2020 is here and whether you’ve started on your New Years Resolutions or not, we met with some locals and pulled together tips and tricks for staying on track with your goals all year long. We chose from the top resolutions every year and have a bit of everything from Exercising & Losing Weight to Traveling More. Best of luck from us in your 2020 goals—We’ll be over here cheering you on! Cover photos by the marvelous Clagett Photography.
exercise & lose weight
Exercising & Losing Weight may be two of the top New Years Resolutions every year and the most sought after goals throughout the year. Still, loving staying active and being consistent is sometimes easier said than done. We interviewed two locals, William Savoy of Savoy Fitness and William Rivera of Running Soles on setting and achieving work out goals you’ll stick with for a healthier lifestyle.
Ultra Marathon Winner and owner of downtown business Running Soles, Will Rivera gives seven tips on staying active throughout the new year to reach your 2020 exercise goals:
1. Create a consistent exercise/running plan. Consistency is the key to improving fitness and sticking with something. While you’ll experience some fitness gains from exercising, lasting and life-changing benefits come about after developing a healthy habit routine that becomes a healthy lifestyle.
2. Train with a group. We’re stronger together. Here at Running Soles, we are dedicated to growing a fitness community in Elizabethtown. We understand first-hand the importance of finding your tribe. According to many studies, when you work out with a group, your levels of emotional, mental, and physical stress are much lower than they would be if you worked out alone. Join our free weekly training/social groups every Tuesday and Thursday at 6pm and Saturday mornings at 8am; we can help you achieve your fitness goals.
3. Incorporate strength work into your weekly training. Running is a repetitive forward motion. Without incorporating a balanced strength-training plan, it’s easy to experience muscular imbalance and injury. But weight training doesn’t mean throwing around heavy weights in the gym; a group fitness class might be exactly what you need. Join us as we conduct classes, seminars and invite local fitness instructors to keep us educated on the benefits of strength training.
4. Set at least two exercise/race goals. If you want to accomplish your goals, you need to set specific, measurable, attainable, realistic, and time-focused goals. We recommend setting a PR goal in a race distance you’ve already completed and then setting a new distance goal for later in the year. Perhaps you’re shooting to break your 5K PR in the spring and then working to complete a half marathon in the fall.
5. Get the right gear. Having the proper gear to help you achieve your fitness goals is essential. At Running Soles, we specialize in helping you find the right gear. We specialize in fitting you by conducting a full analysis that includes; 3D digital foot scan and gait analysis that will pinpoint the exact footwear and orthotics to keep you balanced while you exercise. We also carry many other essentials like apparel, socks, nutrition, hydration and more to keep you healthy.
6. Perform self-massage after every hard exercise/run. Massage feels good and helps us recover faster by improving circulation, decreasing inflammation and reducing muscle tightness. Here at Running Soles, we carry a wide variety of deep-tissue gear to help you recover more quickly so that you can stay healthy and on pace to meet your fitness goals.
7. Create or participate in a fun weekly group run to spice things up. Like we mentioned in number two, it’s beneficial to our health to exercise/run with other people. Take that one step further and join our social group runs. We host monthly social events as part of our regular weekly gatherings finishing our events at one of our local neighbor establishments where we socially gather post-runs/walks. We aim to keep training fresh and motivating, so you’re more likely to stick to it.
exercise & lose weight (cont.)
William Savoy, the owner of Savoy Fitness and Hardin County native, aims to help local families reach and maintain their fitness goals by building healthy training and nutrition habits. Understanding the demands of your schedule and setting realistic goals for working out and eating healthy will help you stay on track throughout your exercise and weight loss journey. The Savoy Fitness objective is to help you reach your goals in less than 4 hours a week, leaving you 164 hours to focus on other aspects of life.
Culture is the invisible bond that ties all different people together. The Savoy culture focuses our core values including Holding Yourself Accountable First, Divergent Thinking (exploring many possible solutions), You Are Your Routine—Shaping Your Mind & Body, Relentless Work Ethic and “If” Rudyard Kipling (a piece written in 1895 by the English writer and poet). Considering your own core values when creating a fitness plan will set you on a path to success.
