Falling For Footwear

Perhaps that could also read, "Footwear For Falling"....

As you know, one of the reasons it’s important to have proper-fitting athletic shoes is to minimize your chance of injury, especially a fall. Keep in mind, the importance of the proper-fitting shoe extends to everyday shoes, as I realize many of you do not work in athletic shoes like I do.

As mentioned, footwear has a role in minimizing your chance of a fall. There are several other important factors related to foot problems that make walking difficult and make you more susceptible to falling – a medical condition, muscle imbalances, weak stabilizers, and poor bio-mechanics. Just as all feet don’t look the same; neither is how foot problems affect different age populations.

It would be easy to understand that there are over 11 million seniors – one out of every three people age 65 or older – with foot problems. That is twice the rate of the total adult population with foot problems – 43 million Americans or one out of every six adults. It was a shock to learn that the majority of those affected are women, where studies have shown 90% of the females wear shoes that are too small for their feet. (I’m still recovering from that shocking statistic. If the shoes were on sale, and regardless if they were half a size too small or not, they had to buy it!)

Selecting shoes should not be for the latest fashion (a difficult tip to accept), but for the comfort. Foot comfort is essential to maintaining your stability, mobility and safety. Don’t get me wrong, high-heels are great (I’m 5’4” and enjoy the extra height) and I’ve sacrificed comfort for fashion many times. Yet, experience has taught me the price is rarely worth the pain (crushed metatarsals, bruised sole and lower back tightness). I also have had the privilege to work with several people with foot problems to understand the value of comfortable shoes. It is a very hindering problem, not to be taken lightly given our feet play a large role (no matter how small they may be) in how we live our lives actively. When something as small as a blister greatly affects movement in a negative way, you’re opening the door to a possible injury. It may sound absurd, yet it’s possible.

The American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons have developed foot and shoe wear guidelines to help seniors prevent falls. One needs not be a “senior” to benefit from these guidelines, only pre-requisite is to have feet. Also, it is the Holiday Season and more high-heels are bound to hit the “Sale” rack and strike the pavement or dance floor.

Whether you wear heels, dress shoes, boat shoes, casual shoes, mules or Mary Janes, it behooves you to keep this in mind:

• Wear properly fitting, sturdy shoes that provide support. Be sure your shoes have a nonskid sole.

• Have your feet measured every time you purchase shoes. Your shoe size may change.

• Do not wear shoes that have extra-thick soles.

• Shoes with laces are safer than slip-ons, but keep the laces tied. Loose or long laces can cause you to fall. People unable to tie laces can select footwear with Velcro® fasteners.

• Replace slippers that have stretched out of shape and are too loose.

• If you have trouble putting on your shoes, use a long-handled shoehorn.

• Avoid high heels and shoes with smooth, slick soles. If you have a comfortable shoe that has a slippery sole, ask a shoe repair shop to add textured strips to the sole.

• Never walk in your stocking feet.

• Wear slippers with non-slip soles.

• Keep toenails trimmed.

• Women who cannot find athletic shoes that are wide enough for proper fit should shop in the men’s shoe department: shoe manufacturers make men’s shoes wider than women’s shoes.

~Exercise Your Passion For Life!

A Healthy Child Is A Happy Child

Share The Joy - Celebrate The Spirit Of Giving!

Saint Nicholas was a virtuous man who was known for his charity and philanthropic spirit. He lived in the fourth century and is best remembered for leaving bags of gold on the doorsteps of the poor.

Saint Nicholas' Feast Day, December 6th, is observed as a children's holiday in many countries throughout the world and celebrates the human kindness that helps build every community.

As the season of giving approaches, PBP Fitness, is partnering with Volunteer San Diego to help thousands of children around San Diego learn, not only the spirit of kindness, but also, as PBP Fitness believes, the power of self-confidence and self-worth.

