Healthy Habits: Charisse Wright stays fit with nutritious breakfasts, group fitness

October 8, 2018 Healthy Habits, Institute for Voice and Swallowing, Nutrition and Wellness

Taking care of your health is a priority and nobody knows that more than physicians and healthcare providers.

It can sometimes be difficult to find ways to stay healthy, so we’ve asked members of our Baylor College of Medicine community to share what they do in their daily lives to maintain a healthy lifestyle.

Charisse Wright, speech-language pathologist with the Institute for Voice and Swallowing at Baylor, shares some of her healthy habits with us.

Q: What health decisions start your day?
A: Packing a lunch, healthy snacks and eating a healthy breakfast help me make much better decisions throughout the day. If I don’t do that, I end up eating less healthy options and snacks and usually eat more treats.

Q: What is your go-to healthy breakfast?
A: Eggs and a banana.

Q: What is your favorite type of exercise?
A: Les Mills Body pump! It’s an incredibly fun strength training group fitness class using a bar bell and dumbbells where you target all your major muscle groups in an hour. Running is my other favorite.

Q: What keeps you motivated during your workout?
A: Setting goals and working out with a friend or in a class. I get self-conscious about holding my workout buddy back so I let that fuel my motivation to push myself to work harder.

Q: What activities do you do when you can’t fit in a full workout?
A: Chasing my kids at the park.

Q: What is your favorite healthful snack?
A: BBQ-roasted brussel sprouts.

Q: What do you include in your child’s lunch?
A: My child has autism and food selectivity so we’re still working up to healthier foods. He mostly has instant breakfast and crunchy foods like Goldfish. We try to play with veggies to get him to eat them or try things like brussel sprouts with sprinkles on them. Sometimes that works.

Q: How do you make an unhealthy recipe healthy (healthy substitutions)?
A: I’m not good about doing that so I just shoot for moderation – treats now and then are OK with me.

Q: What is your nighttime skin regimen?
A: Nothing fancy – I just wash my face before bed.

Q: What hobbies do you have to help you relax?
A: Running – I love those endorphins and I feel great for the rest of the day. I also love getting massages when I can afford to, and bubble baths with some Josh Groban playing.

Q: Do you use a pedometer or Fitbit and what is your daily step goal?
A: I use a Garmin and shoot for 10,000 steps.

Q: What is your favorite health tip that you live by?
A: I’m working on eating things that make me feel good rather than things that taste good.