If you answered yes to any of these questions, it may be time for a lifestyle makeover, says author and fitness coach Bridgette Collins. Bridgette started MAC Fitness (Making-A-Commitment to Fitness) in 2002 to educate, coach, and motivate individuals who struggle with adopting healthier lifestyle habits.

During our interview, Bridgette stressed the importance of taking steps today to start living the life you deserve.

You suggest women take a look at three areas of their lives when considering a lifestyle makeover. What are those three focal areas?
Today’s woman wants to live a life that’s fun and exciting, simplified, healthy, and offers a sense of purpose. A lifestyle makeover occurs when you strategically plan, pursue, and achieve the lifestyle that suits your desires as they relate to your mind, body and soul. For example:

• Your Mind – the way you think about your life, career, relationships, and purpose
• Your Body – the choices you make relative to exercising and eating better
• Your Soul – the way you feel and believe about your whole being

Is a lifestyle makeover something I could do myself or do I need the help of a lifestyle coach or personal trainer?
A lifestyle or fitness coach can propel you forward beyond the point of uncertainty or the point where you tend to get stuck. If you want to implement healthier lifestyle habits, but don’t know where to start, a fitness coach may be your best option. A coach will help you figure out a strategy for developing, implementing and maintaining a healthier lifestyle. Your coach will design a program (how to eat healthier and how to incorporate fitness activities into your daily routine) that suits your lifestyle and allows you to make positive behavioral changes. His/her role can be expanded to include adjusting your program when the roadblocks and detours of life affect your progress.

You write about choice, faith, determination, and perseverance playing an important role in living a healthy life? Please explain.
Knowing that poor lifestyle choices will eventually evolve into health concerns like diabetes, heart disease, and cancer, it’s important that women realize the one thing they have to their advantage is the power of choice. Taking responsibility for your actions and learning that faith, determination, and perseverance are necessary for rearranging your priorities and embracing healthier habits.

What are three of the biggest challenges that your female clients face when trying to make healthy lifestyle changes? What’s your advice for overcoming those challenges?
The “Biggest Challenges” are:

1. Challenge One – Balancing obligations, ambitions, and values surrounding their faith, family, career, finances, and relationships;
2. Challenge Two – Eating the right foods, prepared the right way, in the right quantity, and at the right time; and
3. Challenge Three – Finding or blocking out time to exercise (time management).

My advice to women is to make their health and fitness a priority. Evaluate all the things vying for your attention, weed out those things that add no value, prioritize those things that are essential (faith, health, family, etc.), and explore your options for making small, healthy changes. For example, if you’re a breakfast skipper, try to incorporate breakfast into your daily morning routine. That’s a small change that could easily include a slice of whole grain toast, a piece of fruit, and a low-fat dairy product.

The one thing you have to your advantage is the power of choice. You choose whether you eat breakfast or not. You choose whether you’ll exercise for 30 minutes, three to five times a week. You choose whether you’ll eat an orange or a slice of pie. The power of choice is yours.

Bridgette Collins’ new book, Destined to Live Healthier: Mind, Body and Soul – www.destinedtolivehealthier.com, will be available the end of August 2008.

As you consider your summer style options, remember it’s never to late to start making healthier choices. Regardless of your goals for summer fashion and beach wear, staying healthy is an all year affair. But with 23 days until the official start of summer, we thought you might need a little inspiration.  Kristine Louis, former Heart and Style Big Rewards Health Coach, personal trainer and owner of My Body My Way Fitness Studio , offers 16 simple strategies to help you prepare for a healthy and vibrant summer season.

1. First things first, commit to the activities outlined on this list.
2. Tell a trusted friend that you are committing to the activites on this list and provide him/her with an update every week on your progress.
3. Encourage that same friend, if they are open to joining you, to committing to this list as well. (Having a workout or health buddy will increase your odds of success).
4. Find a piece of clothing that you would like to fit into by summer and hang it up where you can see it everyday.
5. Try on that article of clothing once per week to see how you are progressing.
6. Do some form of cardiovascular exercise for 30 minutes Mondays thru Saturdays, resting on Sundays.  Cardiovascular exercise is anything that gets your heart rate up.  For example:  brisk walking; jogging; swimming; playing a sport.
7. Do a total body exercise program 3 days a week either M,W,F or T,TH,S.
8. Increase your water consumption by 8 ounces (1 glass) every other day until you are drinking ½ your bodyweight in water, then maintain that amount.
9. Take a multivitamin everyday.
10. Eat three small meals consisting of a lean protein, a high fiber starchy carbohydrate, and vegetables, along with two snacks consisiting of fruit or a meal replacement bar or shake.
11. Read 10 pages of a motivational or inspirational book that will give you a bigger vision of yourself.
12. Take the stairs whenever possible instead of the elevator.
13. Park in spaces that are further away from entrances to get a few more steps in everywhere you go.  Besides, these spaces are the easiest to find.
14. Walk with a purpose to all your destinations to kick up the calorie burn.
15. Keep a journal of these activities to help you with accountability. 
16. Celebrate in advance the fact that it takes 21 days to establish a habit and for the next 23 days you will be creating the momentum that will take you to, and through, a healthier summer.

