DustieDee

I was asked to write a post for the Island Active Brand on Weight Training Basics for Beginners—check out that post HERE! Active’s promotes an active lifestyle plus kicking back and having a few beers for fun. Now, I enjoy an occasional drink on special occasions, but it’s rare for me to drink anything besides water or diet soda. You can be your own judge, but definitely check out my blog post about Weight Training Basics for Beginners on their page HERE with a total body workout.

You can imagine how much of a pain I was for my doctor*. Getting diagnosed was no easy task (read: What happened to my body?), and I struggled to understand what was happening to my body. Now, I hear all the time how someone visited a doctor’s office several times before the right thyroid tests and treatment plan were received for hypothyroid or hyperthyroid symptoms. There are some clear signs that your body fires off when it isn’t operating 100%, especially when your lifestyle hasn’t changed. Second, you’ll probably get pushback when requesting these thyroid labs because most doctors believe it’s not necessary to test for all of this, but how do you get the full picture with only TSH and T4 tests?

I’ll admit, I’m not the biggest fan of the smith machine, but it’s a great machine, especially when it comes to progressing in strength. I’ve also found the smith machine is useful when you want to work on form and when all the squat racks are being used. For the smith machine leg workout plan, our main target for this workout plan is the legs (quadriceps, hamstrings, glutes, and calves), but the core and back will be engaged too. * Warm-up with two light sets of smith machine Wide Sumo Squats and do 15 – 20 reps, then move into the workout.

Omg, it’s only food, so why does holiday eating scare us so bad, and why do we feel we need to mentally prepare for the big day? Holiday eating shouldn’t scare us, but every year I see the same posts from ‘fitness influencers’ telling people to: Yes, holiday weight gain can happen if you extend your holiday eating and drinking from Thanksgiving to Christmas to even New Year’s without regular exercise and whole foods, but the fear of eating food can cause a lot of stress and possibly a big binge on food later. This one day, holiday, event, is not the one day where you gain ALL THE WEIGHT and LOSE ALL THE MUSCLE; it happens over time after many back-to-back days, weeks, months, and years of overindulging and not exercising.