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Winter is almost upon us! Your skin will start to feel the harsh effects that the cold, wind, rain, snow, dryness caused by indoor heaters, and lack of sunshine will bring to your face and body. Your skin will need to be moisturized, exfoliated and moisturized again. Keep moisture always on your mind with the choices you make in your skin care regime. Your skin functions and acts differently during the winter months, so you need to change your daily routines. Here are a few tips with Fit2B on Your Skin’s products that will combat the harsh results that winter will bring on.

Cleanse your face: “Immerse”- Our Creme based, charcoal face wash.

During the winter months you want to stay away from any foaming and soap cleanser washes that lather. “Immerse” is a creme based cleanser that contains oils that keep your skin moisturized, fights off blemishes with the charcoal, and has essential oils that smell amazing! “Immerse” is the perfect tool to fight off dryness all year round.

Tone your face: “Toned” – Our grapefruit essential oil toner

It is always good to follow up after you wash with “Immerse” with a good toner that seals up those vital oils and vitamins you just put on your skin. The grapefruit essential oil smells refreshing and soothes and balances.

Moisturize Your Face: “Strength” – face moisturizer & “Lift” – Under eye creme

“Strength” is a heavier crème that protects your skin in any weather, but especially in the winter months. If your skin is especially dry around your lips, eyes, and hands feel free to us Fit2B on Your Skin’s “Lift” – Under eye creme in those areas. If your skin is itching it is because the dry air is causing the moisture on the top layer of your skin to evaporate. Slather those areas with extra moisturizer until your skin feels relief.

Moisturize Your Hands & Body: “Balance Hand & Body Moisturizer”

Washing your hands is crucial to battle against colds and flues that come about during the winter months. Always apply a heavy creme moisturizer to stay away from chapped skin caused by excessive hand washing and the weather. Fit2B on Your Skin’s “Balance Hand & Body Moisturizer” is thick and creamy. The essential oils of jasmine, geranium, rose, ylang ylang and lavender not only smell amazing, but add balance to your life as well.

Exfoliate Your Face: “Define” – exfoliant with jojoba beads

Always, always exfoliate, but especially during the winter months. Exfoliate a minimum of twice per week to remove dead skin cells and allow your skin to absorb the extra moisture you are applying. Drinking lots of water helps re-hydrate your skin too. For those of you with flaky skin, have you ever wondered what is happening with your skin? Especially during the winter months there are thousands of dry skin cells needing to be sloughed off the surface, but if it doesn’t happen then they get all clumped together due to the added moisturizer being applied to the skin. Don’t be flaky, exfoliate!

Fit2B on Your Skin has amazing skin products that are paraben and harsh chemical free. They are made from organic and vegan products, they are scented with pure 100% essential oils that not only smell wonderful, but are able to be fully absorbed and be utilized by our bodies. Each product not only has it’s own unique job, but they each have their own unique smell as well.

To order, or want more information please go to http://fit2b.us/skin/. “like” us on facebook.

Thank you for reading the Fit2Blog today! What are your thoughts about what you read? Please leave a reply or a question, and be sure you’re taking advantage of our amazing TummySafe™ workouts!

Finding a skincare line that is “fit to be” on your skin in a grocery aisle packed with lying labels requires a degree in chemistry these days. Nothing makes me slam a bottle back on the shelf faster than when I see a label that claims it has essential oils, yet none is found in the ingredient list and instead – INSTEAD – fragrance or parfum, meaning there are synthetics and possibly hidden preservatives!

We will unveil the beautiful labels at our party on July 6th!

To say that I have been eager for the opportunity to place my Fit2B brand on a truly “healthy” and “fit” product line that is safe for all skin types would be an understatement. Plus, I was told it was a no-brainer: fit body, inside and out, nourishing the body, mind and soul. Providing a creme that heals a baby’s sore bum. Providing a moisturizer that has totally cleared up my adult acne. Providing a women’s balance line that – just breathing it – tames my crazies.

Fit2B on Your Skin… Fit2B on Your Baby… Fit2B Balanced

Each of these three lines are made simple and clean with organic bases and certified pure essential oils. We have been testing them on ourselves and our friends (with their permission and valuable feedback) for months, and we are beyond pleased with the results and very excited to unveil all TEN products at a party to be held in Portland, Ore. on Friday, July 6th.

