New Year New You Week Two Self Improvement Hop

Welcome!!
Glad you are joining us for the 

Weekly Friday

New Year New You Self Improvement Hop!

The Pitch List Bloggers 

want to make 2013 the Best Year Ever!

We read and follow GREAT Blogs!  

Blogs that have fantastic content on how to make our lives a little better!  

We thought "Let's make a weekly hop. What a GREAT way to share helpful ideas to make our lives better."

If you have a post on anyway to make 2013 better please add it to the linky!

Each Friday we will have a new linky!

Join us for a great 2013 Adventure to a Better Life!

This week I am Linking up

Breakfast Get Creative, Keep it Fresh, and Make it Enjoyable.
What Organ is Most Affected by Skipping Breakfast?
New Video with Joe on Reboot with Joe .
What Inspires you?

 

What Organ is Most Affected by Skipping Breakfast?

Most of us are always on the go which might make this week revamping your Breakfast a little more difficult than those that stay at home.  That said, stay at home moms seem to have little time to sit down and have a relaxing and nourishing breakfast too.  I would like to challenge you to really work on this.  You owe it to yourself to start and set the pace for a stress free day.  This falls into the positive affirmations.  When we think "I don't have time to sit and eat Breakfast", "can't take the time" "I'm running behind", these are all negative thoughts that stick with us and carry into our day. 

What is the one area of your body that is affected by malnutrition?  First, let me explain that someone can be affected by malnutrition even if they are eating three square meals a day.  Malnutrition is a lack of nutrients and the body is essentially starving.  You can be 400 lbs and be malnourished.  They have not lacked in foods, but they are starving their body none the less with less nourishing foods.  Foods that have vitamins, minerals, micronutrients, and so forth, your live foods that are unprocessed will keep you from starving your body with empty calorie foods.

Answer: The BRAIN! 

You may think that feelings come from the heart, hunger from the stomach, and thinking with the brain, but really the brain is responsible for all three.  Your behaviors, moods, and memory are all affected by the brain not to mention over 1000 metabolic processes.  Your brain uses up 20% of your bodies energy sources.  The ability to think clearly, stay calm, make decisions, are running on 20% of your fuel you are providing.  No other organ is as demanding as your brain, yes important and affected but not as much.  Think about this next time you want to skip Breakfast and you have a meeting, driving, paying bills, studying for a test, deciding on a house, you get the idea. 


For some people we run out of time or get behind because of certain morning routines.  My husband likes to wake up to reading the news and emails.  This causes him to skip breakfast most mornings.  While he is getting ready I am making the kids breakfast and lunches.  I have to make my husband's breakfast and lunches for him to take to work.  He is someone that cannot eat breakfast that early in the morning.  To balance this I send him with a mid-morning breakfast, which he usually has sometime around 10 am.  I pack him, egg burritos, yogurt, mixed fruits, cereal bars, smoothies, and protein bars, because I like to change it up through the week.  You can have breakfast on the go and it can still be healthful.  It takes planning and follow-through to make this happen. 
You can be "eating" foods that may be satisfying your craving, but is it nourishing your body.  Remember we said that Breakfast is the most important meal of the day, you have been fasting and you need to fill up.  Think of your body as a car and your stomach as the gas tank.  What happens when we run out of car?  You'll need to put something in it, right?  What if you just add enough to get you from point A to B, although you will eventually have up to 15-20 stops through the day.  Your gas tank needs to have the right fuel and the right amount.  You don't want to have to keep filling up at gas stations all day long that would just be frustrating.  It sounds ridicules, but that is what we do when we don't take the time to eat a regular meal and just provide our body with quick energy snacks.  Maybe it's a donut, a slice of toast, a granola bar, or a small bowl of cereal , the list can go on with the variety of processed foods we have available for us.  We have engrained in our heads that we have so much to do with little time to do it.  We have a ton of convenience foods that boast about eating on the go, no more running behind, but are these processed foods or live foods.  I think of sugary donuts, candy bars, chips, anything you grab from the vending machines as diesel fuel for your unleaded tank.  Your car is eventually going to shut down.  It may take you a little ways, but it will stop working.  Why add a few dollars of gas instead of filling up the tank?  You will eventually need and burn that gas, but we keep only adding just enough to get us to one point or the next.  Treat your body like you want it to stay in good condition instead of needing a expensive tune up in a short time.  When the car needs to have work done on it, it can be expensive and takes away from time you need in other areas.  When we get a cold that knocks us out for a week, or a trip to the doctors off, everything gets off schedule.  I like to use the mental vision of a car because most people take better care of their cars than they do themselves. 

