MSI Press Blog

  Excerpt from  Girl, You Got This!  Fitness When you get pregnant, your body goes through intense changes. I can’t be the only person who has heard mothers expressing that their body was “never the same” after they gave birth. When you have a baby, your body will carry battle scars for the rest of your life. Some of the toll on your body will be influenced by genetics—like my stretch marks, I could moisturize all day throughout my pregnancy and it wouldn’t make a difference—and there really isn’t much you can do about that. If your genetics are really working against you, try to embrace the changes you cannot control. Be kind to yourself. On the other hand, some of the worst side effects of pregnancy can be minimized or even prevented if you prepare your body properly. Think of pregnancy as training for a marathon – albeit a very strange one that involves growing a human and then pushing it out of your body. While trying to conceive, I want you to be vigilant abo...

  Excerpt from Girl, You Got This! Food Dieting is talked about a lot in our culture. Every couple of months there is a new trendy diet: Atkins, Keto, the potato diet. The problem with most fad diets, though, is they are restrictive. There are too many hard rules. In order to change your eating habits long term, you need balance .   Everyone has heard the phrase, “balanced diet.” In fact, it is such a common thing to hear that most people don’t really stop to think about what it means. It just goes in one ear and out the other. What makes a diet balanced?   A balanced diet is a diet that includes variety. You eat multiple foods from multiple food groups in order to fuel your body with the most nutrients possible.   The Standard American Diet (SAD) is full of “food” that isn’t really food. It is more like packaged food-science experiments. The results might taste great, but it is no longer natural. The best way to get the most out of what you put in you...

Book description: Posing for a picture at the southern terminus of the Pacific Crest Trail, a long-eared jackrabbit hop from Mexico and 2,650-some miles from Canada, your stomach churns and your mind reels. The air is dusty. A morning desert wind feels oddly cold. No amount of preparation is sufficient for the starkness of your decision. In this beginning, something has ended. Something practiced and old and broken-in has faded. In its place enters immediacy and relevance and sharp possibility. Plans and spreadsheets become paper prayer flags fluttering in a past mind, useless tributes to linear pretense. You catch yourself thinking that it feels like the first day of school. But there are no teachers, no classmates, no classrooms, no halls, and no walls. There is only one choice that yields results: to turn and to walk, to follow the well-worn trail North. With each step, you lose a little more of the other-world, the un-PCT. All you have is what you need. All you need is what you hav...

  Pat Young has written for the  Daytona Beach News Journal ,   South Bend Tribune ,   Flint (MI) Journal ,   Clarkston (MI) News ,   Hometown News   in Daytona Beach, Florida,   New Mexico Magazine ,   Silver City Life Magazine   and other publications. She also worked in public relations and advertising for several real estate companies in Michigan, New Mexico and Florida. She earned awards for her writing, including National Newspaper Association and Michigan Press Association awards. She earned two media awards while at the   South Bend Tribune . One of her stories in   New Mexico Magazine   (“Giant Wind Harp in Tune with Nature”) was chosen for inclusion in the SIRS Discoverer data base. She has an associate degree in liberal arts. She has written stories, articles and poetry since she was a kid, but the book she is co-authoring with Joanna Romer,   Life after Losing a Child , is her first book. When she isn’t wr...

  Get an understanding of How to Stay Clam in Chaos from author and expert, Julie Gentile in this youtube recording of a presentation she made at Schaum Public Library. Watch it HERE . For more posts on Julie and her books, How to Stay Calm in Chaos and 108 Yoga and Self-Care Practices for Busy Mamas , click HERE . Get the books in a bundle--and save a bundle HERE.

  Brittany Renz is a successful personal trainer and mother in Hollister, California. A popular trainer with a very large, stable clientele, she trains together with her family, as well as coaching others. After years of people asking her how she does it all, she finally decided to take her experience and share it with the world. Her book,  Girl, You Got This ,  that focuses on fitness for pregnant mothers-to be, has piqued the interest of fitness fans and sports doctors.  Brittany's first book includes pictures of the whole family participating in fitness efforts. Now, she is working on a new book for mothers--and, for sure, it will include, again, the whole family. Watch for it. For more information about Brittany and her book(s), click HERE .

  The second MSI book by Pat Young and the eleventh in our pandemic series, Exercising in a Pandemic , was released today.  See information about Pat's other book, Life after Losing a Child , HERE . 

J Julie M. Gentile is the award-winning author of  108 Yoga and Self-Care Practices for Busy Mamas  and  author of  How to Stay Calm in Chaos: An Everyday Self-Care Guide ;  creator of the   Stand Up for Your Self-Care blog  and  YouTube Channel ,  a yoga teacher; and a working mama. She has been leading yoga classes since 2011 to inspire students to nourish their minds, bodies, and spirits. Her own practice, which began in 2008, empowers her to live well as a busy mom.  Learn more about Julie a t  www.JulieGtheYogi.com ,  subscribe to her  Stand Up for Your Self-Care YouTube Channel  for yoga and self-care videos, and stay connected with her on Instagram   @juliegtheyogi   and Facebook   /juliegtheyogi . Julie's book i ncludes writing prompts, yoga poses, meditations, breathing exercises, and other self-care practices to encourage modern mamas to walk a path of self-love. It was released Februa...

from chapter, Before You Conceive: Every person has a different body with different needs, but whether you are young or old, fit or not, pregnancy puts the body through a lot. I want you to keep in mind that health and fitness aren’t one-size-fits all. What works for one person won’t always work for another. Life—and health—are all about finding something that works for you. Taking stock is a powerful first step if you want to set yourself up for success. When is the last time you touched base with yourself and your health? Questionnaire  1 . How do you feel about your body as it is right now? Try to be as nice as possible . 2 . What role has health played in your life? Has it been an adversary? Has it always been on the backburner? Is it something you have poked fun at? 3 . Do you have any medical conditions you need to take into account when exercising? Chronic pain? Migraines? Old injuries? 4 . Do you have any dietary restrictions (or personal taste restrictions fo...

Sometimes grandmothers have a senior moment. Really, they do! It is not just a myth. For my training regime, that means I could pick up a set of weights, ready to start my workout, and then think, "Why am I holding these weights?" And then, sometimes, I get busy and forget even about the dates with my weights. One of the more useful set of exercises I do regularly, from Strong Fitness Magazine (highly recommended), takes only two minutes, but it is a very rigorous two minutes. Remembering to do it regularly, even though it is brief, slips out of mind all too often. So, since this is one of my favorites and most useful, especially for developing cardiac capacity, which is my weakest area (probably is the weakest area for most seniors), I simply posted it on the back of the bedroom door. So, every time I walk out of the master bedroom after getting up, cleaning up, using the bathroom, or spending time on the sun porch off the bedroom, I stop for two minutes and do thos...

We now have a podcast site! Please check it out at www.msipress.com/podcasts . We will be posting podcasts on the 10th and 20th of each month. The first one we have posted is an interview of Brittany Renz, author of Girl, You Got This!, together with her husband about family fitness.

On Septem ber 25, 2019, Brittany Renz, author of Girl, You Got This! , was featured by SportsMD in an article, titled " Motherhood and Self-Care: Staying Fit before and after Childbirth ." Very, very interesting article, chock full of good information and medically sound advice for women about to become new mothers. Read the article HERE . Read more posts about Brittany and her book HERE .