🌸My Starlights,

Being fit is ensuring your lifestyle remains healthy, stress free, and active. I have tried to be inclusive of many forms of fitness during my lifetime to bring harmony and destress from my frustrations. Fitness has been a way to indulge in allowing me to feel not only good about myself and my body, but also maintain a healthy outlook mentally, physically, emotionally, and spiritually. Fitness is very conducive to brain power. The brain needs to be exercised. Not just with numbers, games, and written words. It needs to be physically embraced with fitness of swimming, gymnastics, cycling, spinning, sport climbing, jogging, volleyball, basketball, and kayaking. I’m not going to infuse football here, because of the damage it can cause the brain when hit. Concussions are a leading factor for traumatic brain injuries and CTE. This, of course, is unfortunate for those whom have suffered the consequences of such a devastating outcome. Therefore, I hesitate to put football as a healthy fitness sport of sort. Yet, if that is your choice of fitness, you do know the health risks that come with playing it.

When you think about the number of ways we can use our minds and meditate while physically using our bodies, we are releasing certain healthy endorphins to create a runner’s “high”, which is when our bodies go from aerobic to anaerobic exertion. This phase of release is when our brains are at our most highest state of performance, as the body is operating without the endurance oxygen, so the cells in our muscles are literally on overdrive….This is when our minds get their “high” and want to keep going for more!

“Exercise stimulates endorphin production as well, but for a different reason. You’re probably familiar with the term “runner’s high,” which refers to the euphoric feeling one sometimes gets when exercising. Researchers have found that light-to-moderate weight training or cardiovascular exercise doesn’t produce endorphins, only heavy weights or training that incorporates sprinting or other anaerobic exertion.

When your body crosses over from an aerobic state to an anaerobic state, it’s suddenly operating without enough oxygen to satisfy the muscles and cells screaming out for it. This is when the “runner’s high” occurs.” Science, How Stuff Works

Thus, I have offered here some ways to release stress, frustrations, and mental chaos. Find those fitness opportunities that bring joy, excitement, peace, harmony, and feelings of energy. Whatever makes you happy inside out is what you should be doing in fitness and health. YOU MATTER!! Don’t wait until tomorrow to start. Today is really all we have…! Just DO IT! 🙂 Happy training my beautiful souls!💋

HEALTHY FITNESS HABITS

Due to technological multitasking on email, voice mail, texting, Skyping, and other virtual ways of communicating with others, our minds are constantly fueled with incoming traffic, whether personal, professional, technological, or virtual. Life is a series of good and negative stress. Therefore, it is important to listen carefully to your body, thoughts, and biofeedback. As your limitations reach their peak and your plate becomes overwhelmed, you may feel frustrated, confused, and/or you may feel the need to release repressed tension. Harmony is very important to maintain if we are to strive for rational and critical thinking during highly stressful and energy draining positions. This can be accomplished through different types of activities including yoga, meditation, swimming, kayaking, jogging, hiking, walking, cycling, and/or sport climbing. Fitness, obviously, is an important part of your daily health routine to keep the heart functioning at maximum potential to decrease blood pressure, lower the risk of heart attacks, stroke, and diabetes. So many wonderful exercises are attributed to enjoying the outdoors and breathing in the fresh air. There truly is a connection between body, mind and spirit, and when balanced and grounded, one can be more focused, present, and recharged.

THE NINE FITNESS TRENDS IN 2021

COVID 19 has forced the fitness industry to change how it designs and engages its customers in order to bring positivity, glow, and mindfulness back to front and center. Healthy fitness choices have become the apex of mental health for people currently during this intense time of isolation, loneliness, and depression. Mental health is our number one focus in making home fitness the catalyst for keeping people connected, engaged, and at optimum wellness. Whether through television, zoom, iPhone, iPad, Skype, or other form of technology that makes fitness fun and enjoyable, delivering workout solutions even via outdoors is the wave of the future. Living a healthy lifestyle is not just a choice, but a requirement for today’s healthy survival.

And what works for one person may not work for you. Flexibility in trying new fitness options and integrating the latest tech to benefit from a more personalized approach can bring a more rounded and unique experience depending on your fitness and holistic goals. Whatever your motivation is for fine tuning your body, whether long term health and wellness goals, installing tech into fitness routines, or starting over after injuries, there are some exciting trends in the fitness world for 2021 to keep you focused, motivated, and energized.

1. STREAMING SERVICES TO DELIVER WORKOUT HIGHS

The nine fitness trends to look for in 2021 echoed how the home gym has become the number one trend of the future in fitness. Streaming services is the wave and key to connecting devices through televisions, Zoom, iPads, iPhones, Smartphones, or other technological advancements for creating a studio experience for participants and their instructors. People need a sense of fulfillment and by accomplishing a group activity with other spinning riders, yoga participants, and/or zoom members, they can connect and have a comaraderie experience as if they were still at a gym. This offers fitness accountability for showing up and keeps you committed to your fitness goals. It is truly a win-win for all.

