That's Fit

Being Life Fit is about your total health, including the health of all of your relationships. Life Fit is a journey, not a destination. It is a process of continuous growth: physically, mentally, emotionally, and spiritually. Check in each Tuesday to Life Fit with Laura Lewis, author of "52 Ways To A Healthy You," as we explore our total life fitness. Then, weigh in with your own thoughts over at Laura's "Life Fit Chat" each Wednesday and Thursday for further discussion on the week's topic. Or check out "Ask Laura" every Friday for answers! For more information visit Laura at www.LauraLewis.com.

Did you know by changing your posture, with a very specific technique I learned years ago, you can make your body stronger, appear leaner, taller and be healthier too? That's right. If you change the way you stand, sit and walk, you can change your level of fitness. But first, some history ...

Lessons Learned: Many moons ago, I was what was known as an "aerobics queen." At one time, I was teaching fourteen high impact (now called crazy if you ask me) classes per week. For those of you who don't know what high impact is, just imagine a person jumping up and down in place, running side to side and frantically flailing her arms all for the sake of raising her heart rate, getting more toned and burning fat right before your very eyes. Talk about "smoking!"

Burning fat ..."smoking"... get it?

Anyway, as I beat up my poor feet and legs over and over again, my body began to rebel. I would wake up in the morning, gingerly place each foot upon the floor one at a time and ease my body weight onto them. Screaming pain would shoot up the front of my shins as I would gasp, wincing and shaking my head. Then ever so slowly, I would shuffle to my bathroom, wipe the sleep out of my eyes and prepare for another day of mania. Shin splints were not fun. I had pounded my feet into the ground so hard that my poor muscles were almost shredded in my lower legs. If you happen to remember those days of yesteryear, we were crazy to go to the extremes that we did. I ended up learning that going to extremes did not necessarily pay off. Now, I do all that I can to try to stay fit with minimal damage to my body! That includes the way I stand. And walk. And sit!

Change your posture, change your life? You bet ... Read on!