Where do we go from here...

I entered college at the young age of 18, the way most people do. At first I believed it was the place for me, lots of people to meet and places to learn about. I soon discovered that my lack of knowledge in the human body would be an emotional rollercoaster ride for the next 10 years of my life...

High School was awesome for me. Not because of the people, not the teachers, not even the environment... (1/2 mile from the ocean..and something I never took advantage of!!) It was the sports and my need for competitive action. I love sports and playing them on a competitive level. I never imagined what life would be like outside of organized sports in high school, because I did not give it much thought. Unfortunately, nobody ever told me about the essential needs to adapting an exercise routine in my daily lifestyle so that I would stay in shape as I slowly drifted away from the connection I had built with sports.

I spent the majority of my life in organized sports and was a skinny rail of a kid. Once I got to college I ate, drank and gained 20 pounds and over the last 10 years, 20 more. I sought personal training to get me out of the ditch I had put myself in, as I was watching my thighs spread further and further out every time I sat down. Yuk! All I could think about was the parents of a very good friend of mine growing up. When we sold newspapers together, his parents would visit, to buy us a hot chocolate. Whenever they sat down at the bench their thighs were super large and whenever I saw them my thoughts were that I would never let that happen to me. It was happening though, so I started to go to the gym and see what I could do.

The gym was such a tough thing to figure out. There was the ever-so famous, boring, treadmill run, which I could never grow to like. Then the machines..ahh the machines! For those who like machines, good for you, but my body responds well to real challenges so free weights were to my liking. It was now just a matter of how to operate properly with free weights.

At college, the only time I went into the free weight room was to get a locker key. It truly was a mans sport at my school, like walking into man town. I was not very comfortable with the thought of being a part of this, and it wasn't until 2 years later when I graduated that I found the fun in lifting weights. "Body Pump" an awesome weight lifting class designed to help you strengthen your muscles and enjoy the beauty of a good challenge. It was Body Pump in Naples Florida that drove me to love free weights. It wasn't too long after that that I started thinking that personal training would be a great position for me.

my Work Out:

4 sets of 15 walking planks

6 sets of 18 leg lifts

10 sets of 6 tricep dips

5 sets of 10 squats on med ball

hit the bag 10 minutes

Hope you all find your niche in exercise one day,

Your friend in health ministry,

Sarah A. Servant

I love Christmas..

Christmas is such a great holiday. No offense to anyone out there who doesn't celebrate Christmas in the same, happy times to you too.

Last night was dinner with family and friends. We went to an amazing new restaurant the opened up in Norwell call "the Fours." It was very comfortable and the food was delicious. I'm being more health conscious when picking the proper meal in a restaurant. My choice was the arugula salad with filet and toasted pine nuts.

A better way to eat for a more healthy option would be to eat clean. Eating clean, things like fruits, vegetables, nuts, berries and proteins. My favorite things to eat in following these rules are honey coated cashews with sesame seeds. You are allowed to have a little bit of honey in my rule book. If you want to know more about eating clean, I would check out a book called the "Paleo Diet" which essentially incorporates eating food the way people did before processed, perserved and pesticied things came into play. All of these "P" words cause poor digestion and many terrible diseases. Our health has declined significantly over the last 20 years, and more people are theorizing that lack of proper nutrition could be the cause. (I believe it is)

The reason I believe nutrition is the cause is because I take supplements and essential oils. The supplements help me be free from a horrible disease called "asthma" which I felt imprisoned by my whole life. When I stop taking the supplements, my misery returns. I also take essential oils to help with healing. I have avoided 5 colds and beat the swine flu in 2 days from these remedies. Nothing is more amazing to me than how the stuff God put on this earth to grow, is used to heal us. The stuff man made, well that's a whole other topic of discussion...

Exercise and nutrition go together. We all need to eat healthy and exercise regularly. As a personal trainer, you would think we all follow the rules 100%. I'm one to be honest, the truth of the matter is that when you grow up with bad habits, they die hard. I love pizza, icecream, sweets and especially man made carbs. With a clean diet, I am really understanding how much I love these things. I crave them, and my mouth salivates over something to calm the crave. People say that this too passes, however, I find it extremely challenging to cleanse my body of the things it shouldn't have and rely on the foods it should.