2. INVESTING WITH VARIED FITNESS EQUIPMENT

A second trend, in pursuit of the home gym, Dr. Shawna Harrison shared with Self Magazine that people are investing in varied fitness equipment to make space in order to forgo using the paid membership gym at all. It’s less expensive and the digitally inclined workouts are easier to revolve around one’s own schedule. The Peleton company said it saw a rise in sales during the first quarter in the bike and treadmill during 2020. And although these are a huge investment, they tend to pay off in the end as reviews show a high degree of satisfaction by customers. Digital classes with Peleton’s platforms are included with purchase as a one time payment or monthly payments, which others have joined in to compete with them, such as MYXX, Echelon, Mirror, Tempo and others who offer premium workouts from the comfort of your own living room. In this digital age, people are expecting to interface with a high performance interactive machine that offers multiple levels of classes and platforms that can be used by the entire family. Other types of varied equipment to gather would include low weight dumb bells, an exercise mat, a yoga mat, a work out bench, and stretch bands that offer five levels of resistance.

If you don’t have the space to work out at home, there are a plethora of video classes available on line from YouTube to access for free. These classes will offer a great burn, increased heart rate, and overall body tone.

3. GROUP FITNESS CLASSES ARE GOING GREEN

Due to the governments closing of fitness gyms, warmer climate areas have decided to open

their fitness classes outside. So places like Florida, California, Arizona, and other fortunate climates that rise with warmth are able to transition faster to green modifications in their outdoor workouts. What’s also nice about “going green” is more people have found the outdoors a place of virtuous health and recreation than ever before. There were more road and mountain bikes sold in the U.S. in the history of the nation. Felix Richer, a jounalist for The U.S. Bicycle Market, writes, “According to figures from the NPD Group’s retail tracking service, bicycle sales in the United States soared in March 2020, with some categories seeing growth rates of more than 100 percent compared to the previous year.”

Cycling, walking, hiking, skydiving, kite flying, jogging, and other outdoor possibilities have gained popularity since being faced with the closing of organizations. Family outings for picnics and other outdoor activities like participating in bad mitten, ping pong, volleyball, crochet, swimming, boating, and fish boils are gaining momentum. And as gyms start to reopen, many might find their outdoor playground just as fulfilling as their indoor one used to be. Spending time on your time can be more time efficient when trying to save time for YOU.

3-6. HOLISTIC HEALTH AND WELLNESS COACHING

A third trend is Holistic Health and Wellness Coaching and the importance nutrition plays in how our bodies function. Holistic wellness is symbiotic with nutrition. What we eat is who we are, literally. Our bodies can only function in direct correlation to what we feed it.

Part of the draw of a healthy lifestyle, besides the radiant feeling from exercising for strength, body shaping, and inner glow, is also the keen awareness knowing you are living and training like an athlete. This psychological transformation is what drives the need for the “high” while training, and gives your mind the endorphins that manifest the feelings of needing more. Hence, a physio-psychological cycle is created and desired for seeking a habitual training routine, one that perpetuates healthy eating and trained fitness recovery in ways of maintaining a healthy lifestyle balance. So, finding a way to stay fit in today’s society is not challenging, expensive, nor difficult to achieve. YOU are the only reason YOU ARE NOT FIT!! CHANGE YOUR MIND, CHANGE YOUR LIFE!

4. REVVED-UP RECOVERY

Based on the past premise that intense workouts are best, like CrossFit training, daily heavy cardio routines, and muscle work outs that keep the muscles “burning” and exhausted, this year will be different. It’s focus will concentrate more on recovery and slowing down. “Instead of killing ourselves with extremely intense workouts seven days a week, we’ll see more intelligent programming that includes recovery,” McCall says. “High-intensity workouts are just one part of the equation for better performance. The other half is recovery,” he explains. Yet, recovery is a concept most people addicted to daily training haven’t mastered yet. It’s allowing the muscles to repair themselves in order to be stronger and more conditioned for the next training session. Overworking your muscles depletes them of nutrients, stretches them beyond capacity, and causes injuries. Webster notes, “Recovery is multifaceted and includes taking short breaks from exercise, active rest, myofascial release, sleep…they’re all a huge part of overall health.”

