Salvere Blog: I Wanna Exercise But …

by Salvere Health and Fitness

Something gets in the way. Do you feel like this? You want to workout, create a plan and even set out your clothes but yet seem to struggle with getting it done. First, you are not alone!

What happens to the disconnect between the “want” and actually “doing”? Lets take a closer look at the various reasons we come up with for wanting to exercise. Often we take action because something does not feel good or we want to change our outside body. We might add something else to the list but when the main “motivator” comes from something we don’t like, it becomes difficult to keep going.

Now, lets look at what messaging we send through the fitness industry, marketing and social media. First, the fitness industry presents movement and exercise in a way that suggests significant progress can be made in weeks. For example, how many programs last 4, 6 or 12 weeks. As an industry professional for over two decades, I can say from experience, it takes me 4 weeks of training a client to build a solid foundation and determine appropriate exercises based on experience, injuries, illnesses and abilities.

Second, marketing. When you see these programs advertised and discussed, they present if you “succeed” it was their program but if you “fail” its your fault. (Just so you know, I don’t agree with their ideas of “success”.) They also lead you to believe that you only need to do exercise for a finite amount of time. This deserves a little more attention as advertisers target us with so many subconscious messages we need to dig deeper into this by itself!

Third, social media. Okay, this needs to be a separate post too so look for that next time! If getting and staying in a routine is something you struggle with, send us a message with any strategies that you used or any questions with how we might be able to help.

by Lisa Martin, owner and personal trainer at Salvere Health and Fitness. To contact, email lisa@SalvereHealthandFitness.com or call 410.707.0055.

Salvere Blog: Do you ReInvent?

by Salvere Health and Fitness

Sitting in jury duty a few days ago, I struck up a conversation with someone sitting next to me regarding a book she was reading. Through our chatting, being curious as an adult and continuous seeking/learning throughout life came up a few times. It got me thinking, how often do you reinvent things in your life? How many times do you challenge yourself as to why you do something? It could be work, exercise, eating, friends, religion, etc.

Let’s examine this with fitness/healthy eating (cause it’s what we do!). How often do you reinvent how you move your body because either you examined your why or something happened you didn’t plan for such as an illness or injury? How does the discussion of “recommendations” impact your thoughts on what you “should be doing” and prevent you from reinventing your movement activities? How often do you choose a “way to eat” because of some “new diet that works”?

What if we talked more about regularly reinventing things in life? Would that make you feel more comfortable about changing things, letting them ebb and flow with life a little more?

by Lisa Martin, owner and personal trainer at Salvere Health and Fitness. To contact, email Lisa@SalvereHealthAndFitness.com or call 410.707.0055.

We welcome your thoughts and ideas! Thank you for reading and taking the steps to become a healthier YOU.

Salvere Blog: Kale, Really?

by Salvere Health And Fitness

Okay, kale, the super food. Do you really pack that much nutrition into a serving? Or is this another one of those nutrition fads?

First thing, if you feel like the thought of eating kale makes you gag, you can stop reading here – It’s apparently not super for you. But, seriously, kale comes in high on the nutrient content scale. However, if you don’t like it and tried it in several different forms (egg casserole, soup, smoothies, sautéed, salad, etc.), it’s okay.

In case you wondered, this breakdown details Kale’s potential:

The same goes for any other food claiming to be miraculous. Remember Acai berries, Goji berries and chia seeds – we frequently make this statement about certain foods.

If you don’t like them and they completely turn you off, look at what they contain and find other alternatives. Sure they might not contain the same nutrients but can be close. And, if you don’t eat a food at all, it really doesn’t matter the nutritional value – because you get zero nutrients of what you don’t eat!

by Lisa Martin, owner and personal trainer at Salvere Health and Fitness. To contact, email Lisa@SalvereHealthAndFitness.com or call 410.707.0055

We welcome your thoughts and ideas! Thank you for reading and taking the steps to become a healthier YOU.

In health,
Your “Live Healthy” Team
Salvere Health and Fitness

Salvere Blog: Weight Loss vs Healthy Living

by Salvere Health And Fitness

You might be asking yourself why weight loss vs healthy living not weight loss is healthy living. Weight loss or “skinny” does not automatically mean healthy. Lets think about a few things with regard to weight loss.

How many of you have ever lost weight and then gained it back? Or felt like you went out and ate one meal then gained 2lbs over night? Can this really happen?

How many of you “scold yourself” because you made “bad” choices with one of your meals or missed a workout? How many of you know someone who, in an effort to decrease their risk of diabetes switch to using artificial sweetener? How many of you know someone who lost weight by either not eating or eating little or choosing mostly unhealthy foods?

How many of you know someone who is “skinny” but still has heart problems or some other health issue? How many of you know someone who exercises through an injury only to make it worse?