Click here to learn a little more and RSVP

Fit2B on Your Skin has five facial care products. Fit2B on Your Baby has three baby care products including hair/body wash, diaper ointment and lotion. Fit2B Balanced contains two specialty products – a body mist and lotion – with essential oils guaranteed to calm, relax and stabilize mood and menstrual cycle side effects.

Just a quick testimony from ME about these products: They’ve cleared up my face. If you know me, you know what that means. I was never able to go out without coverup. I don’t need it anymore. The charcoal non-foaming cleanser totally purifies my skin while the moisturizer has healed my scars, and it does NOT make me break out! I have been using these products for over 6 months, and I am addicted to my skin regime now, whereas before I used to dread doing anything to my skin. Plus, it relaxes and refreshes me to breathe these natural scents!

Thank you for reading the Fit2Blog today! What are your thoughts about what you read? Please leave a reply or a question, and be sure you’re taking advantage of our amazing TummySafe™ workouts!

By: Jaime Arnold. We connected with Jaime via twitter in a conversation about crunches injuring spines. Jaime is a staff writer for backpainrelief.net and yoga enthusiast. Jamie is also an animal lover and avid traveler, and she was excited to write for us about beneficial back pain relief therapies. Jaime says… 

Incorporating aerobics, strengthening and stretching is instrumental in achieving middle back pain relief. Not only can these exercises improve stamina, muscle tone and flexibility, but they can also be beneficial to your overall health. As a result, you’ll be less likely to suffer from back pain. Exercise can be particularly helpful to people with previous back injuries or those with a medical condition that affects their spine.

Aerobic exercises— Low-intensity exercises include walking, biking, and swimming. These exercises can burn calories and improve muscle tone without the risk for overexertion. More importantly, these exercises strengthen your heart. Low-intensity exercises are more beneficial to back pain sufferers because they’re less strenuous, meaning there’s less of a risk for injury. Aerobic exercises can also result in weight loss, which can help relieve back pain.

Strength training— This physical activity can also lead to weight loss. However, for patients with back pain, strength training is an important aspect of treatment. While strength training can help alleviate back pain, it’s important not to overexert yourself. This can do more harm than good. Strength training can also be beneficial for those with a history of back pain. This is because improving muscle tone can prevent back-related injuries in the future. If you’re beginning a strength training regime, use light weights. As you strengthen your back, you’ll be able to use heavier weights. In order to strengthen back muscles try using strength training such as deadlifts, pull-ups, and/or rows. (Bethany says: If you have a diastasis, be sure to support your belly while leaning forward during back work. I also recommend work on your belly like the Pilates double-leg kick or the Yoga alternating half-locust)

Stretching— Yoga, pilates and other stretching exercises can help reduce back pain. By stretching on a regular basis, you can improve your flexibility. This especially helps those with a limited range of motion. While some discomfort is expected, these exercises shouldn’t be done if they cause additional pain. In addition to stretching muscles, tendons, and ligaments, these exercises focus on
breathing techniques. Stress can worsen back pain; however, yoga and pilates can release stress and reduce muscle tension. These can be instrumental in finding temporary relief of back pain.

Note: When exercising for back pain relief, or just for strengthening your core, crunches and crunch-like motions are more damaging than rewarding. Crunches place undue stress on your back muscles which can cause major back pain, in addition to being an ineffective way to work your abdominal muscles. Instead of crunches, try alternative exercises such as standing abdominal exercises and other core strengthening workouts involving a medicine ball or modified planks (on your elbows and knees with your belly supported if you still have a split in your ab muscles).

To prevent yourself from becoming bored, incorporate all three of the above exercise types into your weekly routine. With these exercises, you’ll notice a difference in how your body responds to lower and middle back pain. This can vary depending on the severity of your pain. People with mild to moderate back pain may experience relief within the first few weeks. However, it may take longer for patients with more serious back pain conditions. In fact, exercise may not be able to treat your back pain.

If you have pain, consult your doctor before beginning an exercise routine. He or she may want to evaluate your current medical condition before approving any physical activity.  If gentle exercise is unable to relieve back pain, you may need to go see a doctor again. He or she will be able to diagnose your condition, as well as recommend an effective treatment method. In most cases, exercise plays a large role in the treatment of back pain. Not only can exercise provide back pain relief, it can improve your overall health. However, exercise may not be able to alleviate your back pain, and you can explore other options on our site, Back Pain Relief.

Thank you for reading the Fit2Blog today! What are your thoughts about what you read? Please leave a reply or a question, and be sure you’re taking advantage of our amazing TummySafe™ workouts!

