Starting Off Strong

We start again. Only this time, I have information I didn't have before, so I'm ahead of the game. I think listening to our bodies and paying attention so we can learn what works for us and what does not when it comes to wellness, is imperative in our busy world. I mentioned in my other post that I think a large part of our overwhelming weight problem here in America is how busy we are and that we don't think about what we are fueling our bodies with.

I find, especially as I age, that my body is less forgiving the longer I treat it shabbily. Empty calories, fad diets, going for long times without fueling up at all, and constant dehydration, these things all take their toll and at least for me, leave me feeling lethargic, strip me of all motivation, and feed false cravings that are damn near impossible to resist.

In my personal experience of earlier this year, when I've gotten the right amount of sleep, and when I start my day with a long walk and a bottle of water, when my first meal of the day is oatmeal with walnuts and bananas, it puts my mind in the place it needs to be in to make good choices for my body. It shows me, I can totally do this, and furthermore, it reminds me how good it feels to be healthy. The choices that follow in the day are so much easier because I don't want to get derailed from my good start. So if I had one bit of advice to offer, it would be weight loss is a long, annoying, sometimes hard thing to do, don't look at the big picture, just set yourself a morning routine that will get you moving and push your brain into the right frame and don't let yourself get away with not following it. Apply your best stubborn streak to this alone and I think you'll see an enormous change to your overall attitude and success throughout the day.

The other bit of advice I would give, is fix your sleep pattern. I know, terribly presumptuous of me to assume you don't sleep well, but as I see all the time in articles on health and weight, the vast majority of us aren't. Again, from personal experience of this year, I learned that a proper sleep schedule gives you more energy throughout the day, allows my brain cells to fire on all cylinders and quite frankly... just feels good!

All my life I thought I was a ten hour girl. If I got less than 10 hours of sleep a night, I'd feel edgy, worried, tired... then I accidentally started sleeping 7 hours a night and discovered, I wasn't tired and in fact had more energy throughout the day and wasn't taken down by arsenic hour! You know, that time in the afternoon when you crash and apparently mothers of olde used to put a tiny bit of arsenic in their children's tea to calm them down over that afternoon crash so they themselves wouldn't want to jump of the London bridge? ...I'm serious, I read about it in a parenting book once LOL

My point however, is this, if you aren't sleeping well, it is affecting everything from your mood to your ability to lose weight. Do some experimenting and find a sleep pattern that works best for you and don't be afraid to think outside the box. I have a friend who uses two sleep cycles a day about ten hours apart. I personally find 5am to noon works best for me. There is no formula for this, its about your body and what it needs and I assure you, when you start giving your body what it needs, it will start giving you what you need!

Here's my commitment for the next seven days...

• To re-establish my sleep schedule.
• To start my day off strong
• To drink 6 bottles of water every day (I'll be holding myself accountable to this on the twitter and FB page)
• To eat healthy, vegetarian meals and to avoid - soda, cheese, and bread
• To walk at least three times every day

Those were the core basics of my healthy living plan of the summer, the things I've faded on doing over the past six weeks, so today I'm back on it and I'm starting out strong, because this is too important to wade into. My health matters, your health matters. Lets make it a priority.