June 21st  is the first day of summer, what will you do in the next 23 days?

Losing weight isn’t easy, but think of the benefits. Losing weight will help you feel better, make it easier to be physically active, and can improve blood pressure, cholesterol and blood sugar levels.

You can make losing weight a family project or set your own personal goal. Pick a day to begin. Focus on making simple changes on a daily basis. Make these changes slowly and stick to them. If you fall of the wagon for a day or two, don’t beat yourself up. We all have moments of weakness and days when it can be hard to stick to a healthy eating and exercise plan. The key is to quickly remember and recommit to your weight loss goal.

Follow the steps below to help you form habits that will that will bring you closer to reaching your weight loss goals.

Choose lower fat, lower calorie foods:

• Prepare food by broiling or baking instead of frying.
• Eat fewer breaded and fried foods. Breading and frying foods like fish, shrimp, chicken, and vegetables add fat and calories.
• Eat lean meat, fish, and poultry without skin. Choose poultry breasts and drumsticks more often than the wings and thighs.
• Eat more fruits, whole grain, and vegetables. If you are a nibbler, choose fruit and vegetables as snacks more often.
• Use the food label to choose lower calorie foods.
• Drink fewer alcoholic and high-calorie beverages.
• Drink six to eight glasses of water each day.

Limit your portion size:

• Eat smaller portions–do not go back for seconds.
• Try eating only one serving of high-fat, high-calorie foods like pizza, ice cream, or chips. Slowly cut back on your portion size. Substitute with lower fat, lower calorie foods during the rest of the day.

Related Articles

• How to Double Your Weight Loss
• Diet Wars Revisited: Low-Carb, Low-Fat or Mediterranean

Keep moving:

• Be physically active for at least 30 minutes a day, or as much as you can.
• Park your car a block or two away and walk.
• Get off one or two bus stops early and walk the rest of the way.
• Use the stairs.
• Dance. See if you remember those old school moves or learn some new ones.

Try to lose weight slowly. Lose about 1/2 to 1 pound a week until you reach a healthy weight. If you need help staying on track, seek support from friends and family and don’t be afraid to ask for help from your doctor or other health professional.

References: National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute, NIH, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services

1. Go for a walk with a friend, a neighbor, your family or take the dog with you.
2. Don’t take the elevator. Use the stairs.
3. Park further away, walk a few more steps.
4. Play with your children, grandchildren or friends.
5. Clean the house.
6. Paint your walls.
7. Turn up the music and dance.
8. Grab your bike and head out to the nearest trail or park.
9. Play backyard football or Frisbee with your kids.
10. Stretch while watching your favorite TV show.

Looking your best is an important part of your overall wellness, but it shouldn’t prevent you from staying fit. If you’re avoiding exercise because you don’t want to ruin your hairstyle, consider styling your hair in ways that suit your busy and active lifestyle. Try a natural hairstyle, short haircut, pin curls, braids, twists or dreadlocks. Wraps, ponytails and straight hairstyles can also be a lot easier to maintain than styles that require a curling iron or large amounts of hairspray or other chemicals that might damage your hair.

Ideally, you wouldn’t allow your hair to limit your activity choices, but it’s a real choice that many of us make. If your one of those sisters that has to have that “fresh from the beauty salon” look at all times, find solutions and activities that help you strike that balance between your health and beauty needs. Remember, hairpins are a tried and tested method for keeping hair in place. If you fear that humidity or being outside in the sun will get to your hair, join a gym, try a workout tape or other indoor activities. With patience, you’ll learn how to sync your hair care demands with your active lifestyle and stop letting them get in the way of your health.