Nurturing your soul – My Mama Journey

I am thrilled to have on the blog a close family friend, Sarah. She is a health and fitness enthusiast, who likes to share her personal health journey. Welcome Sarah …

As someone who works in the healthcare industry, I get a healthy dose of statistics of various diseases, the comorbidities associated with many of them and the quality of life people lead after being diagnosed. This makes me highly sensitized to the lifestyle choices we make and the short and long term impact of those choices on our bodies and also on those around us.

Fitness and healthy lifestyles are consistent refrains I hear whenever I listen to experts discussing a disease. For example, I recently read an article that breast cancer risks increase with obesity and alcoholism. Similarly we all know that stress brings about a plethora of issues such as diabetes and cardiovascular problems. I have personally seen the complications of these diseases in family members and the tangible and often negative impact not only on those who are suffering but on those around them too. I’ve also seen the positive effect of a simple walk or a bike ride in the neighbourhood on relieving stress levels and the desire to make healthier choices.

Making fitness a priority isn’t just about fitting in a workout in a day, it’s really about making the conscious decision to manage our lives better and to make overall better choices in other areas of our lives. I’ve noticed when I make fitness a priority (and I don’t always do, despite knowing better), I’m happier, I feel in control of my life, I feel ready to take on the challenges of work and fulfil the commitments to my family, and mostly, I feel empowered that I can really do anything I want.

Our bodies are brilliant, unbelievably resilient machines with the capability of fighting relentlessly for us, but like any machine, it needs to be well-oiled and carefully maintained so it continues to function and serve us well. I owe it to those who care for me, those who depend on me, and lastly to myself, to be the absolute best that I can be.

“These opinions reflect the author’s personal views and do not reflect those of any organization.”

Have you heard? I have a great challenge coming up!

Sign up now here!

As the weather gets colder this time of year, I find myself looking for something that will help to keep me inspired and motivated to stray on track with my health and fitness journey. It’s funny isn’t it, how someone who likes to inspire others to make lifestyle changes also needs a bit of motivation?

So for the next 8 weeks I will be participating in the #HolidaySweat Challenge.

What’s that? As a Sweat Pink Ambassador I am part of this cool community of like-minded health and fitness enthusiasts (many of us are professionals), who like to support each other on our individual journeys and to participate in all sorts of challenges to keep us on our toes and motivated. This usually includes social media challenges of all kinds with daily prompts.

As part of my challenge this week, I want to share with you the goal of how many minutes I plan to spend over the next 8 weeks I plan to get #sweaty and how I will accomplish my goal!

My goal for the #HolidaySweat Challenge is to reach or surpass my goal of 3540 minutes (that’s 59 hours!!).

Here’s how I know I can accomplish this goal:

I LOVE a challenge, it’s my competitive nature.
I teach 2-3 group strength classes a week.
Everyday, I commute to work by either running or walking.
As a mom, I am constantly chasing my daughter at the playground, park or street.
We go for family walks on the weekend to parks or to the market.
Finally, because of my fun little side business … I get to film demo videos of exercise which sometimes has me retaking the video several times (this counts right?)

Lets get #Sweaty!