Coaching by G

Patterns, Can You See?

Patterns, can you see?

Several months ago during the first cohort of my digital course, Fit From Within,

https://fitfromwithin.teachable.com/p/fit-from-within 

a client in the course who has been a client of mine in some capacity on and off for over 15 years, reminded me that I used to have a fitness class that everyone loved.  We laughed a lot and worked hard.  I love the format of that class and it was all body weight work.  We had no objects to use, just our bodies.  We sweated and we laughed and we stretched.  We wove our way to the mat to find savasana, finally.  We rested after we worked. We allowed the joy of movement to sink into our minds, our bodies and our spirits, through a very intentional resting pose.

I recently resurrected the class and have been offering a version of it to current members at my gym on Saturdays at 9 AM. (Just show up with $25 cash if you want to join us!)

It is different now because we add weights and because I don’t do the workout with everyone, which, maybe I should? 

I am open to developing a meaningful community experience.

During class last week, someone brought up astrology (could have been me) and I was explaining what little I know about rising signs, how it can help us know our motivations, and another person commented “its all hooey”.

That sort of unsolicited negative energy is not only unwelcome, it is disturbing.

I truly don’t care if a person believes in astrology.  What I know is that astrology offers a mirror in which we can see ourselves and any person who is reluctant to look in the mirror will have a negative approach to not only astrology but to most things. Astrology offers a snapshot of the stars the moment we take our first breath.  When you were born, the stars aligned. Famed Astrologer, Chani Nicholas says:

  • “The First Key: Your Sun (Your Life’s Purpose)
  • The Second Key: Your Moon (Your Physical and Emotional Needs)
  • The Third Key: Your Ascendant and Its Ruler (Your Motivation for Life and the Steersperson of Your Ship)”

You can go to her website to download your birth chart. www.chaninicholas.com

The earth revolves around the sun.  The moon mirrors the sun and reflects its light.  The ocean is pushed and pulled through by gravitational force of the moon.  If you imagine that the ocean is affected by the moon, but you are not, what do you even mean? The menstrual cycle is a moon cycle.  Every single thing in our universe is affected by gravity and the moon and the sun.  Except you?

You needn’t believe in anything.  You can go on assuming that you have no purpose on earth. It seems to me, though,  that each of us is not here by accident.  How is it that you can look up at the stars and see constellations, patterns, year after year, even when stars die or burn up, the constellations go on forever and ever.  How is that sort of order an accident?  Why is it that most people identify with their horoscope in some way?  Most people find solace in feeling understood and in finding ways to understand themselves better in relationship with the universe.  But, clearly, some people do not.

I find human behavior, like astrology, fascinating.  I am curious about people.  I like to understand how everything works, hence I earned my PhD in Biochemistry/Chemistry. I am a student of nature and so I look to the natural world for understanding.  I love to garden and learn my land and the things it grows.  Ever heard of fractals? Repeating patterns in nature.  They are everywhere from ferns to sunflowers to nautilus shells, to lungs.  The lungs are a great example of fractals.  It you look at the pattern of the capillaries in lungs they are just repetitive patterns, like tree branches.  The physical world precisely represents the emotional, mental, and spiritual worlds.  As above so below.  A person can only project their insides outward. 

Thich Nhat Hanh told a story about a monk wishing to meditate away from others.  He takes a boat and goes to the middle of a lake. He closes his eyes and begins to meditate.  After a few hours of uninterrupted silence, he suddenly feels and hears a bumping of another boat hitting his.

He keeps on with his practice, with his eyes still closed, slightly disturbed though by the interruption of silence. He then feels the bump again. Now, his thoughts rise and an irritation stirs within him. His anger rises to the point that he cannot contain it any longer. He is ready to shout at the boatman “who dares to disturb my meditation!”

However, when he opens his eyes, all that he sees is an empty boat, just floating in the middle of the lake…   At that moment, the monk achieves self-realization and understands that anger is within him; it simply needs to hit an external object to provoke it.

