Heartsong Fit With Vickie Maris | Healthy Ways to Address Stress

Hiking along the trails on the farm is one way that Vickie finds relief from stress after a busy day. She often takes one of the llamas with her for walking on the trails. They both benefit from walking for exercise, and at the same time enjoy each other’s company on the trail. 

Vickie teaches you about llamas along the journey and describes the elements of nature that they encounter during the walk. Listen to the llama hum, the creek rushing by, the Sycamore leaves crunching under foot and other sounds from the walk.

Frog Chorus The frog chorus you hear in this episode is the real deal. Vickie and Scott were returning from a Friday evening dinner out when they passed through Prophetstown State Park and heard the frogs singing in the lowlands of the park. They stopped the vehicle on a service road and hiked over to the swampy area with recorder in hand to capture the frog chorus for you. This location is about one mile from the farm, and the frogs can be heard all around the farm during the spring.

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There is a Pinterest board that Vickie maintains at www.pinterest.com/heartsongfit about hiking with llamas for exercise. Repinning a pin from that board to your own Pinterest account would be a fun way to share this episode with others! 

If you’re not a Pinterest user, you can connect with Vickie on the social web in other channels. Twitter and Instagram are two of her favorites. You can find her at either location with the handle @vickiemaris (http://www.twitter.com/vickiemaris or http://www.instagram.com/vickiemaris). Vickie also appreciates when you connect with her in iTunes by subscribing to the podcast for free and by leaving your rating and feedback in iTunes. This step helps the show improve in its iTunes ranking. 

Mary Mitchell shares her wisdom from the time she was working as a health counselor. This conversation was conducted in early 2013, it has been repurposed for this show so that you can benefit from Mary’s insights. She shares several very useful tips and concepts for busy people who are striving to improve their eating habits. Her tips can help you in your weight loss journey as well. She addresses the primary and secondary foods. Before her conversation about secondary foods, Mary describes the importance of finding balance in the primary foods: career or purpose, physical activity, spiritual activity and relationships.  

Responding to Cravings In regards to healthy snacks to satisfy a craving, she reminds us about the importance of responding to a craving by drinking a glass of water first, then waiting about about 15 minutes. If you’re still having a craving, then respond with a healthy snack. But more often than not, you were actually dehydrated when you first noticed the craving, and the glass of water will take care of the situation. Drink up!

Did You Work Out Today?

I have finished the workout program, Focus T25, and recently started the new in-home fitness program, 21 Day Fix, with Beachbody trainer, Autumn Calabrese. Hear a quick description of this program that includes 30-minute workouts and containers for food portion control. Also hear a reminder of why it’s important to listen to your body.

If you’d like to easily track your own fitness stats, blood pressure readings, inches lost, and more, you can you can set up a free account through my Beachbody website. https://teambeachbody.com/heartsongfit

Let's connect! 

There are many ways you can connect with me on the social web. LinkedIn, Twitter and Instagram are a few of my favorites. You can find me at these locations with the handle @vickiemaris (https://linkedin.com/in/vickiemaris, https://www.twitter.com/vickiemaris or http://www.instagram.com/vickiemaris).

I also appreciate when you subscribe to the podcast for free in Apple Podcasts or other podcast directories. 

At the end of this episode, you'll hear a story from my mom, Lucille Maris. I have been  interviewing my Mom, for a book I am working on about my parents’ life during WWII. It stems from the memoirs my dad, Lt. Col., James R. Maris drafted about his 30 missions as a bomber pilot.

There will be more about the book in later episodes. For now, please enjoy this delightful story that Lucille shares about the day she and her girlfriends ran to the top of the Hotel Jayhawk, Topeka, Kansas, to wave farewell to their husbands as the men buzzed the top of the building in their B-24 bombers and headed on their journey overseas. Future episodes of the podcast will close with additional short stories told by Lucille to Vickie.

Would You Like to Hear a Farm Story? For this episode, I took the handheld recorder out in the snow and sat near the barn with the llamas. My Connemara pony, Kerrymor Madison, stood next to the fence, and our Jack Russell Terrier, Hope, joined the conversation.

You’ll get to learn about life on the farm as I describe our one-eyed llama, Stunning, whom Madison is so careful with as he moves around her. I also describe the coloring of Primary Colors and how we send the fleeces, sheared in the spring, to the mill for processing into roving and yarn.

I also share a story about the harsh 2014 winter and the day we found Lily, the llama, shivering in the barn. Lily got to live in the old farm house for a few hours as she warmed up and enjoyed watching Let’s Make a Deal on the TV. 

Did You Work Out Today? Vickie encourages you in your fitness journey as she talks about her experience following the schedule in Focus T25 to build cardio, strength, and flexibility. She has finished the first five weeks of Focus T25, or the Alpha section, and has moved on to the final five weeks, or Beta.

My thoughts about Focus T25:  “There are three things that really stand out to me in this program. 1) I love Shaun T. He is an amazing athlete and professional fitness trainer. He keeps me motivated, and, well, focused! I also love that these workouts are designed to be done five days a week and are only 25 minutes each. They fit in my day very well. And 3) the modifier who does a low-impact version of the moves has enabled me to do this difficult program and gradually work up to some of the full versions of the moves. 

“My body has really been toning as I do this program, and the inches are melting from my waist line. Love it! I also keep track of my health stats and track my progress in weight loss, inches lost, my decreasing blood pressure and more. You can set up a free account through my Beachbody website.”  https://www.teambeachbody.com/heartsongfit

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My mom, Lucille Maris, shares her secrets to keeping fit and healthy at age 91 ½ years (she is 99 at the time of this edit!). Lucille talks about eating healthy from the time she grew up in the 1920s to her diet of meals she prepares in the kitchen of her condo today which are for a gluten-free diet. 

Lucille talks about outdoor activities in the one-room school house she attended to moving on to the large high school, Urbana High, where she played sports from 1936 to 1940. She was a three-sport athlete:  softball, volleyball and basketball (which women played as a half-court game at that time). In her sophomore year, she was captain of the girl’s softball team. She also discusses the PE (physical education) requirements of a high school student during that era of United States history.

In another section, Lucille talks about her switch to a gluten-free diet and what motivated her to start eating gluten-free. As an outstanding cook, she gives you ideas about how to make gluten-free cooking part of your life. Here is clarification about the grains that contain gluten and that you should avoid if eating gluten free:  

wheat, barley, rye and triticale (a cross between wheat and rye). If you’d like to learn more about a gluten-free diet, you can visit the Healthy Lifestyle Newsletter from Mayo Clinic:  http://www.mayoclinic.org/healthy-living/nutrition-and-healthy-eating/in-depth/gluten-free-diet/art-20048530

Lucille’s husband (my dad), Professor and Lt. Col. James R. Maris, was a pilot in WWII and flew B-24 bombers. He served the United States of America in active and reserve duty for more than 20 years. Lucille introduces the subject in this episode. 

Future episodes contain short stories that Lucille tells about her life as a stateside bride during WWII. These are at the end of several upcoming episodes. Through her stories, you’ll feel how she dealt with the stresses of the time, and you’ll laugh and cry along with her as she recounts vivid memories of those days. 

In this episode she talks about a one-room apartment she lived in with no kitchen privileges while Dad was on base. She also talks about sitting through a double-feature movie twice one day to pass the time while she had no communication with dad and was worried about his safety.

Book Review Learn a few insights about the marketing book, Fascinate, by Sally Hogshead. The author teaches you about how to captivate your audience and lead them to trust, believe and respect you. You can connect with Sally on Twitter:  @sallyhogshead or visit her website at www.sallyhogshead.com

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