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“My sun sets to rise again.” — Robert Browning

It’s spring! What a great time to get refreshed, start new positive habits in your life and set new goals. Spring is known as the time of rebirth, spring cleaning and shedding off the old. I do think that spring cleaning your home, de-cluttering and cleansing can be very healing and motivational to many people. If you’ve felt blocked in the past, not reaching your goals, clearing your space can be a good start to generating new energy and to try again toward your goals.

Maybe it’s time for a new perspective. Have you felt depressed or unfocused? Maybe find a new group to join like a writer’s group, singles activities, or a church, maybe find a new activity to participate in like group painting, sports, or running.

If food and nutrition is your focus, do a spring cleaning of your kitchen. Get rid of old canned goods (if they aren’t expired, donate them to the food shelf), remove any junk food. Try some new foods, rearrange your kitchen to make it more convenient to prepare and pack healthy food. If you have others in your house that aren’t on board with the cleanout, designate a drawer and a cupboard for the foods that you don’t want to have at eye level. Studies have shown the foods you see will be the foods you crave and eat. http://www.cnn.com/2007/HEALTH/diet.fitness/09/21/kd.mindless.eating/index.html

Fill your refrigerator and countertops with healthy snacks and fresh vegetables. Have your healthy proteins made and easy to grab when you are heading out the door, or that you can quickly prepare into dinner. Have items like baby carrots, snap peas, hummus, apples, boiled eggs, and other easy to grab refreshments. Keep you cup for tea where you can see it, keep your water glass or bottle handy.

Same with fitness. What can you clear out of your life? What fresh, new habit can you add? What are you really dedicated to achieve? Why is it important to you? What’s kept you from it previously? Maybe you need to focus on just one thing. Again, what do you REALLY want and what are you willing to give up to have it or to achieve your goal? Try to set a realistic, time-framed, specific goal (I will lose 1 pound a week for the next 12 weeks). Write it down, note why it’s important to you (I want to get off blood pressure medication, I want to look fabulous in my bikini, I want to have energy to play outside with my kids, etc.). What are you willing to give up to have it? (happy hour, more than one “free meal” a week, a tv program that you watch that you could instead be at the gym, and so on). You can do it! Use this spring as your time for renewal and take the steps to move toward your goal. We cannot start over, but we can begin now, and make a new ending.”—Zig Ziglar

I’m always here to help, so please email me if there is something I can give you some information on or a question you would like me to write about. [email protected]

Liz Jones is the Wellness Coordinator for the City of Mesquite and a wellness professional in Rockwall, Mesquite, Wylie and surrounding areas. She is a writer, certified yoga instructor, personal trainer and wellness coach. She holds a Master’s Degree in Organizational Leadership and Strategic Management, with a graduate certificate in Ethics and Leadership. Her undergraduate studies included communication, business, writing, art, fitness, and dance. Liz Jones can be reached at: [email protected].

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Success means having the courage, the determination, and the will to become the person you believe you were meant to be –George Sheehan

Keeping a success journal is a great way to track progress with a goal. Whether you have decided to eat clean, boost your fitness program, increase your stress management, or focus on saving money or improving your credit, tracking will help you to see what you have accomplished.

There are many tools that you can use, from a good old notebook to write down your physical activity and exercise, or apps for your phone like MyFitnessPal.com or FitBit apps to track your food intake. Journaling can help you track as well. As a writer, this is my preferred method of tracking most things, although I use apps as well for fitness and occasionally to see where I am at with my daily nutrition. Journaling can help you feel like you are not having to necessarily “log” everything you do, and can help you to really hash out what is going on to look at to see where you can make changes.

If you find that you are struggling with clean eating, having a journal to reflect back on can help you identify the barriers that are getting in your way. Was it a stressful day? Did you have meetings and forgot to pack your lunch? Maybe stress management is your goal. A journal can help you see how you feel after a yoga class, or taking a walk, or sitting in your yard meditating or watching the birds fly by. What was effective? What seemed to be happening on the days when you felt your best or felt like you lost sight of your goal.