After that, whenever the monk met someone or something that irritated or provoked his anger, he remembered: “Its just an empty boat…The anger is inside me.”

Anyway—like I said, I don’t care what you believe in.  When you share your insides, though, consider what you are revealing?  You don’t have to hold on to that pain any longer and you don’t have to walk with that pain alone. And, you do not have to use my space as a hard object to provoke your anger. 

We are all here to awaken from the illusion of our separateness. 

If you want to discover your own patterns, to look at yourself in new ways and to discover your own true nature, join me in my life’s work. I help people make the great journey of no distance from their head to their heart. My digital course Fit From Within is a course I developed through my years of learning and healing myself.  Fit From Within offers practical wisdom and deep compassionate enquiry as a means of self discovery and finding ones own path forward.

I love to help people put down their past pains, open their hearts to healing, and discover the gifts they have to give the world.  

Join me LIVE for 2 hour workshops delving into the material in my course. The workshops are designed as a companion, an enrichment, to the course, not a substitution. 

Saturdays 2-4 pm at 48 Lake Street, Oak Park, IL 60302    

https://coachingbyg.pike13.com/pack_products/855835

To purchase the full course click the link below.  

https://fitfromwithin.teachable.com/p/fit-from-within

Fit From Within is not just about external goals; it’s about shifting your relationship with yourself. 

Throughout our journey, you’ll have access to:

✔️ Four self paced modules containing video lessons, practices, tools and guidance to put into action.

✔️ 2 Seasons a year Giulia leads 4 live group calls to support integration. *Calls will be recorded and available for replaying.

✔️ Lifetime Access so you can revisit the training materials again and again.

✔️ Downloadable Fit Sheets to track your progress and witness your personal growth.

✔️ Bonus Module: The Ease of Preparing Nourishing Food.

As you commit to the process, you will unlock the potential within yourself and witness the profound impact of your dedication and determination. Remember, the true transformation lies in the commitment you make to yourself.

Sandeep a Testimonial

Sandeep - A testimonal

How I transformed my body and mind with the help of Coach G

I started working with Coach G a little over a year ago after a good friend of mine
suggested that I give it a try. In that time, I’ve learned a great deal about myself,
both physically, and mentally, and with Giulia‘s guidance about the importance of
nutrition, as well as the spiritual journey that we are all on to be the best version
of ourselves. I will admit, when I first started, I expected to get ripped in 4 to 6
weeks and then go on my merry way, indulging in the bad habits that I had
settled into after many years.

Drinking, eating indiscriminately, ignoring sleep, all while competing, started to break me down. I was exhausted, and my body hurt all over– my back, achilles, and shoulders. I had tendinitis seemingly everywhere. I had actually convinced myself that this is the only way forward, the playing my sport requires playing through pain, I just need to tough it out.
My sport wasn’t making me stronger. It was breaking me down along with my list of bad habits. My “warrior“ mentality was leading me down a path of attrition.

Giulia quickly made me understand that my body was screaming at me “I’m hurting for a reason, do something about it or else I’ll just keep hurting.“ She taught me how to observe my pain and be with it versus ignoring pain and prolonging it. Big difference! Step one consisted of understanding nutrition and how that affects performance. Simple things like macros, drinking enough water, salt balance, protein intake, etc. is really the platform from which to build on. I noticed the days that were out of balance on the nutritional side were always harder lifting days. The more I paid attention to what I put in my body, the better I could perform. She helped break nutrition down so it makes sense to me.

Step two for me has been reforming my self image to one based on self-respect. This body is the only possession we have that will carry us through life. Giulia helped me realize there’s no limit to the amount of strength you need to get
through it. It’s all good. She’s helped break down the many myths about lifting weights and is helping me see the simplicity, elegance, and efficiency of Olympic weightlifting and free weights. Only I can be my own protector and I must respect
my own body to do that. I’m starting to form a self image based on self-respect. Step three has been understanding the nexus between spiritual growth and its physical manifestations. Giulia is an ardent believer that our physical selves are
just an extension of our spiritual existence. It’s hard to argue that when you boil it all down. This has caused me to question what is really going on inside that leads to destructive behaviors. I’m actually OK with having some fun, I’m no monk, nor do I really want to be, but it’s been more important for me to see why I take it too far and kind of just sit with it, now.

