Tola Talks is back on the air…this time it’s more personal and more poignant. Subscribe to receive weekly episodes on YouTube.com/TolaTalks.
Have an awesome day everyone, and get your workout in! Peace – R
New! How to Drink from the Fountain of Youth
Look! It’s a book, it’s a plane, it’s a journal. Wait, it’s definitely not a plane, but yes, it’s both a book and a journal.
With dozens of extra pages for Notes and Journaling as well as for memorializing your Dreams, Actions and Small Victories, How to Drink from the Fountain of Youth: 30 Steps to Everlasting Youth is an inspiring “how-to manifesto” about drinking from the mythical fountain – like I do – that keeps on manifesting long after you’ve read it. There’s also a 50-word Glossary making it perfect for any age, albeit I wrote it for the mature adolescent on up.
This book is ideal anyone looking to lose weight, feel more energized, be more confident, define their personal goals and aspirations, plus grow mentally as well as improve their entire outlook on life. It’s also for aspiring Millennials still searching for their calling, and for Baby Boomers who finally have the money but not the motivation to pursue their passion.
Click the cover below to buy it on Amazon for $12 USD – Made in the USA. Thanks for reading everyone, and get your workout in! Peace – R
The Proof is in the Pudding…Always
When it comes to anything in life, this 14th Century idiom says it all:
The Proof is in the Pudding. Meaning, the end result is the mark of the success or failure of one’s efforts or planning. Simply put, check it out for yourself and you be the judge.
The same goes for the secrets of my “youthful” success…coming this week! Have an awesome day everyone, and get your workout in. Peace – R
Step it Up…When We’re Down
I don’t know about you, but I’ve definitely been stepping it up with a few projects about to bloom, even during these “up-and-down-again” pandemic times. Gotta do it. Keep moving forward that is, when you have the time to make good use of your time, with actions and small victories.
With our recent setback, feels like a swimmer on the starting block who takes off only to be whistled back for a false start. I should know, I swam competitively as a child and for two years in high school, and no doubt getting called back sucks. That’s right, and it goes like this; you make a great start off the block, or so you think – and hope – the official didn’t catch you leaving early, then your heart skips a beat when you hear that whistle blow and you know it’s you. Now you swim back, pull yourself outta the pool, pull yourself together, then get set again. But this time you’re a little more cautious so you don’t get another false-start, and thus, get knocked outta the race.
Sound familiar?
For those of us in LA and anyone else who’s been told to lockdown – yet again – that swimmer is us. But we gotta stay positive and keep rockin’ our worlds.
No matter what.
And rather than bore you with my June Exercise Report Card – as you can imagine, it’s the same as the two months prior with some actual gym time in there, albeit not nearly enough, I’ve also been getting ready to publish my next book (woohoo!) as well as re-launch Tola Talks (podcast + on youtube.com/tolatalks).
We’re just two weeks away from the R &R, release and relaunch, so I won’t give any more away other than my next book is about Everlasting Youth and is definitely a one-of-a-kind creation. And the talk show is, well, ditto.
Have an awesome July everyone, and get your workout in! Peace – R
Self-Correct…anytime you get Off-Track
Whenever you find yourself getting off-track when it comes to your fitness regime or worse, your body weight, no worries. Simply Self-Correct.
Anyone who has read my memoir knows that Chapter 67 is one of my favorites and is called just that, Self-Correct. Because it’s all about getting back on-track ASAP as soon as you start to deviate from your daily fitness responsibilities as well as from your ideal weight.
Case in point: Last month I gained the COVID 5, that is to say, 5 pounds of extra weight due to the overconsumption of food (mostly cookies) during this crazy pandemic. Not sure about you, but the prolonged ‘safer-at-home’ decree has really put a damper on my fitness routine, not to mention my usually good eating habits. So rather than get mad or frustrated, I confidently chose to Self-Correct and I’m right back where I started…5 pounds lighter.
How did I do it? I increased my aerobic exercises to 8 miles of walking per day (up from 7 miles/day last month) and decreased my weight training exercises by about 50%. Thus, I kept my total monthly exercise percentage the same (12%) while increasing my total calories burned. That said, with a little time and energy and discipline (of course), anyone can make the right choice versus the easy choice. For more self-correcting details, check-out my book on Amazon.
Here’s my exercise report card for May 2020:
- 20 minutes/day of Abs/Stretching and Tola Yoga = 10 hours
- 20 minutes/day of bodyweight training = 10 hours
- 25 flights of stairs/day = 750 (about 3 hours)
- 8 miles/day of fast-paced walking = 250 miles (about 60 hours)
- 7 minutes/day of standing balancing poses = 3 hours
Have an awesome June everyone…and get your workout in! Peace – R
A Decade to Remember
Since my childhood summers playing baseball at Nottingham Little League, I’ve been taught that the best hitters always perform in the late innings. So finish strong everyone, and have a happy and safe holiday season!
I also hope this decade has been as good to you as it has me, as this marks my most amazing one yet beginning with my film, Boulevard Zen. Exactly 10 years ago this week we premiered at the Silent Movie Theater in Hollywood. Thanks to everyone who supported me, i.e., watched or read or listened to any of my creations since the film. And a special thanks for taking my Tola Yoga classes.