Now, I want to challenge you to define your own healthy WITHOUT using weight, external appearance or how your clothes fit. Think both mentally and physically — more energy, better sleep, more awareness, increased mood, decreasing blood pressure, etc.

by Lisa Martin, owner and personal trainer at Salvere Health and Fitness. To contact, email Lisa@SalvereHealthAndFitness.com or call 410.707.0055

We welcome your thoughts and ideas! Thank you for reading and taking the steps to become a healthier YOU.

Salvere Blog: Snacking Is Bad… Or Is It?

by Salvere Health and Fitness

I got to thinking about this the other day after listening to someone talk about kids and school and food. Sounds insignificant but the difference in dessert vs snack in today’s world vs decades ago.

When you hear these two words, what do you think? What comes to mind?

For me, dessert brings me back to childhood when we occasionally ate something special at night, after dinner, such as a homemade brownie or cookie or even some ice cream. We were fortunate enough to grow up with a mother who holds an amazing talent and passion for baking so high chances of it being amazing and delicious.

Snack on the other hand, I remember eating after school, between lunch and dinner consisting of foods such as an apple and peanut butter, cheese and crackers or some popcorn. I would say we ate snack pretty much every day. I felt like snack was part of our regular eating whereas dessert felt like something more special not necessarily a daily thing.

What does it mean in today’s world? Well, one example of snack in schools,is something they can buy in the cafeteria and eat immediately following lunch. It may consist of a variety of foods such as cookies, candy bars, chips, ice cream, etc. and is often used as one way for the school to make a little extra money. Even after school snacks often consist of some of these “junk foods.”

Does using snack to describe foods that used to be labeled as dessert confuse the role and choice of what we eat??  Maybe, maybe not???  Do we use the term dessert much anymore with regularity in the home? Restaurants still use it but what about our schools?? Could they get away with calling it the School Dessert Program?

by Lisa Martin, owner and personal trainer at Salvere Health and Fitness. To contact her, call (410) 707-0055 or email Lisa@SalvereHealthAndFitness.com.

We welcome your thoughts and ideas!  Thank you for reading and taking the steps to become a healthier YOU.

Salvere Blog: Wait, Wait… Don’t Set Your Resolution Yet

by Salvere Health and Fitness

Do New Years Resolutions really work — From a long term perspective anyway. Why do you think??  Think back to previous years and the resolutions and goals you set for the year.  What did you plan on accomplishing? What were your results? What went well? What was harder then you planned?

Often with new years resolutions, we put too much on our plate to start the new year. We attempt to do everything all at once and it’s too much. We look at the new  year as the only time to “make a new beginning”. While our intentions come from a good place, we often set ourselves up for more then we can realistically accomplish then comes that feeling of failure.

If you made or want to make a new years resolution this year regarding something(s) health and fitness related, challenge yourself to really really really (did I say really?) come to the WHY before you set any goals.

— Why do you matter?
— What do you want to be able to do? Accomplish? Achieve? Impact?
— What does a healthier you look like?

Health and fitness continues to be a popular topic of discussion and motivation for our resolutions. You can’t escape the discussions on weight loss this time of year, within our own heads as well as outward with friends, family, doctors, tv, radio and social media.  Do health resolutions even work? Why do we lose steam in two to three months?? Are we setting goals and then mapping out a plan or schedule? Why do we think we can do so much at once? Are we making plans based on what we want to do individually or what “they” tell us we should?

Your health is the best, most wonderful gift you can give yourself and those around you — It’s not a punishment and you are more then a number on the scale. Look at your health differently — It’s a forever process and should include things you ENJOY with PEOPLE you ENJOY!

by Lisa Martin, owner and personal trainer at Salvere Health and Fitness. To contact her, call (410) 707-0055 or email Lisa@SalvereHealthAndFitness.com.

We welcome your thoughts and ideas!  Thank you for reading and taking the steps to become a healthier YOU.

Salvere Blog: You Don’t Know What You Don’t Know

by Salvere Health and Fitness

Ever find yourself listening to something or talking to someone and saying “hmmm, I never knew that” or “I never even thought about that”. Talking and listening with an open mind and open opportunity to learn something can really broaden our perspective. But, what happens when you learn of something that kinda challenges you to think about something you believed for so long? This can be something big like a religious or political belief or something little like whether you should eat bread or not.

I’m going to use this blog to relate it to things going on in the health and fitness industry right now. Some things appear to be great – Doing high intense workouts, doing long/slow steady workouts, drinking shakes to lose weight, eliminating foods like bread, sweets or alcohol, losing weight in general, measuring BMI, running … well, you get the idea.

The “great” thing about these – they are the tasks that are supposed to get us to a certain weight or even and “optimal” BMI.

The “hmmmm” think about these — are they really making us healthier?? High intensity workouts and running without a prior focus on developing a proper base of cleaning up movement from the things we do every day (sit at a desk, wear high heels, cross our legs, wearing a wallet in the back pocket, texting, etc) and practicing the basics before moving to more advanced movements/training can actually contribute to long term pain and injury. While exercise in and of itself does not cause injury, doing things over and over again without proper form and alignment (just like your car tires when it’s out of alignment!) can bring about some problems.

