Tracy Anderson on making (and keeping) healthy New Year's resolutions
Like clockwork, every time it strikes midnight on a new year, many people break out a list of resolutions they want to keep. But by mid-January, those goals might have gotten off track...or abandoned altogether.
Enter Tracy Anderson -- the fitness expert and creator of the Tracy Anderson Method who's worked with celebrities from Gywneth Paltrow to Jennifer Lopez -- to help reenergize your commitments for a better 2015. We caught up with Anderson recently at her New York City studio, where she shared her tips for making goals, sticking to them and why music such an important part of her workouts.
1. Have an honest conversation about the resolutions you're making. "[Resolutions are] about your relationship with yourself. It's not about reflecting on the person that hurt your feelings, or the person you think everybody thinks is beautiful, or the person you think has a perfect life," she said ahead of her Beats Hour of Power event with Beats by Dre. "I want people just to figure out where they feel like they're out of balance in their life, to really think about how they're going to connect to their most authentic balanced self. Have a real conversation with yourself and say, just real simple, 'Where am I out of balance, and what are my options to get there?' And then, 'What is the most difficult part of that for me -- that's going to be my resolution. Because that's going to be my promise to myself.'"
2. Know your options before committing to a fitness routine. "People need to understand their options, and they need to understand exactly what they want to get out of it," Anderson explained. "If you love to run, then run. If you hate your thighs and you're running, you need to figure out whether to love running more than you don't like the imbalance in your thighs -- you can't have both. If you care more about having a more balanced proportionate body, then you need to do something that will lend itself to that. Which is basically my workout [laughs]."
3. Hold yourself accountable. "Show up for yourself. If you're not gonna show up for yourself, you're not gonna show up for anyone else -- it literally creates a toxic life for yourself. Pretend you're taking care of a 1-year-old, or a 6-month-old, or a 2-year-old. You have that inside of you - we all have to take care of the kid inside of us if we want to lead our best life."
4. Commit to putting in the time. "We're programmed to think that we can't take that time for our bodies or we're going to lose out somewhere else -- I'm not gonna get the promotion, I'm not gonna get recognized...It's not about that. You've got to get the time in."
5. Let music move you. "I love music, I'm very powered by music in everything that I do," said Anderson. "I play a variety of music on purpose because something is going to strike an emotion in somebody else, as long as it's good music - say I play a country song, and you're like, 'I remember line dancing in college with some guy, I can do this for two more minutes,' and then a rap song comes on and you're like, 'Oh yeah, you know what? My friend didn't text me back after the fourth time I texted him, screw that person!' and then you're energized by anger a little bit more...and then it's like, 'Oh, here's a pop song that reminds me of being young.' So I like a variety of music that hits on people's emotions throughout the class and I play it very, very loud, because the more we hear the music and we're emotionally programmed to move to the music, emotions will come up that will drive us." (Head here to see the playlist Anderson created for the Hour of Power event.)
6. You can take inspiration from celebrities, but don't copy them. "[A celebrity] may play a doctor in a movie but they're not a doctor. Stay in your lane, go to people for your health, for your self-esteem, that know what they're talking about...Inspiration and aspiration are great, but I don't think that watching celebrity culture under a magnifying glass, like, "Oh this week this celebrity has this in their hand and they're putting it in their mouths, I'm going to do that, that person's pretty" -- it's such terrifying noise," she said, adding, "I think it's important for people to understand that it's great to have visual play, makeup, artistry in all of our lives, but to say that you want to be or look like someone else, is so self-sabotaging and damaging and it's not what's beautiful."