“We are not meant to be still, and idle, and sit in front of computers or the television all day,” said trainer and broadcaster Amy Floyd Garrett.
“Our bodies are made, physically, to get us from point A to point B.”
Garrett graduated in 1988 from what was then East Texas State University, with double degrees in human resource management and physical education. A year later, she became a licensed athletic trainer, and eventually a massage therapist.
“Now I do personal training, mostly,” she said.
She went on: a personal trainer, she explained, “should take on the client by asking that person’s goals, and developing a movement workout around the person’s physical needs to meet that goal.”
Garrett is in her 50s and understands the importance of maintaining a healthy lifestyle at any age. She stressed that, whenever possible, exercise needs to be adapted to a person’s changing physical limits.
“So you have to go with what that person can physically do,” she said, “and there is a building process.” Every individual will be different when it comes to progression, regression, and maintenance of movement.
In order to keep the human machine in working order as long as possible, Garrett offered one three-pronged process to begin a new fitness plan for a new year. This combination of planned routine and mindfulness is the first factor in making a positive change.
The first prong?
“Go to bed, if you can, at the same time,” Garrett said. “Get up at the same time.”
Take three minutes for quiet, private time in the morning. Garrett calls this “thanks and meditation.”
“Just breathe in, breathe out; think of someone or something to be thankful for,” she said.
Children, a pet, or a rose are some examples; simply find one minute of gratefulness for three different things or concepts.
Garrett added, “Find that grateful attitude, because already it will put you in a different mood that morning — and that’s just getting up.”
The plan’s second prong is movement: just getting out of bed in those first few minutes and owning them. It’s about taking control of our schedules.
“Some people prefer to get up early and go to the gym,” Garrett said. “They have a bag packed and ready.”
Such folks will then work out as they can, depending on their needs or goals. Not only are there neighborhood gyms to join, but some companies have gyms for employees, while more and more senior living residences feature workout facilities.
The third and final prong to a healthier new year is nutrition, which can include advanced food preparation.
“I notice that I’m less stressed when I know what I’m eating on a certain day,” Garrett said.
Garrett said she uses a slow cooker to meal prep. She starts a meal in the morning, and then adds vegetables cooked in a microwave at the end of the day as a quick, planned, healthy meal. Doing this, she believes, makes meals less stressful.
Along with her busy professional and personal life, Garrett also broadcasts with Gentry Ace Little via the online streaming BGC sports network. They connected when she was an ETSU trainer and he called their games. These days, she and Little do a weekly health and wellness program together.
“A lot of times, in January, it’s about goal-setting. I’m huge on goal-setting,” she said about New Year’s resolutions. “And then I’ll touch on it again somewhere in the middle of the year.”
How will you use Garret’s three prongs for your New Year, New You, and New Goals?
For more information on training, call 972.658.0624.
