Giving Up Before You Have Started

Don’t give up before you have even gotten started!  Those are my words of advice and hope for anyone who has come off the past week of the holidays feeling defeated. You might have done a lot of indulging.  In fact, it could be that you ate enough the past several days that you’re wondering if there is really any hope to becoming a fitter person. In thinking about the New Year, you might be questioning how it can make any real difference.  What’s so magical about the start of a New Year anyway?  How can that change the outer … Continue reading

Reducing Holiday Stress

A fit lifestyle encompasses more than just eating right and exercise.  It includes getting enough sleep, cutting out bad habits such as smoking and other areas that affect your overall health. In fact, stress can wreak havoc on your body and may even contribute to weight gain.  With the holidays in full swing, its time to think about the impact that stress can have on your body. Medical experts say that this is the time of year in which people are prone to heart problems, such as heart attacks.  Stress can be physical, emotional, financial or a combination. Learning how … Continue reading

Adjusting Your Health and Fitness Plan

Lately I have been writing about my mid-year goals and the changes I have been making. Since my last blog my schedule has changed and I am going to make some adjustments. For my healthy eating goals I am still going to keep up my current plan of three fruits and three veggies a day. To do this I am going to buy my veggies once or twice a week. Then I will put them in those small reusable containers in the fridge already to go to take to work. For fruit I am going to have some bananas, melon, … Continue reading

Mid-year Goals

I am in total shock that it is already August. Where did this year go? In a couple months the fall and winter holidays begin and before we know it, it will be 2012! Pondering this on a drive home from my camping trip last week, I decided to make some mid-year goals to help me get back on track. Earlier in the summer when my teaching job ended, I got back into major workout mode with spinning class, hiking 2-3 times a week, elliptical at least twice a week, etc. However, with some stress and other factors that creeped … Continue reading

Making Healthy Living Your Lifestyle

Healthy living for some people comes naturally. For others it takes effort, time and some adjustments to their lifestyle. First take a look at your lifestyle. What are you eating? What are you doing in your spare time? How much exercise do you get each week? How many hours of sleep a night do you get? After taking a look at where you are at, pick one or two things to work on. It could even be a small change in what you drink or eat. For example, if you are an excessive coffee or soda drinker, scaling down to … Continue reading

Finding the Time

Is it hard to find the time to exercise? Life gets busy. Maybe you are balancing school and work or busy with your kids and other demands. Whatever it is that you have going on it can really be a challenge to find the time to exercise. One solution I have come up with is changing your daily or weekly routines to add some extra steps or squeeze in a ten minute workout. Doing ten or fifteen minutes here and there can be easier than finding a longer consecutive block of time. Remember that doing something is better than nothing! … Continue reading

A Pill, Shoes and a Shake

Fitness has become an enterprise that is filled with empty promises or downright deception. I cringe when I hear things like “miracle pill.” It scares me to think of what we could be doing to our bodies when we ingest something that we have no idea what it’s made of or how it could interfere with our body’s functioning. Anything that claims to be able to do something out of the ordinary should be avoided. Lose weight by taking this pill. Lose weight by wearing these shoes. Lose weight by drinking this shake. We have to be careful that we … Continue reading

Health and Fitness Tips During the Holiday Season

With so much to do over the holiday season finding time for fitness is even more difficult than it usually is, but very necessary. With the extra chores that we must do during this time of the year there is increased calorie burning, but not enough to conquer all of the good food calories that we will most likely be indulging in. As always and now more than ever use those sneaky ways to give your fitness a boost. Shopping is crazy hectic at this time of the year. Remember not to dive in to the closet parking spot to … Continue reading

Fitness and Your Bones

Men and women looking to avoid suffering the painful and often debilitating disease osteoporosis should be exercising more, according to leading scientists. Researchers at top medical universities around the nation are urging people to look after their bones by living well and getting fit. They say by doing so you can reduce your chances of developing osteoporosis, a disease where the inner honeycomb structure inside each bone becomes thinner and more fragile. Osteoporosis can affect any part of a person’s body but the wrist, hip and spine are the most common areas. Experts say the best way to strengthen your … Continue reading

More Ways to Stay Fit and Healthy

Given that you can’t work out when you are sick, it’s a good idea to do what you can to keep your immune system in tip-top shape. In a previous blog I noted that germs can cause anything from a runny nose to a life-threatening disease. To avoid falling ill and compromising your regular fitness routine, consider the following tips to keep bacteria at bay: Filthy Fridge When was the last time you cleaned your refrigerator? Not just to throw out spoiled food, but to deep clean the frosty kitchen appliance from top to bottom? A recent survey found that … Continue reading