20 Tips for Optimal Health...

according to Naturopathic Physician DR. SANDRA OLIC (and I whole heartedly agree)

1. Eat as close to nature as possible, focusing mostly on organic plant based foods, but not too much.

2. Drink 8 glasses of pure water daily.

3. Sleep 7-8 hours every night.

4. Take a good quality multi-vitamin and mineral supplement.

5. Move your body regularly and practice yoga.

6. Breathe. Meditate. Calm your mind.

7. Be present. Let go of the past and don’t worry about the future.

8. When you have a negative thought, replace it with a positive one. Optimism is healing and pessimism will make you sick.

9. Practice gratitude. What you focus on grows.

10. Do what you love as often as you can. Travel, dance, write, paint, play music.

11. Surround yourself with awesome people and spend more time with those you love. Love is the best medicine.

12. Express your love.

13. Express yourself.

14. Let go of anger, regret, guilt or any other emotion that isn’t serving you. These lead to diseases of the mind and body.

15. Help others, especially when you are down. This will uplift you too.

16. Live a non-toxic lifestyle. This includes avoiding unnecessary drugs and chemicals, as well as people, relationships and jobs that bring you down. Your time is valuable; don’t waste it on anyone or anything that doesn’t deserve it.

17. Spend time in nature.

18. Leave your to-do list undone, re-charge, take vacations and don’t work too much. In the end, no one says they wish they had spent more time at the office.

19. Create goals so you know where you’re going and have things to look forward to, but be open to detours.

20. And believe in yourself.

I love it!

Newest Wellness Program

Remember Get In Shape Girl? LOVED IT! How could I not with it being he original source of my love for leg warmers and side ponytails! My favorite was the Gymnast one with the Lyrical Gymnast Ribbon. Do kids even have toys that encourage them to move around and feel good? I know I'm always singing the Get In Shape Girl song when I'm doing my push-ups. Thank you GISG for being my inspiration 3 decades later!!!

I have been asked by a few people to post my Wellness Program so here it is. The latest and greatest!

This is the Newest Wellness Program I am doing.

5:00am - Prayer/Devotion/Meditation/

6:30 am- Official Rise & Shine

7:00-7:30 am - Cardio (ex. jog, jump rope, swim)

7:30-8:15 am - Mini Workout/Challenge (I have monthly challenges I give myself, example below)

8:15-9:00 am - Yoga

See? It's simple and eliminates the whole "I have no time" excuse. With this program I was hoping to be able to do it at LEAST 3x a week if not everyday because it's short and simple and I get it out of the way early! I am trying to create a habit more than get any dramatic results.


**After some weeks of doing this, I only sometimes wake up at 5:00 am. To make sure I get my Me time, I will either push the schedule back, or take do it in the evenings. The reason why 6:30 is the official Rise & Shine is because I knew I wouldn't be getting up at 5:00 everyday.

**The Challenges are little things I want to work on to keep myself motivated and not get bored. Like this month my Challenge was to do 100 push-ups and 500 sit ups. I was doing a good job for 2 weeks, then I went on vacation so I need to get back on it. I might need to create a new Challenge for every week or every 2 weeks, because I get SO bored SO easily.

Other future challenges I anticipate is Cardio Crunch (more so basically all cardio for the whole hour), Yoga Challenge (lots and lots of Yoga), Weights (the thing that bores me the most!). The Mini workouts are little things I have written down that are several reps of things like jumping jacks, leg lifts & lunges. I'll take a picture of my spiral and post that one of these days.


** My Yoga sessions are NOT lasting 45 minutes. I need more sequences. I love my sun salutation and I have a few sequences that I add on, but I really end up doing Yoga for about 25 minutes. Anyone have tips on where to get some good Yoga Sequences?

Now I'm intrigued at what other people's fitness programs are. Share if you feel so obliged!

What Surprises the Dalai Lama the Most About Humanity?

When asked what surprised him most about humanity, the Dalai Lama answered “Man. Because he sacrifices his health in order to make money. Then he sacrifices money to recuperate his health. And then he is so anxious about the future that he does not enjoy the present; the result being that he does not live in the present or the future; he lives as if he is never going to die, and then dies having never really lived."

