Kimberly J Garcia

Category: Health

The Depression of a Food Prude

I am here to share the sad story of becoming a food prude.

Food Prude: noun \ˈfüdˈprüd\

1. a person who holds themselves to a higher standard when it comes to the foods they eat
2. a person who is easily shocked by the foods that do not shock or offend other people
3. one who is modest about the amount of food and/or beverages they choose to consume

Not to be mistaken for a chronic dieter, calorie counter or points conservationist.

We have long known that eating healthy, reading labels, living a healthy lifestyle can be depressing, boring and just plain exhausting.

This is why some fear coming in contact with a food prude in concern they may start to become one or be irritated by one. It’s like avoiding the Zombie Apocalypse. The food prudes may start to eat away at your fat and health problems, like a zombie may eat away at your face.

It’s scary. Scary that your life may be totally altered for the better. I have lived the last 19 years learning how to live a healthier, fit lifestyle, becoming one who cares about the health and well being of my mind, body and soul. Not only concerned with the health and well being of myself, but our Earth, our children and the entire decline in vitality of our current population. I have suffered deeply by coming in contact with these food prudies (not really a word, but it is a word now. It’s a Kiminism). Their inspiration, their education, their raw advice was overwhelming, yet motivating. As they ate away at my thoughts, their words started to alter my daily choices. It was at first scary to switch my coke for water, my protein bars for chocolate ( yes switch my protein bars for chocolate- soy free that is) and to give up my #1 in the drive thru in exchange for my home cooked grass-fed steak tips, organic potatoes and lots of butter :>) Yet slowly the thoughts and education of those such as Ray Peat, Phd., Paul Chek, Dr. Mercola, Dr. Lee, Sally Fallon, Dr. Weston A Price, David Kessler and Michael Pollan have eaten away at my brain, transforming me into a deprived, sad food prude.

What have I discovered after these years of torture and personal experience? There are horrible side effects of being a food prude. Some more depressing than others. Unfortunately this could happen to you. You may be around a food prude and not even know it.

How can you tell if you’ve been in contact with a food prude for too long or if you may be slowly becoming one yourself?

Signs & Symptoms of an authentic food prude:

1. Seemingly happy. Almost so happy it seems fake.

2. An increase in energy.

3. Able to cope with difficult situations.

4. Better flexibility.

5. A feeling of greater “sexiness”.

6. A decline in purchases of pain relievers, laxatives or weight loss supplements.

7. Sharp, mental focus.

8. A craving for home cooked food.

9. A sense of power, strength or speed.

10. An increase in love, patience and/or compassion.

These are just 10 of many scary symptoms you may experience if you are attacked by, or become a carrier of the food prude disorder. I know this truth is shocking and may cause temporary stress or panic attacks, but it was laid on my heart to share this information with you. This is what I have been called to do. I hope you can accept this message as a warning. A thoughtful, precautionary measure to watch out for these food prudies. The depression of becoming a food prude has become unbearable for me and if I can prevent this from happening to one of you, my life’s work will be complete. Please share this message before midnight tonight to prevent the food prudies from multiplying. If you do not share this message, you will be responsible for the world being overtaken by these obsessed food prudes prior to the Zombie Apocalypse. PLEASE…. do not allow our destiny to be altered!

November 7, 2013
The Three C’s to Better Health and a Trim Waistline

Are you trying to improve your health?

Do you want to lose inches off your waist line or sculpt your hips?

If so, I have the solution for you and it does not include counting calories or cholesterol as a matter of importance!

As a society we are getting so caught up in the numbers that we are forgetting the true steps to success. This obsession with the scale, blood tests, medications, calories, carbs, sugar and fat has us currently ranked as dead last in health out of 17 developing countries. But WAIT, we did score NUMBER ONE in one category- OBESITY! We have been tracking our numbers, taking medications and weighing in for the last fifty years or more, so if this method actually worked, WHY ARE WE NOT THE HEALTHIEST IN THE WORLD? You guessed it! Because it DOESN’T WORK! We have been so focused on where we want to be and the physical aspects of health, that we are forgetting how everything works together as a whole. How numbers are not always accurate and how to motivate ourselves to treat our body as a temple. We have forgotten or never found the three underlying C’s to true health, happiness and HOTNESS!