5. MINDFULNESS IS OPTIMISM

Another trend with holistic wellness is choosing to be mindful of your mental state of well-being. Having a virtual fitness coach to assist in your mind, body, and spiritual connection through gentle guidance offers ways alleviate fears, stress, frustrations, and pain. The mind is powerful. It can bring brilliance, courage, and strength into your life. But if not channeled positively, it can also oppress, paralyze, and deplete you of confidence, self-esteem, and self-identity.

Sleeping 8 hours per night is one of the best ways to nurture and replenish your brain. It depends on a nutritious diet, daily fitness, and deep slumber. The brain’s glymphatic system is what works at night while you are sleeping to filter out the toxin’s from the day’s cognitive processes. If you don’t get enough sleep, your brain cannot complete the filtration process of the trash that has accumulated.

It is no secret that meditation is beneficial. In 2014, research concluded how meditation lead to activation in parts of the brain involving processing, self-regulation, critical thinking, and adaptive behavior.(1) Meditation has been found to be the antidote to those who are over stimulated and frantically multi-tasking. It’s almost as though meditation is the antidote to an over-stimulated, go-go-go mindset. And, those who are on-the-go, over-stressed people would much rather incorporate HIIT (high intensity interval training) workouts than remain still.

Infusing meditation in pre and post workout classes is has enhanced Nike Master Trainer, Holly Rilinger’s Lifted classes, for instance. Yet, combining meditation into other forms of workouts during 2018 will be the new trend predicts McCall. “We’re going to see mindful movement as part of strength training to improve cognitive function and mental acuity,” he says. What we envision are workout apps and audio workouts with five-minute meditations. Webster explains, “Since we’re constantly glued to our screens, meditation can give us the headspace we need to truly focus on the push-up at hand. If it’s five minutes before or after a class of guided meditation, it might be the only personal quiet time a person gets all day.”

Thus, seeking out ways to practice mindfulness is key. Meditation is just one way of having your mind enter a higher consciousness by focusing on mantras, counting your breath, being in a relaxed state of vulnerability. If you have a meditative music, YouTube or App to use for meditation, use what digital services are available to you. If you would rather be with others, there are small classes being opened up more now as people become vaccinated, social distancing and using face masks for safety still.

Find your glowing optimism that makes you shine from inside out. Make space and time for you. Self-care will always come first because mental health is what makes you thrive!

6. SLEEPING

As sleeping patterns for tracking deep sleep and REM timelines become more available with fitbit and smartphone watch devices, among others, it is important to realize that good sleep is important to a healthy lifestyle. Sleeping between eight to ten hours per night is a capstone for your body’s vital motor functions and energy. Sleep restores back your body’s physical well being, athletic performance, mental alertness, concentration, and positivity towards the day’s scheduled activities. If not rested properly, the body’s immune system suffers, the brain becomes fogged and easily distracted, while the rest of the motor functions are stunted and lack energy. Kat Ellis, certified personal trainer, instructor at Our Body Electric, sees in the near future sleep coaches becoming readily available at yoga and meditation studios in order to assist people to learn the art of deep relaxation.

Emily Lockhart, author of the article on Sleep Deprivation in Active Beat, purports that sleep deprivation, being a chronic lack of sleep, can cause chronic conditions, such a high blood pressure, arrhythmia, diabetes, and cardiovascular problems. She also advises, it increases the stress hormone cortisol in your body, which has a way of showing up as puffy, dark circles under your eyes, and leaves your skin rather stretchy and dull. Loss of sleep may also come in forms of depression, wight gain or loss, lack of libido, and decreased mental acuity.

If stress, frustration, or negative circumstances are causing you to loose sleep, find a life coach, therapist, or psychologist you connect with who can assist you in dealing with your emotions and issues that block your sleep patterns. This is one of the most important steps to having an awesome workout regardless of the type you choose! Don’t wait until its too late!! Just DO IT!!

Please read more about the benefits of Sleep under the Tab: Healthy Lifestyle -“Nutrition and Sleep”.

7. EXERCISE IN 3D

🌸This concludes my Healthy Fitness Habits section for developing harmony and healthy habits to destress and release toxins out of your life. I sincerely hope you indulge in the benefits of the  fitness programs that have been made available to you. Obviously, there are so many ways to be inclusive of nutritiously sound eating habits as well to stay fit, yet finding the resources takes incredible amounts of time, energy, and expense to you. I want to encourage all my tribal members to seek the best in yourself, and find ways to live a healthy, fit life, especially after trauma or abuse. Find a partner, if possible, who can assist you in reaching your goals, and focus on YOU!! Always remember how remarkable YOU are no matter what other people may think or say to you. This is about YOUR JOURNEY!! Let me know how I can assist you in making your goals in living a healthy and healthy lifestyle come true…✨

💫In Love and Light,

Kimberly Lees, Ed.D.

letyourlightshineon.org