Don't Wait Until New Years to Change Your Habits

I am all for setting goals for the new year. But I think there are a lot of people that put so much weight into their “resolutions”, make them almost impossible to reach, and once they slip up, they think whelp I’ve failed, better go back to what I was doing before and wait until next year. 

I’m specifically thinking of people’s weight loss goals. There’s nothing wrong with setting this sort of resolution. But I think instead of saying I want to lose 20 pounds, you should make your goals other things that will get you there. Things like “This year I want to run a half marathon,” “This year I want to cut out processed foods 5 days a week,” “This year I want to pack my own lunches for work.” 

And going along with this, there is no reason you have to wait until January 1st to make the change. I am constantly setting resolutions for myself all year long. 

I’ve seen studies that say 8% of people keep their New Years Resolutions. Only 8%!

While I set my goals for the new year, I use those almost as intentions. I check in with them almost every month or two, but I set different goals for each month. 

I want people to approach goal setting, and New Years Resolutions differently. So many are setting themselves up for failure, and there’s no fun in that. 

It’s time to start approaching each month as a chance to make a change, each week and every day as a chance to make a positive change in our lives. 

The next part of the equation is the failure. It’s going to happen. It’s a real drag to try and be perfect. No one is. You’re going to fail and that’s just part of the process. But the trick is once you fail to think “Right, no big deal. My fresh start begins now.” 

There’s this place we go for Taco Tuesday, and a while ago the girl ringing us up started asking about being vegan (I asked for no cheese and she asked). She then went on to talk about how she tried to go vegan the previous summer, made it four days and then had some honey glazed almonds, and because she thought she had “failed” threw the whole goal out the window and went back to eating meat. 

You guys, we’ve got to cut ourselves some more slack than that! 

“Oh shoot, those had honey on them. I’ll remember that for next time, but I’m going to continue my journey into veganism.” 

I want to try incorporating running, yoga and weight lifting this winter. Ideally, I would like to get into the habit of doing something each day. But when I miss a day do I just give up completely? No way! 

Setting big goals are great, but grant yourself some wiggle room. 

What are some exciting goals you've set for yourself this year?

A Fresh Juice Recipe For Each Phase of Your Menstrual Cycle

Now, I’m not promoting juice fasts, but I love making juices and thought it would be fun to look into creating a recipe to support each phase of your cycle. Obviously you can just choose to each any of these veggies and fruits fresh if you don’t feel like juicing them!

And remember fresh juice is best, not bottled juice or stuff that was juiced hours, or days ago. And if you don’t have a juicer feel free to whip up a smoothie based on these recipes as well!

Menstrual Phase Juice

My goals — nourish, rest + renew

Veggies: beet, kale

Fruits: blackberry, blueberry, grape, watermelon

I love beet, kale and watermelon, which I think would be a great combo for a juice. And I like to balance out my veggies and fruits so it’s not to sweet and not too “earthy”. 

+ 2 beets

+ 4 - 6 sticks of kale

+ 2 - 3 cups of watermelon (I find that the easiest way to juice watermelon is to just toss it in a blender and pour that through a strainer)

Follicular Phase Juice

My goals — reenergize + motivate

Veggies: carrot, parsley

Fruits: grapefruit, lemon, lime, orange, pomegranate

Carrots are one of my favorite veggies to juice! I think a great combo would be carrot, orange and then lemon or lime (depending on if you have a preference). 

+ 4 - 6 carrots

+ 2 - 4 oranges

+ 1 lemon or lime

Ovulatory Phase Juice

My goals — outgoing, stamina + motivation

Veggies: chard, spinach, tomato

Fruits: cantaloupe, coconut, raspberry, strawberry

I’m not a fan of chard, but if you are throw it in there! I think a great combo would be spinach, tomato, cantaloupe and strawberry. 

+ 2 handfuls of spinach

+ 4 tomatoes 

+ 1/2 cantaloupe

+ 2 handfuls of strawberries

Luteal Phase Juice

My goals — slow down, let go, + calm down

Veggies: celery, cucumber, ginger

Fruits: apple, peach, pear

I love love love ginger, and apples in juices. But I’m not a fan of celery. A great combo would be cucumber, ginger, apple. 

+ 2 cucumbers

+ “thumb” sized portion of ginger

+ 4 apples

+ 4 stalks of celery (if you’re into that)

I don’t know about you, but I’m drooling just thinking of these. I’m going to go whip up a carrot, apple, ginger juice because that’s what I have sitting in my fridge right now. 

What are your favorite juice recipes? 

Hormonal Birth Control + Nutrition

We hear all of the time about the importance of nutrition. To make sure we are getting enough vitamins and minerals. To eat a diet of whole foods, i.e. fruits, vegetables, seeds, nuts, beans, legumes, etc.

But what if I were to tell you that your hormonal birth control could really be screwing with how well your body is able to absorb the nutrients? 

Because it does. 

It messes with our bodies ability to function at it’s best level of health. One way it does this is by creating vitamin deficiencies and keeps our body from properly absorbing key nutrients .

Below is a list of nutrients disturbed by hormonal birth control. Just take a moment to scroll through before continuing to read. 

— vitamin A

— vitamin B1

— vitamin B2

— vitamin B6

— vitamin B9

— vitamin B12

— vitamin C

— Biotin

— Bioflavonoids

— Vitamin E

— vitamin K

— Iron

— Calcium

— Magnesium

— Potassium

— Selenium

— Copper

— Zinc

— Prostaglandins

— Blood Lipids

— Serum Proteins 

Holy cow, right?

But if that isn’t enough to worry you, let’s take a minute to go through a few of those and what role they play. [I pulled all these facts from “The Pill” and “Sweetening The Pill”]

So, your B vitamins, folic acid, iron and magnesium are all vital for neurological and emotional health. 

When you have reduced vitamin B1 it can leave you feeling fatigued, weak, with insomnia, vague aches and pains, weight loss, depression, irritability, lack of initiative, constipation, oversensitivity to noise, loss of appetite or sugar cravings, and circulatory problems. And that’s only one vitamin.

When your vitamin B2 is lowered it can lead to gum and mouth infections, dizziness, depression, eye irritation, skin problems and dandruff. If you’ve ever listened to me talk about my experience you may have heard me mention how I got eight cavities in my first year on the pill. 

And the list goes on and on and on when it comes to hormonal birth control messing with your nutrients. If you’re still interested I urge you to go look up the roles these nutrients play in every aspect of your health and well-being, and then sit there and think about the fact that we’re screwing around with all of them. 

I heard it mentioned once that we view health as an outward appearance. “Oh, she looks really healthy.” But why are we trading that off for what’s going on inside of our body. It can only be a matter of time before this catches up with us. 

No matter how healthy and diligent you are with what you’re eating, it almost doesn’t matter because you aren unable to absorb it all when you’re on hormonal birth control. 

But food is a vital part of the process of healing when you make that decision to quit hormonal birth control. Remember that.