Moms often turn to oils and lotions to reduce stretch marks during pregnancy, but I am starting to wonder if preventing these scars is not only related to skin hydration and genetics but also to the tone of the muscles underneath the skin. The stronger your core is, the more pressure will be taken off your skin. I’m not talking about a six pack. Many women have strong six-packs but very weak CORE muscles and abdominal wall integrity. I’m talking more about the “corset” or “seatbelt” muscle, the one that pulls your belly button IN when you breathe OUT. That muscle is called your Transverse Abdominus or TA.

Your TA is your deepest most supportive abdominal muscle. It supports the uterus during pregnancy and pushing, and it helps take pressure off the pubococcygeus (PC) muscle. It is a researched, proven fact that if your TA  is weak, and your six-pack has already been abused by overworking, your diastasis (split in six-pack abs) will be larger and harder to get rid of after the baby, giving you a tummy pooch that actually worsens with crunches and planks. This is why I avoid certain pilates and yoga moves that overwork the core before or during pregnancy, setting your core up to separate MORE.

This is just me wondering “out loud,” but in my head it makes sense that if your TA is weak and deflated, allowing more outward pressure against the rectus abdominus (six pack) causing a larger split, then your skin will also get more stretched out as well. However, while I have read a LOT of research about how weak TA’s lead to wider diastasis and bigger pooches, I confess I haven’t seen any concrete research about a correlaton between stretch marks and strong abs. But I do know how binding your belly can provide amazing support during and after pregancy, and belly binding is a method of assisting the TA muscle in doing its job while it’s stretched out and while it’s healing after the birth.

I have one 36 week mama at Fit2B Studio who claims that our “Totally Transverse” workout that you get when you sign up for our newsletter made her belly muscles feel so much better and less stretched out. I never got stretch marks through my two pregnancies, and my abs were quite strong, but my TA was WEAK so I’m actually kind of contradicting myself here. My main – very unresearched theory – is that I think it’s a combo of the strong core and genes. However, my sisters didn’t get stretch marks either, and one only does zumba and pushups and the other one only walks and avoids all core work. So… What are your thoughts? Scroll down to leave a reply!

Thank you for reading the Fit2Blog today! What are your thoughts about what you read? Please leave a reply or a question, and be sure you’re taking advantage of our amazing TummySafe™ workouts!

When my college bestie Tricia of Seriously Smitten wrote on facebook about a running experience she had a couple days ago, it moved me to tears and I begged her to let me share it with my readers: ”As my feet hit the pavement, I see a woman up ahead who I can see is clearly walking with all her strength and I think, Try to catch up to her. As I quickly start to catch up I think, OK let’s pass her. As I begin to do that I think, Maybe I can lap her. As I do this and am feeling accomplished in doing so. I begin to feel bad that I found such joy in “beating” this woman who is working hard.

The necklace Tricia made for me

“Another lady shows up. You can tell she is in good shape physically fit and I see very quickly she is fast. Just then all my you can do this starts to fly out the window, and I begin the Well, she doesn’t have 3 kids, life hasn’t thrown her some hard curve balls - my usual excuses put onto her – and strangely I stop those thoughts. I find myself cheering fast girl on. You can do it. Whatever your goal is, you can reach it.

“Then I find myself cheering slow lady on. You can do it. You can reach your goal. You go, girl! Then I find myself saying YOU can do it you can reach your goal. As fast girl laps me she has slowed a bit – just enough that I think Maybe, just maybe, if I turn my swift walk into a run I can keep up. Maybe, not completly, but close.

“So my walk swiftens, turns to a jog, then a run and a little quicker run, and I am close – just behind her using her speed to pull me into my homestretch. At that moment I think There will always be someone faster and someone slower than me, but the point is that I do my best knowing I am NOT my own I was bought with a price and worth fighting for.

"You are not your own. You were bought with a price. Therefore honor God with your bodies." 1 Cor 6:20

“All I could hear was ‘Oooh, Jesus. Oooh Jesus alive in ME!’ Jesus is Alive in me. I need to live like that. My run was hard, feeling out of breath, legs soar and tired, but my heart was soaring. Jesus alive in me. This journey is going to be hard not going to reach my goals over night but with Jesus by my side I can do it, I will do it. As I finshed my cool down lap I gave it all I had and with tears streaming I sang out ‘Ooohh Jesus, oooohh Jesus alive in me!’

