About

Welcome to Season 3 of the Body Wisdom Podcast with Dr. Michele. This season the podcast will be focusing on healthy habits. As your host, I’ll be recording solo episodes which will answer some of the most common questions I’m asked as a physician such as “how do I build a new habit?” "which habits are essential to get healthy again?" "what can I do to lose weight?" "how can I look and feel younger again?" "how can I start exercising again if I haven't done it in years?" and more. I will also be coaching patients and clients live on-air, and conducting interviews with other health & wellness experts. Of course, I am always open to new topic ideas, so if there is a topic you would like me to address or if there is a question you would like answered, please reach out. Email me directly at dr.michele.colon@gmail.com. Today Dr. Michele discusses "Movement, Breathing and Exercise." I hope you enjoy the show! About Dr. Michele: As a physician & surgeon, certified Ayurvedic and Autoimmune health coach, yoga/anatomy teacher, and overall health & wellness expert, Dr. Michele Summers Colon is an Advocate for Women's Health. Her passion is helping women help themselves to heal their body. She is the author of Body Wisdom: 10 Weeks to Transformation, the creator and host of the Body Wisdom with Dr. Michele Podcast, and the leader of the Body Wisdom Membership Program. She has been interviewed and quoted in many prominent publications including USA Today, US News & World Reports, Health Magazine, Yahoo! Makers, and Bloomberg BusinessWeek. One of Dr. Michele’s greatest strengths is her ability to help women create balanced, healthy lives by looking at the whole picture. She combines the best of Eastern and Western medicine to create individualized health & wellness plans for her patients and clients. For over 24 years, Dr. Michele has dedicated herself to maintaining a private medical practice and providing exceptional care to her patients while at the same time studying holisitic and integrative medicine. Dr. Michele believes that food is medicine and that yoga, Ayurveda, and meditation are the keys to perfect health. Dr. Michele has a Bachelor’s degree in Physiology from UCBerkeley, a Master’s degree in Biomedical Sciences and a Doctorate degree in Podiatry from Barry University, and graduated from a Foot & Ankle Surgical Residency in Los Angeles. Dr. Michele is also certified in Ayurvedic as well as Autoimmune Health Coaching, Yoga, Reiki, Reflexology, and Laser Therapy. Dr. Michele specializes in Yin Yoga, Restorative Yoga, and Therapeutic Yoga to provide the most healing, relaxation, and rejuvenation to her patients and clients. Dr. Michele has studied Ayurvedic Medicine extensively and has worked with some of the best practitioners throughout the United States to bring Ayurveda to the forefront of medicine. Combining yoga, Ayurveda, and meditation is one of Dr. Michele’s passions so that she can spread the word to as many people as possible that this is the path to perfect health. Show Notes: This season we are going to be talking about Healthy Habits so that we can feel younger and healthier. When it comes to getting your body moving, set things up the night before. Set your work out clothes where you’ll see them. Make it hard not to do the new behavior. When you’re highly motivated, maybe you can look up some exercise videos on youtube that you like, and you can save the ones you like. There are natural periods of low and high motivation. Do the hard things when you have high motivation. We don’t want to expect ourselves to be highly motivated. We don’t want to set ourselves up for failure, so do the super easy thing that sets you up as fail proof for each habit. We want to do baby steps for change. Make it so easy that you can’t say no. It is not about motivation; it is about the small changes sequenced right. We are lining up with nature’s rhythms to have better energy, better rest, and better eating habits. Ayurveda and exercise physiology: it’s important to exercise during the Kapha time of day because it’s the densest part of the day, so we will get less imbalances. If we don’t exercise during the strongest part of the day, then we don’t have enough prana and we get more imbalances. This is the time of day to get out of your sleepy body into your physical body. It’s important that we move 20 minutes a day before breakfast. How you move is less important. Daily Burn.com and other free fitness channels have many 15 minute workouts that you could try if you need some ideas or guidance on how to move your body. You’re going to create a pattern for the rest of your life. You can practice deep breathing (pranayama) first. It’s just 20 minutes, so that we can shift to fat metabolism for the whole day. It’s a non-negotiable. Right after drinking your water and eliminating, it is time to workout — before breakfast. It’s important to move your body before you put food in your body because your body will feel lighter and more energetic. Start with 1 minute. It will turn into 2 minutes. Then 5 minutes. Then 10 minutes. Then eventually 20 minutes. It could take a year to get there. That’s totally ok. If you’re a Vata, then your practice should give you the qualities that you want to feel for the rest of the day. Pittas don’t have any trouble with exercising, so this is an easy habit for them. For Kapha, your practice should leave you feeling light for the rest of the