3 Tips to Stay on Track with Your Fitness Goals

3 Tips to Stay on Track with Your Fitness Goals

Whether holidays, vacation, or other life/schedule interruptions and temptations, even as a fitness pro, I need to stay on track just like you and everybody else. Let me share with you the 3 things I keep in mind to do just that.

 

1. Have a Training Plan

Currently, I follow a Push, Legs, Pull, Full Body Split.

  1. Chest, Shoulders, and Triceps on Mondays
  2. Legs on Wednesdays
  3. Back, Traps, and Biceps on Friday
  4. Finally, on Saturday, I train for fun and whatever is not sore

I will consistently train for strength 3-4 days a week during the holidays. This gives me a little buffer room for extra calories. Also, a social time out from all the family. Continue reading →

Building Collagen Naturally with Plant-Based Diet

Building Collagen Naturally with Plant-Based Diet

If there’s one topic that is super hot right now it’s collagen. Shelves in the supplement section of natural food stores are overflowing with new collagen supplements, promising to alleviate joint pain and combat aging skin. Some collagen brands also claim to help with leaky gut, support the immune system, and balance hormones. But are these claims true? And, before jumping to supplementation, can anything be done through food to prevent collagen break down and support collagen synthesis? The short answer is, yes!

First, let’s start with some collagen groundwork. Continue reading →

Managing Grief Over the Holidays

Managing Grief Over the Holidays

Life is tough. Grief is painful. We all know this. And in no way do I ever want to diminish the intensity and genuineness of hard times. The holiday season especially resonates as a time of assumed joy and jolly while there so often is a looming emotion of grief, mourning, and worried hearts.

Grief is a process. There is really no end to it, but rather the format changes. And, amazingly, eventually, slowly, new flowers can bloom over the rotting, wrenching, wrecked roots of life. Not better. But different. Because in times of hardships, life becomes different.

The question is still, how do we persist on the garden of life when it is flooded with grief? How do we grow anything in a cold season? To help tough times become tolerable, here are a few tips. Continue reading →

Is Recovery Your Missing Link?

Is Recovery Your Missing Link?

When you are training hard and focusing on your goals, it is often possible to overlook a key link in the athletic performance chain.

That link is recovery.

Recovery means returning to a normal place of health, mind and strength. It might be what you need to integrate more of to maximize your achievement on and off the course.

My top recommendations for recovery for endurance athletes and other athletes include these three things: Continue reading →

How a Plant-Based Diet Helps You Sleep Better

How a Plant-Based Diet Helps You Sleep Better

Something that might not be foremost in your mind when it comes to optimal mental health, physical health and performance is sleep. According to the CDC, adults need 7 or more hours of sleep per night for their best health and wellbeing.

Practices and habits that can aid in healthy sleep include regular exercise, avoiding sugar and alcohol before bedtime, avoiding caffeine at least six hours before bedtime, avoiding saturated and trans fat before bedtime (animal products or fried foods), making your sleep surroundings your sanctuary, and creating a routine. Establishing a nighttime meditation practice and not using electronic devices one to two hours before bedtime may also help. Continue reading →

6 Easy Steps for Sustainable Picnic Gatherings

6 Easy Steps for Sustainable Picnic Gatherings

It is summertime and thankfully we are starting to see the light at the end of the pandemic tunnel, and can safely celebrate the season of picnic parties with friends and family. Before you head out and stock up on throwaway picnic staples, like plastic cups, plates, utensils, napkins, take a minute to tune up your eco-friendly lifestyle and learn how to ditch needless plastics.

As we eat, drink and be merry, there’s no need to fall back into wasteful habits and trash our planet with needless single-use plastics, according to Sandra Ann Harris, the author of Say Goodbye To Plastic: A Survival Guide to Plastic-Free Living. Here are a few tips from her book to help you reboot your picnicking habits. Continue reading →

Heart Healthy Exercises You Can Do At Work

Heart Healthy Exercises You Can Do At Work

As remote work is here to stay, many of us are spending more hours at our desks than we were in the office post-pandemic. At the office, we were used to taking breaks to get coffee, grab lunch or just chat with coworkers in between meetings. As many of us enter a remote-first work environment, we’re spending long hours working and sitting at our desks—which has become a concern. In fact, experts expect to see an increase in sedentary behavior because of it. A sedentary lifestyle is when most of your day is spent sitting or lying down while doing daily activities. Unfortunately, this kind of lifestyle can increase your risk of developing chronic conditions such a heart disease—which happens to be the leading cause of death in both men and women.

To avoid this sedentary way of living and to keep ourselves healthy, we’ll go over 8 simple heart-healthy exercises you can do at your desk that strengthens your heart and body.

Continue reading →

How to Stay Active Working from Home

How to Stay Active Working from Home

Remember those mornings, not too long ago, that you strapped on your bicycle helmet and pedaled a few miles to your workplace? Or the lunch hours you spent on a jog with other sporty colleagues before returning to your desk? What about the long, head-clearing walks home from the office in the evenings?

Working from home can offer many benefits—cozy surroundings, daytime pajama bottoms, and great coffee, to name a few. But transitioning from an office building to a corner of your bedroom or a backyard studio affects some workers adversely.

Per Gallup research, some remote employees have reported increased depression and loneliness, and some state that it’s difficult to stay physically active without the habits they’ve cultivated over years of in-person work. (Think lunchtime tennis with colleagues or a daily group power walk between meetings.)

It’s no secret that exercise increases endorphins, those feel-good chemicals that flood our brains and contribute to a sense of wellbeing. Without it, we can feel anxious and sluggish. Fortunately, ways to ensure daily movement when you work from home abound. And you can tailor routines to your particular needs to keep your body and mind at peak fitness. Continue reading →

Restoring Your Resilience in 2021

Restoring Your Resilience in 2021

2020 was a challenge beyond any in recent memory, and 2021 will demand much from each of us. The key to transitioning and responding in healthy, effective ways is through our resilience. Resilience relates to a multi-faceted ability to meet life’s challenges and opportunities with strength, creativity, and flexibility—an ability which can be nurtured and which grows with our attention.

Here are some tips for restoring your resilience in 2021: Continue reading →