Goals... Past and Present
From my top ten list of things to do in 2009 - Eat Well
If you want to lose weight this year, think quality foods. I read somewhere that we have dramatically dropped our consumption of quality foods - partly for convenience, but also because of cost. I disagree with the idea that we save more money on processed foods. If you are living on Ramen noodles, ok, maybe - but otherwise - you can stretch items like lettuce, eggs, fruit, yogurt, etc. a long way. When you are nourishing your body, it requires less fuel because you are not starving for nutrients. We are a society that is hugely overweight and greatly undernourished. The majority of our diet is a combination of corn syrups, soy and additives. Our bodies do not know what to do with all of the chemicals that we put into them. We should not be hungry when trying to lose weight. If we give our systems the correct foods throughout the day, we won't go into starvation mode. When your body doesn't get the nutrients it needs, it thinks that it is starving and begins to store fat in case there is a greater famine to come. Eat throughout the day - eat slowly - eat quality foods - eat when you are hungry. Once you get rid of the chemicals in your diet, you will actually start getting signals again that you are hungry. The chemicals mess with the hormones that regulate hunger and thirst (even corn syrup and high fructose corn syrup do this). You can find more on what to eat in my archived blogs. Set a simple goal for yourself today - depending on what your diet looks like, it could be to not eat anything with corn syrup, or maybe you need to add a couple servings of vegetables. Making small changes over time tends to be easier than overhauling your diet all in one day.
The second item on my list for 2009 is Drink Water - It sounds simple, but if you are drinking enough, it will have a big impact on your mood, stress, and energy levels. There is a lot written about what kind of water to drink. Ideally, I think that reverse osmosis water would be great. Honestly, some people can easily filter the toxins in any kind of water, and others cannot. There are concerns with well water, due to the possibility of parasites and too many minerals in the water. Some people feel their best when they drink well water. Bottled water can contain chemicals that may be absorbed from the plastic. With all the controversy - what do you drink? Drink water - drink the best water you can, but most importantly, drink water. Avoid waters with added sugars and chemicals. Unless you are a super athlete, you won't necessarily benefit from drinks with electrolytes. If you need flavoring in your water, add lemon, lime, orange, cucumber, cayenne, etc. As long as you find a food or seasoning that is healthy, fresh and natural, you can add it to your water for taste. Try to drink half of your body weight in ounces of water a day. Work up to that slowly as you work to eliminate dehydrating drinks such as coffee and soda. If you want to continue to drink coffee, try an organic coffee to eliminate some pesticides. Using real cream with pure vanilla is also a good choice for using in your coffee, instead of the cream substitutes that can contain trans fats and sweeteners. Overall, if you want to assist your body with detoxing and energy production, water is the drink of choice
The next item on my list for 2009 is Be Kind to Myself. That sounds like a no brainer, but if you take a step back, and think about a typical day, how much do you do for yourself? Another thing to think about is the mental chatter that goes through your brain. How much of it contains negative thoughts about yourself? If your brain is constantly playing negative messages - you are not being kind to yourself. Ok, so we are not always kind to ourselves, but what can we do about it? We have families and jobs to take care of. Amazingly, taking care of ourselves in a positive way will allow us to take better care of others. If you are calm and living in the present moment, you will better be able to deal with conflicts and busy schedules. Plan into your day ways to be kind to yourself. Getting enough sleep, eating and drinking well, exercising and having time to rest are all ways of taking care of yourself. For some people, they need supplements for depression or to help calm the mind. The first thing to do is to evaluate what is out of balance in your life, and make a plan to bring it into balance. Simple changes can have extraordinary results. For example, make a goal to eat healthy. Find a way to do this within your budget, and you are one step closer to health and doing something for yourself. Schedule in the time you need to find balance. You will benefit not only yourself, but those around you.
The fifth item on my list for 2009 - Be Present - For me, this is the most difficult thing to incorporate into my life. This is definitely an important topic in the media right now. Oprah spent a season focusing on the book A New Earth by Eckhart Tolle. This book focuses on the need to be present to have a healthy and fulfilling life. Many health ailments are manifested from emotional turmoil and the daily stresses that we all have. There is a section in his book that Eckhart Tolle looks at the shift people are making to natural alternatives to health care:
According to the Journal of the American Medical Association, medical treatment is the third-leading cause of death after heart disease and cancer in the United States. Homeopathy and Chinese medicine are two examples of possible alternative approaches to disease that do not treat the illness as an enemy and therefore do not create new diseases.