For more information on Savoy Fitness or their Game of Fitness 6-Week Challenge beginning in January, visit their website at www.savoyfitness.com. Follow along on Instagram and Facebook at @SavoyFitness as they post weekly workouts plus healthy recipes such as those shown on pages 93-95.
eat healthier
Whether you’re wanting to lose weight or just feel good, eating healthier is a popular resolution amongst most Americans. Molly Willis, Registered Dietitian Nutritionist and Licensed Dietitian, gives easy-to-follow advice on eating healthy and staying hydrated:
Living a healthy lifestyle doesn’t have to mean dieting, giving up foods you love or exercising hours on end! Simply making better choices day-to-day can have a significant impact on your health. Adding color to your plate with fruits and vegetables can be an easy way to incorporate vitamins and fiber that we need. A good rule-of-thumb is to organize your plate with 25% carbohydrates, 25% protein, and 50% fruits and vegetables. Another healthy tip is to choose more fresh foods vs. processed foods to prevent excess sodium and preservative intake.
We can’t forget to hydrate! Whether it’s bottled or from the tap, water does the body good. It helps our muscles stay hydrated for optimal physical and mental performance. How much water you need depends on your gender, size and physical activity level, but a good thing to remember is to drink enough for your urine to be pale or almost colorless.
Last but not least, get moving! The American Heart Association recommends that adults get 150 minutes of moderate-intensity activity or 75 minutes of vigorous aerobic exercise per week to help prevent heart disease (heart.org). Even light-intensity movement can prevent some of the risks of a sedentary lifestyle.
spend time with family
While spending more time with family is arguably the most worthwhile resolution, finding fun, local activities that invite actual interaction and don’t involve staring at screens has been challenging until now. Axe Play is NEW to Elizabethtown. Owner Parth Patel chimes in on what the local entertainment venue has to offer families looking to spend more time together in 2020:
Growing up in Elizabethtown, there was very little to do in the area with family and friends. We always found ourselves driving to Lexington or Louisville for leisurely fun. That’s why we wanted to create something in our hometown where we could provide a space to get together and make memories. With that, Axe Play was born. Axe throwing was chosen as the center of our business given it’s thrilling, yet enjoyable experience. We understand that anything with axes demands safety, and that is our main priority. We have certified throwing coaches to guide guests along the way. Reservations can be made online at www.axeplayetown.com or by calling us at (270) 600-7007. You can book by the hour at $20 per hour per thrower. The minimum age to throw is 14; please call for group discounts. We’ve gotten great support from the community, and we look forward to welcoming more
of our neighbors in ETown and surrounding counties to be a part of our adventure!
get a hobby
Many Americans aspire to learn a new skill or get a hobby in the new year; there couldn’t be a more Kentucky hobby than bourbon tasting. Local favorite, Bourbon Barrel Tavern makes making a hobby out of tasting bourbons fun and easy. Owner Stacy Reynolds tells how to get started tasting bourbons locally in 2020:
Back in 2015, my partners and I decided to begin our bourbon journey and opened Bourbon Barrel Tavern. We wanted to provide a venue that would be a gathering place for locals to come and enjoy themselves while taking in Live Music, Craft Beer and Kentucky Bourbon. It was Hardin County’s first bar in over 70 years and we had just over 50 bourbons on the shelf our first day. Four years later, we now have over 500 bourbons and whiskeys behind the bar. I guess you could say we’ve embraced the bourbon tasting hobby ourselves, and we’ve certainly learned a thing or two about it over the past four years.
The number one thing a person can do to expand their bourbon knowledge is to meet and talk to other bourbon drinkers. Put a bourbon drinker in front of a group, and they are going to tell you all about the bourbons they like and maybe even a little about the ones they don’t. Everyone’s pallet is different, but outside of tasting each bourbon yourself, talking bourbon is the number one way to learn more about it. Meeting other, more experienced, bourbon drinkers will expose you to a vast assortment of readily available and sometimes hard to find gems of the bourbon world. This is actually how we picked those first fifty bourbons we started with, and to this day, that’s how we continue to expand our offerings.
Tuesday nights are our official “Bourbon Nights” at BBT. It’s the perfect night to meet, drink and discuss bourbons with other bourbon fans in our community. Our head bartender, Brandon, knows a thing or two about bourbon himself and will spotlight a different selection of bourbon and whiskey every Tuesday night. Brandon is quick to point out specifics about each one from age statements to proof and mash bill. He will help you figure out how each one was produced and might even give you a little history of the distillery during your visit. If you or someone you know wants to get into bourbon tasting as a hobby in 2020, the best thing you can do is drink a little bourbon, talk a lot of bourbon and then drink a bit more bourbon. We hope to have you over for a tasting and some lengthy bourbon conversation soon. Always remember: Please drink responsibly. Cheers!