day (i.e. jumping). If you don't know your dosha, go online and take a quick dosha quiz to find out. Dr. Eric Grasser describes movement into 3 types: Hardening, Softening, and Cardio. And we have 3 body types: Vata, Pitta, and Kapha. We can also have 3 intensities of workouts: Easy, Medium, and Hard. We need balance between hardening, softening, and cardio as well as between easy, medium, and hard workouts. Softening practices increase flexibility, sensitivity, and integration; and they also connect prana (i.e. yoga, water sports, recovery for athletes). Hardening practices are strengthening and can invigorate prana (i.e. weight training, kettle bells, important for bone density and decreasing osteoporosis). Cardio practices increase coordination, oxygenation, and circulation (i.e. running). All 3 types of practices increase circulation. If there are no easy workouts mixed in, you are going to get injured eventually. Vatas: need more softening and more easy to moderate workouts because they have the least endurance and the most delicate structure. They can get injured easily if they overdo it. Pittas: they are very driven and like hard workouts. They need more moderate to easy and more cardio and softening. They get too much inflammation when they only do hardening and hard workouts. Kapha: they need hard, hardening, and cardio workouts. They can handle it even though they don’t want to do it. They also need stretching and softening workouts everyday. Tips to architect your environment for maximum exercise: Some things you can do during the day while you’re working is carry small weights or use ankle weights while you’re walking. You can have a small indoor trampeline in your house to jump on while you’re watching TV. You can also wear a fitbit to monitor your steps. Pulsation or Spanda: the more that you push yourself and then relax, the healthier you’re going to be. Nature is all about pulsation: winter/summer, hot/cold, etc. Exercising should be easy, easy, hard. It’s a cycle. We want to see diversity with our workouts and with our food. Pulsating movements during the day is very important! Do not sit for more than 90 minutes at a time when you’re working. Take movement breaks. Move around for 5 minutes. If you don’t do this already, do it in a Kaizen way. Sit while working for 30 minutes, and then take a 1 minute break. You will feel more vibrant and get better ideas. How do you think you can vary your workouts so that you are getting a good balance of softening/hardening/cardio and easy/medium/hard? Design your own exercises. They shouldn’t be boring or stagnant. Do you need to be outside more or inside more, do you need more cardio, stretching, jumping, or do you need a workout buddy or accountability partner? Make a weekly plan: It should include hard, medium, and easy practices. Mix up your workouts with running/walking/hiking, different classes like cross-fit and yoga, weight training, etc. Add stretching/foam rolling at the beginning of hardening practices. The more you like your workouts, the more you will look forward to it and the more likely you will be to stick to it. Don’t add in workouts that you know you won’t do. Remember to move throughout the day as well. Focus on 20 minutes in the morning, but also move during the day. Step away from the computer, move, breathe, even for a few seconds, it’s enough to connect the pranic body. Accountability partners are very helpful with workouts.  Visualization before going to bed is another good trigger. Visualize going running when you get up in the morning. Some people know they should exercise, but they don’t like it. For podcast listeners, I have created some awesome downloads to help you keep track of your daily workouts and build your habit of moving your body and your breath every day.  Click here for your Exercise Tip Sheet and Workout Charts.   Namaste, Dr. Michele ****************************** If there is a topic you would like me to address or if there is a question you would like answered, please reach out. Email me directly at dr.michele.colon@gmail.com or schedule a coaching call with me so we can dive deeper to find out what is going on and come up with a plan of action for you: drmichele.com/schedule Today’s show was brought to you by the Body Wisdom Membership Program. For more information, head on over to my website drmichele.com and click on the JOIN NOW or WORK WITH ME tab. All of the information is there about my group programs as well as 1:1 coaching. If you have questions about your health that you would like me to answer on air, you can email them to me or go to my website drmichele.com/get in touch to contact my team. If you have questions you’d like to discuss with me directly, sign up for a coaching call at drmichele.com/schedule.     Contact Information and Important Links for Dr. Michele: Dr. Michele can be found online or by email. Dr. Michele is currently accepting new 1:1 coaching clients as well as new members into her Body Wisdom Membership Program.  If you have questions about the Body Wisdom Membership Program or about how you can make lifestyles changes to improve your health, check out the Dr. Michele website or sign up for a coaching call with Dr. Michele here: drmichele.com/schedule Namaste, Dr. Michele Here's Where You Find Dr. Michele: website - drmichele.com email - dr.michele.colon@gmail.com twitter - @doctormichele facebook - @doctormichele instagram - @drmichele