Today’s guest is an interactive health/medical copywriter, news reporter and blogger. She is devoted to advocating for women and promoting the benefits of integrative and complementary medicine.  Please welcome a woman on a fantastic journey,  Liz Scherer!

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In a rut lately with your workout? Feeling a bit blue for no good reason other than the weather is changing? Has the Dow got you down? Wondering how to fill that time you’ve been spending outdoors with a great indoor routine? I certainly have been. And I think that I found the answer! It’s called Nia (“nee-uh,” neuromuscular integrative action).

Nia is described as “movement medicine for the body and soul.” Based on nine movement forms culled from martial, dance and healing arts, NIA simultaneously addresses the body, mind and spirit and puts them on an equal playing field through music, movement and self- expression.

Let me tell you: the Nia class I took kicked my ass! I sweated like I used to sweat when I ran five miles a day. My heart rate was raised and remained so throughout the 45 minutes of the active movement portion (note that Nia also incorporates about 10 to 15 minutes of floor work to slow the heart and cool down). I felt invigorated and happy! In a nutshell, Nia helped me find joy again in my workout, in my day and in many respects, in my body.

Health experts have long maintained that large positive behavior changes in diet or levels of physical activity can improve mental health.  In fact, in a study published last year in the Journal of Public Health, increasing physical activity levels by as much as 20 minutes a day and eating at least five portions of fruit or vegetables daily were shown to produce significantly increased feelings of peacefulness and happiness in the 10,419 participants studied.

One thing that I like best about Nia is that for a person like me, who, despite an incredibly active lifestyle, has battled back woes her entire life, movements are personal and individualized. In other words, NIA is based on a core set of movements that can and should be altered based on your own desires and physical limitations. Not surprisingly, the key to Nia is finding and creating a loving relationship with the body, so that the body guides your movement, rather than the other way around.

Mark Twain once wrote: “On with the dance, let joy be unconfined.” Nia is a wonderful way to release your inner joy through fluid, self-expressed dance, movement, and meditation. I’m sure that there are others as well. How do you find joy?

Liz Scherer reinvented herself in the past couple of years to focus mainly on interactive writing. Visit Liz at http://lizschererwriter.com and http://www.flashfree.wordpress.com – Top 100 Women’s Health Blogs!

Time to look at some fantastic posts from the past week, Dr. Hubbard at My Family Doctor in Make Halloween fun, safe and healthy for your children (plus: recipes!)

A follow up….remember our guest post with Mark in Train for Humanity?

Stop over with Pam as she asks: Who are you? Healthy regimens give you an identity.

Please visit Annette, as she shares another chapter during her amazing journey—>Healthy Role Model~~~~ 6 Months Continued. Way to go Annette!

Finally as you Tips to avoid food allergies and still have fun this Halloween…..Thanks again Dr. Hubbard!

Enjoy Halloween, be safe, be smart and of course NEVER, NEVER, NEVER give up on your journey!

Day after day, week after week, month after month do you ever ask yourself why does life offer so much struggling? The challenges and obstacles are relentless, each day your journey might take a confusing turn down a different path. I would compare some recent adventures along my journey as driving up a winding, mountain side road in a dark night with dim headlights, twisting and turning with little clarity! I want to share with you a story (source unknown) that helped me see things a bit more clear:

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..Bobby watched for several hours, as a butterfly struggled to force its body through a tiny opening of a cocoon. When it seemed that it wasn’t making any progress, that it had gotten as far as it could, he decided to help. He took a pair of scissors and carefully snipped off the remaining bit of the cocoon. The butterfly emerged easily, but it had a swollen body and shriveled wings. Bobby continued to watch the butterfly, hoping that, at any moment, the wings would spread, and the swollen body would become normal. The butterfly never took flight.  It needed to struggle and get through that tiny open. The struggle is nature’s way of forcing fluid from its little body into its wings, so that once it emerges from its cocoon, it’s ready for flight.

Lesson learned….our struggles are exactly what we need in our life. If nature allowed us to go through life without any obstacles, it would cripple us. We wouldn’t be as strong as we were intended to be. And we might never fly….

Embrace your struggles, learn and grow as they are necessary steps to a stronger and healthier you!

How about a challenge that works the legs and Butt?

Warm up for a few minutes with jumping jacks and some run in place butt kickers and/or high knees.

Ready? Lets roll—> 3 exercises, 1 minutes each. Repeat the set of three, 4 times!

Squats

1. Stand with feet shoulder-width apart, tighten abs.
2. Slowly lower into a squat sitting back on your heels, keeping chest up and shoulders back. Stay above 90 degrees, keeping knees behind the toes. Rise up slowly and repeat, continue for one minute.

Tip:Put a chair behind you and perform a sit motion, if you can pull up before sitting.

Frog Hops*

1. Stand with your feet shoulder-width apart. Lower into a squat,your back straight and feet on the floor.
2. Raise up your toes and hop forward two times while maintaining your squat position, now backwards two times. Repeat and continue for one minute.
Lunges

1. Stand with your feet shoulder- width apart.
2. Lunge forward with your left leg. Keeping right knee from touching the ground, push back to start.
3. Switch legs and do the same motion. Continue for one minute.

Tip: Inhale down, exhale up.

Stretch afterwards and modify by reducing time if necessary.

Living a healthy lifestyle will only deprive you of poor health, laziness, lack of ambition and fat.