Sponsor a Child with PBP Fitness by visiting the link below and making your donation. Through your generosity, on December 6th, 2,700 elementary school children from eight under-served San Diego County schools will realize the legend is true. On this day, the children will arrive at school to find they have all been left backpacks filled with toys and books. The children will also learn about kindness and caring.



Please join me in supporting A Visit From Saint Nicholas, and Volunteer San Diego by sponsoring a child for just $25.

Remember, A HAPPY CHILD IS A HEALTHY CHILD.

PBP FITNESS' HOLIDAY FUNDRAISER TO HELP THE CHILDREN

~Exercise Your Passion For Life!

It Starts At Your Feet - Get The Right Fit

As you may or may not know, in the kinetic-chain of movement in activities such as running or walking, your body's balance and stability begin at your feet. Your feet are the starting points of your body's contact with the environment around you and it communicates to other muscles throughout your body as you move. Proper fitting shoes makes a big difference in your performance as well as avoidance to injury during physical activities such as running, walking, or hiking. For this reason, it is important to have proper-fitting sports shoes.

Follow these specially-designed fitting facts when purchasing a new pair of athletic shoes.

• Try on athletic shoes after a workout or run and at the end of the day. Your feet will be at their largest.

• Wear the same type of sock that you will wear for that sport.

• When the shoe is on your foot, you should be able to freely wiggle all of your toes.

• The shoes should be comfortable as soon as you try them on. There is no break-in period.

• Walk or run a few steps in your shoes. They should be comfortable.

• Always relace the shoes you are trying on. You should begin at the farthest eyelets and apply even pressure as you a crisscross lacing pattern to the top of the shoe.

• There should be a firm grip of the shoe to your heel. Your heel should not slip as you walk or run.

If you participate in a sport three or more times a week, you need a sports specific shoe. It can be hard to choose from the many different types of athletic shoes available. There are differences in design and variations in material and weight. These differences have been developed to protect the areas of the feet that encounter the most stress in a particular athletic activity.

Athletic shoes are grouped into categories. Among those are running, training, and walking -these include shoes for hiking, jogging, and exercise walking. Look for a good walking shoe to have a comfortable soft upper, good shock absorption, smooth tread, and a rocker sole design that encourages the natural roll of the foot during the walking motion. The features of a good jogging shoe include cushioning, flexibility, control and stability in the heel counter area, lightness, and good traction.

It's the end of the year, be sure to put those new proper-fitting athletic shoes on Santa's List.

~Exercise Your Passion For Life!

It's Monday - Get Motivated!

"It's not who jumps the highest - it's who wants it the most." ~ Buck Williams

Natural ability and hard work will take you a long way toward your goals, that's no secret. Those attributes PLUS a passionate desire will get you there.

Today, you want more in your workout and you will reach a little farther to get it.

~Exercise Your Passion For Life!

Give The Gift Of Inspiration!

PBP FITNESS STORE NOW OPEN

Powered By Passion Fitness has a new line of products available just in time for the Holidays!

It's a fantastic way to share your passion and inspire others to feel and live life!

There are many ways to show you care, yet none greater than helping others find their excitement for health, wellness and LIFE!

VISIT TODAY!

~Exercise Your Passion For Life!

**SPECIAL FEATURED COMMENT**

I wanted to feature this comment that was left in response to the post "Say It With Energy!" as I feel many of you will smile upon reading it as I did. Not only is it rewarding for me to be inspiring someone of great importance, but it keeps me committed to the "work" I do for all I come in contact with, face-to-face or via a Blog.

I encourage your comments and look forward to featuring yours so that others may continue to be inspired to live an active and healthy lifestyle.

"My workout secret? Blogs and Bunnies

I look for motivation anywhere I can seek it. Sometimes it's a magazine, sometimes it's a model and sometimes it's a really cute pair of designer jeans. Call it vain or egotistical, the truth is we all need that extra umph that gets us excited to do something that isn't always the most fun. I've always said that if my sister, Michelle, lived in Oahu that I would be the skinniest girl on the block.