Losing weight seems “good” but what if we’re losing muscle and not body fat? And drinking protein shakes, what are they make from? Are they really resulting in living “healthy”? Some are, some probably not – but we need to look below the surface. What does it do to our mental health to stress about being a certain weight? Or taking the action to build healthy habits into our daily life then not losing weight. There’s more to this healthy living thing then a number on the scale.

With any of these things, think before you do – What am I really trying to achieve?? Skinny does not = healthy. High intensity exercise does not always = appropriate for you. There are many, many options out there and it can be confusing. Not any one thing is magical, many things lie within a grey area. Think, “is it the right thing for me at this point in time with what I have available (time, money, etc.), with what I’m willing to do, with what I’m capable of doing.”

by Lisa Martin, owner and personal trainer at Salvere Health and Fitness. To contact her, call (410) 707-0055 or email Lisa@SalvereHealthAndFitness.com.

We welcome your thoughts and ideas!  Thank you for reading and taking the steps to become a healthier YOU.

Salvere Blog: What is Healthy?

by Salvere Health and Fitness

Walking through the farmers market a few Sundays ago, we passed our favorite hummus stand. The chick pea sellers attempted to lure us over with the promise of the “healthiest hummus around, its low fat.”

This brought on some conversation about what really does that mean? Does low fat make it healthy? What if I wanted to use it as a spread instead of cream cheese and wanted a little fat for some substance? Or even eating it with vegetables as a snack and the fat could help keep me full for a little longer?

Staying true to my never ending curiosity, I decided to google the definition of “healthy”. Well, our friend Merriam-Webster defines healthy as:

— enjoying health and vigor of mind, body and spirit

                — evincing health

                — conducive to health

So, now the definition of health:

                — the condition of being sound in body, mind or spirit

                — the general condition of the body

                — a flourishing condition

                — general condition or state

In reading through all these – why do we even define food as “healthy”? Maybe a reinvestigation on how we label food could be helpful? What about using the term “nutritious” instead of “healthy”? Hmmmmmm – Just some “food” for thought.

by Lisa Martin, owner and personal trainer at Salvere Health and Fitness. To contact Lisa, call her at (410) 707-0055 or email her at Lisa@SalvereHealthAndFitness.com .

We welcome your thoughts and ideas!  Thank you for reading and taking the steps to become a healthier YOU.

Salvere Blog: The Anti-Anti Obesity Campaign?

by Salvere Health and Fitness

Do our Anti-Obesity Discussions Contribute to Obesity? So check out the above maps… Zoom in on the first one – All kinds of blue and farily equal throughout the country, aside from the three white areas with no reporting. Check out the last map – Lots of red and pink only one blue and a few purples. How many categories disappear off the map from 1991-2010?? Realize that these are obesity trends – not obesity and overweight.

Okay, okay so without presenting doom and gloom, lets use these maps to show the reality of what happened in our country over the last 20 years (a relatively short time!). This happened during a time when just about every place you went and much advertising focused on “healthy” eating, dieting, the importance of losing weight, being more active, etc. – How we need to FIGHT THIS WAR on obesity.

I point this out because we spend billions and billions money on research, diet “things”, media “promotion” and provide countless resources yet our obesity numbers continue to grow. What happened to make these numbers change in the opposite direction of what we wanted?Our efforts focused quite a bit on education but, seriously, how much more information can we hear on the importance of “losing weight”? And how many of us can continue to feel like we work so hard yet don’t see “results” on the scale?

How can we begin to create a fun, motivating, encouraging community of living healthy, emotionally and physically, and feel good about our efforts with regard to physical activity and nutritious eating? Anyone else ready to take a sledge hammer to that scale, forget the horrible discussions about weight loss and join us on the PRO Fun, Rewarding, Exciting, Eat Real Food Healthy Living campaign??

by Lisa Martin, personal trainer and owner at Salvere Health and Fitness. If you’d like to contact Lisa, email her at Lisa@SalvereHealthAndFitness.com or call her at (410) 707-0055.

Salvere Blog: “Have To” vs. “Get To”

by Salvere Health and Fitness I “have to” go to the gym. I “have to” eat breakfast. I “have to” run. I “have to” drink water. Listen to your thoughts as you work on improving your fitness and health. What do you say to yourself about exercising or healthy eating? The phrase “have to” sounds like a chore or a responsibility. What if we say — I “get to” spend time with my friend today walking the park I “get to” help my body feel better by feeding it healthy foods. How often do changing the little things make the biggest difference? Try it out! by Lisa Martin, personal trainer and owner at   Salvere Health and Fitness. If you’d like to contact Lisa, email her at Lisa@SalvereHealthAndFitness.com or call her at (410) 707-0055. We welcome your thoughts and ideas!  Thank you for reading and taking the steps to become a healthier YOU. Be well, The Salvere Health and Fitness Team