The 1st C- Communication

The first key to a healthy mind and body is communication. Many people do not understand how lack of open, honest communication impacts their health. For instance, if you hire a health coach, but you are unwilling to tell them how you feel about yourself or the pain you deal with from previous life experiences, you make it harder for your health coach to help you work in a healthy direction. You can lose valuable time not addressing the critical pieces to your wellness. If you are upset with something your spouse or your co-worker did and you do not let them know, the thoughts you hold inside can cause you to eat too much, pick poor food choices, not eat or just make you sick inside. So although it was your choice to eat too much or skip meals that hindered your goals, the true underlying cause was the lack of communication. It is okay to communicate if you are struggling, feeling depressed or have something to share you are not proud of. The goal is to find someone you trust and talk with them. Let it out and ensure people know the true you and how you are feeling. Holding back what you really feel whether it be from embarrassment, fear, anger or anticipation of someone else s response, will almost always hinder your results and increase your health problems.

The 2nd C- Compassion

The second piece is compassion. First and foremost, compassion for yourself. Many people are willing to cut someone else a break, but rarely do we let ourselves off the hook. We tend to beat ourselves up for mistakes at work, at home or in our fitness plan. Communicating with yourself using compassion will help you excel in all areas. If you are on a venture to heal your body or lose weight, it will be a heck of a lot easier if you do not beat yourself up when you make mistakes or your life gets thrown for a loop. It is inevitable that you will not lose weight every week, you will not eat perfect everyday and you will not always be the top performer. It’s okay. You are HUMAN! When trying to motivate anyone to another level or support them to their goals, we provide positive love, praise and empathy. Give this to yourself and you will see a greater success than ever before and know that success is always achieved with a few steps forward and a couple steps back. In reality you are ahead of where you were. It is also important to have compassion for others. Sometimes there is someone at work or school who is being rude to us or our spouse is not so thoughtful. Most of us are very quick to take this rudeness personal. When we take how others treat us personal, we throw ourselves off track again making poor choices. We may overeat, under eat, stress eat, skip exercise or over exercise because we feel like we were treated poorly because we are not good enough or not “liked” It is important to have compassion and empathy for the other people around us. Maybe they are not being rude to us because we are not good enough, maybe they are not having a good day or maybe they feel bad themselves and are not communicating how they feel. Have compassion for them and understand they may not be thinking like you or may have a lot on their plate. It’s important to express how you feel and to communicate with others, putting yourself in their shoes and your own. Communicating with compassion and having compassion for yourself reduces stress and can help you make optimal choices for your health.

The 3rd and most important C- Consistency

Aristotle once said, “You will become what you consistently do.” This is TRUTH! As a whole, us Americans are failing at achieving health because we tend to be an all or nothing society. If we don’t get what we want when we want it, we tend to give up or change the course. It is important to practice the daily habits required to achieve your overall goals. It is just not possible to achieve a healthy, happy, hot body without consistency. Whatever gets you sick, keeps you sick and whatever gets you well, keeps you well. If you remain consistent eating well, exercising, communicating and sharing love- you will learn a great deal about your body. You will see what works for you and you will not self sabotage. You will feel at peace when you make mistakes and understand others make them too. Staying the course and consistently learning how to treat yourself better, will lead to the greatest physical, mental and spiritual health you have ever experienced. Consistency is required to be successful in ALL areas of life. You can not come to work two weeks and be off four and expect success. You can not be nice to your spouse one year and then rude the next year and expect a great relationship. It works the same when getting well. It’s the consistency of practicing healthy behaviors, not just for a few weeks or a couple years. It’s a lifetime of working to become a better you. This is how lasting results are achieved.

If you feel you have been struggling to get healthy, lose weight or meet a goal- stop a minute and assess the three C’s. Are you communicating effectively, honestly and with compassion? Or are you holding back? Are you having compassion for yourself? Are you judging others or are you having compassion for where they may be at on their journey? Are you willing to consistently eat well, think well, live well as a whole, allowing for minor stalls and setbacks? Or are you only making temporary changes hoping for immediate results? Committing to apply the 3 C’s in all areas of your life will lead to less stress, better choices and lasting results! Without them, you may never reach your fullest potential.