The last step is the physical one. The actual lifting of weights, the strain and exhaustive process of building muscle. At 46 it takes me longer to build muscle and faster to lose it. I’ve really had to learn about this process from scratch. When she first had me get into a front rack position, I was like “WTF, I can’t do this.“ And I really couldn’t! G has a penchant for quickly understanding where someone is, physically. I’ve never seen anyone with her level of understanding of strength, conditioning, and
performance. It’s not academic but experience.

It sets her apart.

There’s so much for me to learn, and I’m humbled by how much there is to it. Like perfecting my stroke in my sport, the Olympic lifts have their own “strokes“ and I’m having fun learning a new thing. I feel like a student, and that super charges me. All of this is to say, sure my body is stronger, (much more so!), and my kids and my wife feel up my muscles (I make them! :), but in some way, it all feels like a fringe benefit of this journey I am on. Maybe it’s my “midlife crisis“ but if that crisis is simply showing me the importance of taking care of myself, so be it.

Gone are the daily aches and pains and the dread of competing through it. I’m grateful to G for believing in me and grateful to my family for encouraging me.

I’ll be better for it.
❤️Sandeep.

sandeep signature

Client Spotlight: Cat B.

I’ve been working with Giulia for around 9 months now, and I’m so grateful to have her in my life. We’ve never even met in person! Though we’re based in different states, we meet weekly via Zoom, and I always look forward to our appointments. Even over the phone, Giulia’s enthusiasm for life is contagious, even – or perhaps especially – on those days when I’d rather go crawl in a hole. After a bad day or a bad week, one hour with her is like fueling up at the gas station, giving me a boost of energy to help me climb back out of my hole and continue on my journey. (more…)

Client Spotlight: Sarah Katz

“Both my parents were athletes, my mother a triathlete and my father a football/rugby player. I have always been an active kid, however, I didn’t really get into sports until middle and high school. I did things like ballet and gymnastics, was “encouraged” to quit basketball and soccer in second grade because of my lack of engagement and coordination, and got DQ’ed from a swim race when I did TOPS swimming for doing butterfly style wrong. (more…)

Client Spotlight: Alice Campbell

“I honestly don’t know where I would be without Coach G’s programming. I have struggled with body image my entire life, exercising to an unhealthy amount and unhealthy diets, but her program has helped me rebuild my relationship with exercise and has made me realize that being stronger is so much better than being unhealthily thin. (more…)

Client Spotlight: Mike Collins

“Needless to say, these are trying times in every facet of our lives. Feeling cooped up is the exact opposite of spreading our wings. Thankfully, I’ve had my daily workout programming from Giulia. Not only does it remind me over the day to be healthy with my sleep and eating, but workouts themselves, even when Giulia has had to creatively program using my at-home equipment (a chair, a backpack, and my own body weight!), I’ve gotten in some great sweats! Want to forget about the state of the world for a while? Try wall sits. It’ll be difficult to think of anything but “the burn” in your quads! (more…)

Client Spotlight: Bryan Cheung

bryan-cheung

I was finally getting back to a regular schedule when it all started to change. I was working out 5 days a week, eating better, balancing work, it was all coming together. But then COVID-19 happened. First the schools closed, then companies shifted their employees to work from home, and finally all business, including both my gyms, were closed. That last one sucked. How am I going to keep improving without a place to get my squats, and deadlifts, and power cleans in?  (more…)

Client Spotlight: Michelangelo D’Agostino

“Giulia’s training is invaluable to me, especially during this time when we’re all stuck in our houses. She creates custom, at-home workouts for me that I know I would never put together myself. And she holds me accountable when I think that I’m too busy or too tired to do them. G’s training is going to help me get through this.” – Michelangelo D’Agostino

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