Health, Wellness, and Life!

Last month was not an easy month to endure. There were many good things that happen, but when life hits those negative things can seem to over shadow them. With 3 deaths in a matter of weeks of people who are close to me can be more than I can manage. But I have made the decision that its so much more important to look for the good. Many people do one thing they are thankful for everyday of November and I have done that as well in the past. This year I have been reminded over and over again that I need to consciously find the good. So this month I am going to do just that! For me wellness comes from my mental state. Everything starts with a thought. If I let the negative thoughts live in the front of my mind they start to take over. They over power the good things that bring me joy everyday. I don't want to live in that way. Depression is a real battle! People face it in many different degrees. I know I experience it, but I am recognizing what helps me battle the depression whe...

Sometimes you just need a visit from your best friend! This month has been a crazy one but thankfully God knew we would need a visit at this time when we planned this trip MONTHS ago. We planned this out and it happened to land a time exact time that both of us needed a visit from each other! Okay so this is my best friend Vanessa! She is from Idaho and has never been to the south! So naturally we needed to go get some good southern BBQ! We went to Martin's BBQ and man was it good! We are obsessed with their sauce man that is so good!! We packed a bunch into 8 days! Basically we did a lot of playing outside! First because my son LOVES to be outside, and second because the weather was just so nice that who wanted to stay inside! NOT US! So her sister in law introduced her to a thing called Letterboxing. Okay so you have heard of geocaching and this is similar in a way. So there is a website where you can find them in certain towns. So what is it? Well the...

So its been a rough few weeks. Physically recovering from the half marathon has been easier than I thought it would be. Spiritually I have known what to do in times like these since I was a little girl. Emotionally has been the hardest. But all three of these can be tied together in the healing process. This post is more for understanding how to take care of yourselves in all aspects. Sometimes we have to experience something to really understand the struggle. Physically I knew exactly what to do to recover from the half marathon. I took a few days where I kept moving and stretching my muscles. I iced my knees when needed and I made sure to not aggravate them further. I didn't run, but we did go for walks, and did not let the sore muscles hold me back. Spiritually to help with the passing of my Grandfather and Beloved friend/sister Tina, I did what I have been doing my whole life. I went to church, prayed with all my heart, and read the scriptures. I found knowledge and comfo...

Okay so I mentioned in an earlier post how I wanted to come close to my former half marathon time. Well I thought I was still 19 and hadn't had a baby. Well news flash to me! I am 25 and have a 15 month old and hadn't run since October 2011. My first half marathon was back in October 2011 and the first 8 miles were down Provo Canyon. So killer on your quads but great for time. I came in at 2:15. I thought I could get that time again. I will be prepared this time and I have a new drive to keep running. Well your body is not the same after having a baby. Its still capable of doing that but I need to keep running even during breaks. We are planning on expanding our family, but my goal is to keep a running base through out my next pregnancy (whenever that happens). So the race!! It was actually a really nice day. It was in the 60's the whole run which was nice. We wish it would have been a little cooler because the second half of the race is out in the open and so the sun...

Okay so I know I haven't been around for a couple weeks. There was a lot of family life things going on. So here is the download update. About 2 months ago we knew we would be making a trip out to Utah for a funeral. We were playing the waiting game. My Grandpa has been fighting his forth round of cancer. He was having treatments done and seemed to be responding well. We weren't concerned about it. My mom, brother, and sister were heading to Utah to drop my sister off at college with her car. While they were out there they stayed with my grandparents. My mom saw that my grandpa wasn't doing well. She called my dad and they decided that he would go out there to be able to spend time with him. (It was my dad's father). So after my mom and brother came back my dad went out. He knew his father wasn't going to live much longer. The doctor told them that his body was in a progressive decline. Meaning that it doesn't matter how much food he ate or got up and move...

Okay lets be honest! Who LOVES food?? I DO!!! I love to go out with my husband and get a nice juicy burger from our favorite burger place, Burger Republic! OH! A burger with fresh and fried jalapenos! Oh its awesome! But I also have been trying to lose weight. So how do you manage losing weight without missing out on your favorite food? Well lets take a look at how to manage your calories. Okay so your body need a minimum amount of calories to function. Why? Well if you go below that your body doesn't have enough calories to do even the basic functions breathing, heartbeat, blood flow, etc and this is while your body is at rest. As if you just laid in bed all day how many calories would your body burn.This number of calories is called your Resting Metabolic Rate (RMR).  There is another part to calories. We talked about RMR and now we need to add in Activities of Daily Living (ADL). These calories are an estimate of the calories required to do things like shower, getting dre...

Why did I choose to study Health Science? Why am I training for a marathon? Why did I start using and sharing Plexus? My dream is to have a big family! I come from a family of 8 and my husband comes from a family of 10. Our dream is to have 6-8 kids. But I have this worry in the back of my head that I won't be healthy enough for have those children or that I won't have the energy to keep up with them! I want to have as big of a family that Heavenly Father had planned for me. I know I need to do my part to be able to have those children. My part is taking care of my body and my children. I have started by training for a marathon! My son is right there with me! If I didn't do my part to have any one of the children that Heavenly Father has planned for me I would be devastated! My heart would break. Taking care of your body take a lot. It starts from the inside out.

