April is "Let's Move SLO" Month!

HEAL-SLO, a collaboration of over 30 local organizations that works to address the childhood obesity epidemic in SLO County is on another mission to educate and encourage our community to live a healthier lifestyle by becoming more physically active and eating locally and healthfully. 

The goal of Let's Move SLO is to spark community awareness about the benefits of increased physical activity and healthy eating.  This initiative grew out of a conference call with First Lady Michelle Obama, in which 4,500 people committed to making better choices to improve the health of our nation's children through community and organizational empowerment. 

Beginning March 7th, HEAL-SLO members will collaboratively reach out to their constituencies representing several thousand community members to remind, inspire and encourage our community to aspire to living a healthier lifestyle.  Our community will be encouraged to visit www.healslo.com and "Commit" to either "Move More," or "Eat Healthfully & Locally."  Highlighted within the HEAL-SLO website are extraordinary examples of what some of our HEAL-SLO volunteers are doing in our own backyard to empower our local families and youth in an effort to create the nation's healthiest community (visit http://www.healslo.com for more information). 

A perfect example of “Let’s Move SLO’s!” purpose (to spark community awareness about the benefits of increased physical activity and healthy eating) is a collaboration between Equilibrium Fitness, Community Action Partnership (CAP-SLO) and Community Health Centers of the Central Coast which has yielded a boost in fitness levels at Arroyo Grande High School.  Equilibrium Fitness, a project team member since 2011 has further developed the boot camp curriculum and added a very unique and cool addition: a youth personal training workshop.  The program, Fitness Youth Trainers Revolution (FYT Rev), will provide an opportunity for youth to become peer-to-peer fitness leaders and experience what it entails to work as a personal trainer while also enhancing knowledge of anatomy, physiology, nutrition, motivation and leadership.  After a three day workshop and 20 hours of hands-on observation and internship hours, youth trainers will be qualified to teach or assist with Project Teen Health (PTH) 6-Week Boot Camps, a campus-wide health fair, and Healthy Start PE Classes.  The eventual goal is to expand the FYT Rev program to other local high schools, recreation centers and health clubs.  To date, 16 students have completed the FYT Rev program and are currently in the process of completing their internship hours.  "I can't tell you how excited I am to see this program get off the ground" says Julian Varela, co-owner of Equilibrium Fitness.  "I've been working on trying to launch this program [FYT Rev] for years and teaming up with CAP-SLO has been the perfect vehicle for doing so...I couldn't have asked for a better team of professionals to work with”.   As exemplified with FYT Rev, the “Let’s Move SLO!” campaign encourages community members to get active, enjoy healthy foods, and eat locally.  For more information on “Let’s Move SLO!”, or other healthy eating and active living initiatives and organizations, please visit www.HealSLO.org.  

Don't worry...........Be Happy! By Guest Blogger: Lauren Smith

Health is directly related to happiness. A healthy and wealthy person always remains happy and if you are not sure of it, please talk to a doctor or a gym instructor. They will always have a smile on their faces. Happiness, in many ways is depending on health. A person, who is ill, will not be happy in the long run. She might smile momentarily and try to hide her soreness, but she cannot consider herself to be happy. It is very important to be healthy to lead a happy life.

Happy people, in turn are always healthy. Yes, being happy is the best way to be healthy. Happiness and health go hand in hand. It is true and many researches across the world have proved time and again that if you are happy, there is a lesser chance that you will have a cardiac arrest or diabetes or hypertension and similar diseases. Happier people are less prone to such chronic diseases. We can avoid lot of heart attacks with a smile on the face along with a peaceful and happier mind and heart.

People have many and varied goals that they pursue, there is an almost universal underlying goal to virtually all pursuits: the goal to be happy. People who spend a lot of time making money generally do so because they believe that the money itself will make them happy, or will guard them against things that will make them unhappy. If the focus isn’t on the money, but on the jobs that bring the money, those jobs are generally thought to make people happy. People strive for that perfect relationship, the perfect house, the beautiful body, the approval of others, all in an attempt to be happy. Sometimes these things make us happy; other times, we stress over not having reached our goals, or we reach them and find that we’re still not happy. Other times, we focus so intensely on one goal that’s thought to bring happiness that we don’t have time for other things in our life that will make us truly happy. This can all be confusing, and begs the question: how does one reach the goal of being happy?

