Healthy Lifestyle

Heart Health

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February is National Heart Health month.  Did you know that heart disease is the number one cause of death in both men and women and is responsible for over 1 million deaths annually?  Don’t panic, there are some things you can do to help prevent heart disease and keep your ticker in tip-top shape.

  1. Get Regular Check-ups – High blood pressure and cholesterol are major risk factors for heart disease.  Keep yourself informed about your levels, adjust your lifestyle to help keep your levels in a safe range, and avoid foods heavy in saturated fats.
  2. Maintain a Healthy Weight – We are not talking about being “swimsuit ready”.  Obesity is linked to many other health factors which can lead to heart disease including high triglyceride levels.  Maintain a healthy weight and especially avoid extra weight around the belly/mid-torso area.
  3. Limit Alcohol and Smoking – Overconsumption of either of these will increase you blood pressure and ultimately increase your risk of heart attack and stroke.  Studies suggest no more than 2 drinks per day for men, and 1 drink per day for women.
  4. Eat a Healthy and Balanced Diet – Avoid foods high in saturated fat, foods with high sodium levels, processed foods, and sugar.  Whole foods should make up the bulk of your diet with fresh vegetables being the star at every meal.  Balance your plate with a fat, protein, and carb at every meal.
  5. Exercise Regularly – You don’t need to be a marathon runner, you just need to move every day.  Try my at-home beginner’s workout or my beginners HIIT workout to start.  Exercise helps strengthen the heart and improve circulation.
  6. Get Your Sleep – Lack of sleep comes with an increased risk of obesity, diabetes, and high blood pressure.  Start creating better habits to get more sleep.  Check out my post on sleep for ideas on how to set yourself up for a more restful and restorative sleep session.
  7. Manage Stress – High stress levels can lead to high blood pressure and high cortisol levels.  Those high cortisol levels can lead to an increase of belly fat.  Take time out of everyday to breathe, calm yourself down, and relax.  Even 2 minutes of deep breathing can help interrupt the stress cycle.
  8. Know Your Risk – Get clear on your family health history and your genetic risk.  Be proactive in the care of your body, don’t make it a guessing game.

Healthy hearts equal healthy bodies.  The great “side-effects” of taking care of your heart are weight-loss, clearer skin, more energy, less aches and pains, and more.  Improving your diet, moving everyday, and taking some time for yourself can have lasting results that will not only improve your heart function, but improve your overall health.

 

Podcast, Episode 2 – Work, Life and HEALTH Balance

/ Koa Fit

Brenna Backe sits down with Missy Hughes and Siri Schubert-Nicollela to talk about work, life, and, health balance.  Working in the health and fitness industry, these 3 ladies cannot let their health and fitness slide.  Listen below for their top tips to keep and stay healthy, the one thing they could not live with out, and what happens when they get off track.

Brenna’s Thanksgiving Guide

/ Koa Fit

Oh, Thanksgiving Day with it’s hours of food prep for minutes of consumption.  It’s ambition for perfect memories mixed with the reality of family.  It’s lofty goals of enjoying a day off work mixed with the labor of cleaning a house and setting a table.  Thanksgiving can truly be a sneaky let-down if you are not careful and don’t have a plan.  Lucky for you, at this 11th hour, I have just the plan that will not just get you through the holiday, but may actually leave you feeling happy, satisfied, and relaxed.

Morning

  1. Eat a Healthy Breakfast – So many people think they are saving calories by skipping breakfast so they can scarf down as much stuffing as they can come 4pm.  Don’t do it.  Not only will you be cranky the whole morning – snapping at your family, cursing your oven, etc, etc – you also SLOW your metabolism down.  Eat breakfast, regulate your blood sugar, keep your metabolism ramped up, and keep your stress level down.
  2. Take Time for Yourself Before You Spend Time with Others – Spend  a few moments in the morning working out, journaling, or meditating before you jump into the craziness of the day.  Run in a Turkey Trot or find a yoga class.  There are so many options the morning of Thanksgiving to get moving and clear your mind.

