Do you wake up most mornings feeling overwhelmed? Do you long for more energy and better health? Are you self-conscious, insecure, or fearful about trying a new fitness or weight loss program? Do you wish that you were leading a more meaningful life?

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.