I was just out with my dog for a nice 3 mile run. I love that I can have him join me in something I love to do. Plus, he loves it as much as I do. If I want to push myself, I just aim to keep up with his speed. But, during my run, I was thinking. This time last year, I was training for my marathon. Most of my runs were after work. Which meant, they were at night. I quickly found out, street lights are not as popular as I always thought they were!
When your running at night or early morning before the sun comes up, please consider safety in your run. For me, it was about not being able to see a thing during my run. Which also meant people couldn’t see me! So, I made sure to always do a few things when I was out running.
1. I bought a little flashlight. The brand that I had clipped to my hat or jacket. They sold this in running stores. Umm, that was the biggest waste of money. Why, when you clip it to your hat or jacket, the light just bounces. It’s not really going to stay focused on the sidewalk in front of you. Plus, the one that I had had often died like a 1/2 mile into my run. So, I was always in the dark even though I tried to take a flashlight with me. So, I ended up using my mini mag light. Yes, it was a little more of a pain because I had to carry it. But, in the end, the light was always where I needed and my mag light never died! Plus, if you have one of those mini mags, they are pretty heavy and could be used a little for self defense if god forsake it was needed. Probably not much, just a little better then nothing. I also hear those headband with the lights on it work good too, think miner light!
2. Make sure to wear a lot of reflective gear. Your flashlight will help a little, but your going to be a spot on the road. Cars must see you. Even if you run on the sidewalk, you typically cross an intersection. Please always were a safety reflective vest over your outerwear do cars will see you! Last thing you want is to be hit by a car when running. There are a lot of brands out there. Just make sure they have a high reflective area. Bring colors like yellow can help! Remember, wearing black with a small strip of reflective on it, is not going to make you visible from way down the road. You want cars to notice you as soon as possible!
3. Try to plan your run where you know you will have the most light. Running down a residential road with house lights, cars is a much better alternative then running through a dark, deserted wooded area.
4. Carry a cell phone with you! Charged and ready to go. Never know if you get lost, it is just to dark, or some other reason occurs that you need help. Having a phone is a great thing to carry at night. Plug in someone that can come to help you as ICE- name. ICE is now the code for In Case of Emergency. Hospitals and such will look for that code to contact if you are ever brought in!
5. Another great thing is to make sure to carry id. I know, carrying a driver’s license maybe a pain. Now there are so many services that can create a Runner’s ID tag. Some go on your shoe laces (always ready when you are), some are bracelets,… These really are affordable, and again can help someone find your emergency contact person if something ever should happen!
6. Remember, always listen to your surrounding. If running at night I’d forget the headphones at home. Listen if someone is approaching you from behind!
Basically, these are just a few tips to keep you safe while enjoying your run during the winter months when we have shorter days. Just because it’s dark, doesn’t mean you can’t go for a run! Just stay safe!
Here’s to your health!
~ Heather
I offer free fitness support, just contact me if you need help reaching your goals!
Stress, who doesn’t have that in there life? Maybe it’s your job (that was a HUGE one for me!), or your family or your families’ family (we all love our in-laws right!). Maybe its just what’s for dinner, what bills need to be paid. Gosh, that list probably could go on and on. It’s amazing how much stress we seem to live with these days.
But, having all that stress can really add health problems to our lives. For some, stress causes you to eat more. Maybe you don’t sleep at night, or you grind your teeth when you sleep. For me it was always headaches, being tired and that never ending knot in my neck/shoulder area that was just PAINFUL! Do you realize that often, a lot of the stress we feel, we also bring onto our family! When we come home and talk about our bad day, our spouses feel the stress too. That can add even more worries and problems to your plate.
I know that these stress problems we seem to have, really fight our cause of losing or maintaining our weight and our health. We maybe causing ourselves more problems. Plus, often stress leads us to being tired so we come home and sit down, not motivated or having enough time to focus on ourselves. Thus, we become more inactive, and our weight may start to increase even more.
Therefore, I think we need to be reminded, even in really stressful times we need to stop. We need to focus on ourselves. Sometimes, just taking a 5 minute break to stop and breathe can really help. I want to give a few tips to helping you relive some of your daily stresses. Some important reminders to focus on you and your health!
1. Stop, take 5 minutes. Walk away from the stressful situation. Do a few minutes of deep breathing. Close your eyes. Come back to the situation with a little more clarity and focus on the task or issue at hand, and just go through it one step at a time.
2. Stretch. In your break, or throughout the day, just do a little stretches. Raise your arms high above your head. Roll your neck. As you breathe and stretch, visualize your body relaxing.
3. Make sure to allow time for yourself in the day. Schedule at least 30 minutes where you can focus on you. Make sure this is relaxing time. Do something you love. Read a book, take a bath, get a message, spend quality stress free time with your family, go for a walk…
4. Don’t forget your workout. Often hitting the gym, going to class, pushing play, going for a run… are great ways to take the energy you have and redirect it. I know when I am mad at say my boss, I sure picture her when I am doing Kenpo with P90X! I just think of me punching her with each hit I do in my workout!
