New Year, New You!

Happy New Year! 

What is the best thing that happened to you in 2011?  What are you most looking forward to in 2012?

You can ask any one of our four kids and they will tell you that this question was a focal point each New Year's Eve or Day for as long as they can remember.    These questions encourage a great time of sharing and I urge you to try it.  Since we just recently saw in the new year there's plenty of time even now!

If you noticed I didn't ask "what is the worst or most painful thing that happened in 2011"  I also didn't ask you what kinds of hurdles you have to jump over in order to make 2012 a great year.   Often it is so much easier for us to look back and come up with our gripes and negative memories.  Many of us were taught to focus on what we don't want in the future and this can easily sabotage what we do want!  What is it you are thankful for?  What is it you most want to accomplish?   Focus on what you do want, not on what you don't want.  It's a habit that at first may be difficult to embrace, but once you adopt it it you will find that you will experience more of God's blessings in all areas of life.

I am a nutritionist and one of the things I love to do is to give workshops to groups of people.  I'm giving one tomorrow.   I prefer this to one on one coaching because I really like the interaction that I get with a group.  We've all heard that there's strength in numbers and I have found this to be true in many ways.   Although my workshops focus on nutrition and physical health I make it a point to let people know that health is much more than taking care of the physical body.   In order to have good health we must strive for a balance in body, mind, and spirit (soul).  When discussing exercise and nutrition I tell people that they are spiritual beings on a human journey and thus they need to make sure that their spiritual health is in order.   The same goes for emotional health.  I don't believe you can be whole unless you examine the  mind and address the issues in your emotional catch-basins which have been filling up for years.   (I don't need to go into unhealthy food habits and if you want to learn about toxic relationships with food please go to angiewyatt.com and read her latest blogs-they are great)

Remember to plan what you will do this day, this week, this month, and this year!  Although it is a very old saying,  I adhere to:  "if you are failing to plan you are planning to fail."

1)  Make a list of your goals.  Divide them into physical, spiritual, emotional
2)  Do a detox.   This should include embracing new and healthy habits:  body, mind, and spirit.   Clean up your eating habits, start or improve your exercise, put all negative, doubt-creating messages out of your mind, pray and ask God how you can improve on this and how you can grow closer to him.   Concentrate and write down what you will do.  Do not dwell on what you won't do.
3)  Get an accountability partner and share your New Year's Goals with them.  Make sure you choose someone who you can really trust.  Ideally someone you look up to or admire.  
4)  Write an action plan and place it where you will see it several times a day.  Be intentional about sticking to it!  Example:  if you tell yourself that you are going to work out three days a week make sure you plan that time around your work, family and social life.  Willpower can only go so far!  If you do not have a scheduled time for workouts, prayer time, and self-reflection (mental time) you may be taken off track and off guard easily!  Write down realistic goals in this action plan and pray about it daily.

   Eat food as close to the way that God made it as possible.  Choose natural, certified organic, and hormone-free whenever possible.   Limit your intake of dairy and red meat.  Instead eat more wild fish and range-free chicken.  It you are a meat eater build your diet as close to vegetarian as possible.  Eat your vegetables raw when you can.  Eat a raw vegetable or low sugar fruit at every meal.
Take quality supplements that have been certified and tested by third party scientific studies.
Get your inflammation under control.  (if you have a lot of aches and pains this is inflammation which could be caused by food allergies like a reaction to gluten.) Inflammation can also cause skin problems,  asthma, heart problems and more. 

The above is a brief outline that I will share in my January workshops.  If you are local and would like to attend one they are held at Living Fitness in Newport Coast.   To sign-up you can call:  949-640-2300 or go to:  www.livingfitnessoc.com 

2012 can be what you make it.  Be intentional.  Be loving.  Be thoughtful.  Be kind.  Be appreciative. Find a purpose.  Expect the best in people and in yourself.    

            "Every moment comes to you pregnant with a divine purpose.  Once you do with it as you please, it plunges into eternity, to remain forever what you made it."  

     Fulton Sheen

What will you make of 2012?   Cherish each moment.  Be careful what you do with them.

"The body is a unit, although it is made up of many parts; and though all its parts are many, they form one body....if one part suffers, every part suffers with it; if one part is honored, every part rejoices with it."    1 Corinthians 12:12 & 26

  God is blessing you.    Donna