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Yoda

Mary Lou Retton

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Just bought her "Gateway to Happiness" for $.01 on amazon. Good book.

 

Did you know that she had to have knee surgery 6 weeks before the 84 Olympics? The doctors told her to forget about competing, but she was determined to get back into shape not in 4 years, but in 4 weeks!! Pretty amazing. She visualized hitting her landings and exploding with happiness--the surgery made these visualizations sear into her mind and her body snapped back with a vengeance! Great story.

 

She also says that after she quit competition, she quit exercising and eating right and promptly gained a lot of weight. Just losing that weight felt harder than winning the gold, she said, but when she got in the swing of working out an hour a day of aerobics 5 days a week her weight and mood and eating got under control.

 

Her health tips:

 

workout in the morning 5 days a week to get it out of the way and to get a good buzz for the rest of the day.

 

drink tea for the antioxidants etc and take your vitamins

 

eat five small, healthy meals a day.

 

drink plenty of water

 

be bad on the weekends--blow off exercise and eat whatever

 

start very slowly and gradually on whatever exercise program you choose.

 

Don't take healthy living seriously--like brushing your teeth, it's just something you like to do and is beneficial.

 

-Yoda

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I read one book when I was in elementary school about Mary Lou. I pretty much only read books about gymnastics back then. I remember very little of the content. I do, however, remember her getting a perfect ten on the vault, and the expression of focus on her face before she began her approach.

 

She visualized hitting her landings and exploding with happiness--the surgery made these visualizations sear into her mind and her body snapped back with a vengeance!

 

This exact thing has helped me when I've been too sore to actually tumble! I will visualize myself doing a flip with perfect toes, perfect legs over and over again. It really does work!

 

She also says that after she quit competition, she quit exercising and eating right and promptly gained a lot of weight.

 

I've seen a lot of my favorite gymnasts in photos and interviews several years after they compete, and it's always the same. Their bodies are pure muscle when they are training and as soon as they stop it all turns to fat! I wonder if my body did that, just in a smaller dose hmm... <_< Would explain a few things...

 

Her health tips:

be bad on the weekends--blow off exercise and eat whatever

 

Wow, I could never take that approach again. I've tried to do routines like that in the past, and the weekends just stay with me on Monday, through to Tuesday, by Wednesday I'm disappointed in myself. I try to think of the weekends as just another day and stick to my routine of whatever... I guess partying would be ok ;)

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I'm giving her weekend idea a shot, but I'm not sure if that tip would work for most people as weekends are when most people have more time to take that long run or play tennis, etc. Maybe be bad on Th/Fri?

 

-Yoda

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