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So it's really funny because when I went to music therapy school (yes, you read this correctly) we did a lot of "toning" but it really had nothing whatsoever to do with our thighs.
Toning for singers or musicians or meditators is very much like chanting. What you do is you pick a note, or tone that is comfortable for you (well within your range without any type of strain) and you breathe, hold out the tone, breathe more, in a cycle of breathing and keep holding the note. You can make it louder or softer, more or less intense, according to how much breath you have and how it feels. What you are trying to do, essentially, is a type of meditation in which you're focusing your energy. The tone itself becomes the candle flame, in essence. It is the single point of focus, albeit expressed in vocal form. Your whole body vibrates with the tone, it brings you a sense of clarity and peace of mind. It's amazing, really.
In fact it's so amazing that I remember when we'd having toning as part of our assignment for graduate school I would take at least an extra half hour to an hour to work on it, so transformative was it, so relaxing, so spiritual.
So now, New Year's resolutions upon us, thighs chafing and teeth throbbing from ridiculous amounts of ingested sugar, I am to tone. Yet it is not the nice voice kind of toning, it is the legs, abs, arms, no-more-egg-nog type of toning and I just feel too tired.
I have Shape Ups, which I've written about here at empowHer, and they are my saving grace at the moment. Since I have a dog I have to walk every day and this is a blessing. Every time I feel too tired to tone I try to remember three things:
1. I really want to be able to wear a bathing suit this summer (more because I love the water than for vanity, but I'm no non-vanity person all the way through, either...);
2. Once I start walking or running or working out I feel so much better and, with me, exercise always comes before eating right -- I can't eat right unless I'm exercising and then I am really motivated; and
3. Exercise and toning the bodily muscles can and should be as enjoyable as that "other kind" of toning and if I think of working out my body as more of a meditation than a cruel type of torture where I can never feel adequate than perhaps it will be more enjoyable.
On the show "The Biggest Loser," which I adore, Jillian is always talking about changing a lifestyle and not changing a moment only. Since I am a day at a time alcoholic I can relate to this: Getting past the drinking is a commitment for a different life, a different lifestyle. Changing eating and exercise habits to become continually and ongoingly healthy is also a life and lifestyle change and, as I've come to realize, not very different from other types of addictive patterns of living. Every day I have to make the commitment to move, to tone, to stretch, to strengthen, to breathe and to eat broccoli.
The difficulty comes with the toning, because, as we know about alcohol and ice cream, if it's not in the house, you're probably not going to have much. But if you have to exercise than it's a bit of a different story: You are not just in avoidance mode, you are in proactive mode, which takes more energy. Energy which burns calories.
Sometimes I'm too tired and sometimes I'm just too resentful and sometimes those two things feel exactly the same. I don't, sometimes, see exercise as something "for me," I see it as a chore, like doing three pages of algebra. It's yucky, it makes me uncomfortable. But 45 minutes into it I feel fantastic and can't wait for my next workout, the shower is hotter than ever and my muscles feel, well, more toned. It's the remembering that is so difficult, and the breath it takes to hold the note.
Aimee Boyle is honored to be a regular contributor to empowHer and wishes everyone a safe and healthy new year.
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