While there’s more to happiness than just the absence of stress, there are relationships between stress-relieving activities and happiness. Dr. Michael Frisch, a Baylor University professor and another pioneer in the field of positive psychology, has found 16 different areas of life that contribute to a person’s happiness, and measuring satisfaction in these areas can help measure a person’s overall level of happiness and life satisfaction. Interestingly, many of the things that bring happiness are also things that relieve stress, such as EXERCISE, expressing creativity, maintaining supportive friendships, keeping an organized home, and enjoying your work.
When you’re overwhelmed with stress, often just relieving the imminent pressures is foremost on your mind; however, following a stress relief program that also incorporates activities known to increase overall happiness can give you short-term stress relief, and the lasting gains of a happy life. And when you incorporate into your life a general state of happiness, and make habit the lifestyle features that promote it, you’ll be better able to weather future stress in your life.
The following is a list of the 16 different features that promote happiness:

Health
Self-Esteem
Goals, values, and Spiritual Life
Money
Work
Play
Learning
Creativity
Helping
Love
Friends
Children
Relatives
Home
Neighborhood
Community

Take some of these features and put them into your life, the more the merrier. Put a smile on and wear it proud!

Lauren I Smith Is the Fitness Director at Equilibrium Fitness and is certified through NASM. Contact Lauren at Lauren@eqclubs.com with questions or comments.

"Finding Fulfillment in Physical Activity" - By Guest Blogger Cathy Sullivan

We all have areas in our life where we naturally excel, and areas in our
life where we tend to struggle. As we enter adulthood (or often well into
adulthood), we begin to understand our strengths, talents, and activities
that we enjoy. Hopefully, for most of us, this is how we determine our
career or livelihood. We also recognize areas in our life where we struggle,
and what we need to do to address those issues.

As health and fitness professionals, most of us enjoy physical activity. I
would say that fitness professionals tend to be more passionate about their
careers than their peers in different professions. After a long week of
work, I choose to unwind with a good long Saturday bike ride, followed up on
Sunday by several hours of running. How is that not everyone’s idea of a
good time?

Unfortunately, I think that this enthusiasm leads many people to believe
that exercise must be “fun”. There is a misconception that if exercise is
not fun for you, then maybe exercise isn’t for you. We all have heard, and
we all understand the benefits of regular physical activity. However, many
people have a difficult time seeing the long-term benefits of exercise when
the short-term effect is often thirty minutes of pain, mind-numbing boredom,
or listening to a constant internal monologue about how out-of-shape, tired,
or uncoordinated you might be.

In order to better understand the mindset of a non-enjoyer of exercise, I
thought about an area of my life where I struggle, and how I address those
issues in order to lead a healthy, fulfilling life. The area of my life I
chose: math. I am horrible at math. I still add, subtract, and multiply
using my fingers. It is a miracle that I survived high school math, let
alone college math. I am certain I will be one of those parents who can no
longer help their fourth grader with their math homework, because that is
where it gets to complicated. That said, I still need to create a budget. I
still need to balance my bank account, plan for savings, and pay bills. I
feel better when I know what I am able to spend, able to save, and have
available in my bank account. While I would prefer to bury my head in the
sand and not do it, I feel much better about myself when my checks clear and
my bank card is not declined.

Do you see where I am going? Exercise may not be fun for you, but my hope is
that it will be fulfilling. You don’t have to be a runner to be an
exerciser. You don’t have to love group fitness to be fit. But I do
encourage you to try many different activities until you find something that
you can feel successful doing. Try a variety of classes until you find
something that “isn’t so bad.” Work with a trainer to put together a program
that addresses your strengths, and the areas of fitness where you would like
to improve. Work out with friends to enjoy the social aspects of activity.
Once you find something and stay consistent, I guarantee that you will see
benefits. Stress reduction, more energy, increased self-esteem, weight loss,
and increased strength are just a few examples of such benefits.

Hopefully at that point, you will then feel about exercise the way I feel
about math. It may not be the highlight of your day, but doing it is much
better than the alternative.


Cathy Sullivan is a NASM-certified personal trainer and group fitness
instructor at Equilibrium Fitness for Women.

