The following post is sponsored by Dandy®. If there's something that every single health professional and enthusiast in the world can agree on, I think it's that being healthy is not a destination, it's a lifestyle. It's something you have to put in the effort for each and every day. Consistently making healthy decisions makes me feel strong, capable, and confident, and it transcends into every other area of my life. Today I wanted to share some of the healthy habits that are part of my everyday routine. They're ways of life for me that make me feel vibrant and energized, and help me to be the healthiest, happiest person I can be. Let's get to it! Stretch. Stretching is something that I not only do before and after my workouts, but also on my rest days too. I think it feels ... [Read More]
health
When You Shouldn’t Give It Your All {Weekend Recap}
Hello friends! I don't know about you guys, but a low-key weekend was much needed for me after my week last week. A couple of things with work and otherwise kind of bogged me down, and I totally needed a few days to mentally decompress a bit. Luckily, my hubby and I had only one thing on the agenda for the weekend: getting our carpets cleaned, because every time I did a pushup in recent months, I'd get a whiff of a certain someone who loves to snooze on my living room floor... While we waited for our carpets to dry, we killed time at the Del Mar dog beach. It was a beautiful day for a long walk there! There are certainly worse places to waste time. :) My weekend also included an at-home movie night, a long family walk along the coast Sunday morning, heading back to ... [Read More]
My HIIT Studio 6-Week Challenge Health & Fitness Results
Hello, hello! Last weekend marked the end of a 6-week challenge that I participated in with my favorite HIIT studio, The Fit Mill. I collaborated with the studio as the health coach for the challenge, and was a participant as well. We're all a work in progress, and I had goals that I was striving to reach at the same time that I was supporting the participants in reaching their own. The premise? A 6-week "Transformation" challenge to kick off 2016 in high gear. The rules were that participants had to workout at The Fit Mill 4 days each week, and then the studio and I provided goals, recommendations, tips, recipes, and support throughout the challenge. Pre-challenge and post-challenge evaluations were held to take measurements and gage fitness levels on a variety of exercises. The ... [Read More]
Weight Is Only Part of the Equation {Beets BLU Smart Scale Review}
When it comes to shaping your body through diet and exercise, sometimes people put too much emphasis on their weight alone (I've been guilty of doing this in the past too!). Of course weight tells you part of the story, but it's not the whole picture. (Source: Yahoo Health! via Shutterstock) Case in point: There's a woman whose 5'6" and weighs 140 pounds. She sporadically eats healthy but mostly eats a diet high in simple carbs, saturated fat, and sugar, and doesn't get consistent exercise. Perhaps she's lucky in that she has good genes allowing her to easily maintain a healthy weight, but she might also be "skinny fat" and have some internal things going on with her body that she's not yet aware of (like high cholesterol or being at risk for Type 2 diabetes). On the other hand, ... [Read More]
New 1:1 Health Coaching Offering!
My active, healthy lifestyle is such a big part of my life. As a health coach, I love getting the opportunity to share some of my knowledge and passion about health, and to help support my clients in reaching their healthy living goals. I believe there's no greater feeling than feeling healthy & happy from the inside out! That feeling transcends into every other part of life. Making an active lifestyle a priority, feeling like you have the power in your diet, and coping with stress in healthy ways are some of the things that I work on with my clients. Normally, I offer a 6-month health coaching program, where the client and I "meet" (via in person, Skype or phone) every other week to hold an hourlong session. In between those meetings, we often communicate via email, ... [Read More]
What Makes You Fit? {Biking in Austria}
"Are you fit?" "Did you say that you workout?" These were the questions our tour guide was shouting to me as I struggled to keep up with him and my husband biking through the hills of Austria. We had booked a bike tour in hopes of seeing more of the beautiful Austria countryside and getting some leisurely exercise in during our vacation there, but I wasn't so prepared to be huffing and puffing with my heart rate at a sky-high level. Our guide was a little man in his 60s, originally from somewhere in Asia, who seemed to be in good shape for his age and told us he exercised daily. While I already knew that my husband was stronger and faster on a bike than I was from our bike date workouts through the hills of California, I wasn't really expecting our guide to be as hardcore of ... [Read More]