Confession time. Last week my whole household got sick!! It was awful! Don't worry no details! It started with my son. That was draining by itself. A sick baby is the worst! There is nothing you can do to make it better except cuddles. So we got one run in last week. Tuesday we got a run in. That was the only one... After a few days we decided to just get out and walk a couple miles. So Thursday we went to a local park and walked the 2 mile loop around the lake. It was beautiful. Even though it wasn't a run we got out and got a few miles! The best part about going to these kinds of places to run or just to get out is the nature you can see. We saw a total of 6 deer! I love deer! I always have. When we are on a long run and all of a sudden we see a deer in the middle of the path, it gives me a little boost to keep going. Saturday it was my turn to get sick.... The most important thing during training is to make sure you are listening to your body. Normally you ...

I have had my fair share of injuries.... I have a bad back, I have tendonitis in my knees, also I have metatarsalgia (My calves and hamstrings are unusually tight which makes the ball of my foot hurt). There are probably more I could name, but these are the most prominent. Injuries don't have to put everything on hold. There is a fine line of when you should take a break and when you just need to ease up. The most important thing is to make sure you are listening to your body. For me if the pain just feels like an annoyance, but its not sharp or overwhelming it know its not a dangerous injury. With m tendonitis and metatarsalgia, the most helpful injury prevention strategies are strength training. Strength training targets muscles that are weak and can easily become overwhelmed which can cause them to not keep the joints stable. This is what I need to help me tendonitis. By strengthening my quadriceps, hamstrings, and hip abductors it helps keep my knees strong and hold my knee...

During training you do shorter runs during the week. This week we had to change up our schedule a little bit. Normally Tuesday would be a 3 mile run, but Wednesday morning we were going to help a lady who had just had a baby so we switched the days.  Well last time we had run it was Thursday which was 5 days before...man! It felt like we were starting from the beginning again! But the important thing was, is that we finished our race!  The training schedule is set up so that your body not only gets used to the long distances that are required for a marathon, but that your body learns to fight through tired legs. We all have those days where it seems like our bodies are still asleep, and they just won't move correctly. Well that's how it felt! We walked a lot during our run, but we kept moving! Our pace was slow but we never stopped!  It wasn't our best run at all! But the American College of Sports Medicine (ACSM) guidelines for exercising is to have 150 minu...

Sundays are hard! I love going to church, and having a 14 month old at church right in the middle of nap time can be difficult... This week has been a crazy week for my little one. He has been teething like crazy! He just got his last canine tooth this week!! Which hopefully means we are done teething for a little while at least. He has a mouth full of teeth and they are sore. We give him pain medicine but sometimes that seems like its not enough. My husband has also been working like crazy! He probably works close to 40-50 hours a week. That is coming from three different jobs. He is doing an internship with MTSU currently to finish up his bachelors. Not having him around all day and most nights is hard, but I know that it is just for a short time. We are working hard to get that degree!! Can't wait to get that piece of paper in the mail!!! His others jobs include Old Navy in the mall, and officiating flag football. My husband LOVES being an official! It makes watching footbal...

I love all things health!! I also love feeling healthy and energized, but I don't want to rely on caffeine. Plexus has been something that I am relatively new to. But in the short time I have been using it I feel better than ever. I was having a hard time sleeping. If Bryce woke up in the middle of the night I would take forever to fall back to sleep. But now if I wake up in the middle of the night (because of Bryce or not) I can go right back to sleep. I also was struggling with having enough energy throughout the day. I am training for a marathon so on the days we would run I was out of energy and it was only 9 in the morning. How was I supposed to keep up with my son when I was so tired?? I gave it a shot. It has been wonderful!! Check out this video for how it works and how it helps your body! If you have questions look my up on Instagram and message me!  @Nordyhealthandwellness 

Normally we do our long runs on Saturdays. We do our shorter runs on Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursdays. We are following the Hal Higdon marathon training  for beginners. It's nice because it gets your body used to running even when your legs feel tired after running the day before. It also helps step your miles up slowly, but efficiently. For me it has really given me confidence. Each week there are the 3 mile runs, but also it has a slightly longer run that is half the distance of your long run that week. If I can make it to the halfway point that week I have the confidence that I can keep going to get the second half. When we do our long runs we normally do it on Saturdays so that my dad can be off work and ride his bike along side us with extra ice cold water! When he passes us he always asks if we need more water. But this week we have a service project for the community we will be doing so we switched to Thursday for our long run and Monday and Tuesday for our short runs. Th...

Hello! I am Brooke.  A little background about me. I grew up loving being outside. I was also on a competitive dance team and a swim team. I am a competitive person so I loved the meets and coming home completely exhausted knowing I did my best.  I wasn't into running until my younger siblings decided to sign me up for a 5k run that they were doing. I didn't train at all for that race. But at the end I felt energized! I think this was the point I realized I had a passion for taking care of my body.  I soon graduated from high school and went to Brigham Young University- Idaho where I got a Bachelors degree in Health Science. When I first applied for the school I wanted to stay away from any major that involved science. We see how well that worked... haha  That changed when I took a class titled "The American Epidemic". This class focuses on diabetes and how it's a growing epidemic here in the U.S. That sparked something inside me I didn't know...