Tracking your success can also help you focus on the positives. Instead of thinking about what you didn’t do, where you dropped a ball, write down the things you did accomplish and focus on building on that. Staying positive and not letting your mind get stuck in negativity is one way to really help you keep moving in the right direction. If you only focus on failures, such as “accidentally” eating a doughnut when you are trying to eat clean, or not getting your cardio done for the week if exercise is your goal, you will be less likely to want to continue on the path toward where you want to be. Focus on the good nutrition that you got each day, did you get your vegetables in? Did you drink enough water? Write down your workouts and how you felt afterwards. With all things, building on strengths and success will beget more success.

Some good tools that I have found:
FitBit app (and wearing a FitBit)
MyFitnessPal.com
MapMyRun.com
CreditKarm.com (for improving and tracking credit rating), as well as monitoring my savings accounts bi-weekly.
Blank journals
BodyforLife.com has great fitness and nutrition logs that you can print off.

Let me know what questions you have about wellness. I can be reached at [email protected].

Liz Jones is the Wellness Coordinator for the City of Mesquite and a wellness professional in Rockwall, Mesquite, Wylie and surrounding areas. She is a writer, certified yoga instructor, personal trainer and wellness coach. She holds a Master’s Degree in Organizational Leadership and Strategic Management, with a graduate certificate in Ethics and Leadership. Her undergraduate studies included communication, business, writing, art, fitness, and dance. Liz Jones can be reached at: [email protected].

“The best and safest thing is to keep a balance in your life, acknowledge the great powers around us and in us. If you can do that, and live that way, you are really a wise man.” –Euripides

Balance… what does it mean to you? Is true balance in life possible? There are different types of balance; physical balance, emotional balance, life balance. While the above quote makes a good point of keeping balance in your life being beneficial, is it something that is truly achievable?

I don’t know that finding complete balance in life, at all times, really is possible. I think we need to strive for finding a good mix of how much energy we put into our work, our families, ourselves and our emotions. However, I don’t believe that we can have an equal balance in all areas, at least not if we expect to EXCEL in what we do. It is difficult to commit to eight hours of excellent work, eight hours of quality family time, and eight hours of healthy sleep every day. I think we need to look at life balance more from an averages standpoint. If I want to excel in my work, quite often I need to throw myself into it more than 8 hours a day or more than 40 hours per week. To get a book written, I need to work on it consistently and somewhat obsessively. When my focus is on work, clients and writing, it is probable that the time I spend with my family or getting good sleep will be less than its equal part.

To be a good partner and parent, I need to make sure that I make my family a priority and sometimes that means they will take precedence over my work. If someone in our family gets sick or has special needs, other things need to fall to the wayside. What does it mean to be an excellent parent or partner anyway? When I was raising my son, who is now turning 25, I worked full-time and often worked more than one job, I also went to college full-time for most of his childhood, and I raised him as a single parent. I don’t think there was a lot of balance in my life during all those years, but had I not thrown myself into what I was doing I never would have been able to build a home for us to live in or gotten the degrees I needed to pursue work that fulfilled me and supported my family. Now my family consists of a being part of a two-parent family and having a teenaged bonus daughter and an adult son. I’m done with all of my degrees and although I am still constantly working on continuing education and additional certifications, school is not a full-time priority in my life.

I think we need to make sure we are getting enough of everything, but not necessarily seeking balance. Life is much more of an ebb and flow of priorities and focus. As Franklin Covey says, schedule your priorities. It’s OK if those priorities change over time. What I am saying is maybe we need to shift our focus to acceptance and not feeling guilty when we don’t have complete balance, per se, and instead focus on shining in what is important to us.

Let me know what you’d like to read about. If you have questions about fitness, wellness or empowerment, please send me an email: [email protected].

Liz Jones is the Wellness Coordinator for the City of Mesquite and a wellness professional in Rockwall, Mesquite, Wylie and surrounding areas. She is a writer, certified yoga instructor, personal trainer and wellness coach. She holds a Master’s Degree in Organizational Leadership and Strategic Management, with a graduate certificate in Ethics and Leadership. Her undergraduate studies included communication, business, writing, art, fitness, and dance. Liz Jones can be reached at: [email protected].

