Author: lizjones10

Men….. I live with one, I raised one, I am the only girl in the family with my brothers, and I work with a lot of men. I have personal trained men of all ages and abilities. In some ways, more and more, men struggle with the same issues that women do when it comes to their wellness. Body image concerns, food addiction, depression, lack of physical activity and exercise. But men also have their own unique challenges. Although as time goes on and society evolves and it is more the norm for men and women to have equal and similar roles in their family, many men still feel the pressure to always be strong and stoic, to be the protector and provider for their tribe. Because of this, some men have trouble asking for help and seeking out coaching for weight management or nutritional counseling.

It is also less likely to see men in many fitness classes that are offered, although that is changing more and more with a wider variety of classes being offered. Many men are moving toward practices such as yoga or attending group trainings for high intensity workouts. Chefs such as Rocco Dispirito http://www.roccodispirito.com/ (“Eat This, Not That,” and “The Pound a Day Diet,”) and Chef Jeff http://www.familystylewithchefjeff.com/ (Family Style), help to bring men’s healthy cooking to the forefront. Programs like the Engine 2 Challenge, created by an Austin Firefighter, Rip Esselstyne are becoming increasingly popular among men. http://engine2diet.com/
Recently I surveyed men about what some of the barriers were that they were facing to reaching their wellness goals. Money and support are common factors, but predominately what most men stated that had a moderate to extreme impact as a barrier was time. I think everyone can relate to that, from the most fit and health-conscious person, to someone who battles to get out of bed each day. Time can be a huge obstacle for many people.

Here are some tips on how to overcome the time barrier:
• We all have the same amount of time, what we do with it is where we vary. As Franklin Covey said, “Schedule your priorities, don’t prioritize your schedule.” Put your workouts and food prep time on your calendar. Make it a priority.

• Seek out help. Having a support system, whether it is a coach or trainer, a gym partner, your spouse, helps to create a sense of obligation and commitment.

• Do it early in the morning. Even 20 minutes in the morning gets your day started right and if you don’t get to the gym later for a full workout, you have at least gotten some exercise in. US News and World Report published benefits to exercising in the morning. http://health.usnews.com/health-news/blogs/eat-run/2013/09/23/6-benefits-to-being-a-morning-exerciser

• Don’t take weekends off from wellness. Make sure at least one of the weekend days is a training day whether you run, go to the gym, practice yoga, or pop in a Jane Fonda video… I won’t tell!

• Also prep food on the weekend. If you work Monday-Friday to prep food for the week so it’s easy to grab for lunch or to make full meals. I bake chicken breasts, boil eggs, prepare steel cut oats, healthy tuna or chicken salad and make sure we are stocked on mixed greens and grab-and-go fruits and vegetables each Sunday (and if I have big plans on Sunday, I do it on Saturday). It makes the rest of my week much easier and although I cook some dinners from scratch, it’s nice to be able to grab some already prepared food, like chicken breasts, to make a 10 minute stir fry for dinner.

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].

One of the biggest perceived challenges people I speak to have to their overall wellness is time. When I surveyed city employees, most people responded that lack of time either had a moderate or severe impact on their health. I can understand that, although each of us has the same amount of time in the day. So what’s the difference in one person’s life that eats clean and trains consistently? I think it comes down to having a plan and managing your time.

I get the same response from people about their eating. They say they don’t have time to pack a lunch or prepare a healthy dinner because of work, running kids around, and other obligations. What you eat is the single most significant thing that will impact your overall health and your gene expression (how the genes you are born with express themselves- such as disease vs. health, weight, shape, lifespan).

Here are some tips that help me manage my time and food prep.
• PLAN, plan, plan. Most people that say they don’t have the time for eating clean, don’t actually have a meal plan. They have a vague idea that they “want to eat healthy,” or “want to lose weight.”
o You need to write out (or print out) what your general meal plan will be so you know ahead of time what you will be eating. If you are able, meeting with a dietician can be a great idea.
o You can also find recipes and meal plan ideas on my website at: www.lizjones.co, or go to the American Diabetes Association website http://www.diabetes.org/mfa-recipes/meal-plans/meal-plans.html, which has an amazing resource for a lot of different meal plans. You don’t have to be diabetic to benefit from their free resource.
o Body for Life, Tosca Reno.com, and the Engine 2 Diet are also books and websites that are among my favorites for meal plan ideas. Your individual meal plan will depend on your own preferences, food sensitivities, goals and resources.

• Cook ahead of time. I usually use Sundays as my food prep day. Most weeks we cook chicken breasts or make shredded chicken in a crockpot that we can use in our recipes throughout the week. We boil a dozen eggs and even peel them and store them in a ziplock bag so they are grab and go either as a quick breakfast or lunch, or to pack in my cooler as I head out for work. We have a large container of mixed greens that we can always throw in a bowl and add to. We have baby carrots, sugar snap peas ready to eat in containers. We keep nuts out on the counter. We always have apples and bananas that are ready to go.

• Shop for health and ease. I keep a running grocery list of anything we need to restock that we use on a regular basis. Keep your list as you get low on items rather than trying to figure out what you need when you have to go to the store or worse yet, as you are walking through the store.

• Have 3-5 favorite meals that you have for dinner that can be your healthy, easy go-to.

• Keep healthy foods in sight. It drives me crazy when I walk around a worksite and see donuts, cupcakes, candy dishes, garbage vending machines. Keep healthy snacks such as fruits, nuts, teas (AND YOUR WATER) all in site at home and work. I even keep the vitamins that I want others to take each day out on the counter so that they are not forgotten.