Self Care
Taking care of oneself in the New Year can look different for many people. Whether it is focused on making time for oneself or trying new methods of relaxation and pampering, self care is essential for health and happiness. Some of our favorite women-owned businesses, Raja Wellness and Herb & Olive, offer great options for self care in 2020. Respective owners Jenny-Marie Greenough and Serena Erizer weigh in on the benefits of self care and options offered at their businesses:
2020—New Year. New Decade! New You? In the year 2000 if you had told me in 2020 I would be running a busy holistic medicine clinic in Kentucky with massage, acupuncture, herbal medicine and functional medicine, I would have told you that you were crazy—but here I am. I have an amazing team: fellow acupuncturists, a licensed massage therapist/gifted aromatherapist and a family nurse practitioner. I came into the world of alternative health care in little steps. I was skeptical of almost everything that I now use in my practice and for my self care, so I get it when people question if acupuncture works. It does, and quite well, but it takes years of training to get the basics. I have over 3300 hours of instruction in East Asian Medicine.
I started yoga when I was in the Navy, and I quickly became a believer in its importance for healing the body and calming the mind. Soon after that, I got certified to teach yoga because I found myself using it to help my riding students. I was really inspired by the idea of raja yoga—a level of practice where mind, body and spirit are working together in alignment. That same integration of mind, body and spirit is also a part of my horsemanship program, and to be honest, our full name is Raja Riding and Wellness because part of the vision for what I want to create includes a branch of equine healing programs.
When I was working for the Navy, I was not aligned. I was a successful professional, but my health suffered. I had to find my own alignment; this led me to the practice of East Asian Medicine. It’s a fantastic blending of science and ancient knowledge. It does not harm the body, it is not painful, and we can help people to feel better by helping their bodies to work better. I often tell people that unless you have a medical emergency we can see you for anything you would see a doctor for. We specialize in those difficult things biomedicine struggles with—migraines, fibromyalgia, endocrine disorders, neuropathy, tick-born diseases such as Lyme Disease, anxiety, depression and PTSD just to name a few.
I’m not a fan of sweeping resolutions and changes. Rarely do people succeed with them. I am a big fan of little steps—pick one thing at a time that you can do for yourself to help you feel better. One thing I recommend to all of our patients is meditation. It costs nothing but your time and the benefits could fill several books. Beyond that, massage and acupuncture are great ways to help your body feel better and stay healthier. Prevention is a huge part of East Asian Medicine.
I’m always happy to answer questions. You can reach us at
(270) 506-3853 or online at www.rajawellness.com.
Self Care (Cont.)
Serena Erizer and Lori Smith, partners at Herb & Olive Market, sellers of natural foods, premium olive oils, balsamics and health supplements, began researching and selling CBD oils in 2016. They chose two companies that have exemplary products, processing and training. Supporting local businesses is important to them, so they naturally decided to work with the company that was instrumental in legalizing hemp here in Kentucky and a best selling national brand.
Cannabidiol, or CBD, is a phytocannabinoid found in agricultural hemp. It has been recognized for its benefits on human and animal health and is capable of helping restore hormonal balance and physiologic homeostasis by “talking” to just about every major organ system in the body.
Studies show that CBD may help with:
• Pain and Inflammation Reduction
• Stress and Anxiety Relief
• Sleep and Immune System
The options in both their Green Remedy and CV Science product lines are a great way to help you better care for yourself in this new year. No matter your preference, we’ve got your remedy.
Herb & Olive Market is now serving daily: Wine, charcuterie and cheese boards along with soups and sandwiches in a hip, inviting environment. Join them for a lovely afternoon or evening out with friends!
