Wellness Tips for 2009

1. Make A Plan - Reaching short-term goals leads to long-term success. Do a self-assessment that examines your current life and helps you to get clarity on on how your thoughts and beliefs influence your behaviors and actions. Get clear on your strengths and weaknesses and how they play a role in helping you reach your desired goals. It is important to realize that how you live your life today will greatly impact your quality of life for many years to come.

2. Create a Journal - Tracking your activities and decisions helps you to connect with your successes and failures. Charting your achievements and setbacks helps you to move forward and helps establish accountability.

3. Expect some Roadblocks - Not every road is paved smoothly. Have a plan and stick to it. It's normal to encounter boredom or simply lose motivation and interest. Be creative and re-commit to your efforts.

4. Create a Support Network - Workout with a friend(s) or hire a personal trainer. Here again, accountability is helpful in helping you meet your desired goals.

5. Find a New Challenge - Pick up a new sport or activity that interests you.

6. Make Exercise /Training a Priority - It's too easy to push fitness aside and justify other obligations you may have. Organize your workouts as well as your meals into your schedule
(daytimer, PDA, smartphone, etc).

7.Consistency Leads to Results - Like anything in life the more effort you put in the better the results you will achieve. Working out and eating right will help you look, feel and perform better. Once you notice and appreciate these changes - this will help motivate you to maintain your goals and your commitment to healthy living.

Benefits of Exercise:

1. Improved longevity and quality of life - helping reduce the effects of aging.

2. Helps with stress management which directly impacts health and prevention of disease.

3. Improves sleep ( especially deep, restorative REM sleep) - vital to mental health, immune and metabolic function.

4. Key to metabolic function - impacting weight gain and management.

5. Strengthens immune system and helps prevent( or better control) illness and disease such as hypertension, diabetes, obesity, heart disease , cancer, arthritis, dementia, metabolic syndrome, and much more.

6. Increases energy and improves mood and stabilizes mood swings.

7. Improves Brain Function - memory, concentration, alertness, creative thinking, problem solving ( oxygenating the brain and stimulating neural function)

8. Need to incorporate strength training ( upper and lower body and core), aerobic conditioning, balance, agility and flexibility.

Stress Management:

1. Un-managed stress leads to a variety of illnesses and disease.

2. Stress comes in many forms ( job-related, personal, social, financial, health)

3. Type A personalities are particularly vulnerable and often struggle with life- imbalances such as too much work, too little sleep, exercise and play.

4. Exercise , combined with healthy nutrition are critical to managing stress. In addition, the use of relaxation techniques such as meditation, deep breathing, yoga, biofeedback, and guided imagery have been proven to significantly reduce the effects of stress.

5. Working out should not be an additional stress in your life. Find something that you enjoy and will maintain. Keep it challenging and stimulating.

Healthy Nutrition:

1. " You are what you eat"

2. Eating right is a mindset. Much like exercise and managing stress - the effort matches the result. Good habits produce good outcomes.

3. Proper nutrition will compliment your fitness training and produce a strong and reslient body.
Together, they will help to prevent the onset of disease - cancer, heart disease, obesity, diabetes, stroke and other degenerative effects of aging.

4. Your body is an amazing machine - but years of abuse and neglect and your body will not support you as you age. It's simple: Take care of your body and your body will take care of you.

Nutritional Facts:

1. Your metabolism will slow 3% each year after the age of 35.

2. The more muscle you build the higher your metabolic function as you age.

3. If you don't build muscle you will add bodyfat.

4. Hydration is essential to your metabolism. Dehydration will not only slow down your metabolism (and fat burning) and digestive functions, it will impact the nervous system
( brain processes and nerve communication), circulatory system ( heart function and blood supply), muscular system( muscle building, tone and strength), and skeletal system ( bone health).

5. Eat 5-6 small meals each day. Frequent small meals boost the metabolism and helps to control hunger.

6. Don't skip meals. Never skip breakfast.

7. Include 25-35 g of fiber each day ( green vegetables, whole grains, beans, oatmeal, fruit).

8. Avoid refined sugars. Never eat carbs alone. Refined sugar and simple carbs trigger insulin release. Insulin takes carbs you eat and converts it to fat. Insulin forces the body to burn only sugar fuel and changes this sugar into fat and cholesterol. Also, overeating any food ( except green veggies) causes a spike in insulin. Basically, in the presence of insulin, you cannot burn fat as fuel. Fiber is a key to buffer and slow the insulin response.

9. Skipping meals and low-calorie diets lead to weight gain. Due to elevated cortisol( also brought on by stress). Cortisol releases stored sugar from your body triggering insulin and causing fat storage.

10. Glucagon ( The fat-burning hormone) - is the opposing hormone to insulin. Insulin takes the sugar you eat converts it to fat. Glucagon takes the stored fat and breaks it down into sugar for fuel , thus fat-burning.

11. Eating more protein and exercise both increase glucagon levels.

12. Minimimize alcohol consumption which impacts fat metabolism and liver function.