Total Body Wellness

Earth Day, celebrated in the US on April 22, is a day designed to inspire awareness and appreciation for the Earth’s environment. It was founded by U.S. Senator Gaylord Nelson as an environmental teach-in in 1970 and is celebrated in many countries every year. (Definition by wilkpedia).

I would like to write just a moment about 5 easy things that we can do for our earth that doesn’t take a lot of time or money and may not seem like much but if everyone does it together it will make a huge difference and really is part of choosing to be healthy.

1. Don’t litter. It drives me crazy when someone driving in front of me just throws a bottle or a cigarette or anything out the window as though the street is a trash can. They really don’t care who has to pick it up or if any one does. It is so simple to hold on to your trash until you find a receptacle.
2. Recycle. Clothes, furniture, plastic bottles, newspapers, glass. Anything that can be used again. Takes no time at all. Compost what you can.
3. Use less paper. Take your own shopping bag to the store. Don’t print something out unless you really need to. What ever paper you have to use. Recycle.
4. Drive less. Ride your bike, walk. Share a ride. Take the train.
5. Use non-toxic products in and around your home. Very easy to do nowadays because going green is popular. You can find green products every where. I recommend the Shaklee Get Clean Products

Pretty simple. And anyone can do it. Do it with your kids.
Taking care of our planet equals taking care of ourselves and others.

Filed by Jeanette at 2:37 pm under Pilates
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Did you know that you can reduce your stress level by practicing gratitude?

Two psychologists, Robert Emmons, PhD, of the University of California, Davis, and Michael McCullough, PhD, of the University of Miami, conducted a study on gratitude and thankfulness. (Emmons & McCullough, 2003): They divided hundreds of people into three groups, each of which was instructed to keep a different type of journal. One group recorded what they were grateful for, another recorded hassles. The third group simply listed five events that had occurred in the last week, but not told to focus on positive or negative aspects.
People who were in the gratitude condition felt fully 25% happier - they were more optimistic about the future, they felt better about their lives and they even did almost 1.5 hours more exercise a week than those in the hassles or events condition.

In the world we live in, the economy and our busy lifes, it is very easy to think more about what are problems are and not focus on what makes us happy. Think of your own experiences, just the simple act of saying thank you or thinking of or looking at someone or something that you are grateful for can change your mood drastically.

Don’t believe the Emmons and McCullough study?
Create your own study. Why not create your own journal. A gratitude journal. Before you go to bed just take a moment to jot down all that you are grateful for that day. It can be as simple as no traffic when you were running late to a bed to sleep in to a your families health. By placing these thoughts in your mind before you sleep, it will help you sleep better and help you to have sweet dreams and wake up rested.

When you are grateful on a regular basis, people recognize it and feel valued so that you will soon find that you are surrounded by happier people.

Try it for one week and see what happens, you may want to make it a habit.

By the way, I am grateful for all you who are reading this. Thanks for visiting my blog!

Filed by Jeanette at 10:10 am under Lifestyle
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Saturated fats are those fats that are hard at room temperatures such as lard, butter, cheese. It also includes fatty beef like lamb, pork, poultry with skin, whole milk and 2% milk. Saturated fats increase your risk for heart disease and stroke.
Trans fat is another name for Partially Hydrogenated Oils. Companies like to use these fats in their foods because they are easy to use, inexpensive to produce, they last long and they give food a great taste and texture. Fast food companies can re-use this oil to cook in all day. Trans fats raise your Lousy Cholesterol or LDL -low density lipoproteins and lower your happy or good HDL Cholesterol -high density lipoproteins. Trans fats increase your risk of heart disease, stroke, obesity and Type 2 diabetes.
Stick to good fats like olive oil, flaxseed oil, anchovies, cabbage, halibut salmon, walnuts almonds, pumpkin seeds, oysters, cloves, soybeans, tofu. Take an Omega 3 supplement. Your body will be happy and you will feel so much better!

Filed by Jeanette at 6:44 pm under nutrition
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Just wanted to blog a bit on time and how it gets away from us and how it brings about so much stress.

I recently spoke to someone about time management this week and we spoke about how we tend to get so much behind by just dealing with our day to day life.

Ever take a moment to check your email and look up and 30 minutes to 45 minutes have gone by. Or what if in your email you notice someone has written on your facebook page. Watch out because the second you check this page you will lose even more time. Not that it is not important to keep up with your social network but these things should be scheduled in after you have done what you need to do for the day. Not as much fun perhaps but will definitely lower your stress level at the end of the day.

Scheduling your time is a sure way to be more productive.
It begins when you wake up, do you want to exercise in the morning, make a healthy breakfast, pack a healthy lunch? You can do it. Decide how much time you will need to do all this plus get yourself ready and your kids if that applys and wake up early enough.
Next is your work day, what do you absolutely need to get done today? Do that first even if it is something you hate. Close the door (if you have one) and don’t take any interruptions for as long as it takes to do those really important tasks.
Schedule a time for interruptions ( email, questions from colleques, facebook, phone calls, etc.). If you didn’t exercise in the morning, schedule it in for the afternoon. Schedule in housework as well. Schedule in time with your family as well.
If you make a little time for everything, it will be easier to not get got up in one thing and get behind on others.

It is all about balancing work and life.

Filed by Jeanette at 7:21 pm under Pilates
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My catch phrase for my businesses has always been “choose to be healthy” and that is what I have named my blog. I came up with this phrase because we have to make a daily choice if we are going to live a healthy life or an unhealthy one.
Every day you wake up to an endless list of choices; hit the snooze button or get up, what to eat for breakfast, pack a lunch or go out for lunch, workout this morning or skip it, take are vitamis or not…. the list goes on and on.

