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In case you just found Fit Body Full Life, let me tell you a bit about our blog:

We’re Christina and Tom, a husband-wife duo in love with health and fitness (and with each other)!

I’m Christina Chitwood-Parkin (Christina Chitwood from my days as a competitive ice dancer). My husband, Tom Parkin, is British. I met him at university when I was an ice dancer representing Great Britain.

At Fit Body Full Life, we offer information about health, fitness, weight loss, golf, and golfing fitness. We provide ideas to to spark motivation, inspiring you toward achieving your goals. We aim to help you achieve your best version of yourself rather than just aspiring to be like others.

Here are just a few of our post categories:

Fitness

Or more specialized fitness, such as:

Golfing Fitness

Golfing Tips

Running

Pilates

Zumba

Yoga

Housecleaning Workouts

Please add us on Google+. And check out the right sidebar for ways to follow us via other social media. In the right sidebar, you’ll also find a list of the most popular posts on Fit Body Full Life right now!

Daylight Saving Time has come again, and most of us are now adjusted to more light later in the day. I wish it were like this all year round. But since it’s only available for half of the year, take advantage of Daylight Saving Time and use it for a boost in your exercise routine.

A lot of people have felt the motivation from their New Year’s resolutions start to dwindle by now (if it hasn’t disappeared already). Everybody needs boosts at different times of the year. More hours of sunlight in the evening can help you feel happier and more motivated to be active when you come out of work into pretty, sunny weather (depending on where you live!).

Here are some ideas for exercising in the longer daylight hours:

1. Take a walk. You could go by yourself, with a friend, partner, kids, or pet. (Usually I would say walk your dog. However, I recently saw a teenage girl walking her pet lizard!) Also, take advantage of a scenic route. You can just walk around your neighborhood, or you can walk around a park, on a beach, on a trail, or in the mountains.

2. Take a bike ride. Riding a bike is not only great cardio exercise, but it can also be relaxing, especially if you have a good trail near you. It’s nice if you don’t have to worry about cars.

3. Go for a swim. Go to a heated outdoor pool (unless it’s warm enough where you live), use a pool at your gym, or swim in the ocean if you’re lucky enough to have an ocean near you. I tend to use a wetsuit if I’m going to be in the ocean for awhile, as our water in San Diego isn’t that warm. If you live somewhere like Hawaii, you might just need a swimsuit year-round.

4. Surf. Surfing is great exercise, and it can feel very peaceful.

5. Rollerblade. Rollerblading can be lots of fun with friends or family. It’s a similar workout to ice skating, but you can enjoy the sunshine at the same time.

6. Go to the gym or an exercise class. Although you might not be in the sunshine at the gym, it’s much easier to exercise when you finish work and it’s still light outside. If you feel motivated, go for it!

7. Golf. Go play some golf either on the driving range or on the course. If you have enough energy to have a pull cart and walk the course, you’ll get an even better workout.

8. Play any sport outdoors. You could play basketball, tennis, soccer, football … any sport you like. It’s even more fun when it’s light outside.

9. Take your workout outside. If you do bodyweight circuits or exercises that don’t require weights or many weights, take your workout to your local park. Some parks are now geared more toward exercise (such as Nobel Athletic Fields in the UTC area in San Diego with exercise stations around the park for pullups, pushups, dips, and other exercises.)

10. Go for a jog or a power walk around your city. Just because you live there doesn’t mean you can’t explore your city or go to your favorite areas and power walk or jog around them.

Hopefully, you’re feeling more happy and energetic with the extra sunlight in the evenings. So choose your favorite type of exercise or one of the ideas above, and try to get some exercise in every day! Enjoy your new exercise boost!

Photo Credit: Photo by Joits at Flickr Creative Commons

If you’re a blogger, work at a desk most of the day, or just find yourself seated most of the time, you can still improve your health and fitness. The trick … exercise while you’re seated!

Exercise Tips for Bloggers and Other Computer Users

Whenever you’re seated, it’s important to think about your posture every now and then. Make sure that your back is straight, you’re not slouching, and your head is in alignment.

If you have a fitball, try replacing your typical office chair and instead sit on a fitball so that you can get better abs, posture, and fitness.

Another great option is to keep your office chair but get a gel fit disc, place it on your chair, and sit on the gel disc throughout the day. The fit disc creates an unstable surface that is comfortable but challenges your muscles.

If you have a weaker back, back pain, or just want a bit of padding for your back area, you could get a fitball chair. A fitball chair is adjustable so that you can set the height for your desk and support your back. It still is challenging for your muscles.

Don’t just sit on your fitball or exercise disc. Make an effort to rock from side to side and front to back. Make circular motions each direction as well as figure eights. Also, lift your feet off the ground and balance on your fitball or disc.

It’s very important to be aware of your posture any time you’re doing movements as you’re training your muscles. Not only will your muscles be working out more throughout the day, but moving rather than sitting still will help you be more alert.

