First Health Info

Mindless eating is ugly and what it does to your body is even worse. Many of us walk around with brains turned off and grab whatever food items are in our grazing path. No rhyme or reason but doing an auto-pilot action of putting something in your face. You know the glazed over look watching TV and mowing through a whole bag of chips. How about the work break room goodies brought back to the desk as you plug away at your computer. Often times, we're not hungry, not thinking, and eating out of boredom or habit. This continued pattern isn't good for you or your expanding waistline. What the heck is going on and why?  It's no wonder America is plagued with the highest obesity rate and enormous doctor bills for self-induced illness. Mindless eating is a topic that should be at the forefront of your eating habits. Each time you eat something is an opportunity to better your health and fitness . We have really dropped the ball not thinking before eating. Are you stressed, emotion...

Achieving a lean and healthy body is possible for everyone. Do you believe that? We have the ability to do what it takes to make it happen. It doesn't cost lots of money, require anything special, not even a gym membership. We can reach our fitness goals by choosing a healthy lifestyle. Daily choices determine what your body will look and feel like. Consistency with eating right , exercise, plenty of rest, water and decreased stress will help create the body we want. It starts with our grocery lists and foods we buy to maintain a healthy body. If you're consuming processed foods, lots of sugar, and an abundance of saturated fats, then you will most certainly not reach your fitness goals. Living a sedentary lifestyle absence of exercise also contributes to being unhealthy. We tend to overcomplicate fitness. It really is as simple as food intake and exercise, but many of us refuse to change this basic part of living. As long as we are consistent with healthy habits, we will be h...

I have had the opportunity to research and prepare an article on Orthorexia Nervosa, an undiagnosed eating disorder where healthy eating is taken to an unhealthy extreme. Have you ever wondered if clean eating can become obsessive or unhealthy? Unfortunately, it can and not because it's a food issue but a psychological condition where an unrealistic view of food is adopted. After sharing the article on Facebook , I received an outpouring of emails from people struggling with the disorder or tendencies to the behavior. I was deeply moved with the many thanks for addressing the issue and providing awareness of the Orthorexia condition. There was also quite a bit of backlash and reference to Orthorexia being 'bullshit' and just another money making for the doctors. Many came to the defense of clean eating as if this lifestyle was receiving a bad rap. I consider myself a clean eater but there's a difference in healthy eating and healthy obsessive eating. When our eating fo...

Fitness includes so much more than weight loss or achieving a personal best lift at the gym. Being a fit person involves discipline for each day, creates awareness, and instills conscious living. It means being mindful of how you treat your body, how you think, and feel. Fitness is a lifestyle and goes way beyond the physical. Living this way starts in your mind and pushes you to live a quality life. It's not just a desire but daily actions chosen moving you closer to becoming a healthy person. When your focus remains on health, you can truly say you're living a mindful healthy life.    We put so much pressure on ourselves to squeeze into skinny jeans or tank shirts and tend to forget how being fit is supposed to feel. A fit and healthy body should feel good but instead many of us accept and accommodate pain on a daily basis. In this case, the focus isn't on health and often with a temporary goal based on outward appearance. Healthy lifestyles are meant to be enjoyed for a...

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...

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...

Getting fit has nothing to do with going on a diet. In fact, I came up with an acronym for the 'diet' word and how it affects us: D: Depressing I: Illogical E: Extreme T: Taxing How many times have you heard someone say they are on a diet? Diet trends are numerous and marketed ad nauseam. Diets may have a place in clinical scenarios but really not something for us regular people who may be sedentary or even active adults wanting to get back in shape. Nutrition does play the largest role in our health and fitness . This doesn't mean restricting our calories by means of a fad diet is the way to a fitter body. It simply means eating better food for our goals. Actually not eating enough can work against us causing our body to hold onto fat stores. Diets are also not lifetime sustainable because they can be too restrictive and remove important macronutrients from our daily food intake. We function best eating all macronutrients including lean proteins, healthy fats, and good c...

Living a healthy lifestyle is not about restriction but allowing for moderation. It's not realistic to eliminate a favorite food forever from our diet. I consider my occasional splurges as treats and not even cheats. Because eating them in moderation is an enjoyable experience. It's called living a balanced healthy life. I don't believe having a fresh baked brownie now and then is cheating on my fitness program. I follow a 90/10 rule consuming a wide variety of good carbs , lean proteins, and healthy fats 90% of the time. I allow for 10% indulgence like a glass of wine or dark  chocolate . These small treats won't derail my efforts as many of us are taught to believe. It's what we do consistently that defines what our body looks like. I will even apply the 80/20 rule eating healthy foods 80% of the time and allowing 20% for indulgence. This comes in handy when on vacation or during the holidays. I will not turn down a piece of my Mom's home-baked pie or biscu...

How many times do we justify unhealthy choices using the 'it's only' intro? Whether it�s only five pounds more, a small bag of chips, or one missed workout, it's easy to keep going once we start.  These two little words can be the start of losing our fitness. The occasional treat turns into daily choices leading us in the opposite direction of our fitness goals. The five pound gain turns into ten, two cookies are suddenly five, and several workouts somehow get missed. Two innocent words have suddenly derailed all our hard work.  The ' it�s only ' dilemma can happen at any time but appears to creep back into the picture once fitness results are achieved . What we thought wouldn't make a difference in our fitness has taken us back to an unhealthy lifestyle and body. These two words are not as innocent as one might believe. Saying 'it's only' is only for those with a strong mental game who really mean it for one time. Let�s look at the time it t...

I stopped counting calories years ago. I simply made my focus eating healthy quality food each day. One of my favorite nutrition motivations is �no one has ever gotten fat eating too much kale.� I don't feel the need to keep track of my calories when I eat primarily nutrient-dense foods. The food I eat keeps me strong , healthy and feeling good and that's what matters. When your food is healthy, it promotes healthiness and appropriate body weight.  I keep my refrigerator and pantry stocked with plenty of organic vegetables, fruits, yogurts, raw nuts, grains, and lean meats. I graze throughout the day eating small healthy meals every three hours. This keeps me satisfied and well-fueled for work and physical training.  Maintaining a healthy body is about living a quality life. This means being concerned about the quality of food consumed. There's a big difference choosing to eat a fast food meal compared to an organic chicken breast with mixed greens. Healthy food is nutrient...

I love eating healthy, being active and how I feel as a healthy woman. I adopted a healthy lifestyle years ago and never looked back. Today it's my state of being and natural existence. My passion for health and fitness has become my occupation which is really a goal we should all have in life. When we do what we love, it really doesn't feel like work. It's a sharing and teaching of how I live my life. It feels awesome to be able to provide this gift to so many people. I am realistic about health and fitness. I don't teach perfection but celebrate progress. Fitness is not about a restrictive lifestyle but a healthy balance of eating right 80 to 90 percent of the time and regular exercise. I also don't believe in taking things to extremes where health would feel like a burden for me or anyone else. I encourage a strong and positive mental game and keeping health in perspective . When we enjoy our food intake and physical activity performed, it becomes a healthy hap...

Check out these 10 healthy foods that one must eat at-least once in every week and their nutritional value. #Nutrition #HealthyFood

Check out this image to know different health conditions caused due to the lack of certain vitamins (like vitamin A, C, D, E, K, B6, B12, Folic Acid, Niacin and Riboflavin) and the food sources to gain those vitamins. #Vitamins #HealthyFood