April 18, 2013
Only Coffee Is Instant

As most of you know, much of the current population is failing when it comes to achieving an ideal weight and good health.

After 19 years of motivating myself and others to live well, I have learned there is one large factor as to why so many are not meeting or sustaining their goals.

When it comes to health and weight loss, as a majority we expect it to be instant, fast, easy to learn, quickly achievable with no obstacles, setbacks, just results! And if there are any setbacks, falters, delays etc. WE GIVE UP ! We give up for a day, a week, a year. This is where most of us are going wrong.

We have to remember…. only coffee is instant!

When I was 18, I learned soda had more calories than water and if I just substituted water for soda I could drop weight and feel better. Within one week of drinking water and less soda, I dropped 6lbs! I then learned alcohol caused my body to store approximately 30% more of my food as body fat. It’s at that point I decided I’d rather eat a chocolate cake than drink my calories. At least chocolate cake burned off, didn’t make me store more fat or trash my brain cells. I took these pieces of knowledge and put them in my toolbox. I applied them to my daily life and then started to learn more.

Through my journey with health, I have made several mistakes, experienced setbacks, children, career changes, death, sickness etc. through all of this, I could not throw all of my knowledge out the window. In the beginning, I started off highly obsessed, giving myself little room to falter. After a few years of obsessing over every calorie, annoying people with my obsessive eating behaviors and negative self talk, I realized this was no way to live. I also realized we were never designed to live perfect, but to live consistent, balanced and seeking wisdom. To live with the drive to improve our current self.

As with anything worth having in life, you have to work for it. You have to learn from mistakes, apply your knowledge and be flexible.

We have been brainwashed to think weight loss, pain relief and good health should just happen when we decide we’re ready to make a change. We assume because we have been told to exercise more, eat less or eat mini meals throughout the day, that as soon as we start doing it, our body should respond. This is like registering for college and expecting to have a degree within four weeks. It just doesn’t work that way. The human body, just as your marriage, your education and your career, needs nurturing, flexibility and consistency. With time, education and application of your knowledge, YOU WILL SEE RESULTS!!! Just as someone slowly sees negative results with consistent dieting, poor eating habits and lack of movement, you will see slow, consistent results with continued application of better eating habits, exercise and a positive attitude. It’s the Law of Cause and Effect! It has to happen, but it does not have to happen instantly.

If you are educated properly, you commit to learning and commit to applying, you will have all the knowledge needed to sustain a healthy, fit body for the majority of your life. You can not give up! You have to invest the time, energy and money to achieve a better you. You have to find solutions to your obstacles and you have to make yourself WORTH it! Are you not worth more than your career or your marriage? Without you, the career and the marriage can not exist. Without the WHOLE, HEALTHY you, the marriage and the career will never be as successful as they could be!

If you are ready to receive your pain-free, lean, fit body, it’s time to start learning! It’s time to put in the time. You can not drop out a couple semesters or cheat on a few tests and truly expect results. Dedicate the same time you have to your career, your family, your relationships…. be flexible, apply your daily knowledge and learn from your mistakes. Don’t keep repeating them over and over again expecting a different result. If you are failing in a certain area, study harder and learn how to make it happen!!

You are worth it. Your body is worth the time!

Know that your body is made up of more than 100 trillion cells. These cells take time to transform. They require good, whole food, healthy balance and consistency to renew. It’s really not about the calories, the short-term commitment or the scale. It’s truly about your willingness to value yourself and to apply what you learn daily.

Take time to brew the coffee. Take time to make the changes needed in your life.

You are worth it!

July 17, 2012
The Gift of Having a Crystal Ball

I have to share with you my love-hate relationship with my passion to help others improve their life. Living the life of a trainer, fitness enthusiast and health education junkie for more than 19 years, has truly taught me a great deal about the human body. When you research and live what you learn, you truly get the chance to experience the outcome. The cause and effect of our choices. When I first started in this career of wellness, I could only understand how I felt from my choices and what happened when I worked out a certain way or followed a certain diet etc. Now after years of working with individuals as young as 5 years old up to 86 years young, I have gained the true gift of being able to see the future. My profession is one of the ONLY professions who actually has the opportunity to spend anywhere from 1 hour to thousands of hours with their clients. These hours are spent learning about their symptoms, their insecurities, their goals, diet plans, life stressors etc. Through this time, I get to learn not only from my mistakes or successes, but also from theirs. I get to see what a life with no activity leads to. I get to see what crazy weight loss plans create and I am also able to see the years many of us waste thinking lesser of ourselves. Each of these experiences have taught me something new.