Feel free to email me at [email protected] with your wellness questions.

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].

I occasionally catch the Dr. Oz show and was watching an episode that they were highlighting “plus sized models.” One model was a size 12 Sports Illustrated model. She looked great, and certainly not what you would think of when referring to “plus sized.” Yes, she’s tall. Yes, she’s curvy. But she is fit and I have no reason to believe that she is not healthy. At 6’ 2”, if she was anything under a size 12, she very likely would have an unhealthy body composition. It’s frustrating to see media or public opinion create the images that young girls and women feel that they have to look a certain way. I am often conflicted with this myself, being a woman, who wants to be attractive and fit, but also being a women’s advocate and believing that healthy is beautiful.

When I was a teenager, I was somewhat underweight and often accused of being anorexic, although I never had eating issues. However, I had no muscle at all. As I got older and my body changed, I gained weight and would have been considered what, by today’s standard, is plus-sized. Today, I am within the BMI and body fat charts as healthy weight, but I carry a lot of muscle, so I sometimes am annoyed with the numbers on the scale. How is any woman ever supposed to NOT feel pressured to be overly perfect?

Lists like Maxim’s “Hot 100” are battled by “The Real Hot 100” list that names young women who have accomplished things in the community and have potential to change the world. Cindy Crawford, Jessica Simpson, and other celebrities have been harassed in the media for showing a belly in pictures that went public. There is nothing wrong with wanting to be fit and beautiful, but when women are denigrated for looking normal, it creates a very toxic culture for young girls to grow up in. They also shouldn’t be shamed for being skinny, but if they do not have healthy eating and exercise habits, there is reason for concern. Healthy should be the goal. Sexy is just a bonus to being healthy.

That doesn’t mean that a woman cannot be slightly over or under “the charts” and still have a healthy body, with good blood work, but the question comes in, “Are they?” That is my concern with things like the Dove campaign that promotes women’s beauty at any size. Yes every ‘body’ can be beautiful, and beauty is about far more than your size, but it is a dangerous line we cross when we encourage women to not worry about it if they are overweight. So what’s the right answer? In my opinion, it’s optimal health. And with that the benefit of looking good will come. It’s about raising our daughters to understand that public opinion does not matter, how you feel and function is what really matters. While we all want to be considered the ideal of beauty, the more that is focused on our outer beauty, the harder it becomes to accept yourself and your humanness. I live with a teenaged girl and see what she goes through with perceived public pressure. I occasionally find myself on days where I feel and look bloated making comments about myself that are not positive, but I try to remember that what I say in front of her will have an influence on how she feels about herself. So I try to focus on being a healthy role model. I eat clean, I go to the gym and workout in the yard. I try to relax once in a while. I’m not perfect and I never will be, but I know that if I lack self-esteem, it will reflect in those around me. So, LOVE yourself as you are right now, don’t feel shame if you are not where you want to be, don’t strive for others’ ideals. However, also LOVE yourself and those you care for enough to strive to be healthy.

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].

“There is nothing more dreadful than the habit of doubt[…].…It is a thorn that irritates and hurts; it is a sword that kills.” –Buddha

As I am writing this article, I’m thinking back to exactly 25 years ago today. Tomorrow is my son Jordan’s 25th birthday. I am filled with joy and am proud of the person that my child has become, but it also fills me with sadness remembering that day in some ways. I was just a kid myself when I had Jordan and I remember when my water broke, being very scared and not having a ride to get to the hospital. I was embarrassed and didn’t know for sure if it was really time to go… so I went to bed. Luckily, I was able to get a ride the next morning, and Jordan was born later that day and I didn’t end up having him at home. However, because of my embarrassment and self-doubt, not wanting to go to the hospital in case it wasn’t really time and looking like a fool, I unknowingly put my baby at risk. My doctor was furious with me when I told her when my water had broken and because of my shame, I didn’t tell her I didn’t have a ride to get there. In hindsight it’s easy to say I should have called an ambulance (or drove myself, because I had drove myself home early that day when I started not feeling well), but at the time I really was filled with uncertainty.

The reason I am sharing this is I want to talk about calling 911 when you have signs of a heart attack. The American Heart Association has launched the “Don’t Die of Doubt” campaign, encouraging folks to call 911 at the first signs of a heart attack. They urge you to trust 911 and explain how your chance for survival is far greater if you call 911. Don’t ignore the symptoms, don’t drive yourself. I understand! A lot of you are like me and are embarrassed. Or you don’t want to spend the money for an ambulance ride. Maybe you just can’t believe it could happen to you, or you are a parent trying to take care of everyone else before you take care of yourself.
If you call 911, they can start treatment right away and greatly increase your likeliness of survival. If they come out and you are fine, you don’t have to accept the ride to a hospital. However, if you do need to be transported, 911 will know which hospital to take you to for care. Every minute counts.

Following is information directly from the American Heart Association, Don’t Die of Doubt campaign.

Know the signs of a heart attack:
• Chest discomfort
• Discomfort in one or both arms, the back, neck, jaw or stomach
• Shortness of breath
• Breaking out in a cold sweat, nausea or lightheadedness

There is no time for doubt with a heart attack. Calling 911 at the first signs of a heart attack could save your life. Reducing time to medical treatment is the primary factor in surviving a heart attack. Calling 911 is the fastest way to get lifesaving treatment.

The EMS team knows what to do. They understand the situation and have the equipment and training to treat your heart attack first.

Reducing time to treatment is the #1 factor in saving lives in heart attack situations and calling 911 is almost always the fast way to get lifesaving treatment.

For more information, go to:
www.DontDieofDoubt.com

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].

“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].