About a month ago FitHouse was asked to be a part of Canon Macs FIT Day. It’s a great day where they line up all day activities related to health and fitness. We kicked off their day with a warm up and work out on the field. They requested aerobic like activities with some dance mixed in. Who better to bring but the finest Jam Instructor in Town..Kara! Now I know I can speak for Kara as well in saying that as 400 7th graders kids entered the stadium we were a little doubtful about our ability to win them over.

Well two moms from Peters pulled it off. In a matter of minutes the kids were moving, smiling, laughing and sweating. At one point we had to fight them off the stage!
It was such reinforcement that Movement and music are some powerful stuff!!! We did agility drills, strength drills, mobility drills and we jammed hard!!!

None of that is really important, what WAS REALLY important was the energy that was created that morning. There were laughs, smiles, high fives and we had a BLAST! I was really proud of the kids.
I was asked to come back in the afternoon and do some motivational speaking for the 7th graders. Now that was a challenge that I was not sure that I was up for lol! After all I have teens of my own! Of course I couldn’t pass on the opportunity to possibly get into the head of maybe just one kid and have something that I say maybe make a difference.

Since their day was called Fit Day I decided to share my experience with what it means to be FIT!
I started by asking them what their idea of FIT was. I got some of the typical answers, having muscles, exercising, being strong. This is how many people view FIT.  In the third session a young girl gave a definition that I loved….FIT is feeling good!  FIT is so much more than having muscles! FIT is something we ALL need in our lives!!! As I left there Friday afternoon I was reminded that WE are the best leaders that this future generation can have, in our homes, in our schools and in the messages and things that we teach our children.

Here’s what I shared and I am sharing it with you because if we all focused on being “FIT” it would add so much value to our lives! The future generation need us to pass it along to them!!!

What is FIT????

Feeling good for the life you desire.

Ultimately being fit is about a feeling good! To life the life I desire I need great energy, I need to be happy, I need to be strong and I need to have confidence. Fitness is a choice and it is made up of multiple lifestyle choices that include

Fueling your body right with whole, nutrient filled food

Including Exercise and movement daily

Getting enough Sleep and recovery to rebuild and recharge

Having a Positive Mindset

Intelligent Choices are necessary for true Fitness

Our lives are the sum of the choices that we have made. The choices that we make today have an impact on our tomorrows. Choices can put more stress in our lives and lead us away from who we want to be or they can reduce the stress in our lives and move us in a forward direction.  Choices can give us health or lead us towards disease. Choices can create unnecessary conflict in our lives or can lead us towards peace. We need to recognize our power with choice and choose wisely.

Taking Action

We can have the absolute BEST intentions but without action nothing changes, nothing happens. We had 3 sessions of about 135 7th graders. I stood in front of them with a FitHouse bag with a book and a Starbucks gift card inside. I held it up and asked “Who wants this?”  About 134 hands went up and I heard the ME ME ME!!!  I  stood there for a few seconds then I said what will you do to get it?  After a minute or so of a few shout outs, looking at their friends and whispering someone  came up and grabbed it. That was what I was waiting for!  They took action! Whether it be our health and fitness or something else that we want in life ACTION is a MUST! Taking Action was something that took me a lot of practice! It is still one of the hardest things to do sometimes. Taking action can be scary, it can be uncomfortable. It is easy to keep ourselves trapped in the what if zone. What if I look stupid, what if it doesn’t work out, what if I’m not good enough, what if I overextend myself. We can waste a lot of unnecessary time and energy in this place. When we take action we create momentum, we create energy and we usually empower ourselves to keep taking action!

There are many components to truly being FIT! It’s a way of life that includes our body, our minds and our spirits. One doesn’t work without the other. Use FIT to empower yourself and your life!

Come get your daily dose with us this week!!! New to FitHouse? Give us a call or send us an email to set up an appointment and learn more about how we can help YOU on your health and fitness journey! 

The BEST part about life?

