Healthy Resolutions

"I will lose those pesky 10 pounds!"

"I will fit into the clothes I wore in high school."

"I will go to the gym every day, where I will mentally beat myself up and feel bad."

Did you make a new year's resolution? Did it sound like one of the above statements? 

I hope not! Whether it's a new year's resolution or you're just looking to make a change in your body and your health, learn to focus on what you really want, just by asking yourself a few questions.

If your goal is to lose weight, ask yourself, what are the benefits of losing weight? Is it to improve your health? Reduce your chance of disease? To have more energy to do the things you love? Be specific. Write it down.

Be clear about these benefits. "Fitting into the clothes you wore in high school" isn't a benefit to losing weight. You must dig deeper. What would you feel if you did fit into those jeans from high school? You'd feel good about yourself. While reaching a healthy weight can make you feel confident, perhaps you might make another goal, to work on building your self esteem and self worth in a different way.

Being clear about your health and fitness goals is an important step to success! When things get tough or you feel challenged, you can pull out your list of benefits and renew your sense of determination. 

Remember to give yourself a break. Changing habits takes time, whether you're starting a new exercise program or learning to eat healthier and cook your own meals. Don't expect everything to happen overnight. Baby steps...make one small change each day, and a more significant change each week.

Ask for help when you need it. Learning to live healthy can be a real challenge and it's okay to need help on your journey. If you'd like my support, anything from exercise advise, to healthy cooking, to eating out, to losing weight and gaining more energy through the foods you eat, contact me! I'm here and waiting to design a healthy living program for you.

Good luck and good health to you in the new year!

What are your intentions for 2011?

What do you want from your life in the new year? Weight loss? Better health? To start your own business or find more fulfillment out of your current work? To reconnect with friends or family? To find a deeper connection with those you love?

Setting New Year's resolutions is a very powerful way to get what you want from life. It can help you take your dreams and turn them into reality. Today, dreaming itself is sometimes frowned upon. People might say that being realistic and doing what "needs to be done" is where your focus should be.  The fact is, you can live your life in accordance with your dreams, while still being focused and realistic. Having that dream as an intention for the future can even help your journey be more fulfilling.

Setting intentions is a way of creating direction and purpose in your life, whether you set intentions just at New Years, or if each morning you set an intention for that day.  Without intention, you can end up feeling lost, without focus. Before New Year's Day, take some time to really think about what you want and what you need, and then set your intention(s) for the year.

Then what? You follow through with your focus on that intention every day. How? By taking each moment as it comes. If your intention is to lose weight and improve your health in the new year, then each day, renew your intention. Tell yourself, "this morning, I will make a healthy choice for breakfast." For that is all you can do in that moment. Because although your intention might be for the long term, the only thing any of us can do is to focus on the present and ask, "what can I do right now to work toward my intention? What can I do in the next hour?"

Little by little, positive resuslts will trickle into your life. It might not always be an easy path, but when you are living your intentions, you will feel your own power, connect more with your inner light, and live a happier life.

Here are some great ideas for New Year's Intentions:

To improve my health through nutrition & exercise; to find more peace in my life; to learn how to reduce stress; to learn how to build my own business; to spend more time with my loved ones; to make other people feel special; to give more of myself to others; to spend my money more mindfully. Come up with your own resolutions or intentions, and in order to keep your focus clear, don't make more than two or three intentions. Sometimes one good intention is better than three unrelated ones.

If you have health related intentions for the new year, email me for a free health history evaluation. We can discuss your goals and health issues and I can tell you how I can help you! I'd love to support you on your journey to lose weight, eat healtheir, have more energy, and reduce stress.

Happy New Year! Peace, Light, and Love to you!