“What other people think of me is none of my business. One of the highest places you can get to is being independent of the good opinions of other people.” – Dr. Wayne Dyer

Wayne Dyer is one of my favorite authors and above is one of my favorite quotes from him. It’s also a hard one to always practice. In some ways, we all seek approval and acceptance from others. We are pack animals and we want our pack to think highly of us. Recognition and awards feel good to receive. High performance evaluations can give us a sense of accomplishment. But the opposite is also true. When someone in your group talks behind your back (or, more likely, posts something vague on Facebook), or we get overlooked for a promotion, or our children let us know how we failed them as a parent (apparently having to drink soy milk growing up was traumatic for some folks- ahem), it can sting to the core.

There are times when I start to take things personally, like a client falling off the wagon, or people making negative comments in a feedback survey on a presentation. Or when a family member does something that seems unappreciative or hurtful. It is especially difficult advice to keep in mind when peoples’ comments or actions affect outcomes in our lives, such as losing a potential customer because of a bad review on Yelp or a friend becoming alienated due to something they heard through the grapevine. We can all come up with examples of things that have caused damage to us by someone’s negative words.

This is the hardest lesson, in my mind, of learning yoga- living in the moment. Here are some tips that I have for staying there. I will tell you I slip up with this every day, so be forgiving of yourself and that is tip #1.

• Be gentle with yourself.
• Try to focus on what you have done that is positive. Even if one person, or a group of people, doesn’t agree with you, it doesn’t discount all that you bring to the world. Yes, this applies to politicians too.
• Seek out those who support you. Although we shouldn’t need their approval, it does help to feel supported and loved. If you are feeling a great deal of stress in a situation, it may be a good idea to seek out counseling to talk about how you are feeling.
• Start your day off right. It can be hard if you are in your head a lot and have unrestful sleep if you went to bed worrying about work or something in your life that is upsetting you. Still try to say some positive statements to yourself, either in your head or out loud, before your feet hit the floor.
• Troubleshoot. If work is upsetting you, think of how you can improve the situation during the day- not when you should be resting and recharging. Are the naysayers in your circle of friends? Think about people that you feel good when you are around them and spend your time and energy where it serves you best.
• Focus on the present and what you are doing, but envision a bright future.
• Don’t be the person that brings trouble to others. Don’t gossip, it’s toxic. If you have a criticism to someone at work, make a positive suggestion to them, don’t complain about them to someone else. Keep your vague, nasty Facebook posts to a minimum, especially regarding other people. Focus on your goals, not other people’s perceived failings.

Liz Jones is the Wellness Coordinator for the City of Mesquite and a wellness professional in Rockwall, Mesquite, Wylie and surrounding areas. She is a writer, certified yoga instructor, personal trainer and wellness coach. She holds a Master’s Degree in Organizational Leadership and Strategic Management, with a graduate certificate in Ethics and Leadership. Her undergraduate studies included communication, business, writing, art, fitness, and dance. Liz Jones can be reached at: [email protected].

Excuses are the nails used to build a house of failure. ~Don Wilder and Bill Rechin

January is over and many people will have started to let their New Year’s Resolutions fall to the wayside. It’s time to assess where you are at and to ditch the excuses if you aren’t hitting your goals. The timing of February’s Heart Health month is just right, for everyone that is on the edge of the wagon, just about to fall off. It’s a good time to remember your “why.” Why do you want to be healthy? Is it to be around for your kids of grandkids? Is it so you can live a better quality of life? Is it because you have a life’s mission that you want to carry out to make the world a better place? Or maybe it’s just that you want to look good and fit into your pants. That’s a good “why” too.
Don’t be one of the 92% of people who fail at their resolution. Although I am not a big advocate for resolutions per se, I prefer ongoing goal setting, but I do think if you did bother to set a goal that started January 1, you should do your best to stick with it. Your heart will thank you in the long run. Remember your “why” and keep sticking with your wellness plan.
Tips from Liz Jones
Steps to lasting change:
• Step 1: Wellness Assessment & Goal Setting
• Step 2: Planning/Nutrition
• Step 3: Confidence Building & Social Support
• Step 4: Stress Management
• Step 5: Barrier Busting
• Step 6: Relapse Prevention

