https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCZuAnrH-j-i151rXM-Tw3WQ

Hi everyone! Hope you are having an awesome summer, and that you have some great plans if you have the day off on July 4! I recently started a You Tube channel, and have been uploading videos (10 minutes or less) on topics such as lifting safely, mobility and stretching, and I have just started a series on nutrition.

I hope you find them helpful, please contact me through the blog or social media if you have any questions.

Hi everyone, first of all Happy New Year! I hope everyone is having a fantastic start to 2019!! I posted some encouragement on my Facebook page about New Years resolutions last week, please give it a like if you want to get some quick updates and useful tips in between blog posts. My post was encouragement not to get swept up in the weekend, and let healthy resolutions fall by the wayside. Pretty easy to say, but I have some extra insight on putting this into practice…

Say you have a resolution to not eat chips, not drink, not eat chocolate, etc. Notice the key word in any of these resolutions involved in eliminating bad habits? NOT. If you frame your result ion in a negative, you are already starting from a deficit. Let me show you what I mean:

If you are able to, please stand up. Now, while you are still standing, read the following statement: DO NOT STAND. What happened? Did you have to pause for a moment before you sat down, or took another position that was not standing? Wouldn’t a more understandable command be, PLEASE SIT DOWN?

If we communicate with ourselves in this manner, we are likely to experience similar results. Thinking or saying I will not eat chips, I will not eat chips…you get the idea, first you have to think about eating chips, and how good they taste!

What to do? Replace whatever habit you are trying to reduce or eliminate with an empowering alternative. For example, if you love snacking a night and want to eliminate this behavior to improve your health, find something healthy to put in it’s place. For example, maybe you decide on drinking a nice, relaxing cup of herbal tea in the evenings going forward. While drinking the tea, say to yourself, I make healthy decisions, this tea is calming and helping my body fight off free radicals! Obviously customize this for your own goals, but you get the idea…say and do something empowering and positive, rather than negatively framed.

If you don’t replace whatever you are trying to limit or change with an empowering alternative, you are basically relying on will power, which will only take you so far until the temptation is just too much.

What empowering alternatives and new habits can you build/embrace this New Year! Message me on Facebook, I’d love to hear!!

When we talk about what motivates us to workout, the venue/location is a very underrated aspect. Some of us are inspired to get up everyday and go to our gym where we are members, others by the open road, others by a home gym…the point being, location matters!

For example, if you do not feel a sense of community at your gym, if you feel judged rather than welcomed when you go in, how likely are you to be motivated to go there, let alone give it your all and get results! On the flip side, let’s say you have some equipment at home, but every time you go to use it, the draw of your couch is too appealing to resist! Not likely to get the results you need, so maybe a change of venue away from home base is needed.

My example, I am lucky enough to work at a University with Division 1 Athletics. The campus has expanded over time, and so have Athletic Facilities. However, I recently discovered that the former Basketball arena is still being used by the track team and others to train (as a former Track/Field Athlete, no respect I tell ya). The facility is open to all comers, and includes an old school indoor track, rubber mats, and a pull up bar. I have never been turned away, as practice is typically not taking place 12-1 during lunch hour.

I am finding myself incredibly motivated to take advantage of this current/former training ground for Athletes and Champions during my lunch hour. If you are motivated by nice, new facilities, you may not appreciate the out date steam pipes that rattle during the winter, old chipped paint, and rustic appearance…and if so, that is totally cool, you do you. I personally am motivated by the old school nature of the facility and banners hanging in the rafters, and I can’t wait to go today for some jogging, push-ups, Abs, and pull-ups!

We are all motivated by different things, so the take-away for the week(s) leading up to New Year’s is think about how motivating your exercise environment is…if the answer is that it is demotivating, how can you change it and make it exciting??

Get after it!!!

Hello friends, if you saw my Facebook teaser, you will know the theme of this post: the ultimate barrier you need to break is really all about…you. Think about the topics that serve as barriers…I challenge you to think critically, are they really barriers? Does how you perceive them matter??

Recently, I engaged in a conversation with my work team, and I challenged them to think about the following concept: The exact same topic can be either workplace gossip, or healthy conflict necessary to move an organization forward, depending on the methods used to address the topic. I believe the exact same thing is true with our health; the exact same topic can be either a barrier, or an opportunity, depending on how we approach it!