Meeting with more than 3,500 people and coaching them for more than 19,000 hours has helped me identify trends, effective programming and ineffective programming. This combined with years of formal education, has given me the gift to recognize the cause of many health issues, training injuries and weight loss failures. Not only can I almost take an x-ray of your posture with my eyes, I can almost guarantee you I have an answer as to why a person may have chronic fatigue syndrome, bronchitis, irritable bowel syndrome and thyroid issues. Not only can I give you an answer as to what caused the “sudden” onset of symptoms, I can also give you solutions to the problem.

How can I do this? Why do I think I can?

Do I know it all? No.

Am I a doctor? No.

Am I a VooDoo practitioner? No.

What is it then?

I ask questions. I listen. I am PASSIONATE about what I do. It is embedded within my soul to help others live their fullest life. I seek the best of the best and I train under them. When I don’t have an answer, I seek it out. I find someone who does. When I can’t get a clear answer, I research what happened before the problem began and identify the trends. I track, test, follow through and tailor my programs to my client’s need. I live what I preach and learn from what I live.

When you do anything with passion over a period of years, you become an expert, a master of your trade. If you are like me, you then want to top what you know. You want to gain more answers and give more solutions. This is what I LOVE! I love being able to give someone a solution to their want or need, particularly when it comes to a better mind, body and health. Many times the solutions are simpler than what one might expect and then other times, a chronic condition may take time to heal, but it CAN be done and if it can not be 100%, a person can drastically slow the progression of their symptoms through the proper guidance. How do I know this? I experience it everyday of my life.

Now what do I hate about this passion? What I hate about this passion is really my issue. Have you ever lived something, made a mistake and then saw someone you love about to make the same mistake? Have you ever tried to stop them? What happened? Did they listen? Did they believe you? I am sure sometimes they did. You may have helped them avoid a misery you already lived. A lesson you learned from experience.

What do you feel like when they don’t listen? When your daughter still stands on the counter after you told her not to and then she falls and hurts herself. Or when your sibling keeps dating someone whose tearing them down and it kills you inside. Or when you see your family member continue to abuse themselves through food, alcohol or drugs with no thought of what they are doing to you or their own body? Does it bother you inside? Don’t you want to help them because you know the results of their actions? I would assume most of you would say yes. I know some are built to walk away and let others just live their journey, but for me it’s not that easy.

When you have been given the gift of being able to absorb so much knowledge and experience from others and self, it’s almost impossible to not want to help others avoid chronic mistakes I see on a day-to-day basis. Many mistakes creating misery, depression, feelings of failure and early death. When I see someone who gives up on themselves because the scale didn’t respond fast enough or someone who is over exercising, under eating or cutting out whole food groups to live “healthy”, it literally kills me inside. Why? Because I have been there and done that. I know the consequences. I know the short and long-term results. I know the years of quality life people are shaving off their future and the rapid aging they are creating. I know how they are impacting their family’s future by their choices and how they will miss their goal yet again.

I have people I care about deeply hire me to help them and then negate everything I coach them to do or throw everything out the window once they are on their own. It’s so tough to see them work harder versus smarter, reliving the mistakes I have seen lived a million times over again. But I have to understand, it’s their journey. It’s their lesson to learn and their choice to make, not mine. It’s taken me some time, but I have learned that I can not put my passion on to others. I can not make them want to trust what I tell them. They have to choose what they want and I have to realize I will help some avoid issues all together and I will spend the rest of the time helping people regain the health they lost.

Having the “crystal ball” has definitely helped me live in the moment, love myself for who I am and value taking care of the body I have today. With two-thirds of adults struggling with weight, over 26 million having diabetes and over $83 billion dollars spent on depression each year, I have a true passion to help slow the statistics. A passion to spread my knowledge to each of you and help you live it on a day-to-day basis. One person at a time, we can be the change we wish to see in the world. Many of us have knowledge, but knowledge is nothing unless it’s applied. So if you know me, you have worked with me in the past or you meet with me in the future, know that when I give you A LOT of information and I send you emails of support, it’s not to tell you what to do. It’s not to seem like a know it all and it’s definitely not to mislead you. It’s just because I have had the chance to see the future and I have learned how to live balanced and happy in the present. It is my passion to help you achieve full vitality and performance. You deserve it. Our children deserve it. And our community deserves it.

