Wellness 101

New to the idea of starting a wellness journey? Well, no pun intended, no worries. Recognizing the need for change and bringing yourself to the right frame of mind, is the hardest step. As a health and wellness professional, I have the opportunity to see clients at all phases of their wellness journeys. Some clients are brand new to wanting to make healthy lifestyle changes, some have been on a rollercoaster for some time and some may just be looking for new and innovative ways to keep the journey interesting. What do all of them have in common? The hardest part of wellness, changing their mind set.
Fitness and nutrition are almost the easy part of a healthy lifestyle. I said almost. No one has ever thought walking lunges for the first time or cutting back on ice cream were easy tasks…but changing your mindset from thinking of health and wellness as a chore to having it as welcome part of life is a primary key to success. Learning to love health, fitness, holistic diet…well that’s then the hardest part.
So now that you know the hardest part, how do you get past it? I focus on a few factors with my clients.
• Know your Motivation – What brought you here? Only you, can motivate you. Making healthy lifestyle choices cannot be for anyone else but yourself. It’s one of the few times in life that being selfish is ok. Finding the internal motivation will keep you focused and driven but trying to change for someone else will make you disappointed if you rely only on their feedback to gauge your success..
• Do What You Love – Health and Wellness…well, can be torturous, if you do the things you hate simply because you think you should. Case in point, if you hate running, why run for cardio? Maybe you’re a biker, a swimmer, a walker or a dancer…do the things you love and you will begin to love what you do. Explore how to incorporate some of your life’s passions into your new search for wellness passion. Many times the lines can cross.
• Support – No man is an island…Getting support for your journey is crucial. Some people fly well solo, but the majority of people need to find that common bond to other people needing to make the same changes they need to make. So seek and yee shall find. Whether a family member, spouse, co-worker, child, friend or pet, form the bond that makes you feel good. But remember while you may share common interests and you may motivate each other, your journey should be unique and special to you to keep the journey personal and on the front burner.
• Lastly - Appreciate Success – What does success look like? How do you know you have reached goal? Well, if you can’t answer what goal is, then how do you know if you have reached it or not? Be specific, write it down, carry it with you and when you make strides toward it celebrate. The wellness journey is a lifelong path, not a destination. So getting healthy and staying healthy is always evolving. Recognizing successes along the path are truly vital. Success can be joining a fitness class, discovering a new healthy food you enjoy or finding some peace during your day to breath. Whatever it is recognize it and truly appreciate that you did something great.
Best of luck & Be well!

Destination Wellness or A Stop on The Journey?

A destination for your vacation that can change your life. I love it. I love it. I love it. Destination Wellness retreats, resorts and spas have been around forever, but with the new spotlight on the word wellness, places like these are pulling out all the stops to help you not only get on the path to health and fitness but stay there in ways like never before.

The correlation between incorporating your vacation into the pursuit of your wellness lifestlye has long been something I have encouraged my clients to do and while I can appreciate the theory of escape what I can't understand is abandonment of core values. So...if the pursuit of wellness is a core value of yours(and it should be), choosing a health and wellness destination is essential to experience...and oh the choices are endless!

For example, if you are a water person, why not look to the seas to help you? There are wonderful resorts and spas that focus on incorporating the sea into your routine, your practice, your fitness and your life. But know before you go! Create a plan of what you hope to achive while you are at the destination. Is it to explore new fitness options, experience fresh cuisine, research yoga practices or even find better long lasting stress release practices? Whatever it is, do the work before you go. Write down your goals of what you hope to achieve and then get busy researching the destination of your choice.

Plan to schedule your classes and your services well in advance. If you are looking to work with a specific professional at the place, make sure you book it early. Individual lessons go fast! Print reminders to keep you excited and motivated as your trip gets closer. Print photos of the resort and the images of what drew you to it. Sign up for newsletters if they are offered in case of special events or classes that may interest you while you are there...but most importantly, if you have questions ask!

Destination Health and Wellness places want the experience to be life changing and life sustainable. Many places also believe they they are your partners in achieving the best health you can while enjoying yourself. Utilize any assistance they may offer to further your experience. Many destinations services include access to conceriege, spa coordinators, personal trainers and program directors. If you don't ask, you'll never know!
Lastly enjoy, absorb, learn, breathe, experiment, experience and above all incorporate! Learn how to do the things you love the most at home. At the very least, you should leave with one thing that will help you on your wellness journey for the long run.

Be well...and good hunting!

