At long last, the Left Coast Fitness Blog - aka Living Fully - is up and running!
I'll use this space to present articles, suggest exercises, provide insight into some of the best (and worst) products and ideas in the realm of fitness and wellness, recommend books, and eventually provide video and podcast examples to help you reach your wellness goals. I welcome your suggestions and comments - let me know what works well for you, what you would like to see more (or less!) of - think of this as a partnership, just as effective personal training itself is a partnership.
I also want to allow this to be a way for you to get answers to questions you may have about wellness, fitness and the like.
With that in mind, for this first post I wanted to start with the concept of wellness; just how is it different from fitness?
I specifically refer to myself as a Wellness Coach and personal trainer to highlight the importance of the broader goal of wellness rather than fitness, which I see as one of its components - . Here's a great definition of wellness: a state of optimal well-being, not simply the absence of illness, but an improved quality of life resulting from enhanced physical, mental, and spiritual health.
Think about folks you likely know who, in the name of fitness, fall prey to one or more of these practices: eating food that brings no pleasure or barely eating at all; "living" in the gym for fear of losing muscle; grinding out hours of cardio or resistance training with little or no progress month after month (if not year after year); dragging themselves through a workout because they know they should, but hard-pressed to express the benefits of all their hard work in positive terms. Looking at these people you might see a "fit" person whose waist is ever so small or whose muscles are ever so large but does that translate into wellness?
These same people who might sing the praises of exercises to enhance their balance are missing out on the practice of balance in their lives! Wellness is a balancing act - bringing together appropriate amounts of exercise, rest, food and drink, with time to reflect, socialize, dream, as well as love and be loved, care for and be cared for, and oh yes, work.
So, while I certainly will write about and research exercises, stretches, body dynamics and such, I will also look at and discuss other issues which affect our wellness, our well-being so greatly - the importance of balance, communication, reducing and/or handling stress, achieving goals - great and small - and dreaming huge, fantastic, mind-blowing, energizing dreams!
To all who happen upon this blog I wish you two things - Be Well and Live Fully .
Most Sincerely,
Zô