I hope you will allow me to share my crystal ball with you! It’s definitely worth the outcome.

April 26, 2012
What’s Causing Your Back Pain?

Did you know 85% of people will experience back pain at some point in their life? Back pain is the fifth most common reason for visiting a physician and as of the 1990’s back pain was already costing employers up $50 billion dollars annually in the United States. 1,2

Although back pain is common, it does not have to be. Most cases of back pain are mechanical or non-organic—meaning they are not caused by serious conditions, such as inflammatory arthritis, infection, fracture or cancer. Back ailments are typically a result of microtrauma brought on through a series of events, building up over time and then developing into symptoms of pain and stiffness.2

Although back pain can be scary and debilitating, we should not fear it. It is not there to scare us or to harm us, it is there to warn us that something is not right. If you listen to the warning sign and seek the proper care, you will save a lifetime of misery. If you ignore the pain or seek less than adequate advice, the pain you are experiencing now will surely create a domino effect leading to additional pain, doctor visits, medication and possibly surgery. Surgery of the back, knees, neck, heels, you name it, the pain will come and the surgery may follow. So what are the common causes of back pain?

1.Poor Body Mechanics: whether you are sitting with poor posture, lifting boxes repetitively or walking slumped over, each of these habits will create back pain anywhere from the lumbar spine all the way up to the cervical spine.

2. Improper or nonexistent exercise program: the improper exercise program can be doing more harm than good. Lifting too heavy and completing exercises which feed the dysfunction can drastically increase your risk of serious injury. Being totally inactive can also create severe degenerative disc disease and chronic muscle imbalances.

One extreme or the other is not good!

3. Muscle Imbalances: Most individuals have severe muscle imbalances such as tight, short quadriceps and weak, lengthened hamstrings. Or tight lumbar erectors and lengthened, weak abdominal muscles. This uneven tug of war between the muscles causes pain in between. Pain in the back, hips, knees and neck. Treating the muscle imbalances effectively with a flexibility and strength program designed for you, can prevent several missed days from work and give natural pain relief.

4. Poor Diet: YOU ARE WHAT YOU EAT. Your body can only function based on the fuel you give it. If you are eating inflammatory foods, you will cause swelling and inflammation in the body. Eating too little food or low quality food will create weak bones, tendons and tissue. If you are having pain and no one has addressed your diet, chances are your pain will never be completely eliminated.5. All OF THE ABOVE: With today’s stress levels, work load and daily lifestyle habits, it’s easy to have fallen prey to all four of the common causes above. This is why it is critical to treat the body as a whole. Treating just the site of the symptom may give temporary relief, but without addressing body mechanics, exercise programming, diet and muscle imbalance, the band-aid will not hold for long.

If you, your employees or your family are experiencing back pain, contact me today. Our staff specializes in back pain management and elimination. We offer one on one coaching, work place seminars and on site workshops.Our next on site seminar will take place on June 23, 2012 at the Garcia Institute of Modern Excellence in Spring Hill. Click here for more details on how to register.

If you are not local and need someone to help coach you out of pain, I recommend seeking a CHEK Practitioner and/or an Egoscue Posture Alignment Specialist in your area. Visit www.chekconnect.com and www.egoscue.com for more information. Our extensive training from these two organizations has helped us maintain healthy, fit bodies and has allowed us to share the pain-free gift with others.

Contact Information:

Kimberly Garcia

352-428-6368

kimgarcia@gimefitness.com

References:

1.Hart LG, Deyo RA, Cherkin DC. Physician office visits for low back pain.
Frequency, clinical evaluation, and treatment patterns from a U.S. national survey.
Spine. 1995;20:11-9.

2. http://www.osha.gov/dts/osta/otm/otm_vii/otm_vii_1.html#3

April 18, 2012
Pain Can Be Your Answer to Better Health!

