TRAVEL BLOG

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 we treat our body, how we think, and feel. Fitness is a lifestyle and goes way beyond the physical. Living this way starts in our minds and pushes us to live a quality life. It's not just a desire but daily actions we choose moving us closer to being healthy people. When our focus remains on health, we can truly say we are living a healthy life with our whole being.    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 ...

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...

To this day I dislike being called skinny. I have had my share of teasing as a kid and even into adulthood. Body shaming goes both ways in this life. What's important is loving yourself right where you are while working toward your goals . It wasn't until discovering how to build curves with resistance training that my life changed for the better. I was blessed with my Dad's genetics and thankful, but it has been a challenge to put on weight including muscle. I am also constantly hungry and seem to burn up energy faster than the average person. I turn to healthy carbs to fuel my body and feel good throughout the day. I can feel lightheaded if I go too long without eating, especially carbs. My metabolism seems to work faster than I can fuel it and it can be frustrating. Some say they can just look at food and gain 5lbs whereas if I look at food, my body says let's burn it up. I will not workout if I feel hungry and prefer to down a healthy meal before hitting the weights...

What we eat plays the largest role in our health and fitness. Working out is a great compliment and necessary to create a balanced program. However, there are more hours outside the gym and in the kitchen making or breaking our fitness goals . Eating right requires a fairly disciplined nutrition program consuming wholesome real food, mostly plants. This is not to say eating the occasional treat is off limits because that isn't realistic. Sticking to healthy eating 80 to 90% of the time is enough to maintain a fit and healthy body. When eating right and exercise becomes a lifestyle, there is no stress or overthinking the process . We operate on auto-pilot doing what feel is natural and normal. We would feel weird eating crappy and suffer the consequences of not feeling good the next day. Nutrient timing or eating superfoods every several hours is typical for those living a healthy lifestyle. There is not much thought in calorie counting or fear of eating too much but a focus on cons...

When it comes to fitness more isn't always better. Sometimes more exercise, supplementing more, and eating more protein can adversely affect our body. More is not better, better is better. Getting fit and maintaining a healthy body is a simple process. It really doesn't require more fitness foods or grueling workouts to reach our goals. All it takes is a consistent effort of eating right and exercise . Quality over quantity. Focused workouts utilizing differing energy systems of the body throughout the week is sufficient. What this means is mixing up cardio, weight training, core work and flexibility for a well-balanced program. Exercising at least 4-times per week is shown to maintain a healthy body according to research. Active rest days are a great way to have fun when not performing a structured workout. Enjoy being active and healthy is the point. Thinking about nutrition in a healthy way is also important. Eating more than is required of any macronutrient can backfire our...

I read this motivation today and was instantly humbled and even more thankful for my health and fitness. This really puts fitness into perspective. Do we really have a right to complain about getting fit ? There are so many who are unable to lift their body from a wheelchair. Sometimes we can lose sight of what an incredible opportunity we have to get fit. Instead of looking at it as a burden, we should be spilling over with thankfulness for the opportunity. Do you have a working body?  I do, and although I may have some medical limitations, I appreciate what I can do with what I have. We live in a stressed up world and place much upon ourselves. We make life so busy that we're missing out on what is truly important . Health is a valuable gift we're supposed to take care of by what we do with our fitness. Getting fit and healthy is a privilege just the same as growing older. If our mindset is not focused on the important stuff, we will live a life of chaos not to mention crea...

My daughter's 1st-grade teacher informed me she would always be a leader and not a follower. This still holds true 25-years later and such great advice. I think about her statement often and how it applies to health and fitness. We all need to be leaders and not followers when it comes to our fitness and health. Following the path of someone else with differing goals just doesn't make sense. We are all unique in body, mind, and spirit. My goal isn't to be you and I hope this is true on your end. I am a   skeptic when it comes to fitness miracles regardless of who is sharing the information. I refuse to follow the beliefs of others just because they heard it was the next best thing to sliced bread. Do you really think it's healthy to lose 20lbs in 5 days? That's craziness. I feel the same way about exercise programs. I review fitness trends before agreeing with advertised claims of it being the newest and best workout ever. What does impress me is solid research a...