This week’s blog post is a little different than the norm. I want to take this time to introduce myself to the Sweatnet Nashville community. I am very excited to be the newest member of the team, Lead Trainer & the voice behind the newsletters. I am going to tell you about my views on fitness/health. It’s probably not the typical view you may think of when you think of a fitness trainer’s philosophy on fitness and health…
I am Sara Howe. I am a Native Nashvillian. I am an ACE certified group & personal trainer and currently studying to be a certified health coach as well. I also work at Skyline Medical Center as a Certified Occupational Therapy Assistant. For those that may not know, occupational therapy practitioners help people across the lifespan participate in things that they want and need to do through therapeutic use of everyday activities. We help those who have lost their independence, to gain it back. At Skyline, I work with many different patients with varying diagnoses, primarily stroke and trauma. Through this work, I have gathered a deeper understanding of the importance of a healthy lifestyle. So many diseases, illness, chronic health conditions, etc could be potentially prevented if people were educated about healthy living and understood the importance of taking care of themselves through diet and lifestyle. (Diet meaning ‘the food that you eat’ not diet meaning ‘restriction’) Your diet and lifestyle is the foundation of your life. If you think about building a house, you have to lay the foundation and then build all of the things in between before you get to the roof. Think about that with diet and lifestyle; diet and lifestyle are the foundation, then all of the things in between are the events/choices/details of your life, then the roof is ultimately your health all together and the trajectory of your life. If you have a solid foundation, chances are you won’t have as many leaks and cracks; as in you most likely won’t have as many illness/diseases/chronic health conditions.
So how does all of this add up to views on fitness/health?
I have a fairly simple view on it.
Move your body and enjoy how you chose to move
Fill your body with nutritious foods but don’t deprive yourself of things that you love
Your mind is powerful & you can’t ignore the things going on in your head. Mental health is just as important as physical health
Don’t wait until everything is “wrong” before you try to take care of yourself, preventative health is important
Get to the root cause; don’t just put band-aids on things
Be grateful for what you have while working for the things you want
Be kind & don’t judge others
Smile, laugh, life doesn’t have to be so serious
I look forward to meeting you all at the first Monday Movement with Sara on Monday September 21st at 5:45 P.M. Please reach out to me if you have any questions/comments/concerns. You can follow me on IG at @saratuckerhowe