Ballet Beautiful: Transform Your Body and Gain the Strength, Grace and Focus of a Ballet Dancer (6 page)

The great news is that when you are clear about your goal, identify it, and then map out the steps to get you there, you learn to truly believe in your goal and you work hard to meet it. This is what success looks like—it’s the little things that you do every single day that impact the big picture and get you where you want to be.

True change doesn’t happen overnight and that’s okay! It’s always better to go a little more slowly and have the results really stick, especially when it comes to your health. I recommend crafting a realistic breakdown of markers in time—stay on track by thinking about where you want to be after two weeks, after one month, after three months, and after six months and beyond.

I’m not telling you to set your sights low—if there is one thing I hate to hear it is
Take it slow
or
Don’t aim too high
! Do not ever underestimate your brilliance, your capability, your smarts. And don’t let the limiting vision or point of view of others define your concept of yourself. Defy them and enjoy the process of meeting your Ballet Beautiful goals!

Here are some questions that may guide you in defining your goals:

1.
Is there an area of your body that you would like to transform?

2.
Is there an area of your body that you would like to strengthen or lengthen? (These two go hand in hand!)

3.
Do you have an ideal weight for your body type and general metabolism? If you’d like to lose weight, it’s important to be realistic. It’s safest and most successful to aim for one to two pounds a week. So if you want to lose 10 pounds, plan on achieving this in five weeks or more; if it’s 20 pounds you’d like to lose, plan on 10 weeks; and so on.

4.
Do you want to fit exercise into your daily life so that you will have more energy, develop more focus for work or projects during the day, and sleep better at night? Then it’s important to plan out and commit to your program, scheduling your Ballet Beautiful into your week.

You can have multiple goals at the same time. But it’s important to be clear on what those goals are and match specific actions to meet them. For some, making more than one change at once is overwhelming; others enjoy the intensity of making more global changes. It’s up to you—you know yourself best.

One of the most motivating features of the Ballet Beautiful program is its results! I have seen again and again how empowered and encouraged women feel when their bodies begin to lengthen and transform. I encourage my clients to commit at least three days a week to my program because that commitment allows enough time for the body to show real results in just a matter of weeks.

Gabrielle remarked, “I saw initial change after two to three weeks. I noticed that I was stronger and my body was tighter. After one month, I saw even more dramatic changes around my waist and hips. My entire center became more tight and toned, along with my inner thighs, butt, and hips—all areas I was missing with traditional exercise regimes. I had been spending so much time in the gym working out, but I never felt like I was getting anywhere. Suddenly, I was experiencing all of these changes in my body doing Ballet Beautiful just three days a week!”

Katherine also noticed fast changes and explained how these changes motivated her. “I think that the immediate changes you see with Ballet Beautiful pushes you harder. Seeing results in just two weeks of starting the program really propelled me to keep doing the workout. I’m not an avid exerciser by nature, so this was really encouraging!”

Jenna’s experience doing Ballet Beautiful was slightly different. As a tall, athletic powerhouse, she was looking for different changes:

“I love Ballet Beautiful. I feel that I’ve become a far more balanced person. My posture has definitely improved. I’ve been an athlete all my life, but I tend to add bulk very easily. Since starting the program, I see my muscles elongating. Ballet Beautiful allows for femininity without losing strength.”

Your goals will reflect your needs—and no one else’s!

Does this seem like a difficult question? It can stall the best of us. Many of us feel overwhelmed when we think about what we want, and that clouds our view as we try to answer this question. I think this question can be particularly difficult for women who are inclined to take care of others before themselves. Is your goal to be a better mom, wife, employee, artist, or boss? Or maybe you have a more basic physical goal of fitting into size 6 jeans. This isn’t selfish and it isn’t vain—it’s about valuing yourself and your vision! I bet if you take an in-depth look at that goal, you will find that your success in any of these roles is tied to your own health and personal happiness. Pause for a moment to consider the impact of your energy level, your health, and even your happiness on the life you want to lead. Sometimes a simple shift in perspective when it comes to goals is enough to see them through.

Do something for me:

•
Take a moment to think and clear your mind.

•
Enjoy this moment of calm and find joy in it!

•
Now try to name one aspect of your body (or behavior) that you wish to change.

•
Do you believe that this change is possible?

•
Let’s figure out a way to get you there!

These steps are a great way to get started with defining your goals. They don’t take the energy of meditation or any other kind of mindfulness practice. In fact, their simplicity is what makes them so powerful: the goal that is right for you will be very clear to you if you take the time to slow down and listen to yourself. Of course, there is no one way to center your mind and get better connected with your body. Meditation and breathing exercises can be effective routes, but sometimes this connection can happen a lot more easily by simply taking a moment to balance, to pause and define what you really want. This sets you up for ongoing positive energy and thoughts.

There are all sorts of situations that can derail us:

So how do you stay focused on your goal when life gets in the way? You keep an open mind and use the mindset that prioritizes being flexible, trying new things, and staying connected to the program.

One of my newer clients, a mom in her late thirties, had not worked out since her early twenties. “All of a sudden,” she found herself 15 pounds overweight and unable to either lose the weight or find time to exercise. “How do I get to a gym with a 16-month-old?” she asked me in quiet desperation.