I agree with this statement. As people are becoming more present and aware, they are coming to the realization that when they have ailments, they need to get to the source of the problem rather than treating the symptoms.
Being present makes the other nine items on my list easy to obtain. It is not easy to do, but I think this goal will have the biggest influence on both health and well being.
The sixth item on my list for 2009 is exercise and get outside. If you live in Minnesota, I don't recommend spending a lot of time outside enjoying nature in these 40 below temps! If you don't have a gym membership, you can't get outside, and you don't have your own equipment, it is time to get creative with a workout. If you have a Wii fit, you have a great tool for aerobic exercise and yoga moves. Yoga assists with being present, flexibility and strength. If you don't have a Wii, you can look into renting exercise DVD's from the library or buy an aerobic or yoga DVD from the store. Another option is to run up and down the stairs, use items in your house as weights, and do stretching exercises. Be creative. Exercise will help with stress relief, weight loss, mental well-being and appetite control. It helps balance hormones - hormones that let you know if have eaten enough and tell you when you are hungry. Exercise is also great for energy production. You need to use energy to make energy. I think that interval training is a great way to burn off stress. Walk for awhile and then do a short spring or a longer jog depending on your fitness level. (do not start an exercise program is you have health conditions that can be made worse - check with your doctor). If exercise is difficult, start small and work up to a more sustained aerobic level. As you become healthier, exercise will become easier. When the weather gets nicer, get outside. Being in nature improves mood and well-being.
Seventh item on the 2009 list - Rest and sleep well
Sounds easy, but for many people, sleep is elusive. There are many reasons that people struggle with sleeping. I would have to say that stress is the number one reason. We don't take the time to rest and refresh during the day, so when we get to the point where we want to get a good night sleep, we can't slow our minds and bodies down enough to go into a deep and relaxing sleep. Another reason that we don't sleep well is that our organs are stressed. If you are waking up in the middle of the night at about the same time, it is most likeley that either your liver or your adrenals are stressed and are trying to detoxify themselves. Our bodies know what they they need to do, but we put our organs under so much stress, that they have to work overtime to do their jobs. So what can we do? There are herbs that can calm the mind to assist with being able to sleep better, but we really need to look at what is causing stress in the first place. Many of us are living in fear of what can go wrong instead of living in the moment and appreciating what is going right. We can't control what is going to happen, so much of our stress is unfounded. If our systems are stressed, we need to look at what we can do to be healthier. Most of all, we need to rest. Give your body some down time during the day - stretch, relax and do something you enjoy. For some people, exercise can relieve stress and slow down the mind. Take care of yourself!
Today is a good day to write about the next thing on my list. Simplify. That has been a goal of mine for a lot of years, and I think I am finally figuring out how to accomplish it. I used to think of a simple life as finding ways to make my life easier. I have switched that perspective as I realize that doesn't necessarily improve the quality of life. Now, I look at what is most important to me, and then figure out how I can get the most quality experiences from the things I think are priorities. For example, my family is at the top of my list. In order to spend quality time with them, I may need to put aside having a perfect house (this is easy for me because I don't like to clean). I want them to be healthy, so I spend extra time buying and preparing food. In the past, to simplify and save time, I would have bought food that was quick, but not as healthy. In the long run, we don't necessarily save time by doing the quickest thing. Simplifying to me means taking long walks with my family and dogs, enjoying my kid's activities, eating well and finding simple ways to enjoy life. I get more happiness from checking books out of the library than I would from buying them at a bookstore. It is not about what we have, but how we appreciate what we have. Keep it simple, life doesn't have to be so difficult!