She's always given me that extra umph of motivation when she visits, and somehow a simple walk usually turns into an exhausting hike or leg-numbing lunge workout. I complain, but all things considered, I really appreciate it. Imagine if I had her around all the time, I could half kill myself every day!

This is why I was so thrilled to read her new blogs. It's like instant motivation to get up and move. The day it launched I went out for a short walk and extended it by another couple miles. It felt great! (even though I was still too lazy to run)

I rewarded myself that evening by watching one of my guilty pleasures, the Playboy Show on the E! Network. The show is actually witty, funny and interesting-Hef's girlfriends are smarter than you would think. This week's episode was about the girls making an exercise video with their favorite workouts. I found this as additional motivation and began doing one-legged standing dead lifts during commercials...I knew Michelle would be so proud!

For those of you that Michelle trains, consider yourselves fortunate. All I've got are blogs and bunnies!"

Posted by Yvette

~Exercise Your Passion For Life!

Thanksgiving Can Be Healthy For You

It’s November, and this time of year is notorious for overindulgent holiday eating. However, the holidays need not be an excuse to overindulge in unhealthy foods and to stop exercising. In the general matters of your health, those two factors combined place you at risk for weight gain, diabetes and heart disease. That does not have to be the case this Thanksgiving or Holiday Season.

This time of year is especially important to maintaining a consistent workout routine. Having company need not be an excuse to dismiss yourself from your already in place exercise program. Your health is as important to you as paying the bills, brushing your teeth, getting to work, having your nails manicured and going to the grocery store. Why not invite your company to partake in a walk, run or workout with you? If they decline, stick to the appointment you made with yourself to stay healthy, only decrease the time (notice I did not say “skip your workout”) if they are unable to fill their time with something else. Maintaining your workout routine will allow you to sustain your energy during their visit, keep your pre-holiday body intact and steal some “quiet time” away from your company.

The exercises you performed have now freed you to enjoy the foods on the dinner table. Not just any dinner table either, but the Thanksgiving Feast Table. On this table lies temptation that will stress the elastic of your sweatpants at your ankles given the chance. There is turkey, cranberries, sweet potatoes, pumpkin and pecans to name a few. However, you don’t necessarily need to feel guilty over consuming this feast. Not only because you held your commitment to exercise until this day, but also because these foods have healthy nutrient value on their own. You just need to know what to put on your plate and how much.

*Turkey can be one of the leanest meats. For example, a 3-ounce serving of skinless, white turkey meat has 25 grams of fat and less than a gram of saturated fat. Turkey is also a good source of an amino acid called arginine, which your body uses to make new protein and nitric oxide, the substance that relaxes and opens the arteries. Keep in mind, not all turkey is equal. Dark meat has more saturated fat than white meat. You should also avoid the skin, which is loaded with unhealthy fats.

Cranberries are another healthy Thanksgiving food. They are packed with dozens of different antioxidants. It is best if you can make your own cranberry sauce from whole cranberries. It will be tastier and contain less sugar than canned cranberry sauce.

You are also likely to have sweet potatoes, which are an excellent source of fiber, potassium, beta carotene and vitamins A and C.

Even your dessert can offer health benefits. Pumpkin is low in fat and calories (before it is made into a pie of course) and is a good source of potassium and other vitamins. Pecans are a good source of heart-healthy fats.

While many of these traditional Thanksgiving foods are healthy on their own, they lose that health advantage when they are mixed with cream, sugar, butter and eggs.

Do not forget to take that post-meal walk.

*Source: Harvard Health Publications

~Exercise Your Passion For Life!

You Couldn’t Help It – The Food Was So Good!

Another dinner party or night out with friends and you managed to eat fried appetizers, enormous entrees and dip into the towering chocolate fountain (let’s not forget the several uninhibiting glasses of cocktails.) Perhaps it wasn’t for just one evening, but let’s hypothetically say it was for 2 weeks. Relax! So you lived life and enjoyed your time eating and drinking. We all have slipped from the healthy eating habits we’ve adopted. I slip every time I go on a road-trip or on vacation. (I have witnesses. I don't pack egg whites and oatmeal "to go", not anymore.) The key to getting back on track is to take it in strides. There is no useful energy that accompanies guilt. Just take a deep breath and get back on track. You paved the healthy eating road before, so it’s an easy one to find.

