Article by Make The Days Count Contributor Stefanie Johnson

Imagine this:  Your New Year’s resolution is to lose a substantial amount of weight.  Every day for six months, you doggedly push yourself out of bed two frosty hours before sunrise, don a jogging suit and run miles to the gym, where you spend an hour on a treadmill and lift weights until your muscles and joints scream in agony. You run home again, shower, and then head off to work, fresh as a daisy, whistling a jaunty little tune.

It’s a beautiful dream but here’s the reality:  You try your intense pre-dawn exercise regimen for a couple of days. You lose steam when you don’t get the immediate results you were hoping for, and feel utterly exhausted from all your hard work.  During one of your sessions, you push too hard and up injuring yourself. Then you give up.  You tell yourself it “hurts too much,” “it’s no fun,” and “it’s not worth it.”  You say “some people just aren’t meant to be fit.”  You get depressed at your inability to follow through with your goals, and end up gaining even more weight.

This is a vicious, self-destructive cycle, and its time to break free from it! Read More »

Article by Make The Days Count Contributor Blake Cothron

“It is time to speak your Truth … banish the word struggle from your attitude and your vocabulary.  All that we do now must be done in a sacred manner and in celebration.”

These words spoken by an unnamed Hopi Elder summarize the heart of this article – that our words create our future.  In this excerpt, the Hopi Elder is urging for us all to become conscious of our words and attitudes.

How much thought and care do you put into the words you use? Read More »

Article by Make The Days Count Contributor Blake Cothron

When you imagine holiday meals, what comes to mind?  Is it hot, dressed ham, piles of mashed potatoes, ruby red cranberry sauce, eggnog and pumpkin pie?  Or do you focus more on the cookies, fudge and hard eggnog?  This holiday season, we can create memories of delicious, healthier traditional meals, while still fitting into the pants and belts we wore yesterday!

The holidays are a great time to reconnect with relatives, neighbors, and traditions going back hundreds of years or more.  This is also a great excuse to get other people involved in the food preparation process!  Put on some festive holiday music and get others involved.  This will make it fun to create abundant healthy meals for a crowd. 

We’ll be focusing on using whole foods to co-create amazing holiday delights.  When we use pre-packaged mixes, we miss out big time on flavor and nutrition.  Plus, by skipping the pre-packaged mixes we can miss out on the big doses of things like hidden trans fats, preservatives, and artificial colors and flavors. Read More »

Article by Make The Days Count Contributor Blake Cothron

As the weather outside dips well below freezing and coughing and sneezing become common place, there are simple natural ways you can maximize your health now to stay healthy through winter. 

Through the years I’ve battled more colds, infections, and childhood ills than you can shake a bottle of Echinacea at.  As I’ve gotten older, I’ve taken my health into my own hands and have discovered through much experimentation, old-time advice, and scientific evidence the great benefits of “natural healthcare”.  From diet to herbal supplements, there is an array of healthy, synthetic-chemical free ways to stay robust, energized, and healthy during the winter months, while minimizing discomfort and sickness. 

Attacking Weak Links

First off, we must understand that infections such as the cold and flu first attack weak links.  If you have a weak immune system, lack enough sleep, and have an unhealthy diet your risk for colds and disease rises exponentially.  People who follow very healthy, organic lifestyles get sick less.  Of course, everyone gets sick sometimes, period.  Scientists are discovering the age-old wisdom that diet is one of the foundations of good health.  In 431 BCE Hippocrates said “Let food be thy medicine” and I couldn’t agree more.  So we’ll start first on food as medicine. Read More »

Article by Make The Days Count Contributor Stefanie  Johnson

Yoga.  This small word has the power to raise many thoughts, feelings, and preconceptions.  Some see it as symbolic of a specific lifestyle and religion, something only the affluent can afford to do, or harped about by “health nuts.”  True, in the past the media and others have painted yoga in this way.  However as an exercise program yoga is for everyone. 

Yoga is now widely available to all, regardless of creed, cash, fitness, or diet.  Everywhere you go, there are DVDs, classes, books, articles, advice, and props.

No matter who you are, or what your fitness or financial situation is, yoga and the yoga mindset can improve the quality of your life, and you should be doing it as a part of your overall exercise program. Read More »