Number nine on my list for 2009 is a tough one - Create Balance -the reason I think this is difficult is because when you start to focus on one area to get it into balance, another area doesn't get the attention it needs. For example, if you want to balance your finances, you may neglect your health because of the extra costs that can go along with a healthy diet and using supplements. This is where simplifying life comes into play. If you have simplified your life to eating healthy, simple foods, appreciating what you have and the relationships that are important to you, and not worrying about what other's think (not keeping up with the Jones')- finding balance will become a doable goal. Balance is not about perfection. If you strive for perfection, balance will be unattainable. Will your spouse still love you if you if your nails aren't manicured? Will your kids appreciate the time you spend with them instead of cleaning the house? Will your boss notice your have more energy and are in a better mood when you have a balance between work and leisure? I hope so. Make a list of your priorities and a separate list of things that you would like to have in your life, but don't necessarily balance your life (example - 64 inch television set). What are you giving up on the priority list to meet the needs from the "would like to have" list. Sometimes we complicate life. Take that list of priorities and narrow it down to a number that you can easily manage. Now, how can you balance these items? Four of my top priorities would be family, health, work and leisure. Yes - work is on my list - but I work at what I love, and I work part time to make sure I have a balance for the other things on my list. Yes - that makes finances difficult to balance, but it is worth it to me at this point in my life. Only you can know what is a priority for you and what needs balancing. If things didn't get out of balance once in awhile, I think we would get bored!
The final item on my list for 2009 - Appreciate - This is the easiest item on the list to do! Some people recommend filling out a gratitude journal each day for the things that you are thankful for. I think that is a great idea. I personally am trying to appreciate things in the moment. I say thank you in my brain many times a day. I know that for many at this time, there doesn't seem to be a lot to be thankful for...the economy is bad, the weather is cold, and the future is uncertain, but if you stop right at this moment, I bet there is something to be thankful for. I am really thankful for heat today. I try to feel that thankfulness down to my toes, and it lifts my spirits and makes me realize that life is good.
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Goal for today - Go through your cupboards, and write down anything that has more than five ingredients that you cannot pronounce. Each time you go shopping to replace one of these items, find an alternative that is healthier and less processed. By the time the new year rolls around, your pantry should be looking a whole lot healthier.
This is the time of year that we come off of the holidays feeling like we need to eat, drink and act better! It is easy to find deals on exercise equipment and club memberships, to start the latest diet and to be thoughtful of others for the first few weeks of the new year, but after that, all bets are off. My recommendation for making resolutions last a lot longer (hopefully all year) is to start slow. Have you ever jumped into an exercise program and ended up so sore for a week, that you couldn't exercise during that time and then were afraid to try again because you didn't want the same results? If you have not done any exercise for months, it is a good idea to start super slow. Walk on the treadmill for 15 minutes and call it good. Hopefully you will be able to do the same the next day. When that seems good, walk for 20 minutes and lift a couple of weights...when you move slowly, it seems doable and it won't leave you sore and frustrated. As far as food goals go, move even slower. Pick a goal a week. Here are some ideas that can be chosen for a one week goal - the trick is, once you have incorporated the goal, keep it going while you start a new one.
* Of course I am going to start with eliminating high fructose corn syrup! If you can get this out of your diet, you are half way to health!
* Eat a healthy salad every day - add tons of vegetables, olives, hard boiled eggs, sprouts, jalapenos and spices etc..
* Add ground flax to your diet everyday - this one makes a huge difference! Start with a tsp. and move up to a couple of tablespoons - put it on your cereal, yogurt and salads.
* Eat slowly. When possible, make your meal last a half hour.
* Drink half your body weight in ounces of water each day.
* Shop only in the outside aisles of the grocery store where the health food, fresh produce and fresh meats are.
* Eat meat as a side dish - make vegetables the main dish. As an extra, do not eat meat a couple of days a week. This can give your digestion a break and gives you a couple of days with extra fruits and vegetables.
* Switch to whole wheat breads and pastas and brown and wild rice products.
* Find out what your food sensitivities are - these can be causing you to hold on to fat.
* Eliminate trans fats - look for anything hydrogenated on food labels.
* Cut down on corn and soy products (they are added to so many products!) unless they are organic.
* Don't diet - add in the above ideas slowly and you will be on your way to a healthy lifestyle - think health, not diet.
And finally, if your goal is to be a nicer, kinder, friendlier person - when you feel better, you act better. It is hard to be nice to people if you are always suffering from aches, pains, headaches and digestive issues. Health is important and affects all areas of our lives.