Food & The Fitness Equation

So I've been getting my workout on a bit, but I realize that there is a Food & Fitness Equation to consider. You know you have to have more output than input to get fit. One day I was thinking, alright then I need to create a super diet plan that will go with my fitness plan! Yeah...let me tell you a little something about me. I LOVE Food. I love to eat, snack, prepare, go out and eat...all of it. I don't like to restrict when it comes to mi comida!

Moreover, I am a recovering junk food junky, so vegetables, real food that isn't fast food is kind of new to me. Really in the past year, maybe even the past 6 months I have learned how to cook. When I started trying to think of a restricted diet I felt limited in what I can cook; it took the fun out of it. So moving forward I am going to be tranquilo about my eating. I know that the ice cream sandwich I had before bed is not something I should make a habit (and I PROMISE that was the first time I've done that!) and I do figure that making my own food is a healthier option, but most of all what is clear to me is that if I want to get FIT it's going to have to be ALL about activities, movement and burn, burn, burn.

What does that mean? It means, even though the men I live near make it a Nightmare to go running, I gotta get up and do it sometimes, it means practicing salsa cause I love it and that's gets me moving, it means searching then splurging on a bike because I feel if I had one I would ride it. I want to find a surf instructor and play with a girls soccer team. There are lots of fun things I can do to get more active and I need to hone in on those because chewin on celery sticks does NOT seem like it's what I'm tryin to do at this juncture in my life!

How do you resolve your Food & Fitness Equation?

Fabulous Facial Features

Lauryn!

TOP 5 Ways to Insure Success in Your Fitness Program (Before even walking out of the door!)

1) Prep your clothes the night before

This cuts down on that “groggy, snooze” moment when you wake up and think “Will I, or won’t I?”, when you have your tennis shoes and workout gear looking at you all ready to go like a puppy ready to go outside, that might be JUST the extra nudge you need to get up and get out!

2) Vizualize yourself having a kick-butt workout as you drift off to sleep

The Power of visualization! If you see yourself the night before achieving your workout goals the next day, you are MUCH more likely to get up and get to it and there is a great chance that you’ll have one of the best workout days as well!

3) Hydrate

It’s hard to get up and it’s hard to complete a great workout without the proper hydration, so help your body help you and get to guzzlin’ your H20!

4) Vision Board or other Visual that will serve as a constant reminder

You know I’m a fan of a Vision Board, but having something in your home as a constant reminder works. Some people put pictures up on the fridge (way to harsh for me! Lol) or some people just wear a rubberband around their wrist. Whatever works for you have that something that reminds you to get out and move around!

5) Plan your workouts ahead of time, but be flexible.

It’s harder to say “I just didn’t find the time…” when you’ve wedged out time specifically ahead of time when you plan on working out. In life things come up of course, so be flexible, that way an unexpected scheduling conflict won’t have the power to knock you off of your whole plan!

Give these a try and let me know what works best for you! ☺

Compare Shots- Twists

Compare Shots- Twists

2007














2009














May 2010 (Heat Stretched)













April 2011 (Braid Stretched)

Feeling Guilty Allllready....

Man, I just did my Fitness Confession, which I knew would be a journey of natural highs and lows, but I've hit a low before I have even started!

This past week I was sick with Dengue Fever, and so needless to say I didn't work out. Well this is now a new week and I thought I was feeling better since the skull crushing headache was gone, the body aches had dissipated and my temperature was back to normal. Well I was wrong, I still have little to no energy nor appetite.

Today I have felt TOTALLY bummed, disappointed and guilty feeling for not following through with my plan. I was super amphed to get in shape and I think I did two days of my proposed program and now nothing. I think more than the thing itself (being sick for a week) I'm afraid what it implies, or what it could imply: I started something and I'm not going to finish.

Well, the solution is really simple now isn't it? Simple don't let that be true right? Let the week "off" be just that, and then jump back on the wagon. FINE! No more pouting, or feeling guilty. Guilt is a learned emotion and it has no value. We were taught to feel guilt and it is a wasted emotion indeed.

Bueno, so tomorrow I will do what I can do, but I will do SOMETHING and I will let me week slump be only that and will give my self props for not giving up completely. Hope your week was a wee bit more productive than mine...but even if it wasn't let's get this thing going THIS week!

Peace, Love & Motivation :)