LIVE, LOVE, LAUGH

I am very excited about Breast Cancer Awareness Month! This past Saturday, my bootcampers and I participated in the Breast Cancer Walk at the State Capitol (I even got my boyfriend involved). The event was such a blessing to be involved in! As I told you earlier, for all of October I will be dedicated to increasing your awareness of breast cancer while also highlighting the lives of those strong women who have battled breast cancer.

For my first highlight, I interviewed my aunt, Dr. Rosilin Wright. This lady is one of the strongest women I know! She is a true servant at heart and I am so thankful to have her influence in my life. Even through her battle with breast cancer she never stopped giving and helping others!

I must admit, her interview really touched my heart partially because I expected her answers to be 95% medically accurate (LOL)! But, I hope you can take away something from this short interview with her and share it with others who may be affected in some way by breast cancer!


NH: Once diagnosed a woman and her body go through several changes that take a toll on her mentally, physically, and spiritually. Throughout your process, what was the hardest change for you to adjust to?
RW: The hair loss had to be the most devastating change. Though you know your hair is going to come out there is nothing to prepare you for the loss. You lose all of your hair including your eye lashes and brows. For many of us, our hair helps define us. Once I lost my hair I really didn't look or feel like me!

NH: What helped you to get through each day? (family, friends, devotion, church, music, etc)
RW: My wonderful husband helped me make it through each day. He was very supportive and understanding.

NH: What would your advice be to a current breast cancer patient?
RW: No matter how tough times get, continue to keep the faith and pray. Enjoy your good days and surround yourself with supportive friends and family members.

NH: What would your advice be to women in general?
RW: I encourage all women to do their monthly self breast exams and become familiar with their own breasts and get their routine screening mammograms.

NH: How has this positively impacted your life? Has this given you a new philosophy for life? What can others take from your experience?
RW: My new philosophy is "Live, Love & Laugh." I was previously a workaholic and never really enjoyed life. Now I realize that time is precious. Every day I wake up happy, and I live each day to its fullest.

I encourage you to be proactive about your breast health….and “LIVE, LOVE, LAUGH”

I THINK PINK...DO YOU?

If you haven’t already gotten the hint, October is Breast Cancer Awareness Month. Pink ribbons are everywhere…from twibbons on Twitter and Facebook to pink articles being embraced by the National Football League to bumper stickers saying “Save the TaTas.” As a health educator who has a vested interest in the topic of breast health, I feel obligated to give my two cents on the issue.

Last October, my 37 year old aunt….who by the way is a very healthy physician, was diagnosed with breast cancer. This came as a shocker to my family, being that she is the “in house physician” for all of my families members…including me!

So throughout this whole ordeal, I have learned a few things about breast cancer that I must share with you!



1. Breast Cancer has no preference: My aunt was only 37 when she was diagnosed and as I mentioned earlier, a perfectly healthy physician. Last year I also met a 24 year old breast cancer patient. This shows that we are all at risk and we should all take preventive measures.

2. There are different types of breast cancer: If you are someone you know is diagnosed with breast cancer research the type of breast cancer, this will help when deciding on treatment options.

3. Breast Self Exams are important: My aunt found the lump, which was so small the doctors wondered how she found it. Statistics (American Cancer Society) show that most women find lumps through breast self exams.


4. There are tests that determine the risk of recurrence
a. Oncotype test: measured on a scale of 1-100, the higher the score the higher the risk of recurrence
b. BRCA Gene Testing: if the test determines that a woman has the BRCA1 or BRCA2 gene mutation then the woman is at a higher risk of developing breast cancer or a higher risk of recurrence.

5. Family support is essential: Women diagnosed with breast cancer will experience many physical and emotional changes from the moment of diagnosis to treatment. It is important that family create a positive support system physically, mentally, and spiritually.

I encourage you to educate yourselves, sisters, aunts, cousins, mothers, etc on the issue of breast cancer.

Please take the time to visit my good friend Damarius Pernell’s Non-Profit Breast Cancer organization, the Gloria Ivy Breast Cancer Organization. He’s working for a good cause!

Also, take the time to do something for the cause, whether its just buying a t shirt or pin or participating in a breast cancer walk…just get involved!


O and by the way…my aunt is doing great! She will be celebrating her 38th birthday this Wednesday, Oct. 13th! Be on the lookout for interviews from her and other breast cancer survivors!

Lovely Day...Lovely Weather...

As I sat in my office today, I keep catching myself just staring out the window. When I went to lunch I let out a big sigh of relief…Why you may ask? Because this Mississippi weather is simply beautiful! We are getting a much needed break from the sweltering hot 110 degree temperatures we have experience for the last 3-4 months!

Fall officially began on September 22, 2010. Here in Mississippi the weather is absolutely gorgeous. Nice cool breeze throughout the day and an average of 80 degrees each day. What better weather to get out and hit the walking track, walk around your neighborhood, take a bike ride…or even attend my outdoor boot camp!