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If you want to lose weight this year, think quality foods. I read somewhere that we have dramatically dropped our consumption of quality foods - partly for convenience, but also because of cost. I disagree with the idea that we save more money on processed foods. If you are living on Ramen noodles, ok, maybe - but otherwise - you can stretch items like lettuce, eggs, fruit, yogurt, etc. a long way. When you are nourishing your body, it requires less fuel because you are not starving for nutrients. We are a society that is hugely overweight and greatly undernourished. The majority of our diet is a combination of corn syrups, soy and additives. Our bodies do not know what to do with all of the chemicals that we put into them. We should not be hungry when trying to lose weight. If we give our systems the correct foods throughout the day, we won't go into starvation mode. When your body doesn't get the nutrients it needs, it thinks that it is starving and begins to store fat in case there is a greater famine to come. Eat throughout the day - eat slowly - eat quality foods - eat when you are hungry. Once you get rid of the chemicals in your diet, you will actually start getting signals again that you are hungry. The chemicals mess with the hormones that regulate hunger and thirst (even corn syrup and high fructose corn syrup do this). You can find more on what to eat in my archived blogs. Set a simple goal for yourself today - depending on what your diet looks like, it could be to not eat anything with corn syrup, or maybe you need to add a couple servings of vegetables. Making small changes over time tends to be easier than overhauling your diet all in one day.
The second item on my list for 2009 is Drink Water - It sounds simple, but if you are drinking enough, it will have a big impact on your mood, stress, and energy levels. There is a lot written about what kind of water to drink. Ideally, I think that reverse osmosis water would be great. Honestly, some people can easily filter the toxins in any kind of water, and others cannot. There are concerns with well water, due to the possibility of parasites and too many minerals in the water. Some people feel their best when they drink well water. Bottled water can contain chemicals that may be absorbed from the plastic. With all the controversy - what do you drink? Drink water - drink the best water you can, but most importantly, drink water. Avoid waters with added sugars and chemicals. Unless you are a super athlete, you won't necessarily benefit from drinks with electrolytes. If you need flavoring in your water, add lemon, lime, orange, cucumber, cayenne, etc. As long as you find a food or seasoning that is healthy, fresh and natural, you can add it to your water for taste. Try to drink half of your body weight in ounces of water a day. Work up to that slowly as you work to eliminate dehydrating drinks such as coffee and soda. If you want to continue to drink coffee, try an organic coffee to eliminate some pesticides. Using real cream with pure vanilla is also a good choice for using in your coffee, instead of the cream substitutes that can contain trans fats and sweeteners. Overall, if you want to assist your body with detoxing and energy production, water is the drink of choice
The next item on my list for 2009 is Be Kind to Myself. That sounds like a no brainer, but if you take a step back, and think about a typical day, how much do you do for yourself? Another thing to think about is the mental chatter that goes through your brain. How much of it contains negative thoughts about yourself? If your brain is constantly playing negative messages - you are not being kind to yourself. Ok, so we are not always kind to ourselves, but what can we do about it? We have families and jobs to take care of. Amazingly, taking care of ourselves in a positive way will allow us to take better care of others. If you are calm and living in the present moment, you will better be able to deal with conflicts and busy schedules. Plan into your day ways to be kind to yourself. Getting enough sleep, eating and drinking well, exercising and having time to rest are all ways of taking care of yourself. For some people, they need supplements for depression or to help calm the mind. The first thing to do is to evaluate what is out of balance in your life, and make a plan to bring it into balance. Simple changes can have extraordinary results. For example, make a goal to eat healthy. Find a way to do this within your budget, and you are one step closer to health and doing something for yourself. Schedule in the time you need to find balance. You will benefit not only yourself, but those around you.
The fifth item on my list for 2009 - Be Present - For me, this is the most difficult thing to incorporate into my life. This is definitely an important topic in the media right now. Oprah spent a season focusing on the book A New Earth by Eckhart Tolle. This book focuses on the need to be present to have a healthy and fulfilling life. Many health ailments are manifested from emotional turmoil and the daily stresses that we all have. There is a section in his book that Eckhart Tolle looks at the shift people are making to natural alternatives to health care:
According to the Journal of the American Medical Association, medical treatment is the third-leading cause of death after heart disease and cancer in the United States. Homeopathy and Chinese medicine are two examples of possible alternative approaches to disease that do not treat the illness as an enemy and therefore do not create new diseases.
