With the holidays upon us and people getting into “New Year’s Resolution” mode, I wanted to share some thoughts with you. Over the last week, I’ve received three messages–that are essentially the same message–from three different people and so I am taking it as sign to write about it. The first came from someone who bought my book over a year ago but who has yet to open it as the “timing never feels right”. The second came as a private message on Facebook from a woman thanking me for the work I do. She shared that she’d considered taking my coaching program, but she feared she wouldn’t have time to devote to it. Yesterday, someone reached out to share that they’d gotten sober a year ago and that they struggle with sugar and, “Maybe 2020 will be my year to get healthy”.
I simply want to take this moment to share something, if you, too, have a tendency to say, “I’ll get healthy _________.” FILL IN THE BLANK with “On Monday” or “When things calm down” or “When I have more time” or “Next year”…
Here’s the truth: There IS no “good time”, no tomorrow, next week, next year.
The only thing we ever have is the present moment, and when we continue to wait for the “perfect” time to make changes that will enhance our experience of life and help us improve our health, then we are short-changing our experience of life now.
Oxford dictionary defines health as “the state of being free from illness or injury”.
I disagree.
I personally know people who are living with MS, Parkinson’s and auto-immune diseases who are “healthier” than many people who aren’t living with a disease! I don’t see one picture of health and I certainly don’t look at a person on the outside to determine whether or not they are healthy; health is NOT a size or a number! The way I view health is that we ALL have it, and some of us are enjoying a better quality of it than others at the moment, due–in large part–to the lifestyle choices we each make. I view health on a spectrum, with opportunities at each stage to enhance or deplete it and with endless opportunities to improve it.
It’s not a finite thing.
I want your 2020 to look different if you, too, struggle with “maybe this year will be the year I get healthy.” I want to remind you that your body works its ASS off for you 24/7/365 and it doesn’t care about your “maybes”.
It needs you NOW. It needs you to understand that it has physiological needs and that every time you ignore them, it suffers; and its health is compromised.
Your body doesn’t want to wait for your so-called “perfect time” for you to treat it the way it deserves to be treated! It needs your care and attention NOW.
And NOW.
And NOW.
In each and every present moment, we have a chance to “be healthy”. We don’t need to wait! In each and every present moment, we have a window–the moment between the craving (for sugar, for junk food, to lay on the couch, to buy that stuff, to say that thing, to take that drug) and the actual DOING of it.
We have TIME. We have a chance. We CAN make a choice that nourishes our bodies rather than depletes them. We have that chance whenever we are thinking about “getting healthy” to actually DO something healthy! We don’t need to wait. Not even for a second. Whenever that thought comes, “Maybe I’ll start to get healthy on Monday”, remind yourself that right here, right now, you can choose health.
Our health is the culmination of myriad decisions we’ve made day in and day out, year in and year out, and if we want to enjoy good health, we need to make more decisions that will lead us closer to where we want to go rather than take us farther away.
We ALL have health. Some of us have spent more time prioritizing the ways to feel good in the long-term and others have spent more time “treating themselves” in the short term.
Getting our mindset right is huge. It’s not easy, and it takes work and it takes time and it might even take a paradigm shift like it did for me (I was a person who believed that eating junk was fiiiine and drinking and smoking every day was fiiiiiine!) yet I was an incredibly unhappy person living an incredibly unhealthy lifestyle. And now look at me! I simply do not believe the things I used to believe and I no longer behave the way I used to behave.
How did I do it? I changed.
And you can, too.
So, what can you do?
In any given moment, you can realize you have a choice to make. You can prioritize your body–and its needs–or you can ignore them and succumb to the craving (because, let’s face it, we alllll crave things) and when you aren’t in a habit of not giving in to those cravings, the pull is even stronger. So, a powerful first step is to simply raise your awareness. That’s all. Not even doing things differently, necessarily. But simply noticing. Being curious. Being aware.
And you can start small. You can choose to take a deep breath (please do that right now—a niiiice, deeeeep breath). You can drink a glass of water (can you do that now, too? Your body is basically a houseplant with more complex emotions–I read that somewhere). 😉 You can stretch your neck from side to side (can you try that with me now?). You can be grateful for something, right now (what is it for you? I am grateful you are reading this). You can take a bath, you can read a good book, you can take a walk, you can go to bed (you can read the rest of this tomorrow) ;).
In any given moment, we can choose to love ourselves through the way we treat our bodies, and in this way we are getting healthier and healthier by the minute! It’s amazing what happens when we do this work; when we pay attention to our body’s needs even if it doesn’t seem like that’s what will feel the best to us. We think we really need the chocolate, but after taking that walk or that bath, we feel so much better and maybe, just maybe, we can skip the chocolate today. And maybe, just maybe, it felt so good to care for ourselves so lovingly that we might do more of that tomorrow. And THAT is how we create greater health in our lives. That is how we move the needle. That is how we create change and perhaps even–like for me–how we create a whole new life that feels so good to live.
If you are struggling like those three women who reached out to me last week, then I want to help. It’s the reason I was put on this earth, I’m convinced, to help people find their own definition of health and their own way of living with more joy and freedom.
And I want to help you.
On Monday, January 13th, 2020, my next round of One Bite At A Time (OBAAT) group coaching will begin, and I would love for you to experience it with me and the others who are taking a big, bold leap of faith to make 2020–and each moment inside of it–the time they finally stopped waiting and, instead, started doing things differently.
We go slow; not fast.
We spend three months together and each week there is a lesson (on video) where I share a piece of the puzzle that changed everything for me. I assign some homework that will take you about an hour, and each week builds on the last as we cultivate a deeper relationship with ourselves, our bodies, our lives and each other. Each week, there is a live Q&A where I answer your questions, share more deeply, offer recipes (made in my kitchen!) and where you can connect with the other members of the group. We also have a private online community where magic happens. It’s all done online, so we get to be anywhere in the world and still do this. It’s amazing. And I’d love for you to be a part of it. Visit OBAATCoaching.com to learn more or email me at Sarah@SarahTalksFood.com and let’s stop “trying to get healthy” and instead start living our lives with more awareness, purpose, love and passion.
Because I want you to love your life one bite at a time.
P.S. Once you join ONE TIME, you get lifetime access to ALL future rounds of coaching. FOR FREE. Some of my students have been with me since the very first round (this will be number 7) as a way to go deeper, learn more, connect with others and continue to stay on the path. I love that.
P.P.S. If you’d like to learn more about my work around food and sugar and body image, I did a live training called:“The Truth About Sugar and How To Live A Life Of Freedom Around Food.”
P.P.P.S. If you’d like to prioritize your health for 14 days, I’d love for you to sign up for my 14 Days of Wellness. Simply enter your name and email address up on the right to begin receiving the messages today. It’s FREE, with no diets, products, challenges or catches…just a chance to remember how amazing you are…for 14 days.
P.P.P.P.S. Let’s be friends! I’d love to connect on Facebook , Twitter and Instagram. Plus, if you haven’t already subscribed to my blog, you should! That way, you won’t miss anything. Plus, as a thank you for joining, you will receive my 14 Days of Wellness.
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