Summer and the Wellness Break

Shhh....can you hear that? That's the sound of summer going, going and almost gone. We are now down to the last few weeks of summer and again as every year before it seems just about everyone is doing their last minute scramble to get away, get relaxed, go out and unwind before the winds of fall blow in. The one thing that stands out for me when talking to people about their "summer breaks" is that so many people also take a break from their healthy lifestyle pursuits as well. Plans are made to include "all you can eat" and destinations include places with no gym access or limited activities. So what happened here?
Ok quick story...bare with me. Recently, I was contacted by a woman interested in losing weight. Not all that out of the box, I know. The motivation behind her very specific weight loss was to facilitate her going on an all inclusive, all you can eat cruise, with the intention of eating everything she wanted. I could hear myself say, "You do realize that all you can eat does not mean all you need to eat, yes?" It was the reply that started me thinking..."Well if it's free, why wouldn't I eat it?" Needless to say we are not working together at this time.
However, my point with that story was to showcase the extreme but when we take "breaks" from our healthy lifestyle choices aren't we really doing something similar? Scheduling events that are specifically outside your wellness goals treat the journey of fitness and health as a chore that we are forcing ourselves to do every day and then need a vacation from. The goal of living a healthy lifestyle is to incorporate ways into our lives to embrace healthy options, not run from them.
While I am all about needing to reward ourselves, enjoy ourselves and relax, I am of the opinion that a healthy lifestyle and those things are not mutually exclusive. If they are, perhaps it's time to reassess the things you are doing to achieve those goals. If the activities, exercise, eating habits and spiritual pursuits are making you so unhappy or drained that you need a break from them, I would think it is time to revisit the motivations that brought you to the path in the first place.

Until next time...be well!

Spas - Partners in the Wellness Journey?

If you are like me sometimes you need a change of pace, a door to outside the box or frankly just a recharge. Recently I have been exploring the relationship between spas and my own wellness journey. I know, coming from a fitness professional, you were expecting an exhilarating run in the mountains or 50 laps in the pool to get all fixed up. And, I admit, while exercise and fitness does provide me not only the physical stimulus and does promote my stress relief, being able to find sanctuary in fresh and new places can be transforming.
With that being said though, I must be specific about the word "spa". Spas are all over and unfortunately I think the word is overused, much like the words "wellness professional". Basically, use of the name does not necessarily go hand in hand with the connotation. When I refer to "spa" I speak of the destinations where not only are wonderful rejuvenating services offered for the body but there is a connection between the establishment, their clients and the understanding of pursuit of wellness. It may be the types of services offered, the atmosphere, the food provided or the ultimate quiet they can generate, but to me, "spa" is a greater extension of ones trying to achieve peace and balance. I have been to "spas" where the noise inside was louder than the city street. I have had "spas" seat me in a relation room next to the gym where a dance aerobics class was taking place. While I love aerobics, the heart thumping music the clients were moving to, rather coincided with my meditation.

I am certainly not disparaging any "spa" business. Instead what I hope to do in writing this is to advise you to research and choose your destination in line with what it is you are ultimately seeking to accomplish. There are many, many wellness opportunities to explore that may help you on your lifelong pursuit of being physically healthy and spiritually balanced. Spas can be rejuvenating for the body, mind and soul. They can be true wellness partners for your journey. So many spas offer wonderful nourishing services but they offer so much more in the mind/ body connection as well. So my advice, take some time for yourself and explore this great potential wellness journey partner.

Until next time - Be well and enjoy!

The Diet Game

The Diet debacle...a good name for the multibillion industry that now leads so much of what health and wellness is associated with. I have often been asked why I am so "anti-diet". The best answer I can give is two fold. First, diets limit the accountability of the user. What do I mean? Well, it enables the user to no longer make choices related to their foods, but gives control and accountability to someone else. It is the exact opposite of mindful eating.
Second, in order to succeed in health and wellness, you have to be willing to learn and change habits, notions, ideas and sometimes beliefs. When on a "diet", there is no learning. In general there is only allowing some else to provide you their answers. And oh...how the business industry has capitalized on taking up the responsibility by offering to "fix" all our dietary issues for the sum of...
While I am not a proponet of any "diet" per se, I am a proponet of anything you learn from. So with that being said, programs like Weight Watchers, that helps their clients understand the food portions, food content and still allow the clients to be accountable by choosing their foods even though under Weight Watchers watchful eyes, I can appreciate.
Changing your lifestyle is difficult. I would never say anything to the effect that it is not. What I am saying is choose things that allow you learn, to grow and to understand. Without that, once the diet is over, the weight will come back because you have not learned how to do anything differently than before. It was a temporary fix at best. And the "diet" industry is very well aware of our shortcomings.
Putting our faiths in all these "diets" is not the answer. If it were, obesity most certainly would not be the epidemic it is.

Production in the Workplace…The Wellness Way

Recently, there has been a tremendous amount of focus on corporate wellness and its worth. Corporations and business are bottom line folks. While it may be nice to do the “right thing” for employees, it is probably not the driving their health and wellness desire. Results and productivity are what big business is after. What businesses do like are cold hard facts…

• Obesity-related conditions cost employers $12 billion a year due to higher health care utilization and medical claims, lower productivity, increased absenteeism, and higher health and disability insurance premiums, according to a study in the American Journal of Health Promotion.
In other words…more health care costs and less productivity from employees who may not be living healthy and wellness minded lifestlyes. The solution?

