From the inside out

A friend of mine once told me that fixing the outside if the inside is broken tends to only accentuate the brokenness.

My disclaimer is that I am not a licensed psychologist, psychiatrist or even a psychic, so anything posted on this blog is intended as an unofficial helping hand.  

Self image and self perception are huge issues in relation to your health and fitness. There are some who no matter what the result never see themselves any different.  Their body might be healthy, but the inside still isn't.  Your heart health is just as important as your physical health.

Your heart is more than just the thing that pumps blood to the rest of your body.  The heart in a lot of cultures was consider the center or the seat of your being.  It is widely considered that the source of life both physically and spiritually/emotionally was the heart!  All this being said your health goes far beyond a flat tummy, bulging biceps and skinny waist.  Health is an emotional issue.  Health is a spiritual issue.  Health is a wholistic issue.  All of you needs to be healthy.

While focusing in on your fitness improves you body, focusing in on your relationships will improve you heart condition.  While locking in on what goes in your mouth, lock in on what you put into your mind.  Surround yourself with positive and encouraging people.    Read books, blogs, posts that will fill your heart and mind with peace, joy and love.

Take aim at making all of you healthy!  Here some tips:

1) Read personal development type books.  Books that better you!

2) Find a faith community - church, synagogue, Bible study.

3) Find friends that build and support you in your dreams and in your health goals.

4) Continue to exercise.  Endorphin make you happy!

5) If necessary find someone or place to help you deal with the emotional stuff - a counselor or psychologist.  There is no shame in asking for help.  We all need some help!

Your heart and your spirit are just as important as your body.  Get all of you healthy!

Counting calories counts

Darren Hardy in his book The Compound Effect talks about the challenge of paying attention to the small details.  He poses the question how much more likely are you to reach your goal weight if you counted every bite, crumb, scrap of food you put in your mouth.  That bite of cereal, the "dad tax" bite off your kids plate, the little "taste" of this unbelievable dessert.

Oftentimes, those are the calories we forget.  No, I am not trying exaggerate here and saw that your little nibble is what is keeping from your goals.  But enough nibbles during a day will add up.  The challenge is to track every calorie that we take in, in order to create a calorie deficit for that day.  The complex idea of weight loss has a simple formula, burn more calories than you take in.  Now there are many other factors, but a great starting point to achieving weight loss is to do the math -- count calories!

There are some great tools that make this even more convenient:

MyfitnessPal

SparkPeople

LiveStrong -- save the Lance jokes.  It is still a useful tool.

plus many more in the App Store or Google Play for your smartphone.  Which leads me to this point, all these calorie counters you can take with you.  No EXCUSES for not keeping track!  So do it!  I want you to have a beach ready BEACHBODY!  Do the work, eat right, and keep track!!