Top 5 Ways to be YOU (enhancement 101)!

Wellness Hero's Top 5 ways to just be YOU....you already know, time to apply these simple ways to bring about changes that are LIFE rewarding.  Be you & be connected to your body and how to use it best for what you require. 

1.  Breathe Deeply (this changes everything from thoughts, to posture, give it a try several times in a row, I dare you to breathe!)

2.  Smile (this is a game changer in EVERY situation.  Just smile to smile, do it with your eyes open or closed, works both ways, try it!)

3.  Listen to your Heart (not only physically to its beating, but to what it is telling you about your true feelings, this takes much practice, but we all feel, so we all can listen too!)

4.  Stand & Sit Straight UP (posture, body alignment can allow energy blocks within our bodies to open up & obtain deeper circulation)

5.  Take time to Meditate (looking inward will change everything, sit quitely and just breathe (and maybe apply #1 here?!) allow your mind to clear and settle, then you will SEE!)

Shifting to something better, PART I

PART I:  Shifting to something better....                      10.30.13

My passion is to guide you to live well by supporting  wellness daily which balances the 4 parts of Health (see blog post on this topic for details).  Shifting a person’s paradigm of what is Healthy requires the TRUTH to be accepted and practiced by what is healthy....the answers are out there, but most likely NOT what you currently believe on a whole (your paradigm).  Bits & pieces of healthy action is just that, only a small part.  Thriving in life, well it moves the game onto a new playing field because when a person’s health is OPTIMAL, life is no longer the same........Do you believe you have the power to NEVER get sick again?  Everything starts with a belief on what we think is TRUE.......
                   
As I continue to channel health & wellness content to all those interested, a shift from my approach in being applied.  Since uncovering new information always and when applying it the results have been very supportive.  The shift is in the direction of training yourself to live within your abilities and capabilities, just remember, no matter who you are, attitude is everything!!!  I look at everyday as we are training for life, are you practicing quality sleep, eating nutrition dense meals daily, moving that body optimally each day with in the 5 components of health related fitness?  Life is practice, each day is another opportunity to do what we want with our individual choices.  Thriving takes years of practice, each action is a drop in the bucket, always be striving to add just one simple drop as that is the key to making a difference in your dynamic HEALTH. 

The mission for me is to be the best daddy & HUMAN I can by choosing to share my life experience with others to learn from as well.  This BLOG is one medium to which I communicate.    This experience just so happens to be a way of life that supports being a thriving human.  I still will be blogging/vlogging (Wellness Hero's YouTube Channel Link) about health & wellness, but more so directed to ANY HEALTH concept.   Some information may seem new or confusing to incorporate, but the more quality experiences gained with family, not to just spend time, but to teach basic fundamental principles of exercise, nutrition, and basically WELLNESS into day to day occurrences is a shift into the priority that health is something we have to do.  Some concepts y’all maybe familiar with like in the previous sentence (exercising & eating), but some maybe things that you never considered to be healthy or unhealthy.

ASK ME Questions Publicly or Privately, but know others maybe to timid or feel they don’t have the time to actually ask.  Be the change you want to be by taking ACTION & Participating in your life in a way you didn’t yesterday.  You have the POWER in choice, just do something new for 5 min. and know those 5 min. were 5 more then the previous 5 days and that is a monumental change because 5 is way bigger then ZERO....

How about taking care of you?

Wellness is comprised of equal balance (25% each for those math peps) of:
            1. Mental
            2. Emotional
            3. Social
            4. Physical

HEALTH.  Each of these dimensions is intertwine to the other, so even if one is in a negative balance then the other three are directly impacted as well.

Each moment of everyday we are practice each of these components whether that person is conscious of it or not.  Understand that not practicing something is actually a choice to not to work on the habits that comprise what we do over the course of the day.

A person has thousands of habits, but really likes to embrace those that make us feel good (Emotional Health).  I feel great in so many situations, but that took tremendous amount of actual work on my Mental side of Wellness.  Thinking about thoughts is some DEEP campfire kind of stuff!

The point of all is this is their is more to our daily experiences that WE has people have FULL CONTROL of.  I like to say excuses are like assholes, everyone has them and they stink....Be who you want, make choices that allow you to spread JOY to all those around you.  When a person practices any aspect of wellness SMILING is much easier :)

Carpe Diem & Nameste!

Create Your Intention for Your LIFE!

A healthy how to guide to lose weight. Start HERE!

Physical Activity of LIFE!                                         9.14.12

Taking care of your inside parts is what counts the most, health is an internal thing and when we exercise we truly are impacting our guts more then you may think. 
 No matter where your starting point is with your life and condition of the body, these are the first steps to identify healthy habits to build a foundation for a healthy lifestyle. 

1.  How much sleep do you get each night out of seven days?  To maintain an ideal body weight an adult should accomplish at least 7 hours each night.....SLEEP is a vital variable to maintaining & achieving an ideal body weight.

2.  Start a food journal with writing down EVERYTHING you eat over 7 days  A specific focus on food consumption (diet is anything a person eats) with looking into how many calories each day, while identifying Protein, Carbs, Fats in grams for each category.   Not a bad idea to eliminate both Alcohol & Sugar from the diet.  Drink WATER, you cannot consume to much of this!!!!!