In thinking rigidly about fitness and remembering her two-hour workouts at the gym and her course of diet and fitness as a type A undergraduate 15 years earlier, she couldn’t understand how she would ever be able to mesh her two divergent lives. Was it possible to merge those two lives? Sure. Was it necessary? No! My advice was to forget the gym for now and let go of her guilt about it. I helped her begin putting a program together that involved a few exercises from my 15-minute Ballet Beautiful Blast Series and a longer 60-minute workout on days when she had the time. She was thrilled to see her body begin to tighten and tone again for the first time in years, putting in just a couple of days a week. These changes inspired her to begin eating better and setting bigger goals.

In order to stay connected to your ultimate goal—living Ballet Beautifully—you need to stay focused on the goal that’s right in front of you. Many of the women doing
Ballet Beautiful use the community to help them stay focused; this connection to something larger than themselves also helps to reinforce their commitment to their goals. As Jenna remarked, “Everyone who does Ballet Beautiful has this great quality of understanding and accepting the emotional side of women, beauty, softness, while also being strong and opinionated.”

Katherine spoke about “plugging into the Ballet Beautiful community and support system” as a way to “embrace our differences—women that come together to do Ballet Beautiful are from all different backgrounds, different body types. That’s encouraging to me. It’s a safety net—we are in the trenches together working hard to achieve our own individual goals and dreams.”

As you will see in the upcoming pages, getting and staying connected to the Ballet Beautiful community will boost your confidence and your results! Sharing your Ballet Beautiful experience with others keeps you connected to your own goals and progress and tapped into the program in a way that is rewarding and fun.

To achieve even the loftiest of goals, you must employ a simple approach that comes down to steady, consistent work, every day. This is an important part of Ballet Beautiful. I’m not asking you to starve yourself, to consume only lemon juice and maple syrup for 10 days straight, or even to give up all dairy, sweets, coffee, and wine. But I am asking you to focus on yourself every day. That might be a 15-minute workout, or a 60-minute workout, or swapping out your nightly dessert for fresh fruit.

All you need to do is think about how you can take care of yourself, choose at least one thing to do from the program each day, and then focus on that.

Nicole shared how much Ballet Beautiful helped her gain balance in her nutrition. “I have always been very interested in nutrition, but there are a lot of mixed messages out there and it can get confusing. Doing Ballet Beautiful has enabled me to learn more about the importance of a healthy, balanced diet. Mary Helen’s approach makes it so simple by emphasizing health and nutrition, which is the way that I now choose to live
my life. I started not skipping breakfast even on mornings when I was busy or running late and eating more balanced whole foods. I wouldn’t even consider going on a diet today. I’m thinner, more relaxed and I feel healthier too.”

Take the time to make conscious choices until it doesn’t feel like work anymore and is just a part of your new life.

Whether your goal is to get into better shape for an upcoming event, go down a dress size, or simply shed extra weight that has been bothering you, it’s important to think of that goal as being buoyed by your mindset, the food that you eat, how often and how long you work out, and the support you create to help keep you focused and committed.

For instance, if your goal is to lose one pound in one week, what foods can you take out of your diet? What foods will you replace them with? Removing processed foods and white refined sugar from your diet is a great way to start. Take those two items out and you will probably lose more than one pound a week. You’ll also have more energy and better skin, and you’ll start sleeping better too.

Some women choose not to focus on weight loss as a goal but rather find it more motivating to feel better; they might define their goal as Katherine did—to substitute the whole milk in her latte with skim milk.

Still other women frame their goal around exercise: they commit to doing 60 minutes of Ballet Beautiful Blasts three times a week.

What’s amazing is that all these goals lead to the same results: a sleek, toned body that is much healthier and often a lot lighter.

Suzanne shared, “I wasn’t sure what I was looking for when I started. Certainly my body had changed a bit after my first pregnancy. I was hoping to find something that counterbalanced those changes, but in a positive, fun, uplifting way. I also knew that I needed to feel strong and healthy as I went into my second pregnancy. Not only did all those things happen, but I love my body in its entirety now! I feel so confident and strong!”

Katherine’s goal was to focus on the program itself and use its flexibility and accessibility to feel like she could attain her personal goals. “It’s not a scary commitment. It’s
neatly organized, even though it’s complex, which makes it easier to keep up with and a lot less intimidating.”

Is your goal to lose weight? Eat better? Feel better? Tone your body? You don’t need to name extreme goals to achieve your desired results. Keep the following in mind when you set your goals:

1.
Be realistic about the time frame. You cannot lose 10 pounds overnight. Give yourself a couple of weeks and put a program in place that will help you lose in a healthy way and keep the weight off.

2.
Think big but remember your pacing—small steps!

3.
Come up with your plan: decide what areas of your body you want to work on and how you may (or may not) change your eating plan, and then create a schedule to execute this plan.

4.
Envision the results—every day. This can be incredibly motivating and will empower your goal setting!

5.
Remember to be flexible and prepared for the unexpected! This will prove invaluable in keeping you on track. Find ways to reward yourself that are in line with your goals and support them!

You don’t need to overthink these steps; just keep it simple.