“I thanked fast girl as I left and told her, ‘You were the encouragment I needed today. Thank You!’ She looked at me a little funny and said, ‘You’re welcome.’ That, my friends, is the point: Encourage one another and live knowing that Jesus is Alive in YOU. And P.S. The sunshine and fresh air weren’t to shabby either.”

Tricia Ball is the owner of Seriously Smitten Keepsakes. She makes beautiful hand-stamped heirloom jewelry for customers all over America. I adore Tricia and her heart for loving her Creator, her family, and her friends. She lives in Oregon with her husband and three little warrior boys.

Thank you for reading the Fit2Blog today! What are your thoughts about what you read? Please leave a reply or a question, and be sure you’re taking advantage of our amazing TummySafe™ workouts!

We have some amazing things coming up, and I just want to take a moment to inform our blog followers about all of it.

1. We are partnering with Nisha Riggs of Healthy Moms Kitchen to create an amazing new product that will bring fitness and meal planning right to your email inbox every week. All for one low price! We will start promoting it on December 1st, and the first free event will take place right after Christmas!

2. We are participating in THREE giveaways! One is through Birth Without Fear who will be offering her followers a free 6 month membership and a free DVD. That will take place next week, and I will hyperlink that giveaway here when it happens. Then we are doing the Boost Your Buzz with Simply Stacie and Toast to 2012 with Makobi Scribe.

3. We are  now offering some great products and packages that you can find by clicking on products and services. We have a natural body butter called “Yo Coco Mint Creme” that smells like a chocolate mint treat that you can rub all over your dry spots! It is fit to be on your skin! We also have a “make your own” DVD option now, too, where you choose which workouts you want us to put on it, and we burn it and mail it to you.

4. We have moved our videos into Vimeo, but our members should still all be able to watch them here on the site once they log in. It’s only $9.95 a month for unlimited downloads, so what are you waiting for. Those holiday treats don’t just melt away off your hips by themselves!

Thank you for reading the Fit2Blog today! What are your thoughts about what you read? Please leave a reply or a question, and be sure you’re taking advantage of our amazing TummySafe™ workouts!

One of my friends who has lost nearly 200 lbs was facebooking about how she is now going to rehab her abs, shrink her midsection and tighten her core by going through diastasis rehab with The Tummy Team like I did. Then an interesting comment popped up on her facebook comment thread about the notion of spot reducing areas of our body.

This kind of confuses me cuz I’ve been told all along that u can’t spot reduce abs.

U can build the muscles, but it takes the cardio to reduce it.

This must be one of those issues like milk, in the 90′s its bad, bad, bad

and now drink milk cuz its so good

My friend recruited me by tagging me to speak to this question, and before I knew it my fingers were flying at my keyboard. This whole diastasis rehab concept with The Tupler Technique really does fly in the face of current personal trainer’s thought about not being able to shrink just one given area. Here’s what I said.

Tracy, you are right in terms of fat. You cannot spot reduce the fat of any given area. However, you can spot-lengthen or spot-shorten a muscle group. The deepest abs are unlike any other muscle in that they don’t connect bone to bone. Your transverse abdominus (TA) wraps all the way around your body. It’s a circular, girdle-like muscle that literally holds you together. Read more on my site about how this muscle affects the flattening of our stomach … 

So you can focus on any given muscle group to make it stronger, longer, bulkier, shorter, etc. And if you only worked one bicep super hard for the next 6 weeks, that one area of that one arm would respond in form based on whatever function you are putting it through. You might even lose a teen bit of fat but not enough to notice.

The transverse abdominus, though, is quite different! It’s bonded by connective tissue that gets so incredibly injured due to desk jobs, surgery, pregnancy, and stretching-focused sports like gymnastics or baseball where the thrower has to open up their core. So diastasis rehab is basically physical therapy for you abs, pulling them together and healing a part of your body that has become poochy and deflated and bloated.

Thank you for reading the Fit2Blog today! What are your thoughts about what you read? Please leave a reply or a question, and be sure you’re taking advantage of our amazing TummySafe™ workouts!

Your muscles‘ ability to move in various ways is a lot like a government employee’s vacation time: Either you use it, or you lose it! As you move past your prime, it is crucial for you exercise in ways that maintain the motions that will contribute to your quality of life when you are 50, 60, 70, 80, 90 … In other words, you should do today what you want to be able to do tomorrow.

Here's one of my mama friends playing today how she wants to play tomorrow!

