Tosca Reno Interview: Mindful Practice to Improve Performance

A few weeks ago I had the pleasure of interviewing Tosca Reno of the highly acclaimed The Eat Clean Diet. I personally know people who have literally changed their lives using her program. Her model of eating is completely in line with everything I believe to be true about using food to maximize vibrant health.

For those of you who don’t know, Tosca is an incredibly successful author best known for the Eat-Clean Diet® series. She has appeared on numerous national television and radio programs. Tosca is also a motivational speaker and wellness consultant, media personality, and model.

Without further ado, please enjoy her insights about health and fitness…

1. In what ways do you incorporate mindfulness and/or visualization techniques when exercising?

Staying focused is important during any workout, be it cardio or strength training. I make a point to stay mindful about what I’m asking my body to do. When I’m training, I focus on my muscle as I lift a weight up and bring it back down again. I try not to think about anything else during that time. I call this putting my mind into my muscle and it improves my performance.

2. Do you have any preferred breathing techniques that you use while strength training?

To go by the book you should breathe on every rep, inhaling on the downward (easy) part and exhaling on the lifting (harder) part. But this isn’t something you need to worry about too much. Exercising muscles need more oxygen, so as long as you remember to breathe, you’re good.

3. Do you meditate or have friends who meditate? What do you know about it? What is your feeling about it?

I don’t meditate regularly in the traditional sense but I do take quiet time for myself every day to relax my mind and experience a moment of calm. It’s invigorating! Of course when I do yoga that time is all mine and I find I become very quiet and centered. It helps to calm me down.

4. Do you practice yoga or have friends who practice? What do you know about it? What is your feeling about it?

My daughter introduced me to yoga and although I don’t practice regularly, I love it. It’s a wonderful activity for stress reduction, and it always improves strength and flexibility. I find when I practice yoga at least twice a week I feel more fluid and relaxed, somehow better balanced.

5. What do you think the future of fitness and wellness is going? What trends do you see happening, and which ones should we avoid and which ones should we gravitate more towards?

The future of wellness and fitness seems to be heading in opposite directions in extremes. On one hand, obesity is a rapidly growing global epidemic, especially in children. On the other hand, more people are self-educating themselves on fitness and healthy food choices. Organic and health food stores are popping up everywhere, and more and more people are making physical activity part of their everyday lifestyle. I’m happy to say that Eating Clean is becoming more popular with every passing month – even celebrities such as Angelina Jolie (according to US Weekly magazine) say they Eat Clean to stay healthy and beautiful.

6. What is the latest goings on with you and your professional pursuits? Personal pursuits?

I had a new book that came out in September, titled Your Best Body Now and published by Harlequin. I also have a couple of brand new Eat-Clean books in the works. As for my personal pursuits, I’m training for the GoodLife Fitness half-marathon which is being held in Toronto this October. A group of us at Robert Kennedy Publishing are running to raise money for the Canadian Diabetes Association.

For information about Tosca Reno please visit her website ToscaReno.com

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About Author

Chris Willitts is an entrepreneur and student at the University of Michigan. One of his concentrations in academia is consciousness studies.

Chris founded Mindful Muscle – an online initiative that advocates mindfulness practices and believes these practices can revolutionize day-to-day living in modern societies, which can play a crucial role in elevating our collective consciousness, health, and human potentiality. For almost 10 years prior to Mindful Muscle, he was busy developing various other Internet ventures.

Be sure to check out Mindful Muscle’s philosophy about mindfulness and self-cultivation www.mindfulmuscle.com

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