Being physically active, not smoking, eating clean and drinking water, getting quality sleep, and having a positive outlook are some of the most important things you can do.
• PRIORITIZE
– Don’t try to change everything at once
– Is your EXCUSE more important than your goal?
• PROCESS
– Break it down
• PERSONAL
– What’s your “why?”

In honor of heart health month, here are some great tips and facts from the American Heart Association:
FAST- Stroke Warning signs
– Face Drooping Does one side of the face droop or is it numb? Ask the person to smile.

– Arm Weakness Is one arm weak or numb? Ask the person to raise both arms. Does one arm drift downward?

– Speech Difficulty Is speech slurred, are they unable to speak, or are they hard to understand? Ask the person to repeat a simple sentence, like “the sky is blue.” Is the sentence repeated correctly?

– Time to call 9-1-1 If the person shows any of these symptoms, even if the symptoms go away, call 9-1-1 and get them to the hospital immediately.

Heart Attack warning signs
• Most heart attacks involve discomfort in the center of the chest that lasts more than a few minutes, or that goes away and comes back. It can feel like uncomfortable pressure, squeezing, fullness or pain.
• Symptoms can include pain or discomfort in one or both arms, the back, neck, jaw or stomach.
• Shortness of breath with or without chest discomfort.
• May include breaking out in a cold sweat, nausea or lightheadedness.

Link to 60 second CPR lesson: http://www.heart.org/HEARTORG/CPRAndECC/HandsOnlyCPR/Hands-Only-CPR_UCM_440559_SubHomePage.jsp

Liz Jones is the Wellness Coordinator for the City of Mesquite and a wellness professional in Rockwall, Mesquite, Wylie and surrounding areas. She is a writer, certified yoga instructor, personal trainer and wellness coach. She holds a Master’s Degree in Organizational Leadership and Strategic Management, with a graduate certificate in Ethics and Leadership. Her undergraduate studies included communication, business, writing, art, fitness, and dance. Liz Jones can be reached at: [email protected].

Disclaimer: Please remember if you have any medical condition such as high or low blood pressure, diabetes, high cholesterol, or any other condition or are dealing with depression, to discuss with your doctor what nutrition you need and other interventions that they recommend This information is not intended as medical advice.
Many people struggle with the holidays, whether it is with emotions, weight management, lack of sleep, poor nutrition, financial struggles or other ailments.
Nutrition to boost your immune system and mood:
• Vitamin C; has antioxidants that help keep you from getting run down or sick.
• Potassium: eating foods rich in potassium helps to keep your blood pressure under control (if you have low blood pressure or kidney issues, check with your doctor or dietician as to how much potassium you should consume each day- for some people too much can be dangerous, but most of us are not getting enough).
• Vitamin D: helps to prevent depression.
• Zinc: nuts (in moderation) are a great addition to your holidays, they are rich in zinc which is loaded with antioxidants, as well as protein to keep you satiated before heading to the potluck. There are also studies that link eating 2 small handfuls of cashews to staving off depression (they also have tryptophan in them which is believed to produce serotonin).
• This is a great time of year to add a Nutriblast smoothie to your daily routine (only veggies, fruit and water and maybe some nuts or flax for a boost). Focus on fruits such as blueberries, apples, berries. Toss in a little kale and spinach. Ask Santa for a Bullet or Ninja blender if you don’t have one and then USE IT.
Herbs and spices to add to your diet:
• Cinnamon: maintains blood pressure, blunts blood sugar spikes when you eat it with sweets.
• Ginger: fights cold symptoms, helps with digestion.
• Turmeric: anti-inflammatory. May help with pain management.
Get enough sleep: Make sure you are getting enough sleep. Chronic sleep deprivation is known to increase your stress and cortisol levels in your body and can greatly impact your mood. Lack of sleep can also increase your risk for having a car accident, puts you at risk for many diseases and can amplify symptoms.
Don’t wait until New Year’s to make healthy choices: Your body doesn’t know the date. Start now. Don’t let your current fitness and nutrition plan fall to the wayside. Stay healthy. The holidays are not a good time to make major transformations, but a time to try to maintain health and fitness. Keep going to the gym, eat clean.
Make “better” bad choices when you go to parties: Eat the veggie tray and turkey slices at parties rather than the cheese plate and meatballs. If you must have the cheese/meatball/cookie/fudge or whatever treat you tell yourself you just can’t live without, have a taste of it, not a 2,000 calorie serving.
Keep emotional and financial struggle at bay: The best advice I can give to anyone who may be struggling is to keep focused on the positive, albeit hard to do sometimes. Find things to keep you busy, like networking events and parties, without over-burdening yourself and becoming harried. Don’t over spend. Nobody needs a WII or and IPhone more than you need to pay your bills. Stay healthy. The holidays are not a good time to make major transformations, but a time to try to maintain health and fitness. Keep going to the gym, eat clean. Make “better” bad choices when you go to parties.

