A Healthy Family

It is important when you first decide to start a family and as you all grow together as a family to keep fitness and nutrition in mind everyday. It is going to be twice as hard to get into the swing of eating healthy and working out if you have been letting is pass for 30 years.

Nutritional tips I learned from my husband....

-reduce sugar at a young age. This means half the sugar content of everything. You will be surprised how good koolade tastes with only half a pack used.

-mix up the meals everyday.

Each day should be a different type of meal. For example Monday beef, Tuesday fish, Wednesday chicken, Thursday pasta, Friday turkey, Saturday and Sunday Chicken. It keeps the meals interesting and keep the body in the nutritional grove.

Remember with each dinner to always have a green (lettuce or veggie), a carb, and a protein.

If you go to Sparkpeople.com they have receipts for every dish imaginable and family tips on how to stay healthy.

I must add in this picture today. Being fit must run in the family, take a look at my Nephew Caleb, look at that awesome push-up form at 5 months old!!

Embrace America

The walking begins again. I headed out Monday morning to my local park and had a beautiful day to walk in. I made it 3.4 miles today. i was definitely more tired than usual with having a week off but I pushed myself to the end. A few weeks ago i had started to add in some running, so I am definitely back to walking but will get back there maybe by the end of the week.

Embrace America miles:
For each mile you walk it counts as 5 EA miles since we are crossing the US. Now if you walk with either ankle weights of hand weights you get to double your miles and if you walk with both you get to triple your miles.

Today I just walked, no weights so I walked 15.5 Embrace America Miles. I am well on my way to New York!

Fitness motivation tip: give yourself small goals to work towards. If all you are going for is that amazing end result it is going to be a lot more difficult to achieve.
My goal is to walk 5 miles at least four times a week and then I can get some new walking shoes!! I am up to 3.5 on most days but I can do it!

The Struggles

You will always go through some ups and downs when you are working on becoming or staying a healthy individual wither you are already in good shape or are starting from the beginning. I had been making good progress on my walking and had made it up to walking 5 days a week and was covering about 4 miles in an hour. I could feel and see some changes to my body and then I got sick with a stomach Virus. I was out from an though of exercise or eating for that matter Monday to Thursday. This past week was a complete failure to my progress, but things like this will always happen.

With being out for a week and not getting food in my system for four days, it now pains me to even walk up the stairs just to get into my apartment. I could not find the motivation to go out and walk on Sunday but am excited to be able to get back out to my park tomorrow and hit the trails. It might be a slow walk tomorrow but these are the things (setback) the demotivate people to workout. You have to push through them one day at a time and don't be afraid to start over.

With my clients I have now started a program called Embrace America. It is a walking program to walk from California to New York, it is over a 3000 mile journey but this will help them to get into a routine of walking. I have been walking all along but have not been keeping track of my own miles. Starting Monday I will keep track myself and let you know of my progress each day.

Check back tomorrow on hows my adventures went!

Meyer Park

This is a park I have been going to for the past six months. I started walking there with one of my clients and then most recently took on walking there four to five times a week. I am now thinking about putting together a book about the places I walk with descriptions and pictures to go with it. Here are a few from Meyer Park. i enjoy going to this park because even though it is right in Houston it allows you to get away form it all and just think as you walk.

Personal Training

I have had my own personal training business since I left LIFETIME Fitness a year ago. I am now pursuing new clients for the summer. I want people to enjoy working out and see the benefits of having a healthy life style. Its not about being a size 4 or fitting into your old high school clothes. It is about feeling good about who you are and knowing that you are living a healthy lifestyle in hopes to spend as much time with your children and grandchildren.

I myself am dedicating one hour 4-5 times a week for walking. My husband and I would love to start a family one day and I want to have a routine in place that I know will help me support my children as I grow older. My walks have been going good and I wake up every morning now thinking what time I can go walking. This is not a commitment that will happen over night. It took me a good two weeks to actually get out more than twice a week and another two week to get over the soreness of walking five days a week, but now I am enjoying it and seeing the results.

Just some things to think about as we come to our 2010 summer. It will be getting hotter in the months to come in Texas, and the sooner you can get started on a program in the nice weather, the earlier it will be to keep it up during the hot months.

Fitness tip of the day: If you feel that you can not dedicate time to go to a gym or a park think about adding exercises in your everyday life. It takes me about five minutes to blow dry and straighten my hair. I now do incline push-ups on My sink counter as my flat iron heats up. i do about 20 a day, but you will feel and see the results.