting. I loved Pooja right away. She is super energetic, hilarious and smart about her passion for healthy living. Her company provides tools and awareness on healthy living through personal consulting sessions and through the site www.mindfully21.com. She introduced me to a few different exercises that I can do at home since my schedule doesn't always allow me to get to a gym.

So Pooja is teaching me how to rethink my approach to fitness and food, helping me make more mindful, deliberate choices that make healthy living super fun!

One of the things Pooja talks a lot about is how to mix up exercise and "engage my mind as I move." We've gone boxing and jumping on trampolines. Mostly, I've been distracted by how fun the activity is that I forget that I'm actually working out. She claims I'll see better results paying attention to how I move and enjoying it, as well. Like Ashley, Pooja encourages me to choose foods that are closest to their traditional, natural form, and by doing so that doesn't mean i have to compromise taste! I am still working on that ...

Here are some abdominal exercises Pooja introduced me to:
  • Lying leg raises with isolated holds
  • Lying leg walk-ups
  • Alternating scissor cross kicks
  • Medicine ball oblique twists
  • Standing weighted plate twists
  • Dumbbell side dips
  • Reverse crunches
Here are some hip and glute exercises:
  • Weighted kick-backs
  • Half-moon kick-backs
  • Bosu ball 1 leg bridge extensions
  • Plie squats and isolated holds

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