Follow me on Facebook for tips throughout the holidays: https://www.facebook.com/liz.jones.1441810
Liz Jones is a wellness professional in Rockwall, Mesquite, Wylie and surrounding areas. She is a writer, certified yoga instructor, personal trainer and wellness coach. Liz Jones can be reached at: [email protected].

“What you’re supposed to do when you don’t like a thing is change it. If you can’t change it, change the way you think about it. Don’t complain.”
― Maya Angelou, Wouldn’t Take Nothing for My Journey Now
Today I decided to go on a complaint purge and excuse exorcism. I am true believer that what we focus on is what we manifest in our lives to some point and I’ve learned from many different sources that living a life of gratitude and positivity really is the key to our happiness. Yet… I still complain. When I come home from work and see that there dirty dishes left on a counter, garbage sitting on the kitchen table, or dirty socks on the floor, my complaint detector goes off, my eyes squint into my “resentment evil eye” and a loud sigh probably comes out of my mouth- or something else comes out. Sometimes my aggravated complaining has been an effective tool for getting things done, like when the house needed to be painted but most of the time, it just frustrates me and gets me nowhere.
We all have things that we can complain about if we focus on them, especially the things that are repeat offenders (see above complaints). Although I am a wellness professional and I know doing things like creating a gratitude journal or list is one way to help focus on the blessings in life and to keep the mind from obsessing in a pity party and finding excuses for not reaching our goals or not being happy, even I couldn’t just go “cold turkey.” Anyone that knows me will tell you I have no poker face, I can’t pretend nice, I ooze annoyance if I get agitated. So I decided for day one, I would not complain for week starting with no complaints….out loud. I started a list of things that annoyed me when I walked in the door once I got home. And yes, all of the usual daily culprits were present. But although I was still annoyed, I didn’t say anything, just wrote it on my “if I was going to complain” list. That seemed to help. My next step is to focus on the things that I am grateful for. Then to be accountable for things I can do something about and to accept the things that I have no control over.
Chronic complaining is the reason many of us don’t reach goals that we set for ourselves in fitness, at work, in relationships. “I’m too tired to workout,” “I’m too busy,” “All men are (fill in the blank),” “my scanner didn’t work so I couldn’t complete my project (this happened today too, but I found an alternative scanner).” Fill in your complaints here that lead to excuses as to why you haven’t reached your goals.
Take a few minute and have a complaint purge. Write down all the things that bug you. Now write down all the excuses you have for not reaching your goals (bad genes, kids take up too much time, unsupportive spouse, work too much, etc.). Get it all out… let the excuse exorcism come forth! Tomorrow take that list and decide what you have control over and what you can take accountability for. Really own it, empower yourself to make changes. The day after that, begin the gratitude list. Try it for a week and if you find complaints keep coming back up, go back to step one. Let me know how it goes and what results you get!

