Featured Fitness Professional

"Being Fit and Healthy is What's Important"

By Camelia Herndon

It's hard creating a definition for Fit and Healthy. Maybe you need to lose weight, maybe you need to exercise more, maybe you need to learn more about nutrition - maybe you need help with all three!!

Society today puts such an emphasis on our bodies and how we look. Magazines, TV, celebrities, our peers - so many factors telling you how you should be. But, we're not all stick thin (nor do we really want to be). We don't need to be too "this" or too "that"...

I'm tired of hearing other people tell me what fit and healthy is.

So, my goal for you is to focus on the real you. Focus on your own personal health and what you need to do to develop a healthy lifestyle and create a wellness within yourself. Become fit and healthy to yourself.

It's not easy, it will take work - but here's some ways to make it happen.

First and foremost, throw away the scale!! You may need to lose the weight, but the scale is misleading, frustrating and a waste of space. If you know me, you know I encourage all my clients to toss the scale.

Focus instead, on how you feel - how's your energy? Are you clothes fitting better? Do you see the muscles starting to form? Remember, muscle weighs more than fat, a scale is NOT a good indication of how fit and healthy you are.

Next, Cardio. Get your heart moving. The American Heart Association recommends 30 minutes of cardio each day - that's all, just 30 minutes. There are many ways to get your body moving - take a lunch break and walk outside (what a great stress reducer!!), Walk the stairs instead of the elevator - take your kids and go for a bike ride - or how about a game of wiffle ball in the backyard (just make sure YOU run the bases also!!) Of course, 30 minutes in the gym is also good.

Just remember, cardio is the ONLY way to burn fat!! Without it, you'll never see any real fit and healthy results. And, of course, there are the added benefits of a better unctioning heart, lower cholesterol and blood pressure.

Being fit and healthy also revolves around what you eat. Nutrition is tough. There are so many food options out there -it's hard to focus on the healthy ones and stay away from the junk.

Here's a few steps to follow:

Eat Brown. Throw out all the white food, no white bread, bagels, pasta, processed foods. Go natural and your body will naturally get more of the fiber and healthy grains it craves.

Follow the rainbow. Surround yourself with colorful fruits and vegetables. The prettier they are, the more healthful benefits you'll get.

Eat Breakfast!! Start the day off right! Don't let your body starve and begin to store the excess fat. It's true. Eating 5-6 small balanced meals a day WILL help you keep the weight off.

These are just a few ways to begin to feeling fit and healthy - Nothing I'm saying here is new to you. You've heard it all before. But perhaps the best way to motivate you to begin to live a healthy lifestyle is to get you to focus on how YOU want to look and feel, not how someone tells you how to.

Just be healthy, live your life to the fullest extent for yourself. Keep that healthy attitude and be the best you can be!

About the Author:

Camelia Herndon is owner of Fitness Together is Darien and New Canaan, CT. She has helped over 200 clients acheive their health and fitness goals. Her website is http://www.fitnesstogetherct.com.