Get In. Sit Down. Shut Up and Hold On.

 

By Julian J. Varela

Not long ago I spotted a man standing in line at Trader Joe’s with a t-shirt that read, “Get In. Sit Down. Shut Up and Hold On.”  Since the phrasing was quite unique I couldn’t help but ask him about it.  "Get in, sit down, shut up, and hold on is the catchphrase of the Bali Slingshot located in Indonesia” he said.  The slingshot is somewhat of an amusement park attraction with a capsule that accommodates up to two people which is lowered and stretched between two towers by gigantic bungee cords. The cords are stretched to capacity and then the capsule is released and catapulted 164 ft. skyward in less than 2 seconds to maximum height before decelerating into a series of bounces and being lowered back down to its launch pad.”  “The t-shirt is right on because there’s nothing you can do except to do as it says; sit down, shut up and hold on, oh, and try not to throw up.” 

Like many things in life one thing can be a metaphor for another and the phrase mentioned above is no different.  And I think “get in, sit down, shut up and hold on” is a perfect metaphor for overcoming each challenge that we may encounter in life.  The thing is, is that we’re all pretty much the same with very slight differences.  Each of us may have different obstacles or even the same obstacles but we react to them in our own unique way.  You may be trying to give up alcohol and there’s nothing more than a nice cold drink after a long hard day at work.  The difficult conversation you’ve been meaning to have with your spouse, co-worker, family or friend is the last thing you want to do.  You may want to quit after the first 5 minutes of your run.  You may be dieting and really want that delicious plate of brownies that your friend pulled out of the oven.  Getting up early for an early morning workout doesn’t sound that fabulous after all.  Perhaps procrastination has gotten the best of you and you can’t seem to sit down and write that term paper you’ve been assigned.  Or maybe you have a list of sales leads you’ve intended to call and haven’t taken the time.  Let’s face it; we are all faced with numerous things on a consistent basis that are difficult or even downright scary.  If you want to get through the scariest part sometimes the best thing to do is to get in, sit down, shut up and hold on.  Be afraid and do what you have to do anyway.  It’s OK to be scared, fearful, anxious, nervous, lazy or ambivalent.  Feelings happen and thank goodness you have them.  Now just recognize them, accept them and hang on till the feelings subside.  Fight through the feelings and do what needs to be done in lieu of them. 

Getting in tune with our feelings, emotions and reactions to obstacles and challenges will certainly help you become more pro-active rather than re-active in almost every situation in life.  So the next time you find yourself in front of a big, hairy, audacious challenge just remember to “Get In. Sit Down. Shut Up and Hold On.”  Oh, and try not to throw up. 

Julian J. Varela holds a Master’s degree in Exercise Science and Health Promotion and is a Certified Strength & Conditioning Specialist.  Julian co-owns Equilibrium Fitness and Equilibrium Fitness for Women.  Contact Julian at Julian@eqclubs.com with questions or comments.  Follow Julian’s blog at julianvarela.blogspot.com.

"Got Motivation?" - By Guest Blogger Natalie Rossier

Got Motivation?

We hear it almost everyday and know that we need to workout, eat a balanced diet and build strength to live longer, healthier lives. However, funny as it may sound, sometimes we need a little extra push more than our health to get to the gym.  We live in one of the 'happiest places on earth,' so why not take advantage of it!  Start hiking, trail running, biking, swimming, try playing beach volleyball or take a walk down Avila's Bob Jones Trail.  Taking advantage of our beautiful scenery and outdoor playground here in SLO is a great motivator to get to the gym.  For myself, working out and staying healthy and in shape is fun.  Why, you may ask? I use these outdoor activities to get my own tushy into a combat class, cycle class, or my own strength workout.  This way, my workouts do not only benefit my body and overall health, they allow me to hike to the top of Madonna Mountain without passing out;)  Getting involved in fun physical activities you enjoy can lead to achieving your ultimate health and fitness goals such as losing weight, running a race, building bone density and gaining control of your future health.  Motivation for your health can be found anytime, anywhere but sometimes you might have to look for it.  I ask you this, what is your motivation?

~Natalie Rossier, ACSM Certified Personal Trainer and your biggest fan