3.   Physical activity is a MUST for everyone.  The idea is to balance your movements into something you enjoy participating in, basically the rule is 60 min. a day on most days of the week.  Look into measure your heart rate during exercise/physical activity, as this is the best tool for driven results.  Find your target heart rate & put your heart in it!!!!

4. Set a goal that is both reasonable and specific (results can be measured).  Actually write it down and check daily what have you done to accomplish it. 
Get educated on moving smarter, not harder.  The idea is to be effective, safe, and results driven.  Seek out knowledge on you own through several different mediums.  Ask questions to a dietitian, personal trainer, wellness coach, or other fitness professional.  Be aggressive with your health and being in the know is a great way to be effective. 

5. A base assessment of body fat should be conducted in the beginning, this measurement (NO SCALE for WEIGHT, bad reference point) should give a fat to everything else ratio & that number will decrease over the course of becoming more physically active.  This is also the reference point for results for the future.  For body weight their is no quick fixes, truly the solution is a lifestyle that supports as much movement as possible.  Making daily choices that have positive outcomes will continue the habits necessary to live well.  

Mental Health Awareness.

                    2.25.12
A healthy mind, a healthy body.

Mental Health is internal and starts with an attitude to be happy, because really who decides if they smile or not?  A brains reaction (s) to outcomes of our choices are all about how our mental state decides it is going to be.  So if you do want to have a better experience you have to make a different choice?  Think about it.....yeah I’m happy only if I want to be (no one else decides that for me) and can’t we all make new choices day to day?  Are we really in control of our habits & decisions...

My experience is about being in the know and now (present moment).  Continuing forward with improved choices for even better outcomes is possible.  It is a new day so people make simple, small changes that vibe with our daily habits, but allow a more positive balance to exist by being aware of what that decision may be.  Mental health is about accepting and understanding new ideas and concepts.  With knowing that it is an individual choice to be proactive and take your smile to the masses and see how just that simple choice of always smiling changes everything about a better continuation during the present moment. 

So go ahead and just do it, smile for the next, well you decide how long you want to be happy for.  Hey, I’m not going to put a gun to your head to make you smile.....:-)

Balance your life with practicing how you think.  An open mind can only exist with the ability for a person to be able to change the way they actual think; think about it, it really the brain thinking about the brain, but applying a new way of making choices, but it is for different outcomes, ones that make us happier :~)

What to eat when your done Working Out

I want to stress that Carbohydrates are SUPER important to maintaining our health with a balanced diet.  The difference, complex (good) verses simple (bad) carbohydrates, eat the good, don’t eat the bad, but this blog is more about the science of eating after your are done with your physical activity.

Recovery Nutrition Science 101
The body continues to burn calories after a workout, called exercise post oxygen consumption (EPOC), which lasts 15 minutes to 48 hours after training. EPOC causes an additional calorie burn and higher metabolism beyond the workout--a benefit for weight and fat management. The amount of EPOC calories burned depends on gender, training status, training intensity and duration, and fitness level-- accounting for a few to several hundred calories. Why are extra calories burned?
EPOC calories are burned because:
• The body replenishes sugar in muscles and replaces the simplest energy form called adenosine triphosphate (ATP) at the cellular level; 
• Lactate--responsible for post exercise muscle soreness needs removal.
• Normal breathing, heart rate and body temperature needs restoration to pre-exercise levels
• Blood needs re-oxygenation after muscles cease working out.
Recovery Fuel 
Depending on training type and timing of the next workout, the composition and amount can vary while keeping in mind the golden recovery rule; getting something--anything as long as it's within the window of refueling opportunity, about 15 minutes to two hours after training for adequate replenishment.
The best foods to eat are those high in carbohydrates. Planning ahead by storing a sports drink, bar, or snack in the gym bag or stopping for a smoothie on the way home is one way to ensure adequate replenishment within the recovery window. Meals/snacks with 65% carbohydrates or more, about 0.8g to 1 gram/kg bodyweight / hour have been shown to replenish muscle stores best. For the 150 pound athlete (68 kg) (kg=pounds / 2.2), a snack or beverage with about 54 grams -68 grams carbohydrates. Visit the Recovery Fuel Chart for snacks that meet this requirement.
It's just as important to refuel after shorter high intensity workouts as it is for longer workouts. The difference between the recommended foods depends on whether or not it is the last workout of the day.
As for hydration, replacing fluids at a rate of 1-1½ times, about 16-24 oz for every pound lost in sweat. Weighing before and after a training session can provide a good guestimate of fluids lost during exercise. And while it's not necessary to weigh daily, seasonal weightings are recommended since ambient temperature affects fluid losses.
Urine color is the simplest and one of the most accurate measures of hydration. If the urine is pale yellow, that's good, while dark urine means dehydration. Completely clear urine is a concern since it suggests overhydration--the overconsumption of water and potential loss of electrolytes. Therefore, recovery fluids should include water, electrolyte rich sport drinks, and recovery fuels with sugar and protein (depending on the intensity of the workout) to cover all bases and replace all losses. When food doesn't work, a sport shake is an easy, portable way to replace carbohydrates and protein needed for maintaining muscle gains and strength accomplished during workouts.