Commit to stay fit in Febuary

February can be just as bad as or even worse than Christmas with all the candy and chocolates but it doesn’t have to be. The key to success in any exercise program is finally coming to terms with what you really want out of life. Do you want to keep feeling bad or do you want to finally take charge and make a change for the better. This is never an easy decision to make and trust me I know more than anymore how hard it is. It was many years that I told myself I was too far gone that I could never be able to exercise the way they do in class. Everyone has different fitness needs and everyone starts off at different levels. Once you set your mind to it then you can accomplish anything. Fitness is an ongoing change of life. That’s the main thing anyone has to realize it’s a life changing event. It doesn’t matter your size what matters is what you are able to do. Choosing to change ones diet, and to lose weight is a great plan. However try looking at it a different way. I am making a choice to live longer, healthier and stronger. When we eat all the wrong foods and don’t exercise our bodies tend to react to that. You start getting diabetes, heart disease, even fibromyalgia. Diseases can get better and even reverse themselves. I know from someone that weighed 274 pounds I had diabetes, fibromyalgia, high cholesterol, and arthritis pain among other things. After losing 110 pounds and still going, I have no more pain. In fact my blood work is better than when I was in my twenties, I feel fantastic and know that I have another 60 years to live. My success started with kickboxing. Kickboxing is unlike any exercise program out there. Flowery Branch Kickboxing is different than any aerobic class or gym because everyone is trying to reach goals. When you find a place that supports and encourages you it becomes like a second family. See the one thing I tell everyone is just do it take that first step.  Now it’s time to make that change decide for yourself how you want to feel, you don’t have to settle.  So if you have pain and think you are so out of shape that you could never do something like kickboxing it’s time now to make that change and try it. The decisions we make now effect the future so if you have been thinking about it. There is no better time than right now. Just try!!

You don’t have to be the best, you don’t have to keep up with everyone else you just have to show up and do your best. The same thing goes with what you eat do not go to the extreme and cut out everything all at once. Start slow taking one thing away at a time. Once you do without it for a while then your body stops craving it.

Kristi Green

Flowery Branch Kickboxing

Stress.....

Oh my the word alone can trigger a headache, we have so many possible avenues of stress from job related, to social, to financial. We use he word stress when we feel that we are overloaded, that things or a thing has become way to much. In some terms stress is a difficulty that causes worry or emotional tension, another is the reactions to adverse stimuli, physical or mental. Now we can dig deeper into the effects of stress disorders via biological or psychological  and research for days weeks and years without the definitive one reason or the quick fix. There is no one reaction to stress there is the many different reactions. Some people eat to channel the stress, not a positive way to react but there are not many positive reactions to stress. Another reaction is the one of many physical reactions hives, breaking out (acne). Not to say that  puberty and the changes from kids to teen is not a stress free zone. Acne at that part of life can be said caused from stress, for some it is the stress of body changes and the mental oh my goodness steps in and the child goes what is going on, but that is another avenue of discussion for another day. Stress does not directly cause high blood pressure but the fight or flight that our bodies go through under stress does increase the heart rate and constrict blood vessels. This a temporary reaction to the situation when the stress reaction goes away we go back to normal blood pressure. On the flip side the modern world we live in today can have many stressful events that we are unable to handle with that reaction. Now we have a chronic stress situation and our bodies go into high gear (shall we say) on and off for days or even weeks at a time. Negative reaction to this is the over eating, drinking alcohol, or smoking and that leads to the possibility of high blood pressure, heart disease, and unhealthy weight gain. Martial Arts is a good stress relief option for several reasons, first it is a physical exercise you are moving with all the punching and kicking.Hitting a target  is a great stress relief, to channel all that emotion in one focal point and release is awesome. Secondly there is the mental sides of Martial Arts the discipline to be aware of situations and how to handle them. Along with that focus there is the time to sit and meditate, this is a relaxation moment.

Meditation is a great tool for stress relief' relaxing and letting the worries of the day go. Now a days with the work and family life we need to take a moment for ourselves in a physical activity such as Martial Arts and reap the rewards of a healthier lifestyle. These rewards are for us but also our families, children, and spouses by being around to enjoy the family dynamics.
You sweat  releasing toxins in the body and you are moving which gets the blood flowing to all the parts of you.

.