Corporations and business don’t like overhaul…generally that costs more money. However, what has been successful with the some companies I have worked with are these few suggestions which are then formalized into a more specific plan.

First: Ask The Employees – Asking the employee’s how best to help them, may be the simplest solution for idea generation. Now, are all the ideas going to be workable, no? “Give me free stuff.” Is always the one that comes up. However, those employees that are serious about creating workplace wellness will generate good, usable ideas.

Second: Lead By Example – Top down, management needs to be engaged, motivated and vocal about health and wellness. We cannot ask of our employees what we ourselves are not willing to do.

Third: Identify Opportunity – The opportunity to be engaged in the place that people spend most of their time may afford some the unique experience to step up. Workplace Wellness Coordinators can be identified and utilized. These can be individuals who in their everyday job may not be management level people, however, this could be an opportunity for them to get involved and be engaged.

Fourth: Make it Positive – Focus on wellness from a corporate perspective is about the dollar. However, enacting positive, energy charged solutions, that engage the employees, allow for employee socialization and show that there is value to employees health and wellbeing past productivity is vital.

While there is much more planning to actually orchestrating a workplace wellness program, the goals are truly always the same. Effective employee utilization of the programs to then decrease employer costs and absenteeism. The side benefits? Unity and loyalty of the employees, increased moral and truly a better reputation of caring for the individual rather than just the “worker”.

Metabolism - Rev It Up

Metabolism, in a nice simple definition, means the function of how the body breaks down food and uses it for energy. Sadly, it’s also a process that can be sluggish and unfortunately slows down as we age. The slower the process, the more likely we are to gain weight. Good news…we are not entirely helpless in the battle. There are some great wellness steps everyone can take to rev their metabolism up.
1. Lift it up! My personal favorite – pick up those weights! Increasing muscle and decreasing fat is a huge metabolism mover in the right direction. Muscle is an efficient calorie burning device. As you build nice lean muscle mass, your body will begin to work more efficiently. So build it, keep it and love it!
2. Water Water Everywhere- proper hydration helps flush toxins out of the systems as we burn the fat…so drink it up. Besides…water has no calories. So, as beverages are one of the biggest calorie consumptions in our society, learn to love it!
3. Cope – Stress is a big role player in metabolism and weight gain. Stress forces the body to produce cortisol(think fight or flight) which slows down our metabolism. The more stress…the slower the metabolism. Now I don’t mean to suggest for a second that because of this little article, you will miraculously ditch all of your stressors, but there are the A’s of stress to consider…Adhere, Avoid and Adapt. In other words, with regards to stress we can adhere to it or accept it for what it is, with little or no effort to change it, focus our actions on avoiding it altogether or adapt to knowing there will be stress in life and find ways to not have it negatively affect us.( I vote for Adapt)
4. Sleep It Off - Sleep is an integral part of the bodies needs. It is also an important time for muscle recovery(back to step one). The recommendation is 7-8 hours per night to maximize the benefits.

I am all about incorporating small simple steps to equal great lifelong changes. Start with one of the suggestions above and master it. Once you begin to see and feel the difference in yourself and in your body…move onto the next. You will be well on your way to one efficient metabolism!
Be well!

What Does It Mean To Achieve Wellness(are you ready for it?)

I've said it before and I'll say it again -- achieving total wellness means you've found peace for the body, peace for the mind and, ultimately, peace for the spirit.

Want something more concrete?

My favorite definition of wellness comes from Charles B. Corbin of Arizona State University. Corbin once said, "Wellness is a multi-dimensional state of being describing the existence of positive health in an individual as exemplified by quality of life and a sense of well-being."

So achieving wellness is really achieving health, but I also maintain that achieving wellness is the turning point from which fitness evolves from a chore to a recognized part of life that we welcome and enjoy!
From that point on, your body begins to become healthy and you gain energy and perspective. You also reduce stress and anxiety, and feel more confident and calm. Now you begin to see the mind connection. Less stress and anxiety equals more happiness and inner peace, so now you see the spirit connection.Think of it as an unbroken circle. When one part is not aligned the others fall out of whack.

Truth be told, fitness of the body is not the be all and end all. I know that hearing this from a fitness professional sounds somewhat odd. But what I mean is that the act of becoming fit is merely the portal.
Once we begin to recognize that this really works and you start to feel better you want it even more. In fact, you begin to crave it. What I have found is that it's because of those intense feelings that we are more open to exploring other areas of wellness like meditation and yoga or experiencing different fitness avenues like a new class or maybe even a fitness vacation.