Every day you wake up with a new opportunity to become a happier version of yourself.

Do you ever find yourself laughing, calm and energized one minute and then hours later you are ready to snap at your kids or your husband?

Do you ever feel like you are two people living in one body? Jekyll and Hyde perhaps?  You find yourself yearning to be one way but sometimes acting in another way. I am right here with you.

From parenting to time management, relationships to getting organized, healthy eating to exercise, it’s easy to get inspired with an array of fantastic ideas—but do they they remain just ideas, floating around in your head without any action plan behind them?

One of the keys to becoming the BEST and happiest version of yourself is finding the life recipe that is right for you. In this day and age we are surrounded by so much information, we have the ability to follow friends and acquaintances almost every move or at least the ones that they want us to see on social media and we are able to google every element of our life.  That can make figuring out the Best version of ourselves a little challenging at times.  It can be hard to determine what makes the Best version of Us when we are bombarded with what the world thinks we should do, who they think we should be and not to let the outside world impact what we truly believe, feel and know in our hearts.

Becoming the Best Version of Ourselves is a lifelong journey. It changes with time, life circumstances, with our goals and with our dreams.

One of the first steps to discovering the right recipe for YOU is to decide what the best version of YOU looks like? What are the qualities that you display when you are the best version of you? Make a list of what those qualities are when you are the person that you love and want to be around.

What is it that brings out those qualities in you? Make a list

………time for yourself, doing things that you love, taking care of yourself, being with those that you care about

Now step into that not so lovely version of yourself…I call it Monster ME. The one that is not so fun to be around and sometimes like an alien takes over your current being. What cause that version to come out of hiding? Make that list.

……….when you are stressed, when you are not taking care of yourself, when you have too much on your plate, when you are not honest with yourself or when your actions are not in alignment with your goals?

For myself I feel the best when

I can be fully present with others

I spend quality time with those I care about

I exercise and eat healthy

I get enough sleep

I don’t pile too much on my plate

I have alone time to write, read or listen to a podcast

I have adventure in my life

I Feel and Act my worst when I am

Not present

Rushing

Feeling  overwhelmed because I take on more than I should

Saying yes to things to please others instead of whats in alignment with myself

Tired

Not eating right and allowing myself recovery time

I’ve found that when I know what brings out my Monster ME then I can do the things that I need to do or avoid the things that I need to avoid in order to make that happen less…once in awhile is OK…after all some Monsters aren’t all bad.

It is always a process to find the recipe that is right for me and sometimes I have to tweak the recipe from time to time. When I go through a phase where I am lacking motivation, happiness and fulfillment then I know it’s time to take a look at my life recipe.

When I plan my weeks in advance making those things that bring out the BEST version of me a priority I find myself  more present,  calmer, happier and inspiring others more!

I challenge YOU to take the steps that will help you discover the BEST version of YOU!

YOU deserve to be happy, healthy and to have the confidence to share your awesomeness with the world!!!

Come get your daily dose with us this week!!! New to FitHouse? Give us a call or send us an email to set up an appointment and learn more about how we can help YOU on your health and fitness journey! 

One of the most challenging things in health and fitness is that the information is constantly changing. It is very likely that that what we learn is great for us today we could learn is not so great for us tomorrow. After a month of adding coconut oil to my morning coffee I read at least three reports about the heighten risk of cardiovascular disease with consuming coconut oil (but it’s still great on the skin). There is a lot of information out there and some of it even contradicts the next. I just had a discussion with a doctor recently and one thing that we did agree on was that every body is different. One of the first steps in knowing what is right for you is understanding the science behind what you are doing whether it be nutrition, exercise or lifestyle. It is really frustrating that the consumer can slap a label on something and call it light or all natural and give a large part of the population the idea that it is healthy. Many people equate those labels with health without really understanding what they are consuming. Many also still have a tendency to count calories and look at the less calories as better than more instead of looking at the quality of what they are consuming.