Today is October 1, 2010…which means that Thanksgiving and Christmas will be here in the blink of an eye. Before we know it we’ll be attending holiday parties, eating holiday food…and gaining holiday weight! O yea and thinking about our New Year’s Resolutions of losing X amount of weight before the summer hits again. It seems to be a never ending cycle.



If you don’t have a consistent exercise routine, now is the time to start. This helps you gear up for the holiday season. You will be accustomed to healthier living; therefore you will be more conscious of what you eat during the holidays and how much physical activity you are engaging in.

I encourage you to start NOW…if you haven’t already started! Make you a plan, put it in writing and stick to it! So when New Year’s Eve comes around, you can knock weight loss off of your resolutions list.


Get out there and enjoy this beautiful weather...it probably won’t be here for long!

It's a Mind Thing

As I have entered another month of bootcamp, there are some things that I have learned to accept. Although, I have always understood these things, they have now become clearer to me. Those two concepts are:

1. Living a healthy lifestyle begins with a healthy mindset.

2. Once someone commits to a healthy lifestyle and starts seeing results (physically, mentally, etc) they crave more.

Yes, these two things are on complete opposite ends of the spectrum, but I have found that when it comes to healthy living, there is little to no gray area.

Understanding and accepting things are very different. At this moment I am happy to say that I can understand AND accept both.

So how did I come up with these two concepts? I am observant…very observant. I have noticed that people want to live a healthy lifestyle, but they have a hard time giving up the things that are comfortable for them (fattening foods, sedentary lifestyle, etc). In order to make this change, one MUST make it up in their mind that they want to make a change. Unfortunately, very often it takes some significant event such as the loss of a loved one or a less than average health report to serve as a scare tactic to get a person to live healthy.

On the contrary, once one has made it up in their mind to live healthy and they begin to experience the benefits of a healthy lifestyle, they tend to want to keep that up. There’s just something about walking past a mirror and doing a double take because you see a muscle that you never saw before. As a people, we are results driven, once we start experiencing positive results we want to keep up the behaviors that yielded those results.

With all of this being said, it has been very hard for me to accept that everyone is not ready to live a healthy lifestyle.

Now that I have accepted that I cannot make up anyone’s mind for them; I can only continue doing what I love to do and continue to make people aware of the benefits of healthy living.

It's that time again!!

BOOT CAMP TIME!

If you are interested in participating in the September/October please contact me for a schedule, prices, etc!

This month I have more flexible times and Saturday sessions!

Please contact me before Monday, Sept. 13, 2010 if you are interested.

I look forward to hearing from you!

WEEK 3: My Reflections

As we come to the close of Week 3, I must say that I am thoroughly impressed with the progress the ladies have made. I have noticed a major improvement in the food journals as well as the how hard the ladies push themselves during our sessions. Even though they are rolling their eyes and snapping their necks they are excited about getting a good workout!

As I reflect on this journey, I would like to leave you and my participants with a few thoughts that I have learned from this boot camp and from my experience as a personal trainer and health educator.

“Being healthy MUST become a way of life…not just something you do for a short period of time to reach a goal.”

Every personal trainer has their own teaching style. For me, I do not use diets to help my clients obtain their goals. I use the substitution and modification method. This way you gradually work your way to a healthy lifestyle. Yes, the process may be a little bit longer than some, but in my opinion the long term benefits are more important.

"Focus on small incremental changes that you can maintain."

I have learned that you cannot force a healthy lifestyle on anyone. I use to take everything to heart when people didn't want to listen to my message or didn't want to attend my bootcamps, but I quickly learned that everyone must make that choice for themselves. With that being said, I encourage you to "make a healthy lifestyle change for yourself before its too late!"

** Be on the look out for information about September’s Boot Camp. Encourage others to participate**

As Week 2 Comes to a Close...

Today will mark then end of another successful week of boot camp. I can honestly say that I can see an improvement in the ladies. They are pushing themselves and doing what it takes to reach their goals. One thing that I think keeps the ladies motivated is the atmosphere. Everyone is friendly, cordial, and encouraging, this makes it much easier (in my opinion) to get through that gruesome hour of intense workouts.

Continue to follow our journey to “preserving our sexy” and check out a few words from Ashley H. Big shout out to Ashley for doing an EXCELLENT job on the “picnic table” exercise yesterday!

As the second week of boot camp comes to an end I must admit it has been a challenge for me. I am learning to discipline myself when it comes to working out and eating healthy. I recently lost 23 pounds between the months of January and April. I now find it a struggle to maintain my weight and not go back to old habits. Nakeitra is teaching us just that ‘discipline’. We are going through a rigorous 3 days where ALL major muscles are being targeted and afterwards you feel like you have been tortured. I am very appreciative for the time she has taken out to do this boot camp, because I must admit I am the worse of them all. My biggest challenge now is to do more than jog on the treadmill during our off days, but there will be a big reward at the end of the month, SEXINESS!!

**Don't forget to send me your health and fitness questions nhill.fitness@gmail.com**