This week, your challenge is to figure out your RELATIVE HEALTH. This exercise should be done in addition to getting clearance from your doctor before starting this or any other fitness program.

CHALLENGE: Measure Your Relative Health. This challenge focuses on 10 major components to your healthy lifestyle. Using the list below, conduct an easy at-home assessment of your health:

Health Components	Current	Goal	Difference
Height
Weight
BMI***
Inches (Chest/Hip/Thighs/Waist)
Physical Ability
Injury
Stress Level
Sleeping Habits
Eating Habits
Workout Habits

***BMI formula: [weight (lbs)/(height in inches x height in inches)] x 703. For example, a person who weighs 150 pounds and is 5 feet 3 inches tall has a BMI of 26.5. [ 150 lbs. (63 inches) x (63 inches) ] x 703 = 26.5

Height  & Weight Component: While your height will not change, regular workouts and balance activities have been shown to improve posture which can make you appear taller and leaner. Regular workouts and healthy, balanced eating can result in weight loss or lean muscle gain of up to 2 lbs per week. Use this information to make your goals manageable.

BMI Component: Use the formula above to calculate your Body Mass Index. Underweight < 18.5, Normal = 18.5 – 24.9, Overweight = 25 – 29.9, Obesity > 30 (According to NIH.gov)

Inches: Use a tape measure to calculate the circumference of your chest, hips, thighs and waist at the widest point. A waist circumference of 31.5 or higher is considered “at risk” (According to NIH.gov)

Physical Ability & Injury: What are you able to do? What do you want to be able to do? What hurts/aches and what restrictions does it cause?

Stress Level & Sleeping Habits: Do certain activities increase your stress level or make you anxious? Stress increases your Cortisol levels and makes weight loss difficult. This can also affect you’re the quality and consistency of your sleep; including chronic fatigue and insomnia.

Eating & Workout Habits: Weight Loss or Gain is all about the balance between your intake and your burn.  But remember, you have to eat enough to give your body enough energy for physical activity.

RD Fit: Week 1 – - What to do?

Ease Your Way Into Fitness This Week: Crash Diets and High Intensity Workout Programs that come out of nowhere are not sustainable. Start with adding an extra 1 to 2 days to your regular fitness regimen. If you are pretty inactive, this may mean just working out 2 times a week to begin with. If you are fairly active, kick up your current workout by adding 2-5 more reps to each of your exercises.

Play With Your Food: Healthy food is just as (if not more) delicious than junk food when you make it the right way. You may not consider yourself an at-home-chef yet, but you could be soon. Check out online resources for healthy recipes and start playing around with traditional meals.

Dining In Tip of the Week: Don’t be fooled by “healthy” menu items at your favorite restaurant. Many salads at the most popular American eateries are over 800 calories per serving!

Doctor’s Orders: Pain is not the problem. It’s the symptom. Pain is your body’s way of flagging you down and getting you to pay attention to an issue in a certain area of your body. So,instead of popping an instant relief pill, try to figure out the problem behind the pain so that it can be properly treated.

RD Fit: Week 1 – - Where are you?

Let’s see where you are in the RD Fit: Lifestyle Challenge program.

You’ve made the decision to live a healthier lifestyle, but what does that mean for you? There are three things you need to know:

1. Health is user-specific 2. Health can be subjective 3. Health is relative

User Specific Health – Your health is as unique as your personality – - the way you react to certain foods, your fitness level, your ability to balance work, recreation and rest.

Subjective Health – Person A feels guilty unless they go to the gym 4 times a week, Person B calls it a win if they walk from the couch to the refrigerator. Their perceptions of health, motivation and activity are very different and this can affect their approach to and success in a wellness program.

Relative Health – Because their mindsets and starting points are different, when Person A decides to train for a marathon and Person B decides to go to the gym consistently, they will both see improvements relative to their original health.