I'm big on rewards based on merit. If you have eaten well 6 days a week, then on the 7th day you should be allowed to eat something that you are really wanting to have. As long as you moderate on your reward, I believe that this method is a solid nutrition routine. I also like to tag an exercise amount on how much I eat. If I want to eat a slice of pizza, then I have to complete 40 push ups for every slice. This way I'm either motivated for the punishment, or deterred by it.

This week is going to be completely busy. I'm so excited for Christmas and looking forward to a mini vacation as well.

my Work out for today:

12 sets of 5 push ups
15 sets of 8 burpees
3 sets of 20 jump squats/20 jump lunges
jump rope 2 sets 2 minutes
lunge 10 yards/bear crawl back 10x

Body weight exercises are a great thing to attempt daily. You don't need equipment, and there are no excuses for getting it done.

Your friend in health,

Sarah A. Servant

Tis' this season

Today is another wonderful blessed day...

It's been a little different schedule today, taking pictures at Calvary Chapel Academy. I haven't had a picture day in a very long time, maybe 10 years plus. It was quite a humbling experience, and this time you see the digital image immediately after. You can chose to take a new one if you like. I opted for a new picture, the lady originally had me tilt my head down a little in the first round. Turns out the double chin action, which I know we all have when angled improperly in photos.

I chose the second picture, no double chins for me.

This holiday past, Thanksgiving, was a good time. I hope everyone was surrounded by friends and loved ones as I was. I made the most delicious pie I have ever eaten. It was a strawberry-cranberry pie with my mom's homemade pie crust, scrumptous! I know I am a personal trainer and all, but I am a realist as well. The majority of the time that I spend eating, it's usually eggs, meat, fruits, veggies, nuts and berries..but on Thanksgiving, pies, turkey and stuffing. Yes I did say 'pies' I ate two pieces.

Working out has become a grateful addiction to me. Lately push ups is an every day thing. If you do them properly, you will experience a very challenging full body workout. I had an old friend we used to call 'scuba Steve' compete with me 6 years ago in a daily push up contest. At that time I had no idea that one day I would become a personal trainer. I ended up quitting because I just couldn't keep up with scuba. He was up to 200 push ups a day and it was so obvious because his entire physique had changed. He was becoming more lean, his upper body had formed the shape of a professional swimmer, and he was losing the old beer gut that he retained over the summer's endeavors.

I ran into scuba Steve about a year ago. I asked him if he was still diligently pushing up every day. He told me that he had to give it up due to he hurt his shoulder. He was a little bummed out about it, but was completing 500 to 700 push ups a day and just wore out his muscles. I learned in school that there is an important part to training the body that must be followed, that is active rest. If you overtrain your muscles, you will likely hurt yourself, and have to start over. In injured times, we all must realize that when returning to the exercise you will not be able to pick up where you left off. It most cases it only takes 48 hours to lose strength, work out until you are fatiqued, but not in pain.

As a trainer, I follow the safety approach to training. I have helped people with chronic knee pain walk again pain free, people with back problems wake up without back pain, and people with shoulder pain recover with a stronger shoulder than before. There is something to working to your level of ability to build up strength and eventually become pain free, and it is super important to know and understand the proper form.

I personally have suffered from knee, back and shoulder pain due to various ridiculous activites. Last year I crashed over the handle bars of my full suspension mountain bike. My really good friend Jonny dukes witnessed the whole thing. It was a bad crash that split open my elbow and tore a muscle in my shoulder. Today, if I stop working out for an extended period of time, my shoulder feels pain.

Two years ago I broke my leg and tore my miniscus snowboarding. After surgery recovery, If I didn't keep my quads strong, I felt the pain in my knee. On a rainy low barometric pressure day I can't avoid the pain, however, if I keep my body strong I never feel the effects. The back is just bad due to posture, my postural muscles are off course so I am constantly readjusting myself and keeping the push ups going so I don't wake up crippled. Staying strong is the key to my survival to keep the pain away. Enough said, getting old takes a toll on your body, however, I know I will be stronger when I get to my 40's then the way I was in my 20's. Looking forward to it.

-Sarah A. Servant