Your Summer Best!
Meet Yenory Garcia, founder of iAmHealthyFit. iAmHealthyFit is a community that supports individuals of all ages in reaching their fitness goals by providing a platform for both men or women to create a healthier lifestyle.
Yenory founded iAmHealthyFit after graduating from college with an addition 25 pounds. With noticeable comments from her family, she committed to a healthier life during her post-graduate year living in Honduras. Though tackling the extra pounds was difficult, Yenory committed to eating healthy and exercising regularly.
Today, Yenory juggles a full-time job, a full-time schedule in graduate school and activity in a number of organizations, including growing her startup team at iAmHealthyFit. She shared with WomenWerk that it took her some time to learn how to manage her schedule and stress which resulted in emotional eating. Her goal is to inspire women to learn that fitness is an ongoing journey, not a destination that ends with quick fixes. Overall, it is important to face your challenges – whether it’s poor eating, a busy schedule that causes you to eat without reviewing your meals, or lack of motivation to exercise – and work to change bad habits with good habits in small increments.
Amid her busy schedule, she runs marathons regularly and places meditation and exercise among her top priorities daily. She shared her top three tips with WomenWerk and we hope you’ll take time to practice them to get ready for summer!
Top Three Fitness Tips from Yenory Garcia of iAmHealthyFit.com:
Put down the wine and juice and replace it with good ol’ H2O.
"Think of water as a nutrient your body needs that is present in liquids, plain water, and foods. All of these are essential daily to replace the large amounts of water lost each day," says Joan Koelemay, RD, dietitian for the Beverage Institute in the fitness industry. Water helps not only for glowing and clearer skin, but it also ensures that your kidneys, gull bladder and muscles have enough to process waste. Water is often the best way to hydrate in high summer temperatures and has no harmful sugars like most other beverages. Experts recommend you drink at least 8 glasses, 100 ounces, of water each day. Yenory recommends you drink water when you wake up and have it with every meal. For low-cost and flavorful water, you can use orange slices, lemons, cucumbers or other fruit in every glass!
Exercise for at least 30 minutes a day.
Exercise is a necessary evil – it not only cuts down fat but improves muscle flexibility and boosts your immune system. Although one might think 30 minutes is a lot of time, in reality it isn’t. 30-minutes is one episode of your favorite show or one podcast of your favorite speaker – you can spend the 30-minutes doing low- or high-intensity activities like a quick walk while catching up with friends or a jog in your favorite park. You do not have to join a gym and sign up for a zumba class if you cannot afford it, there is tons of information like the New York City ShapeUp program to support you for free.
Yenory shared that she first started exercising by going on casual walks around her neighborhood. After some time, she felt she needed a challenge and started doing aerobics classes then long-distance jogs. The great thing about exercising is that the more you do it, the more your body releases endorphins which improve your mood.
Turn everything off and get some rest! Although many people only associate weight loss with proper nutrition and exercise, rest is another component that it is equally important. Stress and lack of sleep will alter not only your mood but also your eating habits. Research shows that lower amounts of sleep increases the secretion of cortisol, a hormone that regulates appetite. As a result, individuals who lose sleep may continue to feel hungry despite adequate food intake. With more food and calories going into your body, you will gain weight.
In addition, sleep loss may interfere with the body's ability to metabolize carbohydrates which leads to high levels of blood sugar. While some women avoid carbs all-together, Yenory recommends keeping a balanced diet with all which includes whole-grain foods in order to maintain proper nutrient intake. A good way to get some proper rest is to stay away from your cell phone and other mobile devises at a set time every night.
We hope you’ve enjoyed these tips – remember: drink water first, exercise to look and feel your best, and be sure to get plenty of rest!
To read more about my story and receive fitness tips, recipes and workouts please visit my website www.iAmHealthyFit.Com Follow Yenory’s team on:
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