Afternoon

  1. Prepare Early- Before the family comes over, get your day laid out.  Write a timeline of what needs to happen when.  It will be easier for you to accept (and direct) help if you have it all written out.
  2. Be Present – When your guests start arriving, walk away from your preparations, even for just a minute, to really be present and greet them.  Look them in the eye, welcome them to your home, really take in their presence before you rush off to baste the turkey.
  3. Include Others/Ask for Help – People like to be part of things, let them.  Ask them to help lay out the table or start washing the dishes.  You can also designate someone to ask everyone what they are grateful for or lead an activity with the kids.

Dinner

  1. Create Space for Conversation – As you sit down for dinner, take the time to set the intention.  Invite others to state what they are grateful for, share a memory or story, or remember a loved one who has passed.
  2. Taste Your Food – Do not shovel.  Do not inhale.  Instead, taste the food.  Compliment the preparer.  Breathe and eat consciously.  Enjoy the flavors, the aromas, and the company.
  3. Take a Break – If you have been doing the heavy lifting all day, let someone else clear the table or get dessert.  Keep the kids busy by having them plate the dessert and serve the adults.

Night

  1. Get Outside – If the weather is nice, try to get everyone out for some fresh air or a walk.  If it is not nice, think about playing a game.  Move just a little after your meal to help the food digest and keep people from snoozing.

Strong and Balanced – Breathe Deep

/ Koa Fit

Yes, this is yet another blog post about how important it is for us to breathe.  Why? Because we forget.  We do breathing exercises for a few days, maybe a couple of weeks, and then what happens?  Life, stress, and our daily grind get in our way.  So consider this your public service announcement for breathing for good health.

Now, I know you are busy, so I will get straight to the point.  Doing some form of breathing exercise can help you with the following:

  • Stress Reduction
  • Proper Organ Function
  • Decreased Inflammation
  • Better Sleep
  • More Endurance, Stamina, and Energy
  • Increased Flexibility, Tension Relief
  • Reduced Spinal Pain, Better Posture
  • Better Brain Function, Clarity
  • Decreased Anger
  • Strengthen the Immune System
  • Promote Good Digestion
  • Strengthens the Heart

You get the point, right?  It is one of the best things you can do for your well-being.

So, let’s get practicing.  Below is a video from my friend and amazing body-worker and life-coach, Emily Wishall.  In this video she goes over a few different ways to use your breathe to help you achieve your goals.  Whether you are trying to fall asleep or trying to gain some more energy in the afternoon, this 10-minute videos goes over simple exercises you can start incorporating into your daily life.

Also, check out Emily’s 10 Simple Steps to Jumpstart Your Day.

Happy Breathing!

Strong and Balanced – Community

/ Koa Fit

When I opened my 2nd personal training studio in 2012, I wanted to build something larger than just a gym.  I really wanted to establish a place of community.  I wanted to be an informational resource for our town, to provide a space for people with common goals to come together and support each other, and I wanted to create a learning environment for the other trainers in the studio.  5 years later, there is definitely a strong community at Koa Fit AND it is something that I try to foster, care for, and grow every week I am in business.

Community = COMMON Purpose + Values + Experiences

Being part of a community, whether you seek it out or it finds you, is one of the most important pieces to living a strong and balanced life.  There are the communities we attach ourselves to because we have a common interest or purpose (think sports teams, weight loss groups, networking, etc) and then there are those we are part of because we share common values (non-profits, religion, political groups, etc.).  And then there are the communities we may just find ourselves in due to our life experiences (support groups, travel, neighborhoods, etc.).  You have probably found yourself in at least one or all 3 of these communities at one point or another in your life.  Being part of a community allows us to have a sense of belonging, provide mutual support, and have greater influence in our society.  It is important for us to not only be part of a community, but to be ACTIVE  and INVOLVED  in that community on a daily basis.

Support

One of the biggest benefits of being active in a community is the support that you get and give.  Working together, supporting each other through life’s challenges not only helps you bare the burden, but also fulfills the want to be needed as you help others.  As you give assistance to someone, you expand your capacity to be compassionate, patient, and generous.  You will also experience more in your life as you look at situations from someone elses shoes or help them get through a particularly trying time.  Your reality and view of the world can be expanded when you support those around you.

Understanding

As you engage and support people as a community, you will also better understand others.  You will understand where they came from, what they value, why they made certain decisions, and what they want to do in their life.  These insights into people’s lives create an atmosphere of understanding, so that even if we disagree, we can UNDERSTAND the other person’s viewpoint.   Understanding leads to patience which leads to compassion which then leads to trust.