I agree with this statement. As people are becoming more present and aware, they are coming to the realization that when they have ailments, they need to get to the source of the problem rather than treating the symptoms.
Being present makes the other nine items on my list easy to obtain. It is not easy to do, but I think this goal will have the biggest influence on both health and well being.
The sixth item on my list for 2009 is exercise and get outside. If you live in Minnesota, I don't recommend spending a lot of time outside enjoying nature in these 40 below temps! If you don't have a gym membership, you can't get outside, and you don't have your own equipment, it is time to get creative with a workout. If you have a Wii fit, you have a great tool for aerobic exercise and yoga moves. Yoga assists with being present, flexibility and strength. If you don't have a Wii, you can look into renting exercise DVD's from the library or buy an aerobic or yoga DVD from the store. Another option is to run up and down the stairs, use items in your house as weights, and do stretching exercises. Be creative. Exercise will help with stress relief, weight loss, mental well-being and appetite control. It helps balance hormones - hormones that let you know if have eaten enough and tell you when you are hungry. Exercise is also great for energy production. You need to use energy to make energy. I think that interval training is a great way to burn off stress. Walk for awhile and then do a short spring or a longer jog depending on your fitness level. (do not start an exercise program is you have health conditions that can be made worse - check with your doctor). If exercise is difficult, start small and work up to a more sustained aerobic level. As you become healthier, exercise will become easier. When the weather gets nicer, get outside. Being in nature improves mood and well-being.
Seventh item on the 2009 list - Rest and sleep well
Sounds easy, but for many people, sleep is elusive. There are many reasons that people struggle with sleeping. I would have to say that stress is the number one reason. We don't take the time to rest and refresh during the day, so when we get to the point where we want to get a good night sleep, we can't slow our minds and bodies down enough to go into a deep and relaxing sleep. Another reason that we don't sleep well is that our organs are stressed. If you are waking up in the middle of the night at about the same time, it is most likeley that either your liver or your adrenals are stressed and are trying to detoxify themselves. Our bodies know what they they need to do, but we put our organs under so much stress, that they have to work overtime to do their jobs. So what can we do? There are herbs that can calm the mind to assist with being able to sleep better, but we really need to look at what is causing stress in the first place. Many of us are living in fear of what can go wrong instead of living in the moment and appreciating what is going right. We can't control what is going to happen, so much of our stress is unfounded. If our systems are stressed, we need to look at what we can do to be healthier. Most of all, we need to rest. Give your body some down time during the day - stretch, relax and do something you enjoy. For some people, exercise can relieve stress and slow down the mind. Take care of yourself!
Today is a good day to write about the next thing on my list. Simplify. That has been a goal of mine for a lot of years, and I think I am finally figuring out how to accomplish it. I used to think of a simple life as finding ways to make my life easier. I have switched that perspective as I realize that doesn't necessarily improve the quality of life. Now, I look at what is most important to me, and then figure out how I can get the most quality experiences from the things I think are priorities. For example, my family is at the top of my list. In order to spend quality time with them, I may need to put aside having a perfect house (this is easy for me because I don't like to clean). I want them to be healthy, so I spend extra time buying and preparing food. In the past, to simplify and save time, I would have bought food that was quick, but not as healthy. In the long run, we don't necessarily save time by doing the quickest thing. Simplifying to me means taking long walks with my family and dogs, enjoying my kid's activities, eating well and finding simple ways to enjoy life. I get more happiness from checking books out of the library than I would from buying them at a bookstore. It is not about what we have, but how we appreciate what we have. Keep it simple, life doesn't have to be so difficult!
