What is the root of overall health and wellness for a great quality of life? It begins with mindfulness. Using your mind-body connection to move your body and eat healthy colorful foods. Practicing mindfulness is crucial to helping you find overall mental and physical health and wellness. Motivation and consistency are key.

Movement prepares your mind and body - your heart, lungs, joints and bones, for overall health and a great quality of life. Move it for YOU! Whether you walk, bike ride or run - it does not matter. What does matter is that you are making positive steps toward a permanent healthy daily exercise routine.

What is your exercise attitude? Maybe you like to exercise, or maybe not. You may have motivation, or you may need to find motivation. Removing past experiences and expectations from your mind sets you up for success on your path forward. Many of us associate exercise with discomfort. It’s that negative emotional connection that keeps us inactive or skipping our workouts. You rarely hear someone say that they don't have time to do something that they enjoy, because they will find the time.

Exercise is a mind-body connection and is best practiced with the interpretation of exercise as being non-judgmental. By using your mind/body connection during exercise, you will experience an awareness that will aid in the effectiveness of your workout. The result? A positive experience that will reprogram your attitude and re-energize your body and your mind.

Now let's talk about nutrition. Again, rid yourself of past expectations and just focus on a fresh start. Ditch the 'diets' and 'fads' for long-term results. Focus instead on eating healthy quality colorful food with the proper portion size (quantity). Avoid processed foods if possible and fill your plate with colorful natural foods. There is no failure with this formula. Sustaining healthy nutrition with the daily presence of food from the earth, tree, land, and sea that include macro-nutrients; (lean) protein, (complex) carbohydrates and (healthy) fat is the secret to long term success.

Good nutrition is also a mind-body connection. Ask yourself what is your relationship with food? Say that your energy levels are low, and you have two bowls in front of you - one is filled with colorful candy-coated chocolate, and one is filled with colorful vegetables. Which one will you choose? Will you choose to raise your energy levels or choose just for taste? Practicing mindfulness helps you to choose wisely. No doubt, you will raise your energy levels with the candy but only for a short time. A sugar crash will follow along with the depletion of healthy nutrition. The colorful vegetables will provide you with sustainable energy and healthy nutrients to fuel your body and mind. Choosing healthy choices trains your palette to crave the healthy nutrients it deserves.

We only get one body, so why not make it a priority to take care of it, embrace it, nourish it, move it and be in charge. Move and nourish for YOU. Take ownership of you and live your best quality of life!