Liz Jones is the Wellness Coordinator for the City of Mesquite and a wellness professional in Rockwall, Mesquite, Wylie and surrounding areas. She is a writer, certified yoga instructor, personal trainer and wellness coach. She holds a Master’s Degree in Organizational Leadership and Strategic Management, with a graduate certificate in Ethics and Leadership. Her undergraduate studies included communication, business, writing, art, fitness, and dance. Liz Jones can be reached at: [email protected].

The New Year is a time for new beginnings!
As we approach the New Year, I’d first like to say, I am not an advocate of “New Year’s Resolutions.” I believe that leaving something as just a resolution is the reason many people fail in their efforts by February or March of each year. Although making a resolution is a small part of an effective goal plan. To set your resolve means to express your opinion or determining a course of action. That is the first step in reaching your goals. Decide what it is you want to change or accomplish, but there are many more steps that you may need to take to reach the destination that you are going for.
First- set that goal and set your intention set measurable goals, set a timeline.
Then spend some time thinking about WHY you want to accomplish that goal. If weight loss is your goal (or to stop smoking, drink less, love more, stress relief, financial responsibility, etc.), write down your reasons for changing. Is it to look better, feel better, better health, to see your children or grandchildren grow up, to improve your relationship, to increase your joy, to be better able to care for others. Why is making the change important to you?
Next- let go of the past. Forgiveness of self and others, moving forward to the new you and your new life are the only way to leave old patterns in the dust. Whether it is a pattern of always driving through McDonalds, dating the “wrong” people, wallowing in self-pity, chronic poverty or living paycheck to paycheck- stop telling yourself that is your story. Envision what you want your life to look like, not what you don’t want. Let go of resentment and fear. Our own minds and the stories we tell ourselves are what hold us back, more so than our situation and certainly more than anyone else.
Think about how you will overcome barriers. Realize struggle is part of the journey. If achieving all of your goals was easy, everyone would be rich, fit, and madly in love. Realize all the accomplishments you have made in the past. You have achieved things, you have overcome things. There is no reason that you can’t have everything you desire if it’s what is best for you and what you are meant to have.
Wishing you peace, love, strength and health in the New Year.
Follow me on Facebook for tips: https://www.facebook.com/liz.jones.1441810

Liz Jones is the Wellness Coordinator for the City of Mesquite a wellness professional in Rockwall, Mesquite, Wylie and surrounding areas. She is a writer, certified yoga instructor, personal trainer and wellness coach. She holds a Master’s Degree in Organizational Leadership and Strategic Management, with a graduate certificate in Ethics and Leadership. Her undergraduate studies included communication, business, writing, art, fitness, and dance. Liz Jones can be reached at: [email protected].

Currently I’m in the process of reading a few different books, the well-known book by Napoleon Hill, “Think and Grow Rich,” the latest and greatest in the yoga world, Baron Baptiste’s, “40 Days to Personal Transformation,” as well as “Buddha’s Brain- the practical neuroscience of happiness, love and wisdom,” by Richard Hanson, PH. D. and Richard Mendius, MD, and “SPARK- the Revolutionary New Science of Exercise and the Brain,” by John J. Ratey, MD. It’s probably clear what the common thread is with all of these books… the brain and its connection to exercise and transformation.
The first step in any kind of program, or any life change, is getting your thoughts in order. Knowing where you want to go and what your objectives are, fully believing that you can do it and that you can achieve your goals. Then, there is the evidence that to keep your mind healthy, you need to exercise and maintain physical activity. Keep your body healthy to keep your mind healthy. Keep your mind healthy to keep your body healthy. It seems that it is a continuum, a circle that can bring you closer and closer to your aspirations. However, transformation is always about the process, the journey, with multiple destinations. So, how do you get your mind in line with your ambitions? What do you do if in the back of your mind, you don’t have faith in yourself, or don’t feel motivated?
Here are some tips to get your thoughts aligned with what you really want:
• Identify your reason for wanting to make the change. If you really don’t have the desire to change, it will be very difficult to find the motivation to hit your target. Do you want to look better more than you want to eat Doritos? Do you want to have more energy to be able to be there for your family more than you want to sit on the couch for six hours? Do you want to live a quality life more than you want to take that next puff?
• Make priorities and make time to do the necessary things. I tend to be a procrastinator on things that I don’t really want to do or that are not important to me (like unpacking, transferring things from an old purse to a new one, putting clothes away), so I need to make the important things a priority (work, time at home, exercise, writing) and then set aside times to get the less important or less fun tasks, such as unpacking for 30 minutes.
• Really take the time to envision your ideal life. Meditation, prayer, guided imagery, all can help you visualize what you want to achieve. Creating things like vision boards and even written lists of what you want to accomplish, that you look at on a regular basis, can help you get your mind focused.
• Get support. Whether it is a family member, a friend, or a personal trainer or wellness coach, find someone to be accountable to, as well as someone that can be supportive and encouraging. If your family or friends seem like they aren’t ready to accept the changes that you want to make, you may want to find other support systems. Things like your employer’s Employee Assistant Program, or counseling services, or even online support that is offered by many insurance companies can be a resource to you. If you are struggling with issues such as anxiety, depression or addiction to alcohol, drugs, food or anything else, seek out help to work through the barriers that you are facing so that you can move past them and get where you want to be.