I would still recommend trying to exercise a little bit every day in addition to your seated workout and/or scheduled workouts at least three times a week. Remember, it’s not about the time you work out. It’s about working out consistently and trying to improve your health. For example, if you’re used to being sedentary most of the day, start out with 10 minutes of additional exercise every day and work up to more.

My mom, Deb Chitwood, is a full-time writer/blogger. She credits her toned abs to using a fitball chair and fit disc on an office chair. (She rotates the two for variety.) She also works out for an hour three times a week but says she saw a very noticeable improvement in her abs just from sitting on a fitball or fit disc.

If you stick with the workout for bloggers and other computer users, look forward to more toned abs and better stability! Challenge yourself and enjoy a healthier you!

Photo Credit: Photo by anabananasplit at Flickr Creative Commons.

When the weather outside is frightful, but a game of golf sounds delightful…  Try these indoor tips to get that golf fix without getting wet.

1. Practice putting. This is an easy one to do as long as you have some carpet – or even hardwood floor – somewhere in your house. Use patterns on your carpet or any straight edges (walls or doors) to focus on making a good straight stroke. If you have a hardwood floor that is very flat, try some slow putts and see how your ball rolls.

If you are imparting any sidespin or jumping the ball it will show up. Most carpets or rugs will have a grain on them. This can be a great educational tool to see how the ball reacts across, up or down the grain.

2. Work on your posture and alignment. Posture and alignment are some of the first things we work on when starting to play golf and also some of the most important. Touring pros will never stop working on posture and alignment.

Every day you wake up, your body will most likely have a slightly different posture. Some nights you sleep funny and one side of your body feels stiff. This can throw off your posture and alignment. So take the time on those rainy days to check yourself out in front of a big mirror and find out what posture pitfalls you are prone to.

3. Work on developing swing feelings. When we get to the practice ground it is very easy to just start hitting balls without any intention. Sometimes this can be good. But when you are working on swing changes it can be great to have the time without the temptation of hitting balls to just play around and feel.

See what you can feel when you try different movements, watch yourself in the mirror and experiment. You may just find that feeling to take with you to the course.

Note: If you live in the San Diego area, be sure to check out my post “Scratch Golf Moves into the Great Outdoors”!

It’s not too late to set goals this year. The New Year has passed, but year-round goal setting can help you immensely to achieve what you want.

One key aspect in health and fitness is consistency. Set a goal to work out a certain amount of times each week for the next month. It doesn’t have to be a hectic schedule. Just figure out what is manageable for you and try to stick with it. After a month, review to see if it’s working in your schedule and if you are getting the results you want.

Life is unpredictable, so it’s important to review. Your schedule might have changed, or you might want to add in another workout if you have the time and want to get better results.

S.M.A.R.T. Goals

A great way to set goals that works with the above is setting S.M.A.R.T. goals.

Smart goals stand for:

Specific

Measurable

Appropriate

Realistic

Time-Bound

Here’s an example of a S.M.A.R.T. goal:

Specific: You want to lose 5 pounds.

Measurable: You should be able to objectively measure your progress. Weigh yourself weekly and also measure yourself. If your weight is staying the same but your measurements are going down, you’re losing fat but gaining muscle. Therefore, you’re healthier and could still be considered achieving your goal.

Appropriate: The goal should be appropriate for you. For example, if you’re considered underweight for your height or your doctor is telling you you’re too thin, then this isn’t an appropriate goal for you. If you’re carrying an extra 5 pounds, then this would be an appropriate goal for you.

Realistic: If you have a health issue that makes losing weight difficult for you or you tend to struggle with losing weight, set your goal longer than the typical goal of losing 1-2 pounds per week. Also, you don’t want to be losing more than 1-2 pounds per week because you’d be losing muscle and not fat. That would be detrimental to your health and not a realistic goal to improve your health.

Time-bound: If you lose 1-2 pounds per week, set your goal for a month or 5 weeks for losing 5 pounds. If you’re 150 pounds, you would write your affirmation or goal as “I am 145 pounds by February 11, 2012.” If you’re planning to ultimately lose more than 5 pounds, you could say, “I am 145 pounds or less by February 11, 2012” in case you’re one of the lucky ones who loses 2 pounds per week.

Posts on Goal Setting

Here are some other posts on goal setting you’ll find here and at Christina Chitwood Performance:

Go for It with All Your Energy!

Bring in the New Year with Goals

Challenge Yourself

New Year, New Goals

Scratch Golf Accelerated is going places … Oaks North Golf Course in Rancho Bernardo, San Diego, to be more precise! This move is a very exciting one. Relocating to the 27-hole Ted Robinson designed course gives Scratch an opportunity to provide more on-course teaching and still keep the features that make Scratch great – such as the HATS level system, Scratch Skills Handicap System, Scratch golf curriculum and Showtime!

I am happy to be running the operation at Oaks North and look forward to developing Scratch Golf San Diego into THE place to start, improve or perfect your golf game.

I encourage anyone interested in training with Scratch Golf San Diego to contact me at 619-985-7511 or tomparkingolf@gmail.com. I will be happy to supply you with any information you require or schedule a meeting to show you what Scratch is all about.

