Getting healthy in the new year

Phew, how was your Christmas? I hope it was wonderful, filled with magic and family and good food and love!  And for those of you who don’t celebrate Christmas, I hope that you also have something wonderful to celebrate, and that life is good for you!

Now that the Christmas rush is behind us, have you started thinking about your New Year’s resolutions? For most people, that includes a new resolve to be better to our bodies. But how?

This year, instead of setting traditional goals, I am giving myself a mantra. Feel free to steal my mantra and make it your own if you would like! Here it is:

Eat, Move, Sleep, Love.

Eat – There is a difference between just filling your belly with whatever so it will quit rumbling at you and really eating and enjoying what you eat. I’m planning to eat well this year and to really enjoy the food that I’m eating. It’s going to be high quality and it is going to nourish me, body and soul. Of course, one thing that can really help with this is having your meals all planned out ahead of time, and I definitely recommend using a service like eMeals to take the stress out of meal planning and make sure you always have a fridge stocked with the best foods!

Move – I am going to move my body every day. Lately life has been nothing short of insane! I’m afraid that life has cut into my exercise time, and I am now down to exercising 3 to 4 times per week. I have found that exercising 5 times a week works really well for my body and really makes me feel my best, and I have plans to get back to that ASAP, but for now I’m riding this wave and just making sure that I get some sort of movement, even if it’s just a walk or some stretching, every single day. Bodies are meant to move!

Sleep – Oh, this has been so hard for me lately! And yet sleep is so hugely important for both physical and mental health! My problem isn’t trouble falling asleep, but rather just staying up too late doing all the wonderful, exciting things that I currently have the opportunity to do. As my current activities die down in February, I am definitely looking forward to more sleep. In the meantime, I am just trying harder to get my work done during the day so that I can climb into that bed earlier at night. (By the way, eMeals can help with this, too, by saving me tons of time during the day so I can get my stuff done and get in bed earlier at night!)

Love – Health is of course about what you put in your body and making sure you exercise, but it is also so much more! The relationships we have, our careers, our spirituality, and so many other things also play a part in our health and wellness. I am planning this year to cultivate an attitude of love; with my family, with my friends and those around me, with my career, with my home, and on and on. I want more love in every aspect of my life, and I’m going to go get it!

What are your goals for the new year? Do you make regular resolutions, or do you prefer a mantra like mine? Or do you do something else entirely?

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