Dragonfly Fitness Nutrition and Yoga
A holistic approach to wellness
Dragonfly Fitness Nutrition and Yoga
A holistic approach to wellness
Some say you should count calories and meticulously measure every bite that goes into your mouth. Others encourage you to just estimate portions, or monitor macro nutrients. And then there are the various “listen to your body” approaches. All of these are forms of what’s known as “food monitoring.” With so much conflicting information out there, how do you know what really works?
First and foremost, “healthy” is not about outward appearance in my opinion. To me, a healthy person has energy, vitality, mobility, and balance. Whether a person’s scale weight or body type plays a part in that can vary widely based on the individual. I believe that your best weight is whatever weight you are when you’re practicing the healthiest lifestyle that you actually enjoy living. That means if you like to exercise five days a week, but you also want to have pizza with your kids on Friday nights, your ideal weight is that where you can do both of those things and feel good about it. Because while being at a healthy weight is important, so is living your life.
The problem is not in having high standards or in working hard. Perfectionism becomes a problem when it causes emotional wear and tear or when it keeps you from succeeding or from being happy. The emotional consequences of perfectionism include fear of making mistakes, stress from the pressure to perform, and self-consciousness from feeling both self-confidence and self-doubt. It can also include tension, frustration, disappointment, sadness, anger or fear of humiliation. These are common experiences for inwardly focused perfectionists.
There’s a lot of confusion about the value of stretching. Should you stretch before a workout? Or afterwards? Or not at all? Well, as with most things in fitness (and life), there’s no one right answer. Let’s talk about the key variables so you can decide when and how to stretch based on your own needs and goals.
Keep in mind that the way your body looks doesn’t necessarily reflect your overall health or wellbeing. Someone with a flat stomach or “washboard abs” isn’t necessarily healthier. It’s the same with scale weight. Someone with good muscle tone and a healthy level of body fat may actually weigh more than someone who appears heavier due to a higher proportion of body fat.
Body balance is so important in our everyday lives, because it represents control. It’s an …
Consistency is one of your most powerful tools. It helps power you through the day-to-day so you can reach your goals. It can also make tougher routines become more automatic, triggering action, which in turn boosts motivation. But only through new challenges do we become stronger and more resilient.
If you haven’t heard the term “oxidative stress” mentioned at least once a day in …
Recently, I participated in a roundtable discussion with three other fitness professionals where we were …
Do you experience anything like this? One day, as you get out of bed and …