Salvere Blog: What to Say When…

by Salvere Health and Fitness

Do you ever find yourself in the middle of a space where topics or conversations start and it feels internally uncomfortable? It could be about someones body, dieting, exercise or something regarding mental health. Maybe someone makes a comment about their own body or a recent diet they tried. What do you say or do you simply stay quiet.

With our culture so hyperfocused on weight, weight loss and body size it becomes hard to avoid running into these topics. Knowing what to say, how to say it and when becomes challenging. While we can give you a start to some ideas, talk to others around you to see if they can provide some suggestions too.

First, if you find yourself in a big group and it’s the topic, maybe try to find a way to shift the conversation on to something else after a few minutes. In a small group, maybe you feel comfortable saying something to indicate its uncomfortable or that it gets discussed enough that you want to connect with them about other things. If its just you and someone else, you could expand the dialogue and share with them why you find the conversation challenging or uncomfortable.

For any of these situations, shifting the conversation to bring up a recent vacation or upcoming travel. Learn more about where they met their spouse or where they grew up. Ask questions about how they started in their career or something they would do if they could do anything. Maybe a day or two after the get together, share privately with one or two of the others. You might find they feel similar and it’s an opportunity to expand on why these topics don’t feel good, safe and helpful.



Let us know any strategies you use and share any experiences where you created vulnerable space that went better then you thought.

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 staying the path to continuous growth opportunities and taking time for curiosity.

Salvere Blog: Obstacles

by Salvere Health and Fitness

“Life is full of challenges, obstacles, and problems. But learn to face them courageously with joy. Live every moment with happiness and positivity, for we never know.” – Sai Kaustuv.

Obstacles, what’s your mindset when one enters your path? Do you see it as an opportunity? Do you head towards it with excitement or slight apprehension? Do you try to avoid it all together?

Obstacles challenge our fears, courage, and curiosity. They come in different forms and look different to each of us — They can feel scary, exciting or a little bit of both. What’s an obstacle you navigated your way through over the last year? How did you feel during each stage, going through it and coming out on the other side.

When it comes to fitness, obstacles look like injuries, vacations, feelings of not accomplishing certain goals, uncomfortable experiences, new relationship and/or job and moving to a new location.

Share with us any of these you experienced and what strategies you used to move around the obstacle.

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 staying the path to continuous growth opportunities and taking time for curiosity.

Salvere Blog: The In Between

by Salvere Health and Fitness

Think of something that might be all or none, good or bad and right or wrong. With our weight loss obsessed culture, we often talk about actions that come with this all or none feel. What about the time between, in the middle of this or that?

Let’s look at a few. Eating something “bad” equates to “falling off the wagon”. Think about sugar, white flour and carbohydrates. At some point, any or all of these became “the enemy” and to be avoided. Don’t eat sugar or, if you do, it will be addicting. How many times over the past several decades has some expert told us to eliminate carbohydrates? How do we start talking more about what happens between NO sugar and being “addicted”?

Now on to exercise. Think back to recommendations over the years. Do 60-90 minutes of exercise daily. Do high intensity to get your heart rate up. Stretch, don’t stretch. What about the days you feel tired or the calendar looks a little full of work, family and friends that day? I hear all the time that I just walked, or I just did 20 minutes so it doesn’t really count. What about that week that’s unusually crazy with things and exercise gets missed?

Maybe instead of thinking it’s all one way or the other, we can start to refrain our thoughts to spend time in the middle, in between this end and that end?

by Lisa Martin, owner and personal trainer at Salvere Health and Fitness. To contact, email lisa@SalvereHealthandFitness.com or call 443.340.2969.

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

Salvere Blog: Take Time To Reflect, 20 Year Reflections

by Salvere Health and Fitness

One of the learnings that I use frequently throughout the past 20 years — Taking time to reflect, especially before making big decisions.

January for many means time for resolutions – Even for some who say they don’t set them, tend to make various changes for January. For as long as I can remember, this time of year came with new promises to diet and/or exercise more, maybe lose weight and other various health “promises”. How many of you still do resolutions? What specific things worked well for you?

One thing to think about with setting food and/or exercise goals, when you look at nature during this time of year, especially in colder areas of the country, it really becomes a time to almost hibernate and spend time resting. January would be the time to do more lower intensity movements like yoga, tai chi, meditation, stretching and hiking. Winter foods even feel heavier for a reason so not the time of year to eat less or eat lighter foods typically found during summer months.

What if, instead of resolutions, we took that time for reflections? Reflecting on the previous year – What went great, what unexpected things happened, what did you accomplish, what did not go as you thought it might, what struggles did you experience, what was your favorite experience, what do you look forward to in the coming year..?

by Lisa Martin, owner and personal trainer at Salvere Health and Fitness. To contact, email lisa@SalvereHealthandFitness.com or call 443.340.2969.