5. Stress can really reck havoc on our diet, so we really need to focus on taking our supplements. A good multi-vitamin or Shakeology to help get you through when your not eating or sleeping right can make a huge difference.
6. Start a diary. Write down the good stuff that happens in your day. Make it a little friendly reminder about the positives in life and moving forward toward your goals.
7. Find a buddy. Have someone you can meet for lunch, meet at the gym, or just have a chat with on the phone. Talking to someone (not about what is stressing you out) can lift your mood and help you relax.
Here is to your health!
~ Heather
Remember, email me at HeatherB@BeachbodyCoach.com if your looking for help in achieving your fitness goals!
If your like me, getting out to run in the cold is a lot less appealing them taking time to run in spring, fall and even early summer days. Getting out of bed on a cold day is just not going to happen as much. Many times when your a runner you can go inside and jump on a treadmill to avoid the cold and rain. Why not take the winter inside on a treadmill to help improve your speed? This is a great time for a few short runs that you can do at your pace goal. Then, come next spring when you lace up your shoes to jump in your first 5k, you’ll be faster then you think!
To help you get to your pace goal, why not watch this short video from Runner’s World Magazine.
The next other advantages about this training, as you are running and varying your speed, you are doing a HITT. That helps burn a little extra fat you may want to lose. Also, keeping an eye on the miles and focusing on the speed for short times can really keep the dreadmill boredom away!
Now, you have no excuses. Go for a run, inside or out! You can still focus on your goal to run your race and have your own new personal record!
~ Heather
As a coach, I help people get the fitness results you want! If you have been struggling, contact me. Let’s get you started today!
Visit my blog at http://www.HeathersFitnessSpot.com
My question today is – Do you brush your teeth everyday? Hopefully at least once a day?
Why? Because your mom told you that you had to brush your teeth since you got your first tooth? That your dentist continues to tell you the importance of brushing and flossing. (Ok, if they don’t remind you its because you go and have perfect teeth!)
These are habits that you created to take care of your teeth! You want them to be around as long as you are around. You want healthy teeth, so you don’t have to go to the dentist and hear them say, you have a cavity that needs to be drilled and filled. (Or something even worse).
You probably also brush your teeth so your smile is nice and presentable to others. That your breath doesn’t stink! Right! These are also signs of good health.
Well, if you have the time everyday to brush your teeth because you know it’s good for you. It’s a habit that you set years and years ago, but you couldn’t imagine going a day without brushing your teeth, then I ask you why is your fitness program as much of a habit as brushing your teeth?
I know your parents told you as a kid- go out and play! Be active. Maybe play sports! I’m sure they were not saying, little Johnny, I want you to sit here on the couch watching hours of tv with bags of chips! Your parents were setting the same good habits for you when you were a kid as they did for brushing your teeth! You probably learned to love to ride a bike, go for a swim, run with the dog, or crate some crazy games with your friends! But, you most likely were always “doing something.”
You probably have fallen off that habit somewhere in your life. Sitting behind a desk, creates less time to be free? Less time for fun? But, does it mean you tell your kids- its ok to stop and watch tv with the bag of chips? Are you leading by example? If your outside on a bike, your kids will be too. If your sitting on a couch, watching the game drinking that beer- chances are, your teaching your kids the same bad habits they will carry into adulthood.
So, now that your older, does your doctor still tell you, you need to have exercise and proper nutrition in your life? You need to be active to get healthy and over some illness you may have? Does he tell you, you need to lose a little weight, or eat an apple a day? I mean, just like your dentist, your doctors are telling you the same thing! Eat right, and exercise. It’s important! It’s again, part of a daily habit. YOU need to create for yourself! Why are you short changing yourself by not forming a healthy habit?
Finally, just like showing off a nice white smile, isn’t showing off your body is a nice outfit something you strive for? As much as we want to say personal appearance is not what we are, it is important. It’s not only how people see us, but how we see us! I know when I was at my heaviest weight, I wasn’t happy with me! I was hiding under cloths. I was walking around with slouched shoulders and head down. I didn’t always want to show off the true me.
It’s a shame that as we get older the habits our parents showed us when we were young about being active, being involved and doing something are the same habits that they showed us about brushing our teeth. Yet, since being active requires a little time, a little work, a little energy and since we all live in a busy, non-stop hectic world, we can easily make an excuse to not be active. To sit down, grab the junk, soda, beer while watching mindless tv. It’s a shame that we can listen to our dentist and brush our teeth, but we ignore our doctor who says we need to eat better and exercise. It’s even a bigger shame that we are leading by example to our kids! Our kids are seeing our lack of activity, or lack of healthy habits and they are picking up on it! One in 5 kids in this country are considered overweight! That also leads to less self confidence in kids. Less happy people in this world!