Certainly not all but many choices we make on daily basis depend on if we have made the choice to live a healthy life or an unhealthy life. Take all the choices listed above.

If we choose to live a healthy life we will most likely get up right away so we have time to eat a healthy breakfast, have time to workout(if we workout in the morning), have time to pack a healthy lunch so we won’t be tempted to skip lunch or go out for fast food, remember to take our supplements and prepare ourselves for a healthy day.
If we haven’t made a healthy lifestyle choice we might hit the snooze button, grab a quick breakfast or skip it altogether, skip our workout for lack of time, figure we will grab something for lunch, forget to take our supplements and rush out of the house to face our day.

Now we all hit the snooze button every now and then. Of course that is not the point I am making. I am really just using this as an example as to how choosing to be healthy pretty much effects all we do. We will all make some unhealthy choices sometimes because we are human and sometimes we just want to. All we can to is try. We can aim to make healthy choices 90% of the time.

Take a moment today to look at your choices and see what small steps you can take to move you into a more healthy lifestyle. Most of you already make really healthy lifestyle choices but we can all improve in one area or another.

In the end it is a choice. It is your choice and nobody elses, so choose what is best for you!

Filed by Jeanette at 11:35 am under Uncategorized
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Elaine Maxwell:
My will shall shape the future. Whether I fail or succeed shall be no man’s doing but my own. I am the force; I can clear any obstacle before me or I can be lost in the maze. My choice; my responsibility; win or lose, only I hold the key to my destiny.

Filed by Jeanette at 7:06 pm under Pilates
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According to the Dietary Reference Intakes published by the USDA 10% - 35% of calories should come from protein. Most Americans should get 10%-35% of their calories from protein and should easily meet this need by consuming a balanced diet. Unfortunately, many people do not get the recommended amount of protein and might need to supplement.

Protein is needed for;

Growth (especially important for children, teens, and pregnant women) Growth and repair of muscles, bones, skin, tendons, ligaments, hair, eyes and tissues.
Immune function
Making essential hormones and enzymes
Energy when carbohydrate is not available
Preserving lean muscle mass

Protein is found in meats, poultry, fish, meat substitutes, cheese, milk, nuts, legumes, and in smaller quantities in starchy foods and vegetables.

When we eat these types of foods, our body breaks down the protein that they contain into amino acids (the building blocks of proteins).
Some amino acids are essential which means that we need to get them from our diet, and others are nonessential which means that our body can make them.

Protein that comes from animal sources contains all of the essential amino acids that we need. Plant sources of protein, on the other hand, do not contain all of the essential amino acids.

Are you getting enough protein? I think that sometimes protein gets a bad rap because we think about red meat like steak but as you can see there are so many other places that we can find protien, we just have to get creative.

Filed by Jeanette at 8:39 am under Pilates
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I have had to be at the doctors office three times in the 3 or so weeks. The first time I weighed 120 lbs. Too much for me but figured it was probably right. The following visit, about a 10 days later I weighed 125. Wow didn’t feel as though I gained 5 lbs. Wasn’t my time of the month and my clothes felt the same. Yesterday, about 1 week and a half later, I weighed 117. Which figure was right?
Well of course I choose to believe the last one but this kind of fluctuation is not right.
I’m sure that I was put in a different room every time. Once I was at a different office.

I often hear clients say that they weigh differently on their scale at home and at the doctors office or at the gym and we always tend to believe the one at the doctors office or the gym.

The truth is that every scale can be a little different and what we really need to pay attention to is how our clothes fit and how we feel.

Use the number on the scale as a guideline and weigh yourself on the same scale everytime so that whether you started at 125 or 117 if you are losing or gaining weight on that same scale then it is probably true.

Filed by Jeanette at 7:06 am under Pilates
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Just thought I’d reprint this from my New Year’s Newsletter
Jeanette’s 10 steps

1.)Challenge yourself to do Pilates, Yoga or GYROTONIC or a combination of both 2-3 times per week.

2.) Get in no less that 30 minutes of aerobic exercise 4-5 times per week!

3.) Take on healthy habits; Drink plenty of water, Sleep at least 8 hours a night, eat whole grains, plenty of fruits and vegetables and cut out those things you know are not good for you.

4.) Supplement your diet with good quality health products.

5.) Use only non-toxic products in and around your home.

6.) Make it a daily habit to feel gratitude for everything.

7.) Say yes to only the things you know you can do.

8.) Listen to your
body and slow down when it tells you to.

9.)Make a conscious choice to “Feel Good” no matter what!

10.)Be of service to somebody, somewhere, everyday!

Filed by Jeanette at 8:00 pm under Pilates
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Pilates is definitely a strength building exercise and because those who have weight trained before know that they should take a day off between weight workouts, I often get the question; Can we do Pilates everyday?

The answer is a resounding yes. You most definitely can. Because Pilates focuses on the mind/body integration and lengthening as well as strengthening the muscles, it is a different mind set than weight training. We are not working the muscles to exhaustion (however a challenging Pilates workout can break down muscle and promote stronger muscles ). We are also adding in things like breath, coordination and functional awareness which gives us the ability to vary the workout a bit everyday.

Now you don’t have to do a long Pilates workout everyday either. Joe Pilates actually believed 4 workouts 30 minutes each were just as good as 10 minutes of Pilates a day. Most of us can manage 10 minutes. I personally do about 20 minutes of matwork a day and I think that 20 minutes is pretty easy to get in. I do it in the mornings and if I miss one morning, I feel it right away.

So go ahead do Pilates everyday as long as it is done safely and as long as you are enjoying it. If it becomes a chore then you are definitely overtraining. Have fun!

Filed by Jeanette at 4:29 pm under Pilates
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