First Health Info

We all look forward to the weekend or free days off. Enjoying a break from work and personal R&R can't come soon enough sometimes, right? The weekend actually allows us more time to work on our fitness programs, but many of us don't look at it that way. The weekend typically includes three days (counting Friday night) of social drinking, parties, and indulgence in unhealthy foods. Many of us completely abandon our fitness goals. We somehow think what we do on the weekend doesn't impact our efforts and healthy lifestyle . This is far from the truth. Every choice made affects our fitness in a positive or negative way. Weekends seem to lean more toward the negative. I admit to letting my hair down a bit on the weekend. However, I don't agree with living an unhealthy lifestyle for three days. How could I exemplify what living healthy means to my clients, you, myself and family? Actions speak louder than words and living the life is what maintains my fitness goals. Don...

This past weekend I ran what was definitely the most memorable race of my entire life.  Not only because of what I was up against but because of the few days leading up to the race. The odds of actually running this race were insurmountable.  Typically ultramarathoners take 4 to 6 months to train for a race as long as 100K.  For mountain races that can be even longer because of the physical demand and stress placed on the body.  With a packed weekly schedule not only did I not have time most days to run the mileage I typically would for this type of training but sometimes I couldn't run at all. But I knew I could accomplish this goal with the right methods: I had to watch my nutrition over those 6 months (making sure I was eating the right amount and the right foods) very closely. I had to be running consistently (running 5 days a week) and challenging myself on at least 2 of the runs each week (with either hard efforts or long mileage). I had to manage my stress lev...

I was reading my daily devotion today on the subject of intentions. I was immediately drawn to the title and felt it was speaking to me personally. Can you relate? We all have good intentions, dream about fulfilling them, but somehow they get pushed aside and forgotten. Well, not really forgotten, because they continue to dance across the pages of our thoughts. At least this is the case for me. Are you guilty of not following through on good intentions to make something happen? Starting that fitness program or promise to eat healthier ? As I read further, I understood the importance of  writing down the intentions, to begin a plan and follow through with action. Moving from intention to action takes a plan. This applies in most everything in life from painting the house, spending more time with family, to adopting a healthy lifestyle . It's really staying true to taking care of the important things in life. What has helped me is setting up challenge systems where I complete three g...

Happy Hump Day Motiv8ers, Coach Ty here and are you ready to get inspired? =)  So hope this post gets you off your feet and gets you fired up to take control of your fitness journey.  Lets get started. So as a fitness coach one of the biggest things I do is help folks conquer and realize their limiting beliefs about themselves. Limiting beliefs are thoughts that you believe to be true that are holding you back from taking action on the actions you need to take in order to reach your goals. Remember this, whatever you say to yourself, say to others, and truly believe will be your reality.  So be careful of what you say because it might be holding you back from reaching your full potential. For example, for many years I used to tell myself and others that I am not a fast runner because I don't have a background in track and field from high school and college.  I would say that is why I focus on ultra distances instead of 10ks, 5ks, and marathons because you don't have ...

The scale game starts as innocent accountability for weight loss and turns into a game of just how much we can get away with cheating on our program.   Who is guilty? The scenario typically looks like this... The fitness program is going great and the weight is coming off at a healthy rate. Suddenly, we begin validating food rewards for a job well done well above what's considered moderation.  We challenge the scale to see how far we can push those numbers because we think there's leeway.  Besides, we're doing such a great job and deserve a weekend of pizza, beer, and pastries, right? Wrong. This is a risky gamble and not a definition of living a healthy lifestyle .  The purpose of obtaining a healthy weight is not to yo-yo back and forth. It means taking our health seriously and maintaining the lifestyle.   If the scale gets in the way of that, it's time to toss it, especially when the 'scale game' derails our health and fitness goals. Relying on the ...

What do I mean by looking like myself?   Well, I have certain genetics and a lifestyle contributing to what I look like. I'm not supposed to look like anyone else including other fitness women in magazines. Back in my competitive days, I do admit to more than admiring fitness competitors and felt I needed to look like them to win. I struggled with my body not responding the same way as another competitor. It was an unrealistic way of thinking . The girls in the magazines don't even look like the girls in the magazine. Straight up the fitness truth. I'm so happy to have learned through that insecure journey. I have come full circle with knowledge, age, and wisdom.   I embrace who I am and what I look like. I strive to be my best me and not anyone else.   It would be such a stressful life to constantly compare myself to all the beautiful women out there. Life is too short to think unrealistic thoughts or goals. Did you know all images in magazines are photoshopped?...

