Alicia Kirschenheiter is an American Council on Exercise Certified Advanced Health & Fitness Expert, Personal Trainer, Fitness Coach, Certified Weight & Lifestyle Management consultant and Certified Wellcoach. Alicia is owner of Evolution Total Wellness Inc. located in New York, providing health and wellness solutions for individuals and businesses.  Alicia is also a published fitness, health and wellness writer for a variety of venues and author of Oscar and Otis – Fat Fighters, a children’s book about healthy lifestyle choices.

TFW Today - October 11, 2011

How the Busy Find the Time
by Alicia Kirschenheiter

The path to wellness starts with conviction.  I have always said and believed this.  Half heartedly going forward into anything never turns out well.   In general, our lack of time to commit to health and wellness usually stems from our lack of commitment to ourselves.  We are never as important as anything else going on around us.  We seem to find time for everything, from work, to shopping, to sports, to kids sports, to Fido’s daycare…but when it come to actually taking care of ourselves, the pot is empty. 

I propose this little proverb that was shared with me, “We cannot continue to fill the cups of others, if we ourselves are empty.”  Think on that a minute.  Basically, how can we continue to serve the needs of all the others and other things that we have deemed so important without taking the same considerations for ourselves? 

Yes guilty.  I am as guilty as the next person of over scheduling.  As are most of my clients.  Basically, while multitasking gets the job done, it is certainly not helping us stay healthy or to feed our souls.  In an effort to keep life balanced, my advice is to schedule the same consideration for yourself as you would schedule time for everything else.  Make yourself the appointment you need to keep.  Truly, once you begin to shift the focus of yourself from last place to first place, the things that you value most in doing will be that much better.  You can begin to approach them with more energy, engagement and less resentment because you have already taken the time for yourself, to take care of yourself.  So, whether scheduling and appoint for gym time, meditation, healthy meal preparation, make it something you enjoy and something that gives back to you throughout the day. 

Be well - Alicia 

TFW Today - July 26, 2011

The Novice Guide to Wellness
by Alicia Kirschenheiter

What exactly is wellness you ask? Well, no pun intended, the word wellness has been thrown about pretty often lately. Wellness seems to be the new fitness. Simply put, wellness is the connection between the body and mind. It is the process of becoming aware of and making choices toward a more successful existence for both your physical and mental wellbeing. If we really want to complicate things we can add in your spiritual health as well. Clear as mud right? 

In my life and in my wellness practice, wellness is simply peace. Peace for my body, peace for my mind and ultimately peace for my spirit. I think that’s simpler than along winded technical explanation. With my clients, I try to make things simple but there are a few key points we focus on:

• State of Body – Wellness for the body is truly a focus on improving and maintaining your machine to its best functioning capacity. I say machine because the truth is that our bodies only really need the proper environment to perform. Our bodies need fuel, rest and activity. We are well created, designed & engineered. We adapt, persevere and outperform our deepest limitations. In general, the pitfalls we sustain to our physical beings are our own creation. Mind made if you will. Stress, over indulgence and self punishment for example are all mind made things that we allow to impact our machines. Our bodies wouldn’t react if our minds didn’t first. Appreciate your physical abilities, whatever they are. Keeping yourself active and physical challenged to new depths will keep your machine in top working condition.

• State of Mind – We are as humans a complex cornucopia of thoughts, knowledge, feelings and emotions. So many things going on at once. Wellness of the mind involves balance. We will never ignore those things that make us human but rather need to recognize them and create a counterbalance of stress relievers and coping mechanisms. My clients focus on moments of positive attitude, gratitude and reflection. Very Zen, I know. Actually, it truly is just a shift from focusing on all the negative things to giving proper accolades to the good in life. As we can take notice in the positive, the negative seems smaller. This becomes rather a chain reaction in the mind. The moments that we take to calm our minds to the state where we can focus on positive practice helps us reset and recharge.

• State of Spirit – Spirit is harder to define. Spirit implies belief. Thing of it is, not everyone believes in something. Most people don’t really even believe in themselves. Spirit for me and my clients, simply, is the combination of the positive energy generated from the practice of wellness of the body and mind. It is the end result of feeling energized and alive. It is a state of emotional uplift and peace.      

Lastly there is the Journey. I left this out earlier on purpose. To understand wellness is to understand the items above but most importantly, it is to understand that wellness and the pursuit of all those things we previously discussed, is a lifelong journey. While there may be a noted beginning as the day you recognize the need for change, there is no end. Wellness is an ever developing, ever changing path but a path very worth stepping on to.

Be Well and Enjoy the journey.