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

Salvere Blog: If It Ain’t Broke, Break It, 20 Year Reflections

by Salvere Health and Fitness Sounds opposite of what we learned about life, if it ain’t broke, don’t break it. With business, being prepared for change and even creating opportunities for it becomes the key to longevity. Continuously breaking the process and/or looking ahead, provides opportunities to grow and learn. Also, building on the “things find you” lesson, this mindset creates space for new thoughts, ideas, concepts and experiences to find space. Thinking about ways to some how stay focused on the future and preparing for change sometimes creates a challenge with staying focused on the present while planning and preparing for the future. After much practice, using the opportunity, potential and guarantee that change will happen, I learned you can use planning for the future to also help appreciate the present. by Lisa Martin, owner and personal trainer at Salvere Health and Fitness. To contact, email lisa@SalvereHealthandFitness.com or call 443.340.2969. We welcome your thoughts and ideas! Thank you for reading and taking the steps to become a healthier YOU.

Salvere Blog: Does “Healthy” Have A “Look”?

by Salvere Health and Fitness

Often we complement a persons size or weight loss with a comment about health. Does health come in a size or certain “look”? Do we sometimes think healthy looks a certain way?

Over the years, I learned that healthy becomes a complement without finding out more about the person.

Weight loss does not necessarily mean healthy, “skinny and muscular” does not necessarily mean healthy, a larger body does not necessarily mean unhealthy and weight gain does not necessarily mean unhealthy.

How can we expand our idea of what healthy looks like?

by Lisa Martin, owner and personal trainer at Salvere Health and Fitness. To contact, email lisa@SalvereHealthandFitness.com or call 443.340.2969.

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

Salvere Blog: Nourishment vs Dieting

by Salvere Health and Fitness

In our society we spend quite a bit of time focusing on dieting (ie. Eating less, eliminating food groups, skipping meals) to lose weight, fit a certain size and/or an arbitrary number on the scale.

How many of you think of food in terms of nourishment and what different foods provide for our bodies?

What if weight loss also comes with being malnourished? Many weight loss programs/suggestions come with the elimination of carbohydrates for example. This means decreasing the best fuel for your brain, decreasing your potential fiber intake and minimizing your options for vitamins and minerals.

What about eating that favorite food from childhood? In the same form, not “comfort food made healthier”. How does that impact your emotional experience? Sometimes nourishment means feeding your soul.

Food provides so many nutrients for our bodies to work, all day every day, to do amazing things. Outside appearance can provide a false story of what goes on inside. I know people who get labeled “healthy” because of their weight yet they lack proper nourishment. What if we spent more time talking about this and feeding our bodies appropriately?

by Lisa Martin, owner and personal trainer at Salvere Health and Fitness. To contact, email lisa@SalvereHealthandFitness.com or call 443.340.2969.

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

Salvere Blog: Can We Change the Conversation?

by Salvere Health and Fitness

We started talking about how and what we say throughout our blogs, in various ways. Before we go any further, I wanted to go more into “why” its important to change how we discuss dieting and exercise.

How many of you think about exercise in terms of weight loss and/or external appearance, dieting to be healthy, workouts should be hard, good and bad foods and/or that there’s a “right” way to exercise?

How would it feel if we talked about moving our bodies in terms of feeling better, more energetic and less stiff? Or in terms of our abilities? Or how it creates an environment to build a community, feel connected and get to know your friends and neighbors better?

How would your kids feel if we took time to be outdoors, enjoying each other company, hiking, biking or wandering? How would it feel if you enjoyed that glass of wine or cake without feeling bad about it later? Of if we took time to talk about and appreciate our inside gifts, what make us unique? What if we talked more about appreciating what taking care of our bodies enables us to do?

How can you begin to expand and change your mindset with the ideas and concepts surrounding exercise and food? What can you do to change how you talk to yourself, friends and children? Take time to “see” and say to people you know and even strangers!

YOU MATTER!!!

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: What To Stay Instead

by Salvere Health and Fitness

In continuing the idea of changing the conversations, sometimes it might be hard knowing what to say instead. This week, we put together ideas on what to say instead of complementing someone on their external appearance/body, try these.

I enjoy your sense of humor.

It’s great how much you know about history

I appreciate all you do for your community

You’re such a good listener.

I value the advice and deep perspective you provide during our conversations.

I learn so much listening to you talk about the books you read

You bring such a positive feel when you walk in the room.

Thank you for checking in periodically, it makes a difference.

I admire your persistence with _____________.

Hope these help to get you thinking!!

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: What We Really Lost From Dieting

by Salvere Health and Fitness

Through our dieting culture, we lost quite a bit… and not quite a bit of weight but quite a bit about the realities of food and exercise. By hyper focusing on weight loss, we missed all these things (and more):

• Eating fat and carbohydrates are good for you
• Its okay to enjoy food
• Complementing things about a person beyond appearance matters
• Real food matters
• There’s way more to movement then simply checking the box of exercise
• Movement matters to all, regardless of size
• Skinny does not equal healthy
• External appearance means very little
• Losing weight does not automatically mean something “good”
• Self worth extends far beyond anything the scale can tell
• Food fuels your body
• Appropriate exercise matters way more then the intensity of an exercise
• Exercise includes so many more things, far beyond going to the gym
• Dance, play and enjoy life — It matters most

We want to work to change the conversations surrounding weight loss. How can you look beyond the media messages in your own life and with others?

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.