Happy Epic Wednesday Motiv8ers, Let's start this blog post off with a quote from me:  "You choose how you experience your environment and daily life!!!" So, choose to be EPIC and AWESOME!!! =) Alright Motiv8ers, time for our main topic of the day : How To Be More Disciplined in Your Nutrition and with your GOALS! First let me ask you a question, why haven't you started eating healthier yet?     What is stopping you? In our American world, we hear good advice all the time on how to manage our day.  We also hear the truth about how bad processed food, fast food, dairy, candy, fried food, and box meals are for us.  Most of us know the truth.  We know which foods are bad for us. We know why we are still overweight.  We know why we are not as fit as we want to be, and we know what we have to do in order to make our dreams and goals happen. So, what is stopping us from being the healthiest person we can be? Why can't we get started eating right? Why c...

Most of us have the goal of wanting a fit and healthy body . Sadly, not all of us follow through with the action to make it happen. All too often something gets in the way of doing what needs to be done to make the wish a reality. It doesn't matter how much web surfing, article reading, or fit people watching is happening. If what you're doing isn't motivating you to take action, it's nothing but wasted time. In fact, all that time surfing the web could be time used to complete a workout or meal prep. I even have to limit myself and implement a certain amount of time for social media work. My life requires excellent time management to run my personal training business, writing obligations and maintain a healthy lifestyle . That means shutting down my computer and making the choice to exercise and prepare healthy meals for the week.  It's fun to dream about reaching our fitness goals . I am the first to applaud and be motivated by a fit body because I know the effor...

Hi Motiv8ers, Coach Ty here again with another Motiv8 Motiv8ional Blog post.  For today's blog I want to give you two quick tools to help you stay Motiv8ed when your Motiv8ion is low.   First ask yourself these questions.   Do you find yourself sometimes through out your day just feeling unmotiv8ed?  Or do you feel overwhelmed by the amount of work you have to do and you just want to just give up? If you answered yes to the questions above then these two tools below will help you stay focused and keep you in Awesome Town! =) Our first tool starts with a phrase.  "Do 3 small things every day to push your dreams forward."   Motiv8ers this first tool is simple.  Every day we have a ton of stuff to do.  I know I do.  I was in the middle of my Army annual two week training.  I also have Motiv8 and all of you to help, inspire, and Motiv8.  And, I am in the middle of training for a very difficult race coming up in two weeks....

I absolutely love organic peanut butter and eat it almost daily. I'm even guilty of eating a tablespoon straight from the jar. Peanut butter just so happens to be one of the best sports nutrition superfoods. It's a rich source of healthy fat and quality plant protein. Did I mention it tastes amazing! I can be very creative with peanut butter adding it to oatmeal or mixing with protein powder. Eating healthy fats like peanut butter is one of the ways I obtain essential nutrients that maintain my fitness. Did you know good fats help boost your metabolism to more effectively burn body fat? Unfortunately eating fat has received lots of bad press and blamed for making us fat. Not true. There's a difference between fats that help keep us healthy and fats contributing to being unhealthy. Compare a donut to a handful of raw nuts for example. Healthy fats like peanut butter and other nut butter are shown to promote good health. Another thing to keep in mind when enjoying peanut bu...

Keeping a food journal can be your best friend and accountability partner when learning how to implement a healthy nutrition program.  It can also feel like a burden depending on your commitment level.  I have heard it all when it comes to food journals and the love/hate relationship caused when keeping track of every morsel. The problem is really not the food journal, but the issue of not wanting to be honest with ourselves.  W hen life is going great and our program is on track, we gladly write down every healthy bite and proudly share eating habits producing positive results.   On the other side of the spectrum is feeling guilty eating off track and not wanting to write it down. We even convince ourselves somehow not writing it down means it didn't really happen. We tend to have moments of forgetfulness when we stop being mindful of our eating behavior.  The truth is regardless of what we want to include in our food journal, our body keeps an accurate reco...