Wellness Defined

You got this!

Today was my first workout on the way to getting into incredible shape in 12 weeks! My workout consisted of a 48-minute upper-body workout.

Here is something I want you to understand about strength training. After you lift weights, or do any kind of resistance training, you break down muscle. Your body then repairs or replaces damaged muscle fibers through a cellular process where it fuses muscle fibers together to form new muscle protein strands. These repaired strands increase in thickness and number to create muscle growth.

Why is this important? When you gain new muscle, your body requires energy to maintain that muscle. Essentially, you speed up your metabolism creating the ability to burn calories more efficiently. This leads to a greater ability to burn fat and achieve your fitness and health goals.

The best way to lose fat is to gain muscle. For women, you don't have to worry about bulking up. It is incredibly difficult to bulk up as a woman. But replacing fat with lean muscle will not only help you burn calories more efficiently, it will also help you be more fit and look more fit. People will eventually start telling you that you look younger as well! Those are some great benefits! :-)

You need to consume a certain number of calories each day for your metabolic processes to occur effectively and for your body to work properly.

For men, this number is roughly 2500 calories per day. Women need approximately 2000 calories per day.

These daily requirements fluctuate depending on a few factors—age, s*x, weight, and activity level.

Do you want to get off the sugar roller coaster?

Many of us struggle with sugar cravings. What you may not know is that your sugar cravings are actually about brain chemistry! It's easy to buy into the belief that it's just a lack of willpower.

We must understand that sugar is not just an energy source. It is an addictive substance. We must be extra careful when choosing foods to give us energy. Eating simple sugars can temporarily boost our energy level, but it will ultimately cause blood sugar to crash and compel us to seek more and more sugar.

It is a never ending cycle.

Part of my mission for the past two decades has been to help others transform their relationship with sugar. It is definitely a life-long journey and a paradigm shift in dietary habits. But all of us can make these changes and set a course for a better life.

If you’ve read the New York Times Bestseller, "The Healthy Home", you realize that there are many toxins in our environment that are damaging to us: PTFE from non-stick cookware, BPA from plastics, parabens and chemicals in personal care products, VOC’s from what we use to paint our house or what we store in the garage, pollution in the air, and chemicals from our cleaning supplies.

And on top of that, the things we swallow can be filled with chemicals, medications, alcohol, pesticides from our produce, and trans fats from our favorite foods. In a nutshell, we are exposed to a lot of things that were not a part of our original, natural environment.

And all of that stuff has to get filtered through our liver!

Our liver is a hard-working and highly effective filtration system (in addition to doing many other things). Think of it as an amped up washing machine.

Basically, it keeps things clean by converting nutrients we consume into forms that can be used by the body and packaging up toxins and wastes into forms that can be eliminated.

And because our liver can be exposed to numerous toxins that can't all be handled by the body, giving it some extra support every day is a good idea.

Adding A HIGH QUALITY liver support supplement to our daily routine is one of the best choices we can make for aiding our natural detoxification processes.

The Western Medical model of healthcare iis an acute care model which falls short of looking at the causes of and solutions for chronic disease.

Despite notable advances in treating and preventing infectious disease and trauma, the acute-care model that dominated 20th century medicine has not been effective in treating and preventing chronic disease.

I am dedicated to educating others on the Functional Medicine approach that better addresses the healthcare needs of the 21st century.

Functional Medicine is an integrative, science-based healthcare approach. It is NOT an either/or system. it integrates traditional Western medical practices with what is sometimes considered “alternative” or “integrative” medicine.

The focus is on prevention through nutrition, diet, and exercise; use of the latest laboratory testing and other diagnostic techniques; and prescribed combinations of drugs and/or botanical medicines, supplements, therapeutic diets, detoxification programs, or stress-management techniques.

Understanding Functional Medicine, and then taking action, is a much better approach to treating and preventing chronic disease.

Drinking more plain water, instead of other beverages, can help control body weight and improve diet quality.

In a study published in the Journal of Human Nutrition and Dietetics, researchers found that people who increased their intake of plain water (tap water, from a cooler, drinking fountain or bottle) by 1% helped them to consume less sugar, sodium, and saturated fat.

This study looked at the dietary habits of over 18,000 adults from 2005-2012 in the USA.

The participants who increased their consumption of water by one, two or three cups daily decreased their total energy intake by 68 to 205 calories daily and their sodium intake by 78 to 235 milligrams.

The influences of plain water intake on daily diet were similar across race, education, income level, and body weight status. However, the effects were larger in men than in women, and larger in young/middle-aged adults than in older adults.

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/…

Understanding the world of nutrition can seem confusing at times! If you have a nutrition topic you would like me to discuss, just message me. I will be doing both live, and recorded, videos on here to address your topics that are interesting to you, or confusing to you!

I continue to discuss the dangers of sugar with each and every person I get into a conversation with regarding nutrition.

The American Heart Association advocates that the maximum amount of added sugar we should eat daily is:

MEN: 37.5 grams or 9 teaspoons
WOMEN: 25 grams or 6 teaspoons

This one drink alone from Starbuck's has 76 grams of sugar....over three times the recommended amount of daily added sugar for women, and twice the amount of daily added sugar for men.

You might as well spoon sugar from the sugar bowl.

Getting people to understand that sugar is eight times as addictive as co***ne is the first place to start when trying to educate others. People don't understand they are battling a sugar addiction. They just think they are hungry.

Some people are confused about the two types of inflammation that exist: ACUTE inflammation and CHRONIC inflammation.

Acute inflammation is a short-term response triggered by an injury. It's what we generally think of when we think about inflammation. Think of it as a cause-and-effect inflammation. If you twist your ankle, it’s going to swell up. If you cut your hand, you’ll get a red raised edge. If you touch a hot pan, you'll experience a throbbing pain. It’s easier to identify and treat.

Chronic inflammation, on the other hand, is a bit more complicated. It’s defined as a progressive response not caused by an injury or infection. Those with chronic inflammation often have allergies, autoimmune disease, or suffer from “wear and tear” conditions like osteoarthritis.

In addition, lifestyle choices can lead to chronic inflammation. Excessive body weight, an unhealthy diet, lack of exercise, to***co use, poor oral health, or consuming too much alcohol can contribute.

Because we live active and exciting lives, we’re subject to occasional acute inflammation. You can limit your risks of bangs and bruises, but accidents happen. With making smart lifestyle changes and taking control of your health, you can also lower your chance of suffering from chronic inflammation.

Chronic inflammation is a precursor to disease.

Many people take their health for granted until something seriously goes wrong. Don't let this happen to you! Your family needs you!

So I have a question for those of you in this group: How do you know your healthy?

Do you have a good baseline understanding of your own health?

What are your critical bloodwork levels?.....such as your c-RP level? Many tests for general bloodwork don't include this test, but it is critical. This is just one example.

How do you know your health is improving?

Do you understand OPTIMAL levels, as opposed to levels just falling into an average range?

How do you know you are moving yourself along the path to excellent health? Do you understand ALL the factors that influence health?

Do you understand the differences between healthy vs unhealthy food? Do you know how to identify the differences between great vs mediocre supplements that are a critical part of achieving excellent health?

Noticing the way you feel is only part of it. If you want to be sure, it helps to partner with somebody who is an expert in the field.

As a nutrition adviser, when I begin working with clients, the first thing I do is gather a solid baseline understanding of their health and then provide a roadmap for obtaining excellent health...separating myth from fact...and providing a detailed education you won't get from your doctor, your family, or your friends. These groups typically don't specialize in nutrition.

There is no better gift you can give yourself, or your family, than the gift of excellent health.