First off – hello everyone, thanks for reading. 🙂 I know my blog has been pretty silent lately. I don’t really know why, I didn’t consciously decide to stop writing but I did. I’m going to try to get back on track and write at least one post a week to ease back into it because I miss sharing with you!

If you think wellness is expensive, try illness.

This week we had a health and wellness screening at work where they took our vitals, tested our cholesterol, recorded our height and weight, and more. I absolutely hate seeing blood but for a discount on health insurance, I obliged and handed my finger over while closing my eyes tight.

Overall my cholesterol was all right,  but I was quite upset when I heard the broken down results. My good cholesterol was very good but my bad cholesterol was quite high.

We did this exact exam last year and my cholesterol was great and there was no need for improvement. I was very reassured and happy about this because high cholesterol runs in my family. A glowing review was unfortunately not the case this year.

Fatty Foods and High Cholesterol

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I’m normally super hard on myself so that I don’t need to tell my goals to others because you better believe I will be holding myself to it. However, there have been a few goals that I just can’t seem to hit, so thought I could use this post to hold myself to it. Because once it’s written in ink (or in a blog post??), there’s no turning back! Let me know in the comments one or two goals that you are striving to do in the next three to five months and let’s hold each other accountable!

Physical and Mental Goals

Goal 1: Do a pull up. I have been wanting to master a pull up for the past two years but keep not doing it. I’m not practicing enough and even feel a little intimidated heading to the pull up bar. Now, one of the other gyms I teach at has equipment to do assisted pull ups, so no more excuses for me!

Tips on mastering a pull up:

• Jess from HellotoFit uses less intimidating equipment and takes it to the playground. She explains how working on your eccentric holds will help eventually get you to a full unassisted pull up. And after – go play at the park 🙂
• Heidi from BuffBunny recommends practicing with assisted pull ups. Try 5 reps with light weight, continue upping the weight until you’re near your weight. Once you can do 5 high weight reps, it’s time to try unassisted.
• Neghar from Girl Gone Strong shares 6 tips to make a pull up more do-able when you are just getting started.

Goal 2: Lose 1-1.5 inches around the waist. I usually don’t have goals in terms of looks when it comes to my fitness. I workout to be healthy, confident in my skin, and mentally disciplined. However, with my wedding coming up, I want to look my very best! The waist is super important to be tight and slim for your own wedding! Who doesn’t want that hourglass curve in their wedding dress? 😉 Find me one person and then we can talk. Here’s my workout for a bride to be that I have been doing a lot in preparation!

Goal 3: Freaking chill. This one is different than the others but a big mental struggle for me. I am on the opposite spectrum of careless and drive myself crazy a lot of the time, making my life less enjoyable and pleasant. Although careless people hugely aggravate me, I think I could add an ounce to myself in order to have a happier mental state. Anyone with me on this?

Other goals to think about doing? Get enough sleep. Wear sunscreen. Drink more water.

What are your goals? List one below and it will motivate you to make it happen once you write it down and send it out there in the world.

Are you more of a steam or sauna room type of lady? Or, do you not really understand the difference between the two? There are pros and cons for both saunas and steam rooms. Overall, both heat rooms are a nice way to relax and it’s mainly about which you prefer – dry or moist heat.

Whether you choose a sauna or steam room, there are therapeutic benefits. When in a heat room, you will feel your mind and body start to relax from the heat in an almost sedative affect. If you have had a particularly hard few months, you may find some emotional relief from a good sweat sesh.

But if you’re looking to lose weight easily…sorry, a heat room won’t do that for you. Don’t trick yourself, this is not an easy lose weight fast option! Sure, if you sweat a lot, you will lose some weight, but it will just be water weight. If you want to lose weight, you have to do it the fair way – good diet and exercise. No shortcuts people! 😉

Dependent on your need, here’s a list for you to determine which will help you feel your best! These are just overall claims on the two, but there really isn’t much scientific evidence to back it up, so don’t live and die by these claims.

Sauna:

• Relaxes your muscles after an intense workout
• Lowers your blood pressure
• Better option if you have conditions that can be irritated with humidity
• Vent to let out humidity and let in fresh air
• Made with wood
• Average temperature of 160 – 200 degrees

Steam Room:

• Overall detoxification of the body
• Clears congestion
• Airtight and very humid
• Made with non-porous materials, like tile or plastic
• Average temperature of 110-120 degrees

Which option do you prefer? I love the process of getting water and pouring them over the stack of rocks and smelling the deliciousness of the wood in the sauna. In a sauna, there is a vent somewhere in the room that lets out the humidity, while a steam room is airtight. And let me tell ya, it gets pretty steamy in there! I typically just go back and forth between the two.