This understanding also expands our own knowledge and gives us the opportunity to teach others.  This give and take is a much more valuable life education than anything we can pick up in a book or a classroom.

Connection and Trust

The biggest reason people join a community is to make connections.  It could be as simple as you all enjoy reading books or riding bikes, or it could be more complicated, like trying to conquer an addiction.  Whatever the reason, connection is something every human requires.  Connection leads to friendship and intimacy, and gives us the sense that we are on a team and that people have our backs.

These connections that we make in our communities also lead us to trusting one another.  It helps create a camaraderie in our society that allows us to walk down the street feeling safe and secure.  The more people you can connect with, build a relationship, and ultimately trust in your community, the more peace we can have in this world.

Move the World

Communities can create movements.  Obviously, as a group you have much greater influence than you do alone.  But bigger than that, the power a community can cultivate is exponential.  The motivation and inspiration that feeds the community is only doubled and tripled as the group expands.  This is literally the “power” of a community.  Giving your attention to something larger than yourself can help move attitudes, beliefs, and policy.

The Magic of Walking

/ Koa Fit

I am sad to say that the last week I suffered from a mild head cold.  It turns out it was a huge bummer because I also happened to be in San Diego where the weather was perfect, the humidity was just right, and there are miles and miles of boardwalk along the water to run on.  Not wanting to exasperate my symptoms (stuffy nose, congestion… you know the drill) I decided to walk instead of run.

If you have spent any time with me, you will know that walking as exercise is not really my thing.  Why would I walk somewhere where I could run, or even faster, bike?  That was definitely my attitude.  However, after spending the week forced to slow down a little bit, I was surprised at my enjoyment of the walk.

Here’s the thing…normally if I am going to exercise and exert myself, I need a little pep talk.  A little bit of “You can do it!” or “You will feel great when you are done!”, but with walking, I just put on my headphones and wander out.  It is so relaxing and so gentle, one could even say delightful.  I never had to “convince” myself to do it or that it was a great idea.  It was just so easy.

The second thing I noticed was that I could do it for long periods of time, multiple times a day.  I had no problem walking for an hour in the morning and in the evening and then sneaking out after the lunch break (I was attending a conference).  It was just so nice to listen to music or a podcast and take in the scenery, the people, and just the general action that was happening.  I wasn’t constantly thinking about how any more miles I had left or the rate of my cadence.  It was a nice little break from the usual “pressure” of my runs.

Me, walking in the shadow of the Maroon Bells in Aspen, CO.

Third, it helped my mind.  I could process so much on those walks.  Business goals, meal ideas, life revelations were all processed on these walks.  I could organize, plan, and execute all the ideas that usually just swirl around in my head for days on end.  It was very liberating.

The last thing was that it disconnected me from my usually distractions.  Yes, I listened to podcasts (which, by the way, I have been meaning to “get to” for months), but I did not text, check social media, or read emails.  I just listened and walked.  It brought my stress levels way down and it helped me be more alert and clear through the rest of my day.

Now that I am healthy again, I have gone back to some of my usual workout routines, but I have continued my walks.  I just enjoy the time outside and away from responsibility so much!  During these times of high intensity interval training and 60 hour work-weeks it is important to just have some stress-free time.

So I challenge you this month, to start a walking routine.  Scratch that.  Not a “routine”, jut get out and walk every once-in-a-while.  I know we get tired, I know we have a lot on our plates, but take some time to get outside and enjoy nature.

  • Instead of sitting at the television right after dinner, head outside for a 10 minute walk to help your meal digest.
  • Set your clothes out the night before, wake up 15 minutes earlier, and head out in the morning to help you wake up and clear your mind.
  • Spend part of your lunch break walking.  Walk to a local park, eat, and walk back.  Or if you buy lunch, consider walking to the restaurant instead of driving.

This is not about weight-loss or burning calories.  It is about moving your body everyday, using it for what it was designed to do.  It is about taking ourselves out of our routine, away from our screens, and checking in with our surroundings.  It is about bringing a sliver of balance back to our hectic lives.

Happy Walking!