You will bounce back after the “binge”. So long as you realize all the effort and hard work you put into eating right before that binge (or the trip to the island of “All You Can Eat” for 2 weeks) was not in vain. No one got overweight from one night’s slip-up, or from a 2 week hiatus if they choose to get back onboard their healthy ways. The trouble and messy pounds come when the binge remains and becomes the next “new way of life”. That is what we want to stop dead in its tracks.

Instead of declaring that you blew your healthy eating ways because you stuffed your body with high-calorie delicacies and devil water, accept it as a moment you chose to enjoy life and pick up on the next meal. Yes, the NEXT meal. Do not wait for “tomorrow”. Any more “living it up” with meals you partake in between now and tomorrow, will make it more difficult to get back on track.

Remember, the delicacies of life will always be there (you can still enjoy them in small portions not related to festive quantities)! But if you choose to keep indulging, your waistline and the health diseases that come along with it will always be there as well. I promise, if you continue with your healthy eating habits, you will be able to enjoy the next dinner party or vacation meals with less guilt post-binge because you will know you have the power to get your healthy eating ways back on track!

~Exercise Your Passion For Life!

Working Through The Pain

After the “An Appreciation For Pain” entry, I must clarify the pain I am referring to are the “sacrifices” one must make to achieve the results he/she is after and the blissful pain of muscle fatigue. It is painful to your comfort zone to make a sacrifice- it should not be painful to your body to exercise.

The “No Pain, No Gain” mantra that generally accompanies a workout program is true- to a point. That point comes with common sense. It is not only sadistic to “work through the pain” if it is a pain that continues all throughout the exercise and worse yet, throughout the day when you are not exercising. It is foolish and asking for trouble.

Exercise done right should never be painful (except for the slight burn of lactic acid in the muscle that is natural when pushing the muscle to fatigue). Pain is an indication that something is not right in your body and your body’s way of telling you to “Stop!” Pain is there to protect you. Therefore, if you are experiencing pain (such as sharpness, pinching, twinges, or radiating pain) that is not normal muscle fatigue, STOP what you are doing.

If you are working with a professional fitness trainer, communicate with them immediately that the exercise is painful. I strongly encourage my clients to let me know if an exercise is painful. Whether I believe it’s an exercise they can “work through the pain” with or not, I respect they know what their bodies are saying and the exercise is over for the day. If there’s a pattern to the pain reoccurring, I will advise that a professional medical opinion be attained. Most often, there is a reason for the reoccurrence and a medical professional can diagnose that reason and prescribe proper care.

While an intense workout may create slight discomfort, it should never get to the point where you are in actual physical pain.

So yes, appreciate the pain of sacrifice to attain the results you desire. Also appreciate the “warning” pain that your body gives you. When you heed that warning pain, you allow your body to move for you another day. Remember, you only get one body in this lifetime.

~Exercise Your Passion For Life!

An Appreciation For Pain

This is why I'm passionate about what I do...

This morning, after returning to San Diego from just a week's trip to Kaua'i, a client stopped me at the end of an energetic and exhausting session and made certain to inform me how missed I was as their personal fitness trainer. I was told that though he was disciplined and motivated to do his cardio and abdominal exercises in my absence, it was not the same as "having me there with my whip". (It was said in the most sincere way for the appreciation of his pain.)

That resounded in the homes of every client I have visited since my return. A week's absence and my presence missed...nothing like living the life in which others look forward to me issuing out some pain, because I can bring it if they want it.

