Monday, January 9, 2012

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




18 comments:

  1. Hi Donna, why do you suggest supplements (out of the drug store)? If we fallow your rules we eat healthy enough. We tell a lie to ourselfs when we take supplements. It's easier to operate with them than to cook a healthy mea, less time too! I do for about five days now Daniel Fast together with less TV, Computer, more bible reading and praying and go to our four days prayer (curch) nights. Be blessed 2012, Rose

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  2. You Rock Donna! I love, love, love your blog!!!!!! Thank You for sharing it with me

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  3. Hi Rose,
    Unlike most of your food in Switzerland, ours is known to be mostly mass-produced and lacking in vitamins, minerals and enzymes. We in the USA also face many "POPS" which are persistent organic pollutants. As much as one might try their best to eat healthy it is still very, very difficult to get the nutrition needed for a healthy body, mind and spirit. Therefore it is necessary for most everyone to supplement their diets. Absolutely not from a "Drug Store"!! These must be purchased from a reputable, scientifically tested source. Hope this helps!
    Thanks for your comment! Donna

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  4. Thank you Jill! You should know! Donna

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  5. Hi Donna,
    It is important for us to have a positive attitude
    about things that happen in our lives. You stay healthier that way. There are times that I have to remind myself of that. My 98 year old aunt has such
    a positive attitude, even though she is in a wheel chair and is almost blind. She is such an inspiration to me. You also inspire me.
    Happy New Year!
    Liz

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  6. After anxiously waiting for your first blog of 2012, you have exceeded my expectations. Always you write well and detailed, but now; so filled with ideas I had to read it twice and then print a copy to "highlight", so I can track my plans and monitor my planned 2012 in a journal!

    Your diet is terrific for me and I even have my family finding ways to choose the vibrant colored veggies and "paint" the plate like a painter's color "pallet". Interesting that the better the "paint styled" pallet looks, the better it appeals to my taste pallet and the better I feel!

    Certainly emotional, physical and spiritual balance I find so necessary as I tip if all 3 are not well-balanced. I think your advice along with a book I read co-written by Robert and Dr Sienna, I recall, based on Possibility Living and God's Food Plan have helped me. Angie's travails have helped too and the daily Bible course over 365 days from Bobby's Tree of Life Community, is keeping me on a good track. A Bible Blog, a good meal and a Leslie Sanson DVD 2 mile walk (indoors) every morning and I am invigourated and calm for the day!

    JOY to all in 2012, meaning Jesus first and then Others before Yourself and I find all works Blessedly!

    J-M

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  7. Hi J. M.
    How's the weather up in beautiful Canada?
    I am so glad that the diet suggestions are helping you. You are a great example of strength, courage, and perseverance to us all.
    Happy New Year! God is blessing you. Donna

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  8. Dear Donna, that’s not true! We have not healthier food than you have. It’s up to each and everyone of us what we buy in a supermarket. Eat fresh, vegetable, fruit, whole grain bread, pasta, fresh salad, with not much salad oil. Make the tomatosauce fresh for your pasta. Take meat, fish (frozen of fresh), from a good fish farm; with not to much greace and reoast gently with a good “oil” and not to much. Take products out of a tin with no artificial indigriends and sugar added. That’s the trick!!! Nothing else! Take care with unhealthy sweets. - Ofcourse if you eat your lausy American junk-food. That’s no good for the body. Here the very same. So no supplements are needed. For me it do not make sense to take them even they are scientiffically tested. Have a good time, Rose

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  9. Hi Rose,
    Thank you for your faith in our American food but your can read Food Inc. as just one example of what I am referring to. We have a huge food industry which is closely aligned with the "Big Pharma" (pharmaceuticals) Your food and your people is/are definitely healthier than us Americans. This is a scientific fact. Not just my opinion. If you look at all the Westernized countries the USA is way down the list as far as health goes. (last time I checked we were #47 or so...I will look it up and see where we are now) We take more drugs, eat less nutrient dense food, and live more sluggish lifestyles.
    Please remember that although we love having you join us from Switzerland most of my blog members are from the USA. They need this encouragement and advice! Obviously you do not need it and that is great! :D

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  10. That's me Donna, sorry to say, your folks is less helthy as European is because they eat more like MC-Donald and all other fast food chains. Here possible as well. It's certainly not because you can't buy good chality food. I was in US supermarkets and found all I need to eat healthy. Also good Restaurants. - Blessings Rose

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  11. Donna, since the beginning of the year I have been reading about the health benefits of a plant-based food diet. Spouse and self have seen the movie Chow Down, I have the book Food over Forks, and her physician referred her to material from Dr. Neal Barnard's Physicians' Committee for Responsible Medicine. Other relevant names in the material I've been looking over: Colin Campbell, Caldwell Esselstyn. It seems like we are being guided to veganism. If the dangers to health of meat and dairy were fully understood, I think many more would choose to live this way. When you are aware of the concentration camp conditions that most food animals live under, it's an even easier choice.

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  12. Hi Rose,
    It is your business if you do not want to take supplements. Let's agree to disagree! As for me, I will continue to encourage people to take them and I will take them! It is the cheapest insurance policy I can buy! :D

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  13. Hi All,
    Just FYI the current ranking of the USA as far as overall "health performance" goes is #38. France is #1. Switzerland is #20 (that's for you Rose!)
    We have some very smart people out there. Does anyone want to talk about genetically modified food-GMOs-(including most fruits and vegetables in the USA) It would make a great conversation and it might enlighten some too!
    In good health,
    God is blessing you. Donna

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  14. Hi Liz,
    You are so right about a positive attitude. Your Aunt must be a great lady. Viktor Frankl wrote one of my favorite books, "Man's Search For Meaning". It is about his surviving the Holocaust. He says "you cannot control what people will say about you or do to you but you can control how you will react it what they do or say." (this is a paraphrase but pretty close)
    God is blessing you. Donna

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  15. Hey Donna and all here, this is Donna's 85th Blog since April 2009!

    Thank you Donna, for all the words of wisdom, the patience you have shown, the advice and of course all the ways you help through St Patrick Project ministry, bringing hope and love to a hurting world. Attending Global Peace conferences and all this with a family and a professional nutrition's practice, you still have time for us! I know I can say we are honored to be able to learn from you and share with you our stories. When Blog 100 comes out I will be framing a copy so whenever we meet I can get you to autograph it for me! That would be something really special.

    God is Blessing you
    J-M†

    PS No reply is needed Donna. You have a great weekend and 2012!

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  16. Whew...no wonder I'm tired! I've done 85 blogs! I did not know that. Thank you J.M. for your continued support. You are a blessing to all of us! Donna

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  17. Donna,

    You are an amazing nutritionalist and @Rose....you must be uneducated about the FDA and the food sources in America. Unfortunately my family has had a crash course in Cancer. My husband has lost 38lbs and with the help of supplements and enzymes he is curing his own cancer and diabetes. without the open minded education of individuals like Donna Schuller he would just be another man on the chopping block. Please educate yourself before criticizing people with years of academic experience. Without the open minded help of individuals like Donna with her Mind Body Spirit approach I shudder to think where my family would be today.
    Thanks for your commitment to health Donna.
    MO

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  18. Hi Mistah Charley,
    I really appreciate your participation on my blog. Thank you!
    You are obviously a very special person who has great life experience and much to share. Please keep on commenting.
    God is blessing you. Donna

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Thank you for taking the time to comment on my blog. Please try to stay on the topic and remember also that there are many who are struggling through all kinds of challenges. Let's all be kind and thoughtful with our comments please! :D