The Top Ways To KickStart Your New Year - And Your Health!
So, it's now 2015, and you are wondering how to recover from all the tasty treats over the holidays, and get started on your health goals for 2015. Want to reduce your weight? Have more energy? Have less stress? Have more free time? Here are some top ways (they are often very easy!) to get to the health goals you want. This way, you can feel like a superstar and make 2015 your BEST YEAR EVER!
1 - Reduce stress:
Excess stress or stress with no breaks is one of the biggest causes of disease, obesity, depression, burn out, and just generally feeling lousy. Many research studies prove it! The best way is to reduce the stress, or find great ways to deal with it, such as exercise, martial arts, yoga, meditation - or to reduce/remove the stress from your life. There are also some great, very safe, herbs that also will help modulate your stress levels, improve your mood, calm you down, and get you feeling better/more tranquil as well. Herbs like this include holy basil, ashwagandha, rhodiola rosea (rose root), lemon balm, passion flower, and to a weaker effect, chamomile. These can come as teas, powders, or capsules.
2 - Make a plan; write down your goals and put them in a highly visible place.
As the saying goes, those who fail to plan, plan to fail. I'm not sure I agree with this 100%, but by writing your goals down on paper, this has a tremendous effect unconsciously for you. By leaving the goals posted in a conspicuous place, you will see them every day and they will remind you of what you want. Focus on what you want - NOT what you don't want. Focus on "I want to be rich/fit" for example, and NOT on "I don't want to be poor/overweight." This will bring a lot of success too, especially if you keep focusing on the positive values, and visualize what you want!
3 - Clean up your diet (or LIVE-it as I like to call it). Nothing like the word "die" to motivate you to do something! :)
This one can be pretty straightforward, as we often know what foods are detrimental to our health. But foods that are healthy for us - there is often mixed information and debate on certain foods, like grains and fats; are they healthy, are they not? I can write a whole blog on ONE of these on their own, but one simple way to tell is that if something comes in a box, it's usually unhealthy. If something appears as it does in nature, then it's probably healthy.
4 - Share your eating habits and goals with friends and family - and tell them that you want their support!
Share your goals and desires with friends. They can both hold you accountable to your goals if you are tempted or start to slide - plus, a GOOD friend who knows your goals will respect them, and not tempt you away from your healthy eating plan. "Just ONEEEE drink......"
5 - Reduce your toxic burden
There are approximately 287 toxins, on average, found in newborn babies. We live in a toxic world with cosmetics, deoderants, perfumes, fire retardants, cleaning products, pesticides, hormones and chemicals used in meats or processed foods, air fresheners, industrial processes, and soforth. The top tips to reduce your toxic burden include:
- Find more natural cosmetics (I can connect you with natural cosmetic/skin care experts
- Having at least a water portable filter (ie: Brita or better) on the water you drink, and preferably something more heavy duty like reverse osmosos, Burke, or Kengan water filters.
- Don't use air fresheners - use natural essential oil scents instead
- Follow the dirty dozen/clean 15 list on my web site to see which fruits and veggies you really should buy organic, and which ones don't make as big a difference
- Use natural cleaning products like baking soda, orange, or vinegar
- Limit, or omit processed foods from your diet
- Organic meats, although often more expensive, give you more protein and less fat for your dollar - and a lot less chemicals too- so are they actually more expensive???
Happy New Year everyone! Go have your best year ever!