Just ask yourself: Do you want to be able to ride a bike, pick up your grand children, hike a mountain, climb a ladder, perform pilates and yoga moves, and carry your own groceries when you are sixty-nine? How about seventy-nine? Because, let me tell you right now, if you are sitting on your rear all day at work, and then going home to sit around and watch television, do NOT expect to suddenly get fit and healthy at age 55 just in time for your sixties! If you want fitness then, you need to chase fitness now.

If your balance is bad now, how will you balance on top of a ladder in 20 years when you’re muscles have sarcopenia (age-related atrophy a.k.a. shrinkage) and your bones are degenerating? If your coordination or cardiovascular fitness have you puffing behind the pack now, you will not be living independently in your golden years. You will be dependent on others, you will be weak, and you will die early.

When I was in college getting my bachelors degree in Exercise and Sports Science, I learned a very scary thing: Over 50% of adults who lose their balance, fall and break a hip NEVER come out of the hospital. This means, your inability to balance can kill you! Pilates and Yoga are amazing for aging adults (and aging is anyone past their prime) because the combination of flexing and stretching doesn’t stress the joints yet loads them enough to build strength, bone density, stamina, not to mention improving longevity, balance and health.

Do you want to be the one with the walker or the one walking Portland to Coast? Exercise, specifically pilates and yoga and other weight bearing activities,  improves bone density and balance. When you have strong bones and good balance, you can be confident in your ability to perform the basic activities of daily living without help. If you are not using those precious movements today, you might as well kiss you ability to get up off the floor or sit down on a toilet goodbye in a few years. I’m curious to hear if you’ve witnessed this truth in people who are aging around you?

Thank you for reading the Fit2Blog today! What are your thoughts about what you read? Please leave a reply or a question, and be sure you’re taking advantage of our amazing TummySafe™ workouts!

Hey guys! The Love Drop team is at it again! Last month they gave over $9,200 worth of cash, goods and services to their recipient, the Stalnaker family, who had been going through a financially hard time due to the effects of the BP oil spill on the Louisiana economy. The family was in need of a car and the Love Drop team was able to surprise them with one, making it one of the most exciting Love Drops ever. You can watch how it all went down on YouTube here.

This month they rally behind the Aubins – a Michigan mother and her three children who are mourning the death of Keith, husband and father, after his lengthy battle with multiple health problems. Our goal is to raise at least $3,600 to pay the family’s rent for three months, which will allow them to focus on what they need to during this time, without fear of losing their home. Additionally, since Keith was an organ donor, he leaves a powerful legacy and the Love Drop team hopes to raise awareness of organ donation this month to honor Keith’s memory. Help us make this month special for the Aubins!

Fit2B Studio is a monthly sponsor of Love Drop, and we love what they do! Do you want to help? Here are three ways you can participate:

Give $25 towards rent <– Click this link to contribute $25 towards their rent for the next three months – it will relieve so much stress for them.

Give a gift or service – Gift cards are always helpful. Places like Target, Wal-mart, restaurants, etc would definitely help them out. Services too – especially those you can offer yourselves, or from your company.

Organ donation – We’re giving the Aubin’s the gift of knowing that the people on our team are organ donors. If you are one now, or pledge to be soon, please tell us so, and we’ll relay the total number as a gift at the Drop.
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Thanks everyone! We’ll let you know how it goes!

Thank you for reading the Fit2Blog today! What are your thoughts about what you read? Please leave a reply or a question, and be sure you’re taking advantage of our amazing TummySafe™ workouts!

I got an email this morning from a site called Thumbtack saying they would love to have more Pilates instructors listed. It’s hard to know where to legitimately list Fit2B Studio. I’ve been spammed a few times after listing on certain sites, and some like Manta claim to hand you the moon and the stars and thousands of new clients, and I’ve yet to see that happen. Of course if I would just upgrade for the low price of…

But Thumbtack does a couple of interesting things like posting your listing directly to craigslist for you. They give you extra “points” and claim that you’ll rank higher in google if you take the craigslist link they provide you and stick it on your site. So here we are on Craigslist per the help of Thumbtack.

Honestly I’ve lost track of all the sites we’re listed on, so that’s kindof why I’m making this post. Every time I list us on some new site promising lots of leads and increased traffic, I’ll post it in this blog. Please comment with sites you’ve listed yourself on that you enjoy and think work well for you. Thanks!

Thank you for reading the Fit2Blog today! What are your thoughts about what you read? Please leave a reply or a question, and be sure you’re taking advantage of our amazing TummySafe™ workouts!