Why would it better to consume something with more calories than something with fewer calories? That is the question that a lot of people ask. All calories are NOT created equal just as all products are not created equal. Hands down our bodies and our children’s bodies function the best on high quality food with little additives and chemicals. Did you know that there are over 14,000 man-made chemicals added to our food supply in our country alone? These additives are not meant to be part of our natural nutrition. The sad thing is that our children are the ones that suffer the most because they are exposed to these substances from an early age. The food industry has absolutely changed in the past 25 years. Our bodies were not meant to be exposed to the amount of chemicals and food additives that are being added to our diets. And one of the truly scary things is that scientist have no idea the synergistic effect of all these chemicals. Studies are just starting to focus on our chemical “Body Burden.” That is, the total accumulated chemicals in our body.

Often we just equate “unhealthy food” with weight gain but we don’t think about  the fact that all of these chemicals, additives and preservatives  in our bodies can cause a lot more disruption. Studies are finding a link to metabolic issues, anxiety, depression, hormonal imbalances, cancer, and other diseases.

So what does this all mean? Am I saying that we can never indulge if we want to be healthy?!? Not at all! I’m not giving up my pizza and ice cream and you don’t have to either! But we all need to become familiar with the types of chemicals and food additives that we are putting into our bodies. Even when it comes to pizza and ice cream there is real versus fake! You can go on the Internet and find all kinds of lists on additives and preservatives. We need to make sure that a majority of the time we are fueling our bodies with clean, high antioxidant, anti-inflammatory foods to help keep our immune systems strong, our hormones functioning well and our minds operating at full capacity. Don’t always equate health to a clothes size. Research is finding that our guts are directly related to our immune systems and our minds. If there is one area to continually do your research it is with the products that go in and on your body! You are what you eat…don’t be cheap or fake!

Check out our Pinterest site below for some health meal ideas!!!! Click on the link to see a List of 50 Jawdroppingly toxic food ingredients to avoid…and then check your pantry!

Come get your daily dose with us this week!!! New to FitHouse? Give us a call or send us an email to set up an appointment and learn more about what is right for YOU! 

Do you have something that you don’t like to do or that you procrastinate doing because you feel like you suck at it? We all have things that we are great at and most of us have things that we SUCK at too…I have several but I will share one of those with you today.

Every week somehow this thing somehow manages to fall off my to do list!! While it may not seem like that big of a deal it is something that I know can help me get positive messages out there and can help me do a better job at reaching more people in an impactful way. There is no good reason not to do it other than feeling like I suck at it! That thing is Facebook live! Ugh!  I will do a dance for you or sing a song any day, get up in front of a crowd and talk, teach a class with 100 people but staring into FaceBook live is a different story!

When something is new to us a lot of times we are not great at it or we may even suck.How many times do you opt out of doing something because you think you won’t be good. We use the excuse “oh it’s really not my thing” when deep down we know we are just acting out of fear or discomfort. How many times do we tell our kids to get up and try again even when they aren’t great at something. It’s not always easy but we know that with consistency we often keep getting better and with enough consistency we can even eventually become a master at something!

Sometimes we need to JUST DO IT even if we suck! We all know what those things are! These are the things that we don’t have to do but we need to do because they are the things that make us better, the things that move us further on our mission, the things that move us closer to our dreams or to the person that we want to be.

This week I challenge you to suck at something and not care about it! Popover to the members Facebook page and share what it is!

I am pretty sure that if you stay consistent with that one thing, practice it regularly and make a commitment  it WILL get easier, you WILL get better and you WILL gain confidence to move me on to something even bigger!

Have a great week and we hope to see you in the House!!!

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Join FitHouse Sunday Sept. 17th at the South Side Works for the Pittsburgh Undy 5K Walk/Run for Colon Cancer! Formerly The Scope It Out 5K,  FitHouse is proud to be a part of this Event !! We will be leading the Warm Up for this to support a great cause. This is a great race for Families, first time 5kers and anyone looking to get out and support a great cause! Click here to register , donate or for more details!