Get A New Job
Getting a new job seems straightforward enough, but taking the leap or even starting to look for a more fulfilling career can be scary. Megan Stith from Boss Lady Coaching gives insight on putting your goals down on paper, setting expectations, preparing for finding a new job and being brave in 2020:
Working full-time means you’ll spend approximately 2,000 hours on the job in the new year. Are you in a position that is challenging you and pushing you to grow? While you may be comfortable in your current role, a new job can help you find new talents and potential you didn’t know you had. Get started by finding a mentor and work with them to update your resume or practice interviewing. Instead of only looking through job ads to see what openings are currently available, identify companies or leaders you would like to work for and ask them about future opportunities at their organizations. If you can build some savings or keep your current job until you have another offer, removing financial pressures from the situation will help you make a better decision. Set small goals throughout the process, like challenging yourself to do one thing each day that scares you, and write it down so you can see your bravery become a habit. Push yourself outside your comfort zone by attending a networking event, asking for introductions to possible employers, or negotiating a higher salary. Each time you overcome your fears, you will have more confidence to face the next challenge! Surround yourself with people who will help you stay motivated and encourage you until you find the right fit. You don’t have to go through this alone, and our support system at Boss Lady Coaching is here to help! Our podcast, inspiring social media presence, coaching services, Braver By the Day bullet journal, and free tools give women flexible options for taking control of their lives and showing fear who’s the boss. For more tips on personal and career growth, visit bethebosscoaching.com/blog.
Quit Smoking
Quitting smoking as a New Years Resolution is a no brainer. There are so many benefits to quitting smoking from your health to your wallet to the safety of those you love. Everyone is different. There is no easy solution to quitting smoking. Ask your primary doctor for advice that is right for you if you need help kicking the habit. We’re rooting for you!
Get Organized
Getting organized in the New Year is one of the main goals on many resolutions lists. Ange Deaton from FINE House & Garden shares her tips on decorative organizing for the new year:
Does getting organized top your 2020 resolutions? Chances are it’s somewhere on your list—and has been time and time again! Ange Deaton here from FINE House & Garden with a few simple ways to get creatively collected for the new year. My husband and I grew up in Elizabethtown, and we raised our family not far from the store at 104 North Mantle Ave. Since we opened FINE last year, we find ourselves challenged keeping two “houses” organized. We also find ourselves inspired, however, by unique ways of keeping tidy. In addition to our furniture and gifts, we have a tailored selection of baskets, boxes, and trays. Corralling clutter with an attractive tray or a set of deep baskets gives relief to overloaded shelves or a crowded kitchen counter. Today’s must-have mud rooms overflow with shoes, bags, and pet provisions. To think outside the box (or basket), repurpose a found metal bin or crock to keep those items in order—and now you’re on track to a space that’s Pinterest-worthy. 2020 feels more organized already!
Travel More
Who wouldn’t want to travel more? Traveling seems like a fail-safe New Years Resolution, but taking the time to schedule a vacation in today’s fast-paced world is many times easier said than done. While we didn’t have a local expert to weigh in on this resolution, we do have a few trips for the wishful traveler. First and foremost, ask off at work, mark your calendar and book the plane ticket. Leave yourself enough time to get the necessary travel documents in place (90 days is safe for a passport). Once tickets are booked, the commitment is in place. After your tickets are booked and you’ve begun working on travel documents, get excited. Instagram and Pinterest are both fantastic search engines, tools for finding vacation inspiration. On Instagram, you can search hashtags for your destination, and on Pinterest, you can explore blog posts from others who have recently traveled to your set destination. Make a list of must-see attractions, but don’t forget that it never hurts to schedule a couple of days to relax. Booking hotels and tours is next on the list: Do your research before booking to ensure the best experience. If you procrastinate and don’t book a hotel immediately, don’t stress. Remember, this is supposed to be fun. That’s it. Once you take the plunge, book tickets, hotels and activities, the only thing left is to pack your bags and hop on a plane. You’ll be jet-set in no time and on your way to achieving your goal.
Money Matters
Saving money and getting your finances in order may be #1 on your list of New Years Resolutions. Professionals in banking, wealth management and insurance weigh in on ways to be successful in your financial goals in 2020. Stay tuned over the next five weeks as we share quick tips on finances from five local experts.
Thanks so much to everyone for reading along. If you don't already, check us out on Facebook and Instagram to stay up-to-date on the latest happenings with Elizabethtown Lifestyle and local community events. We would love to hear about your 2020 Resolutions; use the hashtag #elizabethtownlifestyle to share.
Happy New Year Hardin County!