Liz Jones is a wellness professional in Rockwall, Mesquite, Wylie and surrounding areas. She is a writer, certified yoga instructor, personal trainer and wellness coach. She holds a Master’s Degree in Organizational Leadership and Strategic Management, with a graduate certificate in Ethics and Leadership. Her undergraduate studies included communication, business, writing, art, fitness, and dance. Liz Jones can be reached at: [email protected].

Everyone knows that healthcare is changing. That is not news anymore… It’s time now to stop complaining about it and start taking ownership in it. Most people, even the “experts,” don’t fully understand all that the changes entail or what the outcomes will be long-term. What I think we all can understand is that, as a nation, healthcare costs are phenomenal. Hopefully you are still with me and haven’t gone off on a political tirade about whose fault it is. Stay with me…

What we do need to acknowledge is our own part in the solution to this. Some of the reasons health care is costing us so much is because people are not taking ownership of their own health, preventative care is by far the BEST way to avoid disease and to slow down the deterioration of the body. Staying healthy now, rather than trying to get your health back later, is something we can take charge of for ourselves and our families. I was at a presentation this morning in Dallas and liked the phrase that he used, that we need to present this to people as “slowing disease production.”

Right now, numbers show that over 80% of the male adult population in the United States is overweight or obese. Evidence is also starting to show that, more important than weight, is the circumference of your waist.
A high waist circumference and too much abdominal fat puts you at high risk for type 2 diabetes, high blood pressure, high cholesterol, and heart disease. It means you need to lose weight.
By measuring your waist circumference, doctors can track your body composition before, during, and after your weight loss efforts.

A high-risk waist circumference is:
• A man with waist measurement over 40 inches (102 cm).
• A woman with waist measurement over 35 inches (88 cm).
*Source WebMD.com

It’s clear that there is a problem when 80% of our population is overweight, undernourished and inactive. Although “reality shows” about how to survive in the woods, obstacle courses such as “American Ninja Warrior”, and shows such as “Extreme Weight Loss” and “Dancing with the Stars” are becoming more and more popular, the people who need to be participating in activity the most, may very well be the people who are on the couch watching the show, as well as before and after the show (admittedly I’m loving the “American Ninja Warrior” and “Extreme Weight Loss” programs as well, when I have a chance to catch them on TV). What will you do today to help our nation bring the cost of health care down? What can you do to stop being a victim of your body and start being the steward of it?

Liz Jones is a wellness professional in Rockwall, Wylie, Mesquite, and surrounding areas. She is a writer, certified yoga instructor, personal trainer and wellness coach. She holds a Master’s Degree in Organizational Leadership and Strategic Management, with a graduate certificate in Ethics and Leadership. Her undergraduate studies included communication, business, writing, art, fitness, and dance. Liz Jones can be reached at: [email protected].