No doubt I’ve built an awesome foundation in developing and producing original content as well as successfully crossing the finish line – on time and on budget – more than 15 times. Not to mention teaching my modern-day fitness style of yoga to more than 20,000 students throughout the US.
Looking forward to the next 10. Peace – R
Rich Tola productions this decade:
Tola Yoga at the InterContinental + Rooftop
No doubt you gotta always be looking up…at the bright side of life as well as to your dreams and aspirations. No matter what age, that energy drives you.
Not to mention you could be looking up from the 73rd floor of the InterContinental Hotel located in the Wilshire Grand Center, the 1,100 foot skyscraper and 11th tallest building in the United States, at 7th & Figueroa in DTLA. A beautiful building with an incredible view from our yoga class (pictures soon). Starting this Thursday, June 6th at 6a, you can catch me teaching the Rooftop Yoga class for Attitude Fitness. Come start your day with a great sunrise workout performed at some really inspiring heights!
I’m also teaching Tola Yoga at Attitude every Saturday at 10a, Tuesday at 6:15p and Thursday at 5:15p. Safe to say I love this club, by far the nicest in LA for sure. Find us on Class Pass or stop by for a test drive. Hey, ya neva know, you just might join.
Have an awesome week everyone, and hope to see you on the mat! Peace – R
Tola Talks with Children’s Book Author, Erin Mason
Congratulations to author, psychotherapist, yoga teacher and my dear friend, Erin Mason, for publishing a tender and heartwarming story, Growing Grace, about adoption from the biological mother’s perspective.
Tola also Talks about America’s obesity epidemic and how it affects 36% of all adults and nearly 20% of all children and adolescents, and more specifically, how I would financially reward everyone for being fit…If I Were President. Not to mention fitness tips for losing that unwanted weight.
Subscribe on iTunes, Google Play and Stitcher. And have an awesome day! Peace – R
Build a Strong Foundation with Tola Yoga
Everybody knows the answer to that infamous question, “How do you get to Carnegie Hall”, right? Of course, it’s “practice, practice, practice”. And if you believe best-selling author and pop psych writer, Malcolm Gladwell (Outliers), you’ll say it takes 10,000 hours of deliberate practice to become world-class in any field.
But what happens when the foundation you’ve set for all your practicing is not that sturdy, or better yet, it’s built on quicksand?
That’s why anyone looking to build a strong yoga practice should learn the proper fundamentals before spending hours upon hours in the yoga studio. Just like I say in Chapter 68 of my memoir, Simply Between Millions: From Wall Street to Hollywood, it’s always best to Learn from the Best. Or at the very least, learn from someone who has learned from the best.
That’s also why if you’re in Los Angeles you should treat yourself to a Tola Yoga class or private lesson to help you build that strong foundation. There’s something for everyone…from beginner-to-advanced as well as pregnant women…with my five distinct classes:
- Tola Yoga Fundamentals – for beginners or anyone looking to re-learn the basics
- Tola Yoga Prime – for intermediate students and strong beginners
- Tola Yoga Power – for advanced students and strong intermediates
- Tola Yoga Prenatal – for women in all stages of pregnancy
- Tola Yoga Stretch & Restore – for all students from beginner-to-advanced
Feel free to email me your questions and to schedule your Tola Yoga private lesson today: info@richtola.com
Peace – R
Demystifying the Art with TOLA YOGA
What is Yoga?
You know how many times I’ve been asked this question in the past 12 years, from men, women and children (and mostly men). Because knowing the definition of Yoga is much different than understanding this physical and mental art form, including the similarities and differences between the many styles of Yoga, e.g., Vinyasa Flow, Kundalini, Asthanga. Not to mention how each style uniquely impacts your body and your mind. Which is all good, no doubt, regardless of style. And don’t forget your spirit, although that aspect is much less tangible in all Yoga.
So what can a Yoga master with a passion for fitness spanning more than five decades, beginning with Jack LaLanne in the 1960’s, do to demystify that age-old question?
That’s simple: create another style that specifically caters to the fitness-minded individual.
One year ago I introduced Tola Yoga to the world with live classes on Periscope and YouTube: http://youtube.com/RichTolaYoga.
Although my Tola Yoga brand was born in the Lincoln Park neighborhood of Chicago, it’s conception occurred 11 years earlier on the Upper East Side of Manhattan. That’s right, I taught my first “Stars of the Future” class on August 4, 2006 at New York Yoga. And what a rush it was! Kudos and thank you so much to all the amazing Yoga teachers who influenced and inspired me throughout my 200 hours of training…Jenny, Nixa, Michael, Karl, Rita, Lori, Molly, Sam, Kristen and Emily.
Because success is best served with a strong foundation. As well as passion and perseverance. And if you’re lucky, your life’s colorful journey will be long, prosperous and rather trying at times. But if you live what you love, happiness will follow you everywhere.
No doubt. And how’s this for serendipity: the other day I was in the drug store and came across this writing pad with that exact phrase, LIVE WHAT YOU LOVE. In colors just like that. So I had to buy it. And repeat it…to you today and to myself everyday, along with a few other mantras.
Keep rockin-it everyone, in whatever you do, and don’t forget your daily workout! Peace – R