Here are a few of the benefits of training with Scratch:

• Scheduled training for putting, approach shots and full swing
• Golf-specific fitness training
• Peformance data collected and tracked via online profile
• Full curriculum of practice drills by world leading teaching pro Rick Smith
• HATS level system makes progression fun and easy for kids
• On-course training

I wish you a wonderful Christmas and Happy New Year!

Does cleaning excite you? I know I’m not a person who gets excited about cleaning. However, I do get excited about fitness – especially Zumba!

I’ve always been a busy person, and I was raised in a family who likes to be busy. When it comes to fitting in workouts, that’s a priority for me. My mom feels the same way.

My mom and I love having clean houses, but we found our workouts came first. So we decided to combine cleaning and working out. My mom’s been testing it out to see if it inspired her to clean more often. As her Zumba instructor, I’ve taught my mom many Zumba classes (even on Skype), and she’s learned a lot of the Zumba moves from me.

My mom works out for an hour three times each week. Zumba is her favorite workout (either with me as her instructor or by using Zumba DVDs). We decided to make one of her workouts a cleaning workout where she vacuums, mops wood floors, and dusts while doing Zumba.

This has become a fun way for my mom to do workouts. Plus, her house is looking ever so sparkly! So I want to share with you tips to make your cleaning enjoyable by combining it with dance and Zumba.

1. Go to a Zumba class near you and use some of your favorite moves from that class while you’re cleaning.

2. Buy a Zumba DVD and use the steps you remember – or make a point of learning specific steps to use – while cleaning.

3. Use your hips as much as you can while cleaning. You could have a goal of trying to keep your hips moving the entire time.

4. Play your DVD on a TV or nearby sound system. Or you can use my mom’s technique and play the Zumba music in your head. If you really want to go for it, sing or hum the Zumba music.

5. See how much you can work up a sweat. Try setting a timer for a specific amount of time, and keep on cleaning and dancing until the timer goes off.

Enjoy staying in shape and having a cleaner house!

When you think of ways to improve your performance, fitness might be one of the first things you think of. How about flexibility?

Improving your flexibility lengthens your muscles and helps your posture, making you appear more confident. So working on your flexibility is actually one of the more important things to do when working to improve your performance.

Here are 5 ways to improve your flexibility:

Read the entire article

Now that the winter months are upon us, I wanted to share some tips with you to help you score well and enjoy the game.

Lots of layers – OK, it might sound like a no brainer, but wrapping up warm is a must for when the colder weather arrives. To help keep you at the perfect temperature, wear several layers rather than one thick, bulky one. This will help you stay mobile, and you can add or remove layers to stay at the right temperature.

Play the yardage you are hitting that day – When the weather is cooler and wetter the air becomes thicker and denser, so the ball won’t travel as far. If you hit your 7 iron 150 yards on a hot summer’s day, be fully prepared to see that same club fly 135-140 yards in the winter. Warm up on the range and try to gauge how far you are hitting the ball that day.

Adjust your clubs – A lot of modern drivers and woods are adjustable. You might consider playing around with the loft and weighting to maximize ball carry, as with wet fairways you will lose distance from lack of roll. A golf simulator is the perfect place to do this. Try adding some loft if you can and add weight to the bottom of the club. These will both promote a higher ball flight and more carry. There are a lot of factors to consider here though. Your personal swing, driver head, shaft and ball will all affect the outcome of a drive.

Get a grip – With wetter ground, it can be easy to slip mid-swing and make a mess of things. Make sure you have shoes with sufficient traction. Golf shoes are more affordable now than ever and comfier to wear. So staying as steady as a mountain goat has never felt so good on the feet.

I hope these tips help you stay on the fairways and greens during the next few months. Stay warm, have fun and have a great Thanksgiving!

Photo Credit: Photo by Ard Hesselink at Flickr Creative Commons.

With the summer gone and holiday season approaching, fitness may be out of mind. But that doesn’t mean it has to be. You can keep fit and healthy this holiday season by getting involved in fitness for a cause.

That way you’ll be training for and participating in an event that you feel strongly about, whether the actual event is this fall, winter, spring, or summer. Training for a cause will motivate you to do more fitness this fall.

Here are some ideas of fitness activities I’ve seen as part of a cause:

• Running
• Walking
• Biking
• Swimming
• Triathlon
• Zumba
• Dancing
• Aerobics
• Ice Skating

Any kind of fitness style that you can do can be done for a cause. And about any sport for fun or as a more serious sport can be done for a cause. There are many different causes you can get involved in, such as research for birth defects, Muscular Dystrophy, Multiple Sclerosis, or various types of cancer.

My mom told me about a timely idea of someone involved in fitness for a cause. The Love Rally mission for November is in support of Ed Roshitsh Running for Vets from Sea to Shining Sea, who’s training for a Run Across America in March 2012.

Check my post on Top 10 Ways to Perform for a Cause for more ideas.

Happy training for a cause!

Photo Credit: 2010 Race for the Cure by Diogo Vieira at Flickr Creative Commons.