Discipline, hard work, and patience play a vital role in achieving individual fitness goals. The right exercises and a proper diet can help you stay fit, increase strength, reduce those aches and pains, and prevent injuries.

The newbie enters through the door, wearing jogging pants, an old t-shirt, hair pulled back in a pony tail, clutching the bottle of water they were told they should bring. She glances up from the ground and is smacked in the face by a visual cacophony of motley crue individuals:

When you are in your 20s, 30s, perhaps even 40s, and are of reasonable health, you can go several weeks, even months without exercise and still be able to tag along with your “fit” friends. Fast forward into the 40s for some people, 50s for most, and 60s for almost everyone and this carefree attitude towards fitness puts you in poor shape, if not bad shape, potentially resulting in an inability to enjoy life.  Once we hit 50, if we go a week without movement our bodies are very aware.

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A big portion of a stretch class is being able to relax. One could even say that there is a meditative aspect within the class, intended to allow you to get in tune with your body. The ability to lengthen one part of the body while keeping everything else relaxed is a skill that must be developed and the more you can get into your own zone in a stretch class, the more beneficial it becomes. For this reason, the amount of instruction and talking in a stretch class is limited. Too many reminders and corrections will become a distraction, perhaps even an irritation, leading to less focus and more tension in areas that we don’t want. So, it is best to go into a stretch class prepared.  The next time you come to a stretch class, or simply during the stretch portion of the regular class, remind yourself of the following things:

Two years ago I did The Food Lover's Cleanse, from Bon Appetit magazine. The cleanse was a two-week meal plan created by Bon Appetit dieticians and launched every January. I discovered this cleanse on their website in the nick-of-time because 2016 was the last year they offered it. You could follow the plan at no charge, which is perhaps why it stopped, to give your health a kickstart for the New Year. The cleanse promised to be delicious, to result in a safe amount of weight loss, and to leave the body feeling nourished and cleansed of all the post-holiday treats. Did it live up to its promise?

We're in the heart of Autumn and Winter is knocking on our door. We're layering up to combat the cold, replacing our salads with soup, and for some of us, we might be replacing our gym shoes with slippers. This is when we need to stop and say "No thank you, Winter! I'm going to stay healthy all year round!" As with many things in life, easier said than done.

Super easy open-faced sandwich, that's healthy and can be eaten for breakfast or lunch.

Atkins diet, Paleo diet, Ketogenic diet, Military diet, fasting, grapefruit diet, etc. etc. etc. The list is as endless as are their claims.  Very persuasive, healthy, and fit individuals appear on YouTube, Facebook, TV and magazines preaching their latest and greatest diet and insist that in order to better yourself and improve your lifestyle, you need to adopt this diet. On a certain level they're right.

It is recommended that for optimum health the body should engage in cardiovascular activity five times a week (60 minutes moderate activity each time), flexibility training five times as well (30 minutes at a time) and resistance training three times a week (45 minutes each).