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What Valentine’s Day Taught Me About The Heart
I used to love Valentine’s Day as a kid. My dad would give both my younger brother and me a heart shaped box filled with chocolates, one for each of us. It is hard for me now to see those heart shaped boxes in the store. I have hated this holiday for many years but now I want to change my focus. Instead of feeling sorrow and loss around this holiday, I want to focus on making it about strengthening hearts and creating more health for families. My dad died on Valentine’s Day when I was eight years old and left me confused, devastated, and angry. I really loved him and…
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How Important Is Exercise During Pregnancy?
For many who grew up with a mostly sedentary lifestyle, the motivation to get active is often lacking and feels like a monumental task. The older we get, the more conditioned we become to continue doing what we have always done, which can make change hard. Fortunately, pregnancy is an amazing time to begin a new health and fitness routine. Many new moms are highly motivated to do what they can to positively shape their baby’s health and most will keep up the practice after they deliver, which can change the health of their entire family unit. In her book titled, The First 20 Minutes, Gretchen Reynolds said, “A baby’s time…
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Does It All Go Downhill With Age?
A common reason people start new fitness/health routines is because they begin to feel the effects of aging, whether that be weight gain, achy joints, or a lack of energy. A good preventative health plan includes strength, mobility, flexibility, and balance training. It may seem counterintuitive to think of regular resistance training as a method of reducing discomfort, particularly because it may not seem comfortable while working out, but the benefits are undeniable. There appears to be a misconception that exercise sessions must be harsh or last for long stretches of time, but that isn’t necessarily true. This is where a good coach comes in, one who adapts your program…
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Lacking Motivation To Exercise
Many times we make resolutions at the beginning of each year to get fit. Gyms pay big money to advertise things like, “A new year, a new you.” Those ads pay off for them; people buy memberships even if they don’t use them because everyone wants to look better and be healthier. You might hope that purchasing a gym membership will amp up your ambition to become more active, but willpower is hardly effective as a long term strategy and burns out quickly and easily. Many times we bully ourselves to do something that we only want to do on a surface level. In other words, your deeper mind knows…
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Doomed If You Hate Traditional Exercise Programs?
Not even a little bit! Everyone has different preferences which makes us unique. If we all liked the same types of clothes, foods, or even people, there would be no variety and life would be pretty bland. What works for one is not necessarily guaranteed to work for another. Many exercise and health professionals have found a method or technique that they love and want to share with everyone because it has positively impacted their life. This is wonderful and should be shared but may not work for everyone. If you found an exercise you love, do it! Don’t question it. If you hate typical exercise routines but you loved…
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Getting Healthy When You Don’t Feel Like It
The ego’s only perspective is based on survival, so if you have been surviving up until now, making new lifestyle changes won’t come without resistance from the ego. Yes, this includes health related changes that might actually cause you to live longer because the ego makes decisions based on the past. From a biological perspective, we have evolved to conserve energy so it is available when needed by the body. This is a great survival tool, but can have negative consequences when too much food, especially heavily processed food, is consumed. Highly processed foods are usually cheap, tasty, and convenient, but are full of chemicals, preservatives, and fillers. Until recently, we…
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How To Choose The Best Exercise Program For Me
There are many fitness and wellness programs out there and you may notice a tendency to jump from one to another when positive results aren’t achieved or sustained. When choosing a program, it is useful to ask yourself why you want to buy that particular program. If it is only for the promised results but you don’t like the instructor or the type of exercise, you may end up feeling like you wasted your money. I advise choosing a program that you feel called to participate in, one that looks fun or incorporates activity that you like. Whether it involves going to a group exercise class, a bike ride, or…
