Tag: pinnacle wellness

Has It Been One Year Already?

Health | Fitness | Beauty Quest  Year One

Health | Fitness | Beauty Quest
Year One

The month of September marks the Health Fitness Beauty Quest one year anniversary. It is hard to believe so much time has passed. I look back at everything learned over the last 12 months and realize just how much has changed. When I started on this journey, I had no idea where it would take me. My hopes were to discover a healthier and fitter version of myself. As a self-proclaimed “Tomboy Techie”, I also was curious to discover more about the world of beauty.

For those of you who have followed my journey, I give you my heartfelt thanks. Your words of encouragement and support have been invaluable to me. The knowledge that you were cheering me on and holding me accountable have been a large part of my success.

I really do feel fantastic after a year of the Health Fitness Beauty Quest. It has been an incredible year and I am extremely grateful to each one of you. Your tweets, comments, likes and shares online have gone a long way towards keeping me on track. The face-to-face conversations, phone calls, hugs and texts warmed my heart, lifted my spirits and fueled my workouts. I have always felt I was in partnership with you on this journey.

In order to share some of the keys to my success I will be visiting with Pinnacle Wellness, ContourLase Body Institute and Your Wellness Plan. These companies partnered with me to provide services, products and education when I began this journey one year ago.

The archived and ongoing conversation can be found by searching for the #hfbq hashtag on Twitter and Facebook. 

 

 

 

 

Learning to Make Smart Food Choices

Now that I have had my awake lipo procedure, I am paying even more attention to my food choices. Luckily I work with some really knowledgable and savvy folks.

HFBQ NUTRITIONAL HISTORY

You already know I am taking USANA nutritional supplements and am receiving chiropractic care as part of the health portion of my journey. Thanks to advice from the team at Pinnacle Wellness I already knew I could eat “all the fruits and vegetables I want” and simply cut back on things like hamburgers and breakfast tacos. Quick Recap: By simply eating a piece of fruit before a breakfast taco or eating a salad before a hamburger I would increase the food my body needed to properly fuel (fuel-rich) my day and decrease the food that was fuel-poor. Dr. Q and Dr. Ho told me that over time my body would start to crave more of the fuel-rich foods and less of the fuel-poor foods. I wasn’t entirely convinced this would be the case, but listening to my health advisors was all part of the Health Fitness Beauty Quest so I gave their advice a try.

SLIGHT OF HAND

A few weeks into this simple but strategic addition to my diet, I noticed that my hamburger and taco intake had gone down considerably. I wasn’t craving the burgers that were weekly part of my diet. I still had the occasional breakfast taco, but thanks to the fruit I added, I was eating less of them. It was then that I realized I had been tricked! When Dr. Q and Dr. Ho told me not to stop eating my favorite foods but only to add fruits and vegetables in front of those foods they were helping me reset my body into craving fuel-rich foods and diminishing my desire for fuel-poor food. While I certainly wasn’t upset at their “trickery”, I admit I was taken by surprise. I hadn’t realized that the road to a healthier me could be so simple.

GOOD, BETTER AND BEST

Fast forward to my food choices after my awake lipo procedure and I must mention Jan Tilley, MS RD LD and the JTA Wellness team: Sam Lopez, RD and Krista Neugebauer, RD from whom I am gleaning countless healthy food choice knowledge.  Jan is a Registered Dietitian who also happens to be my client. Over the last two months as we have worked together, I have learned a whole lot more about making smart choices when it comes to my nutrition. One tactic that has really stuck with me is their Good, Better and Best approach. They have many, but that one really struck a chord with me. Learn more by subscribing to their newsletter or following them on Facebook, Twitter or Pinterest (I’ll bet you didn’t see that one coming 😉 )

Healthy Meals for Hurried Families CoverOne of the projects I have been working on was to transition Jan’s highly successful hardback cookbook, Healthy Meals for Hurried Families into an ebook available for sale on Amazon. It went live last week and I immediately purchased the book on my iPad Mini through my Kindle app. As I was reading through the recipes, I decided to take the recipes inside the book and start cooking. Sort of a like my own version of blog/movie, Julie and Julia. I guess in this case if would be Jennifer and Jan.

I perused the many options and decided upon the Lemon Spinach Chicken. I have attached the recipe and the photos I took during my cooking. By the way, I loved having the recipe on my iPad Mini. It was so easy to follow the recipe and cooking instructions with it right in front of me.

Stay tuned as I continue on through the book and test out the recipes in the weeks and months to come. My first foray into healthy home cooking was quite the success. I am looking forward to expanding my culinary skills in a new and healthy direction.

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THE MEAL

lemon-spinach chicken

The Recipe

 

Lemon-Spinach Chicken Ingredients

The Ingredients

Floured Chicken frying in the olive oil, butter and lemon sauce

Floured Chicken frying in the olive oil, butter and lemon sauce

Add Mozzarella Cheese and Tomatoes

Add Mozzarella Cheese and Tomatoes

Spinach Completes the Meal

Spinach Completes the Meal

 

 

Health Assessment Part 3: The Bloodwork

In part three of the Health Assessment, Dr. Ho from Pinnacle Wellness draws some blood and explains what I will learn once the results are back from the lab.

 

 

Disclosure: Pinnacle Wellness is providing me with services for the health portion of my Health | Fitness | Beauty Quest. I will share my personal experiences of my weekly visits through audio posts and videos which will be posted on the site as well as on the Health|Fitness|Beauty Quest YouTube channel.

Health: Spine Check and X-rays

In part 2 of the Health Assessment, Dr. Q takes a look at my spine to see it’s current state. During the check, I learn a whole lot about which part of my body is carrying more weight than the other, how carrying a bowling ball is very similar to what my spine has to do with my head and that I may not be as straight or as centered as I thought.

 

 

Disclosure: Pinnacle Wellness is providing me with services for the health portion of my Health | Fitness | Beauty Quest. I will share my personal experiences of my weekly visits through audio posts and videos which will be posted on the site as well as on the Health|Fitness|Beauty Quest YouTube channel.

Health: The Background

After my interview with Dr. Ho and Dr. Q, I scheduled a health assessment at Pinnacle Wellness. I completed a double-sided two page form which was unlike any I had ever filled out at a doctor’s office. I knew right then and there this was no ordinary place. I was even more intrigued to learn more about how the Pinnacle Wellness philosophy would impact my journey.

 

When I sat down with Dr. Q, one of the first things he did during my Health Assessment was ask me questions related to my working habits, physical activity, drinking, eating habits and more. The part  I found rather interesting was when he asked me about the physical health and happiness during my childhood and teen years. There is a method to their system so I invite you to join me in part 1 of a 3 part Health Assessment Series.

 

Interview: Chatting with Dr. Ho and Dr. Q from Pinnacle Wellness

In order to get/be/stay healthy I need to know where I am now on the health scale. So, on the recommendation of my good friend and fellow cycling bud, Penny Muckelroy, I sat down with Dr. Ho and Dr. Q from Pinnacle Wellness. I wanted to find out more about their practice philosophy as well as what someone my age (ugh, can’t believe I just wrote that phrase) should be doing when it comes to leading a healthy life.

Disclosure: Pinnacle Wellness will be providing me with services for the health portion of my Health | Fitness | Beauty Quest. I will share my personal experiences of my weekly visits through videos which will be posted to here on the site as well as on YouTube.