Bespoke Fitness for Achon Uganda: A charity event

I am asking for your help!  The first two weeks of October,  Studio DelCorpo will be hosting a number of special classes to raise money for my friend Mike Fee’s organization,  the Achon Uganda Children’s Fund.  I am asking a select few of the most talented instructors I know to join me in this effort; and I ask all of you to join in, have some fun, get a great workout, and be a hero. All we ask is that you donate $20 per class and 100% of the money we raise will go to Achon Uganda.

DelCorpo has supported other charities in the past, but this one is especially close to my heart.  The foundation was started the father of a very dear friend mine, Mike Fee.  Mike’s dad, Jim Fee and the Olympic runner Julius Achon founded this charitable organization in 2007 to fund and build the first and only medical facility in the small town of Awake in Northern Uganda—Achon’s hometown.

Sadly, Jim Fee, an avid cyclist, lost his life in a tragic bike accident.  Since then Mike succeeded his father and continues to spearhead fundraising efforts for this great cause. 

Studio DelCorpo is timing these classes to coincide with Mike’s own fundraising challenge:  In honor of what would have been Jim’s 70th birthday, Mike is going to ride his bike up and down his Dad’s favorite route, Mt. Diablo in California...7 times, hence the name of the event "7 for 70.”  This herculean task is estimated to take him 14 hours.

To find out more information about Mike's effort, Mike has set up a site at www.gofundme.com/7for70; (donations can be made there). You can read all about the foundation at achonugandachildren.org.

Many thanks for helping me help Mike, and the men, women and children of Awake, Uganda.  See you at our classes!

TO RESERVE YOUR SPOT, PLEASE RSVP TO: CHERYL@DELCORPO.COM.

BE A HERO:  JOIN US FOR AN AMAZING WORKOUT FOR AN AMAZING CAUSE

Sheer Will

Wiki defines willpower as “the unwavering strength of will to carry out one’s wishes.” Willpower is self-discipline, the training and control of oneself and one's conduct.

The 2011 book “Willpower: Rediscovering the Greatest Human Strength,” (by psychologist Roy F. Baumeister and New York Times science writer John Tierney) concluded that willpower is actually limited and depends on a continuous supply of the simple sugar glucose. When glucose is depleted, you fall prey to all your primal instincts…losing self-control and making bad choices.  The solution? “Try to get some glucose in you,” Mr. Tierney told NPR.

More recently studies actually demonstrated that willpower is more in our heads than in our blood sugar levels. When people actually believe that willpower is self-renewing, and limitless —“that when you’ve resisted one temptation, you can better resist the next one”, said the NYT — then people successfully exert more and more willpower.  It seems that self-control and self-discipline are self–perpetuating.

Willpower needs to be fueled and rested like a muscle.   It also needs to be exercised like a muscle.

Research has shown you can strengthen willpower through visualization:  if your goal is weight loss, preview your day around food, anticipate where issues may come up and plan on how you will deal with them.   If you have to go to a dinner party do not want to drink alcohol, plan out your evening without alcohol and visualize yourself drinking club soda.  Research shows those who think ahead and have mental images about how to deal are the ones who are successful.

Here are a few other key things about willpower (from Metabolic Effect):

1) Balanced blood sugar levels in the brain increase willpower, along with other cognitive functions, like decision-making.   Feed your brain with protein!

2) Take on big mentally draining tasks earlier in the day.

3) Realize that high stress days make your willpower tank run low.  Plan ahead for your stress, and plan on a strategy for how you are going to deal with your stress.  (Meditation, deep breathing, smiling, yoga, etc…)

Body change is often times about MIND change…“do we want to be a people who dismiss our weaknesses as unchangeable? “ Says Greg Walton (an assistant professor of psychology at Stanford).  

BRILLIANT.  EASY.  BESPOKE.