November 2017 – Athletic Healthy U

Have you used essential oils before? If not, perhaps you’ve noticed that they are becoming more mainstream and widely available. And then you may be wondering “What are essential oils?” and “What’s the big deal with them anyway?”. Read on to learn more.

So first let’s learn about what they are.

Definition:

“A volatile oil, usually having the characteristic odor or flavor of the plant from which it is obtained, used to make perfumes and flavorings.”

What’s the big deal? Here are the 3 reasons why you need to use essential oils.

Aid in altering mood and feelings. For example if you are feeling stressed, use lavender to help you to feel more relaxed. Or if you are feeling low energy, use lemon essential oil to help you to feel more energized, or peppermint to help you to feel more alert.
Promote holistic well being of body, mind, and spirit. Essential oils are a tool than can help to balance and harmonize the physical, mental, and emotional.
Freshen laundry, shoes, and rooms. Mix 10 – 15 drops of essential oils and 1 ounce of water in a spray bottle. Shake and spray! This is a great way to reduce exposure to harmful chemicals which are ingredients in many commercial fresheners.

Feeling inspired? Want to know more? Feel free to get in contact with me, I’d love to share more ways that essential oils can help you to live your best active, healthy, balanced life!

When selecting an essential oil, ensure that it is:

Extracted by steam distillation or cold pressed. These methods maintain the essential oils purest form, without contaminating it with other chemicals such as may occur with solvent extraction methods.
Produced with a seed-to-source standard. This type of standard tracks the quality from the plants all the way to the final product, making sure the oil is pure and safe. The standards typically also take into account ethical and environment considerations.

References:

Dictionary.com

National Association for Holistic Aromatherapy

What are the reasons why you started running? Were they to loose weight? Or to get fit?

While running can help you achieve those goals, it can also produce many other health benefits. Isn’t that great! Read on to find out more.

Here are the 3 benefits of running:

1. Cardiovascular: Probably most commonly known are the cardiovascular benefits of running. Your heart is a muscle, and as such it gets stronger with exercise. Running is a great way to get the blood pumping through the body more efficiently…and it can also lower your resting heart rate.
2. Peace of Mind: Whether you experience it as a runner’s high, getting in the zone, or melting away of stress, there’s no doubt that a long run can be meditative. With regular runs, you may find yourself feeling more focused in doing everyday tasks or getting a better night’s sleep.
3. Slimming: You can put your body in the fat burning zone with long slow runs. Running is a great way to use up excess calories, and when combined with a healthy diet, can help facilitate slimming and weight reduction.
4. [Bonus] Whole body workout: Running works your legs (which are the biggest muscle group in your body) and your abdominal muscles. What a great combination!

What I’ve also found is that running gets me outside in nature, which is a bonus anti-stress buster. Over the years I’ve also been able to combine running with travel…recently I learned that there’s a half-marathon race in Hawaii!

Can you think of other benefits? I’d like to hear your comments!

Month: November 2017

3 Reasons why you need to use essential oils

The 3 benefits of running