H&W Wednesday...New Year's Resolutions

It's February 1st! How are those New Year's resolutions coming along??? At the work we are booming with memberships as people are trying to lose weight...come Aprilish they will most likely start dropping. This is typical at any fitness center. People lose focus, effort and energy (and maybe even the mula!). If you ask me...they made a Resolution...but NOT a GOAL. I have learned so much about health behavior change and there are different stages of change, which I will talk about sometime. But today, my goal is to help save some of those quickly (or slowly!) dwindling resolutions. So no matter whether your resolution is health or not, it IS behavior change...and setting a "SMART" goal will be of MUCH help! A SMART goal is...

How do your resolutions match up with the smart goal "rules"?? I highly suggest you revamp those resolutions! It will help organize it in your brain and actually give you a PLAN, rather than an IDEA.Just so you have an example, I will give you my current goal!    

Starting Friday, February 3rd, I will do a cardio workout consisting of :

• 5 min warm up on the treadmill
• 5 min of warm up stretching
• 15-20 min on the bike
• 20-25 min on the eliptical
• 5-10 min of stretching and yoga

 for 45-60 minutes every Mon/Wed/Fri at 10AM at the GV fitness center until the end of February. 

Let's pick it apart:

Specific: CARDIO Workout and what it consists of

Measurable: the specific #s 

Attainable: After I make the goal, I should have a feeling of "yeah, I can do that"...for me making it to the end of Feburary makes me feel like it's possible...all about the baby steps :)

Realistic: I chose the days and times I did b/c they are the absolute most convenient times for me. I COULD workout before my 8 am class...unfortunately I know I am not a morning person and it would just not be realistic for me.

Time specific: Start date/ End date and time of workout

I guarentee you putting your resolutions into SMART goals WILL help...and like I said, this can be used for ANYTHING! ...WHAT is your SMART GOAL?????

Always Keep (your) HeART (strong!)....later gators...jennifer :)

Introducing "Health & Wellness Wednesday"!

Welcome! I have decided that the knowledge I have gained over my past college career (so far) is too important not to share! SO, every Wednesday, I am going to do my best to post a blog about Health & Wellness. My degree (Health Promotion- emphasis on fitness) and thus skill/knowledge set is very broad concerning H & W, so there will be much variety! Much of my training is in preventative medicine, but I have also gained much knowledge in disease management (which is one of my favorite parts :) ) I would also encourage any topic requests or specific questions! In turn, I would love to hear your comments! Remember, every one is different, various things work for various people. If you have requests/questions please feel free to leave them in a blog comment post, or facebook me! Of course if you have any questions you would like me to answer to only you, then facebook msg me or email me (jlhartwig29@gmail.com) and I will do my best to get back to you! Hopefully this is something you enjoy and will find helpful! If not, it's my passion, so bear with me :) Thank ya!

Always Keep (your) HeART (strong!) ......Jennifer :)

Christmas Crafting :)

One of the funnest things about starting a family (yes, you can start a family without having kids...haha) is that we get to start our own traditions! One tradition for us is having a picture Christmas card :) Part of it, is the fun of actually being able to send a christmas card....but I just enjoy being able to show how we have changed...meanwhile sending some love to our closest family members. I wanted to be able to display these in my home every year to show how our family has grown and changed! So, I came up with this little diddy...

It says "A Very Merry Hartwig Christmas" On the back of the "hanger/plaque" thing, I have attached a long piece of twine. You can't see the bottom, but I simply knotted it up, this way I just let some of the twine out as I add to it with more cards :)...Also I'm planning to get the mini clips and adding the year on each one!

This was quite simple to make. The background is a fan...of which you can find the directions to make Here! Then I simply decorated the scrapbook paper and glued it on! OOBER simple..and now I have something to display MY family at christmas...not just everyone else's lovely faces, although one of my favorite things is opening up all the christmas card that come in the mail! 

Anyway, thanks for stoppin by! Always keep HeART...and Christmas faces :)