There is a lifestyle shift, for sure.

Be warned though: Wellness is not a destination. There is no end point. Once you begin seeking out ways to be well -- whether it starts with healthy eating choices, exploring fitness options, or employing a professional fitness or wellness coach -- it will only be the first step to what hopefully will become a lifestyle of healthy exploration and happy longevity!

Until next time, be well... totally!

Alicia

Fuel for the Machine....Simply

Think of your body as a machine. If you’re going to put the time into the upkeep, meaning getting in the workouts, then make the most of it and fuel your machine properly. In general, most people are not performance athletes, yet most things we hear about how to fuel ourselves for workouts are geared toward athletes. Take fitness water for instance. The average person is not going to exercise for the 2 hour duration it would require to make needing the fitness water necessary. What do you need then? Aaahhhh...good question.
In general, most of our performance needs can be met with a light meal about 2 hours before your exercise routine. If it is a bigger meal(Sunday dinner at Grandma’s) go for 4 hours before trying to work it off! As far as meal suggestions...keep it simple. Fuel comes from carbohydrates, so I am proud to say I am a whole wheat pasta girl. Add some tomatoes, green olives and a little olive oil..fresh, light and simple! Some other favorites, egg whites, avocado & salsa with a whole wheat toast side. To make sure we cover all the bases...add in to every meal veggies and fruits..mixed it up and go with local and seasonal.
As for after the blood, sweat and tears...or a really good circuit workout, there is a lot of evidence that eating carbohydrates and protein within 30 minutes will help your bodies recovery time. There’s a lot of math involved for the actual calculations to determine the exact amounts of carbs and proteins you should have...but truly, in an effort to keep wellness simple shoot for things like bananas, peanut butter, whole wheat crackers or yogurt. Do I hear banana yogurt smoothie with blueberries and mango? I certainly can make it for lunch.
Until next time be well...

Finding My Way in the World of Wellness

I evolved into what I call a “whole fitness” professional because of my love of wellness and the connection that my physical state has on my emotional and spiritual being. I came to the realization that we have a substantial amount of control over what happens to our bodies – good and bad – and this control involves more than diet and fitness alone. Not an easy conclusion to draw by any means...and believe me there was plenty of trial and error.
None the less, here I am. Over the years, I have strived to boost my knowledge by becoming an ACE Personal Trainer, ACE Advanced Health & Fitness Professional and an ACE Weight and Lifestyle Consultant. However, more recently(the past 2 or 3 years - time flys!) I have gone back to my pyschology college roots and began to focus on the fitness and wellness coaching aspect of my professional development. My path for becoming a better health professional has always mirrored the developing needs of my clients and not just my own personal wellness interests. With that being said, it is interesting to me that in finding my passion, it has evolved to truly help my clients as well.
That folks is how I began my “whole fitness” approach. Whole fitness is the combination of fitness, diet & attitude. My perspective has evolved out of a necessity to tackle more than just the fitness issues troubling a client. It was the realization that working with only one dimension of my clients was not enough to make the life altering changes they desired and deserved. Discovering this path has been an amazing journey but not for just my clients. My development to help them in the best simplest ways possible, has also brought about tremendous self reflection.
Case in point: I have worked closely with one remarkable client for more than two years now. Initially, she and I focused on fitness because that’s what I had always been trained to do as a personal trainer. We exercised and we calorie counted, but no matter how often we met, my client would come to our sessions filled with excuses and self doubt even though I could see her improvements, she could not. I watched her struggle and her struggle became mine.
I wanted what every wellness professional wants – I wanted my client to succeed. I found her struggle to now be mine. So I asked my client to help me help her. After all, she had all the tools. She was athletic and participated in recreational sports. She knew all the right things, and she usually ate better than I do. But despite these tangible achievements, she did not feel like a success.
My client was sorely in need of an attitude adjustment. She was defeating herself before she ever got really going.
I knew I needed to lead her in a new direction, so we began exploring her relationship with her destructive habits. Our sessions together began to focus less on the physical activities and more on her defining her motivation and acknowledgment of achievements. Months went by and then a funny thing happened. She came to me and told me that a neighbor had seen her out walking and couldn’t believe the physical changes in her. The neighbor was so inspired by my client that she asked to join her on her walks! My client had never viewed herself as an inspiration. Real change was finally at hand.
I believe that if I had only focused on my client’s physical well-being she would have remained unable to achieve her goals. Her attitude, her self efficacy, and her self perception were the things that needed to be addressed as well as her fitness and nutrition needs. All clients need to be treated as a whole. Fitness, diet and attitude are forever intertwined. This is the foundation of what I now call whole fitness.
I am extremely proud to report that my client has just completed her second 5K run and is now considering becoming a personal trainer. I am proud and humbled. What better measure of success as a wellness professional could I ever hope for?