Yes, rewards come with pain...for some, it is the painful 5:30am wake-up, the painful scheduled commitment to an activity they never enjoyed before me, the painful act of missing calls or the news/TV for an hour, the painful acceptance of getting stuck in traffic, the painful interruption in the momentum of the day's errands/business dealings, or the painful (yet joyous) time performing acrobatics on a BOSU as the legs are screaming, "Why do you keep having her come back? This burns! Oh, because you need me to be strong for you."

As they have discovered, for life to be actively enjoyed, there is the price of some pain. They know this and that is why they appreciate my role in their lives. They are successful in living the healthy and active lifestyle I promote because they appreciate the value of pain. I am passionate about what I do because I know that the pain is enriching their lives in a positive way. They can accept the pains they suffer because they want to live another day.

Can you accept your "pain"? If your desire to be healthy is strong enough, you certainly can!

~Exercise Your Passion For Life!

Say It With Energy!

“Today has only begun! Great things are happening!”

Each day should be treated with that sort of energy and zest for living, no matter what the circumstances. It is this positive energy and thought that will fuel your way of moving throughout your day. It’s not an easy thought to feed your conscious when things are moving in a direction in which you wish it was not going…..yet, this is the VERY TIME in which you must say this with energy (and a smile) out-loud at least 5 times in a row.

A critical time to exclaim this, I’ve experienced, is the moment you wake up. (I often wake up at 5:00am and I am not what my family would call a “morning-person”. However, by the time I walk through the doors of someone’s home, one would want to ask, “Is it Happy Hour?!”) When said in this moment, it will set the tone for your day. This is also a great way to recharge your batteries if you have been awake for several hours now and your day is draining you. If your day is going along fantastically, saying this to yourself now will only bring more power to your words. Try it…I dare you.

I further “dare you” to say to yourself, “I love the way my body feels after a workout! I love that I am able to move!”

I believe in the power of passion (thus why it is called Powered By Passion Fitness). So when these words are said out-loud with the same energy you would claim “I just won the lottery!” or “Sell, sell, sell!! Cha-Ching!” or “Santa is coming to town!”…..you just primed the pumps for a great workout and true enjoyment for your ability to function in life. Exercise no longer feels like a chore or an “I have to”, but an “I want and need to” activity. Entering a workout with this mind-set, regardless of other life commitments that may be wrestling your body for energy, will change the ways in which your body reacts to the activities. Your body will either cooperate with you (become stronger, leaner, more agile, flexible and stable) or it will fight you just as the time clock does when you need “just one more day” (diabetes, high-blood pressure, low-back pain, heart attack, or death).

The mind is very powerful, as is what you say. Successful people know “What you think, you become.” I’m certain you are very successful in areas you are proud of in your life. Most times, that success came because you told yourself whatever you had to make that “thing” (graduate from school, win in competition, build a business, raise a family) happen.

Success in exercise…or rather, living a healthy and active lifestyle, is no different. Step one to attaining that success is saying out-loud and proclaiming…

“I love the way my body feels after a workout! I love that I am able to move!”

~Exercise Your Passsion For Life!

Who Is Michelle Mackler?

Michelle Mackler is the founder and private in-home fitness trainer of Powered By Passion (PBP) Personalized Fitness.

She was born in Hawai'i, yet has spent most of her years in San Diego, California. A lifetime of competition in sports has taught her the importance of discipline, commitment, perseverance and patience. These traits have helped Michelle become a highly respected and successful personal trainer in the exclusive community of Rancho Santa Fe and Fairbanks Ranch.

She is a graduate of San Diego State University with a B.S. in Exercise Science/Kinesiology and teachings in Pre-Physical Therapy. She is an IDEA member and a nationally certified personal trainer since 2000. She knows the value and importance of staying educated within the continuously changing industry of healthy and fitness. For this reason, she is constantly furthering her education through annual fitness conferences and seminars.

She discovered her passion for preventative health after suffering a neck fracture. Since then, she has made it her goal to motivate and educate people to make their body stronger and healthier to meet the demands of daily life activities.

Michelle is genuine in her concern for her clients' health and this awareness shows in every session she conducts.

~Exercise Your Passion For Life!