Here is an example: Finances. Finances can be a barrier…I need more money to get a gym membership, eat organic, get a personal trainer, take a class…If I can just get more money, it will be easier to get healthy. At face value, sure, sounds logical, but let me play out another scenario for you. The same person has been seeing finances as a barrier to health/fitness, and wins the lottery, what do you think happens? Will money solve their problems? Let me ask you another question, what do you think happens to a person who will not give a dime out of a dollar to charity who wins the lottery at $1 million? Will they donate $100,000 to charity (10%)?? Probably not!

Rather than focusing on a topic as a barrier, here is an idea, focus on it as an opportunity. Seriously, think of the example of finances…if you really wanted to, what could you do to improve your health, that would cost you no money?

1. Walk more
2. Eat less candy
3. Switch to black coffee
4. Switch soda to water
5. Switch booze to water
6. Take the stairs
7. Quit smoking
8. Dance more
9. Laugh more
10. Stretch more

Etc, etc, etc…The take-away, is money important, heck yeah! Is motivation important, yup! However, anything we come up with in our head as a barrier, can also be translated in another way, an excuse. Those who believe they can, and those who believe they can’t, are both right. Hope you enjoyed this post series, please connect with me if you have any questions or suggestions on future topics!

As we continue the series about breaking barriers to health and fitness success, information overload is a common topic. In other words, with all the information out there and constant bombardment from the internet, how do I know what is correct/useful? How do I know what is healthy?!

Well, asking questions is a good place to start, rather than just accepting something as the only answer/method to do things. I am going to give an overview of some tips to be an informed consumer of information related to health and fitness. If you’ve got 10 minutes, here are some questions to ask yourself to get on the path to find the right information for you, to chart your own course, so to speak:

1. What is my desired outcome, what are my goals? Answering this questions should help you narrow your focus and search…for example, if your goal is to lose weight, you can skip all the information related to increasing your numbers in the Deadlift. Know your outcome, it will help you chose topics and avoid way too much information.
2. What is the source of the information, where is it coming from? After you narrow your topic, you need to be able to sort through information and make a judgement on its validity. In this case for example, you are reviewing information from a Health and Fitness blog…I (as the writer) do have a degree in Exercise Science and I have held professional training certifications, but I am in no way qualified to diagnose your exact needs and prescribe you an exercise/diet plan via this blog. When reading my perspectives on health and fitness topics, I would always advise you to do your due diligence before considering putting anything into practice. Always consider the source of information, what you intend to use it for, and any ulterior motive that may exist. For example, are you reading information about a certain supplement resulting in weight loss? Is the information you are reading coming from a website or affiliate link seeking to sell you this supplement? Food for thought.
3. Is there science to back up the information? Always look for scientific, peer reviewed articles or studies to back up any information you are consuming. You are not likely to get 100% consensus on a topic related to health and fitness, however more scientific peer reviewed information helps make the case stronger. Pro tip: when you read scientific articles, correlation does not equal causation. What do I mean? If there is a correlation between people eating a certain amount of vegetables and having lower instances of cancer, the way to interpret that correlation is “people who eat more vegetables tend to get cancer less often.” If you read the result as “if I eat vegetables I will not get cancer”, you can see the issue with that.
4. Is there an informed, alternate point of view to what I am currently viewing/researching? Let’s face it, we all have preferences, even biases for what we want to see and hear. It is really easy to find information to support your point of view/preference, and ignore other information that may be very important. For example, if I want to try a low carb diet, I can find plenty of evidence/information that this is a great diet plan for my health, and will help me lose weight! However, if I do not look at the pros and cons of a low carb diet before putting it into practice, I am not doing my due diligence and taking responsibility for my own health. Think about substances like Alcohol, Coffee, Fats (healthy/unhealthy fats)…you can find information supporting that these are either great, or terrible for your health! There are some slam dunk topics you don’t need to do a lot of search on in this day and time (cigarettes are bad for you, for example), but for the most part we really need to do our homework before accepting something as fact and putting it into practice for ourselves.

I hope this is a good starting point for the topic of information overload. Expert advice can be very helpful when it comes to deciphering information, and I do plan on a future topic being picking the right personal trainer (for you). If you feel I didn’t answer the question “what is healthy?” in this post, good! I hope this is a helpful starting point to help you determine that answer for yourself. Have a great week!