I know this may sound crazy, but it is so true. Many of us may be looking at pain as a problem or experiencing fear wondering where the pain is coming from, when actually pain can be a blessing. A warning sign that something is not right. Although it can definitely be frustrating, it’s really like your check engine light in the car. When it first comes on it’s a general warning letting you know something needs to be addressed. If left unaddressed or covered up, a simple need for more oil may lead to something as chronic as a blown engine. Migraines, back pain, stomach cramping are each signals letting you know something needs to be adjusted. If we keep about our general programming running through the pain or just throw a few Ibuprofen in to cover it up, we tend to create much larger problems.

Many times we do not intend to ignore the pain and we head to the doctor to find out what is going on. Our physician is trained to check our blood work, look at the site of the pain and to give us solutions to get rid of the pain. But lets say you have something like chronic stomach pain. This can be triggered by many causes. Your physician will most likely give you a few recommendations such as taking an over the counter Pepto Bismol, prescribe a muscle relaxer or maybe even further testing such as a Colonoscopy. If the Colonoscopy comes back with no chronic findings other than a spastic colon and inflammation in the intestines, your physician will most likely diagnosis you with something comparable to Irritable Bowel Syndrome. He or she may recommend a few dietary changes and prescribe a specific medicine to keep the symptoms manageable.

Although you appreciate knowing nothing life threatening has developed such as Cancer, have you really fixed the problem? What caused the pain in the first place? We know the pain is there, we know there is inflammation, but did we find out what caused the inflammation or are we still ignoring it? Many times we are told stress caused our stomach pain, migraine etc. or maybe something we ate. This is most definitely true, but did you determine what in your diet was causing the problem? Were you taught how to manage the various stressors which led up to a more chronic symptom? If you did not find the underlying cause and you were unable to make changes in your behavior which kept symptoms at bay, this means you did not fix the cause which triggered the warning light. You basically just threw a towel over it so you can’t see it or feel it anymore.

This happens many times when it comes to gall bladder pain. Although someone may have demolished their gall bladder to the point of needing surgery, there is a reason it went bad in the first place. There is a reason it started to create pain. If we just live with the pain or just cut it out, we generally forget to look for the cause. If we continually just look for instant pain relief, but do not ask why or do not look deeper into what we’re doing to the engine, we’re basically just cutting the wires to the warning lights versus truly fixing the underlying problem. These short term fixes or “quick” fixes can and will lead to more chronic conditions such as hypothyroid, MS, stroke or even cancer. Many times we do not even know more chronic conditions are developing, because we have cut out or medicated the tools which were designed to warn us something was still not right.

Pain can be felt in different forms such mental pain, physical pain, emotional pain or even numbness.

Although we may need medication or a surgery to fix the acute problem, we truly need to ensure we are addressing the underlying cause to prevent further damage. Of course if someone smacks you in the knee with a bat, we know a simple pain reliever, rest and possibly surgery will get you fixed up. But if you have been taking medication to address symptoms such as stomach pain, heel pain or back pain which came on without direct trauma, it is critical to find out what you may be doing to cause the pain. You may have a muscle imbalance above or below the pain or you may be having stress from overexercising or prolonged sitting. Digging deeper to find the cause may take a little longer than a medication, but you will see the results will be longer lasting and you will drastically decrease your chances of a more fatal outcome.

This is what we specialize in as CHEK Practitioners and Holistic Lifestyle Coaches. Our training teaches us how to discover the cause, manage it and make it part of our everyday lifestyle. We assess daily lifestyle habits, nutritional choices, movement patterns and overall stressors to find the cause or causes of a persons overall symptoms. We refer our clients to physicians to ensure our steps and the client’s choices are leading to the correct outcomes such as managed blood pressure, blood sugar and proper healing. We also refer to physicians to ensure there are no underlying pathologies needing immediate medical attention. But helping you efficiently determine the cause to many symptoms and then teaching you how to manage your daily choices, allows us to help you achieve your FULLEST life! This helps create a healthier you, reducing your physician’s liability when treating you, reducing your medical costs and improving your overall well being. If you are ready to address the cause of your pain or overall symptoms contact us today at info@gimefitness.com or 352-428-6368. We look forward to complimenting your physician’s efforts and helping you take control of your daily choices.

March 4, 2012