Number nine on my list for 2009 is a tough one - Create Balance -the reason I think this is difficult is because when you start to focus on one area to get it into balance, another area doesn't get the attention it needs. For example, if you want to balance your finances, you may neglect your health because of the extra costs that can go along with a healthy diet and using supplements. This is where simplifying life comes into play. If you have simplified your life to eating healthy, simple foods, appreciating what you have and the relationships that are important to you, and not worrying about what other's think (not keeping up with the Jones')- finding balance will become a doable goal. Balance is not about perfection. If you strive for perfection, balance will be unattainable. Will your spouse still love you if you if your nails aren't manicured? Will your kids appreciate the time you spend with them instead of cleaning the house? Will your boss notice your have more energy and are in a better mood when you have a balance between work and leisure? I hope so. Make a list of your priorities and a separate list of things that you would like to have in your life, but don't necessarily balance your life (example - 64 inch television set). What are you giving up on the priority list to meet the needs from the "would like to have" list. Sometimes we complicate life. Take that list of priorities and narrow it down to a number that you can easily manage. Now, how can you balance these items? Four of my top priorities would be family, health, work and leisure. Yes - work is on my list - but I work at what I love, and I work part time to make sure I have a balance for the other things on my list. Yes - that makes finances difficult to balance, but it is worth it to me at this point in my life. Only you can know what is a priority for you and what needs balancing. If things didn't get out of balance once in awhile, I think we would get bored!
The final item on my list for 2009 - Appreciate - This is the easiest item on the list to do! Some people recommend filling out a gratitude journal each day for the things that you are thankful for. I think that is a great idea. I personally am trying to appreciate things in the moment. I say thank you in my brain many times a day. I know that for many at this time, there doesn't seem to be a lot to be thankful for...the economy is bad, the weather is cold, and the future is uncertain, but if you stop right at this moment, I bet there is something to be thankful for. I am really thankful for heat today. I try to feel that thankfulness down to my toes, and it lifts my spirits and makes me realize that life is good.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Goal for today - Go through your cupboards, and write down anything that has more than five ingredients that you cannot pronounce. Each time you go shopping to replace one of these items, find an alternative that is healthier and less processed. By the time the new year rolls around, your pantry should be looking a whole lot healthier.
This is the time of year that we come off of the holidays feeling like we need to eat, drink and act better! It is easy to find deals on exercise equipment and club memberships, to start the latest diet and to be thoughtful of others for the first few weeks of the new year, but after that, all bets are off. My recommendation for making resolutions last a lot longer (hopefully all year) is to start slow. Have you ever jumped into an exercise program and ended up so sore for a week, that you couldn't exercise during that time and then were afraid to try again because you didn't want the same results? If you have not done any exercise for months, it is a good idea to start super slow. Walk on the treadmill for 15 minutes and call it good. Hopefully you will be able to do the same the next day. When that seems good, walk for 20 minutes and lift a couple of weights...when you move slowly, it seems doable and it won't leave you sore and frustrated. As far as food goals go, move even slower. Pick a goal a week. Here are some ideas that can be chosen for a one week goal - the trick is, once you have incorporated the goal, keep it going while you start a new one.
* Of course I am going to start with eliminating high fructose corn syrup! If you can get this out of your diet, you are half way to health!
* Eat a healthy salad every day - add tons of vegetables, olives, hard boiled eggs, sprouts, jalapenos and spices etc..
* Add ground flax to your diet everyday - this one makes a huge difference! Start with a tsp. and move up to a couple of tablespoons - put it on your cereal, yogurt and salads.
* Eat slowly. When possible, make your meal last a half hour.
* Drink half your body weight in ounces of water each day.
* Shop only in the outside aisles of the grocery store where the health food, fresh produce and fresh meats are.
* Eat meat as a side dish - make vegetables the main dish. As an extra, do not eat meat a couple of days a week. This can give your digestion a break and gives you a couple of days with extra fruits and vegetables.
* Switch to whole wheat breads and pastas and brown and wild rice products.
* Find out what your food sensitivities are - these can be causing you to hold on to fat.
* Eliminate trans fats - look for anything hydrogenated on food labels.
* Cut down on corn and soy products (they are added to so many products!) unless they are organic.
* Don't diet - add in the above ideas slowly and you will be on your way to a healthy lifestyle - think health, not diet.
And finally, if your goal is to be a nicer, kinder, friendlier person - when you feel better, you act better. It is hard to be nice to people if you are always suffering from aches, pains, headaches and digestive issues. Health is important and affects all areas of our lives.
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