Internal Dialogue, Baby Boomer Fitness - Jillian Michaels Podcast Summary - October 21, 2011

This week, Jillian and Janice discuss how our internal dialogues affect our perceptions of things that happen in our lives and how you can change your internal dialogue to be more positive and productive. Jillian talks about baby boomer fitness and whether relationships between people with different activity levels can work.

To listen to the weekly free podcast, visit the iTunes store and search for The Jillian Michaels Show.

Have you ever noticed a repeating pattern in your life? Sometimes our internal dialogue molds our behavior in such a way that our expectations become the reality. One example is from The Biggest Loser a few seasons ago, when mother-daughter team Miggy and Migdalia were on the show. Their expectation of feeling like it was "us against the world," which they'd formed from their history, created a situation in The Biggest Loser house that forced that perception into a reality, when it didn't really start that way.

One way to change patterns is to change your internal dialogue. Jillian has a lot of anxiety about one area of her life bringing her down and making her homeless. She lays in bed and worries. She's unable to appreciate what she does have and it makes her seem ungrateful. She's worried that a man may take something away and it will spiral out of control. It started with her father in childhood and continued with various people in her career. Instead of focusing on the positive things she has in her life, she worries about things falling apart. What's wrong with Jillian? Why can't she focus on the good things? As a kid, she felt that she was in a war with her father and at any point he could take everything away. She's still fighting that war in her head instead of dealing with the emotions of losing.

You can't selectively turn off emotions. You can't feel some things and no others. Think of it like anesthesia - you either feel pain or you don't. If you close yourself off, you are closed off to everything. You'll feel more alone and reclusive. Jillian says she's guilty of this. She'll think of the one bad thing instead of the hundreds of good things.

Even watching the news makes us focus on the negative, but we forget all of the cooperation that goes into modern life. Even driving requires a high level of cooperation - we have to have roads and rules we all (or most of us) follow. What causes this focus? It's your internal dialogue.

What's your internal dialogue? What's inhibiting your ability to focus on the positive things in your life? Really think about what makes you bitter and what in your life causes you to be affected by it. Then try to change your internal dialogue to avoid repeating the pattern. Stop and see what's real (not just what you're perceiving), what you can control, and think of the positive things.

Jillian is a huge supporter of So Delicious Coconut Milk (yummy in smoothies!) and Janice has to break the news to her that she's not on the carton in Canada. In the U.S., she is in a canopy chair shaped like a coconut on the carton. She immediately calls her business partner. He says he'll check on it. So, fear not Canadian Jillian fans - soon you may see Jillian on your cartons, too!

Janice still wants a coconut chair for Christmas.

Baby boomers, Jillian is looking out for you, even though you're not a huge component of her fan base. She tells us listeners to tell our parents what she says, since they're probably not listening to her (except her mom).

Here are Jillian's tips for Boomers:

1. Always make sure to warm up before you workout to avoid injury. Jill says at age 37, even she can't avoid this or she'll get hurt. She pulled a muscle moving a kayak a few days ago. Spend at least five minutes doing light cardio. Cold muscles are prone to injury. Elevating your body temperature with five minutes of light cardio makes your muscles more elastic. Stretching does not warm you up! You're still stretching something that's cold and can injure yourself. This is a general rule for everyone.

2. Take lessons. Learn the proper form for exercises and avoid injury.

3. Use proper gear. The worst violation - old shoes. Your body needs support. Shoes wear down and need to be replaced.

4. The 10% rule. When changing or increasing activity level, use a 10% increment level per week. Only increase activity by roughly 10% per week. This goes for time and weights. This gives your body time to adapt.

5. When you train a muscle, do not train that muscle again for 48 hours. Your muscles need time to repair themselves. A workout is like an injury. The recovery is where the muscles get stronger and rebuild. This will help you avoid real injuries.

6. Incorporate balance training and improving core strength into your routines. Practice standing on one foot at a time or tip toes for 15 second intervals. Plank poses will also help with developing your core and balance. Jill says yoga is good for baby boomers. We should all do this, but boomers in particular.

7. Do cardio for 30 minutes, five times a week. Golf doesn't count because it's not consistently aerobic. This will help you avoid being a weekend warrior and prone to injury.

8. Pain is a warning sign. Hurt so good is not the same as real pain.

9. Don't forget to stretch after your workout to also help with flexibility and balance.

10. Always check with your doctor, especially if you have a medical condition to work around.

Twenty-eight year old Jenn is very active physically and wants to know if she should date someone as physically active as she is. She asks Jillian if she's ever dated anyone less physically active than she is and if that worked.

Jillian says she's crazy for asking Jillian for relationship advice. Jillian says she's dated people that aren't health nuts. She also says she's not as active as she might seem - she uses a holistic approach and gets to the gym four to five days a week for thirty to forty-five minutes each day. She says she's dated someone who she didn't feel like that person took good care of himself or herself. It did create issues of separation and fear of loss and fear that she's have to take care of this person. It didn't work.

If you love exercise and being outdoors, then you probably don't want a significant other who watches TV all day long. You're going to want someone whose entertainment and activity level mirrors yours.

Lifestyle differences or changes can create a lot of issues in relationships. You have to figure out what your boundaries are and allow that to guide your choices in significant others.