I say, let’s break this cycle. Do a little bit everyday. Work on creating the healthy habits just like brushing your teeth. Consider your body just as important. 30 minutes of daily activity can keep you healthier, maybe drug free from obesity related illnesses, just like brushing your teeth can keep those cavities away!
There is no day like today to start creating that habit! Get out and move. Be an example to yourself and to your kids, our your nieces, cousins, your friends kids… You can be inspiration to so many people that you meet in your life and you may not even know it! So, become that inspiration! Change your life and just see how many other people’s lives you may touch around you! Here’s to your health! Here’s to starting a daily habit!
~ Heather
Contact me if you need help getting started on your meal planning or fitness program! I see people changing their lives everyday. You CAN be one of them!
I often hear from folks saying, Heather I am working the program and not really getting the results I want. Many times, they are not more then 1 month into the program. I often ask the following questions, so if you are not getting the results you want, ask yourself these questions, and be honest.
1. Are you following the workout plan as recommended in the guide book? Each fitness program comes with a guidebook to follow. What day to do what workout. How many days a week you should be working out. So, my question is, are you following it? Or are you taking a few extra days off here and there? Remember, a few extra days off here or there, will slow your progress.
2. Are you putting the energy into your workout? Or, are you just going through the motions? Ok, we all have “those days”. Those days are the ones where we just really can’t get going, we just really don’t want to do it. But, we do something. Because we tell ourselves, something is better then nothing. Right! Having those days once in awhile is fine. Those days were we do a workout with half the energy. But, what we need to really focus on is having good days more then those days. When you workout, you need to push it! Challenge yourself to do more then you did last week! Challenge yourself to do the best, to sweat more, to jump higher, to lift heavier, to run faster…. Now, ask yourself- are you doing more with each workout, or you just getting through?
3. How is your diet? Ugg, I hate the word diet, so lets say how is your meal planning? Are you following the nutritional guidebook that came with your workout? To get the best results, you should! You more like, have too! These programs come with a nutritional guidebook to help teach you how to eat right! If you are still eating the same things you were before you got started, then you won’t get results. If you are following it here and there, then again, your results will be slow. If your not getting the results you want, I would start here. Re-read the meal plan, and make sure you are following it! The closer you are to following it as written, the better your results!
4. I know, I hate measuring out portion sizes too, but I do it. I’ve been told- measuring food makes me always calorie conscience. That it’s a tie, a hinderance, makes dieting hard, not doable… That I can’t do it. Are these excuses? Ok, so my question back- are you eating 1 portion size? If you are not paying attention to how much you are eating, you could be eating way to much! That adds up! Little things you are over eating on portion sizes over time add up! I highly recommend for at least 1 month, write down everything you eat! yes, measure it out if you need too. It is the only way you learn what 1 serving is!
5. I say this all the time, write it down! Write down your workout, write down what and when you eat. Write down and keep track! If you use a program like myfitnesspal.com or fitday.com, it will help you see that you are eating the number of calories you need, and not way more or way less!
6. Are you fulling your body with the proper supplements? Yes, you need to be taking a multi-vitamin. Yes, you need to be getting enough protein. YES! Your body needs proper nutrients to get the results you want. Your body needs the fuel to get you through the workouts. I believe if you think you are getting everything you need through your diet, your wrong! This is important! Now go buy yourself a multi-vitamin as a minimum! Start taking it daily! This is why I highly recommend Shakeology! It’s the nutrients/vitamins my body needs in a yummy chocolate or berry shake! (So much better then popping pills.) I bet you will feel the difference at the end of a month!
7. Are you following the course? That means if your on a program like P90X, and it’s a 90 day program, are you staying on track and going? If your doing all of the above, and not seeing results in week 2, I say – keep going and trust the process. Your body needs time to get the results you want! Keep going! Don’t go 2 weeks and say it’s not working. Go 90 days, give 100% and then tell me if it worked or not! I want to help you in your journey, but you have to be ready to answer my questions, honestly! If you do, we can tweak things where necessary to make sure you are on the path to success!
Now ask yourself: Are you being honest with yourself? Are you really pushing it harder, doing a little more, getting through your workouts with energy, focusing on your diet 100%. Or are you making excuses here and there. Are these excuses starting to add up? Do you even realize you are making excuses? It’s funny how are brain works. It thinks, its ok to skip today. It’s ok to eat that at lunch… After the week is up, your like, I didn’t get the results I wanted? Hmm, why is that? If your honest with yourself, you will see why you are not getting the results you want. If your ready, just start today and say yes, I am going to give it 100%! I will commit to it, and I WILL see the results I want!
~ Heather
If you have questions, contact me! Visit my blog at http://www.HeathersFitnessSpot.com