Where can you make more time in your morning? 

Wake up just 15 minutes earlier.
Precut fruits ready.
Have oatmeal and spices in a container ready to cook.
Make you egg burritos the night before and add some hot sauce.
Make muffins the night before and make enough for a few days that week.
Have veggies cut and ready for an omelet.
The emails and news can wait to read when you're done eating.
Iron you cloths the night before and set out to have ready.
Think of breakfast as family dinner, everyone starting the morning together.  If you have children this is the time to help train them to understand the importance of breakfast. 

I have timed my breakfast items. 

These are meals I can make in less than 5 minutes. 

• Scrambled, boiled, or poached eggs and toast
• Mixed fruits, bowl
• Omelet's, when the veggies are cut the night before.
• Parfee's
• French toast
• Yogurt and fruits.
• Smoothies
• Breakfast wraps or burritos
• Oatmeal

Changing up the fruits, vegetables, sides, spices, and these can go on for months with a different breakfast meals using similar bases. 

What are some ways you can make more time to sit, chew, and eat breakfast without the rush?

Breakfast Get Creative, Keep it Fresh, and Make it Enjoyable.
Goals and Making Rewards That Help and Not Become an Obstacle
New Year's Resolutions That Work

Disclaimer: I am not paid for my announcements, news, or post. These are my opinions and thoughts. I enjoying bring my readers wonderful Companies, Events, Health News, and Green Living.

Breakfast Get Creative, Keep it Fresh, and Make it Enjoyable.

I believe that Breakfast is the most important meal of the day.  You need to take the time to eat a nourishing and replenishing meal to charge your body for everything you demand of it that day.  Breakfast means "To Break a Fast".  Think about how you have gone between 5-10 hours since your last meal, and your body is digesting and resting during the night while you sleep.   If you skip your breakfast you are depleting your body even more and running on empty.  This is why people tend to need more sugary and caffeinated items to get them moving.  This week we are going to focusing on a more nutritious breakfast. 

First, you should take a look at everything you eat last week.  If you are not keeping a food journal, then you need to start, until a healthful daily diet is natural.   See what you consumed for breakfast, or if you skipped it completely.  How was your energy?  Where you craving certain foods?  How was your mood?  These are all areas that are affected by what you eat or don't eat for breakfast. 

Two of the largest obstacles for breakfast are time and organization.  Are you running late?  Is the fruit already cut up?  Are you taking the time to pack a snack and or lunch?  Are you getting the kids ready for school and to the bus stop, making sure they are all set and forgetting about your needs as well?  If you take the time to do a little planning, then breakfast will be a lot easier in the morning. 

You want to make sure you are not eating the same thing every day, because you want balance and variety, it is the spice of life.  I like to sit down and make a weekly menu of what we will be eating for all meals including snacks.  This helps me to stay organized, takes the stress out of "what to eat", and keeps me from wasting any food.  Try making a calendar with a 3 to 4 day rotation of meals.  You don't want to have an egg every morning and you don't want to have the same fruit every morning.  This variety gives you something to look forward to and keeps you satisfied.  I go a little farther and have a breakfast plate that I like to use because it has all these beautiful colors and brightens my morning. 

You want your breakfast items to be filling and to have a good source of carbohydrates to provide lasting energy.  Whether you are doing heavy lifting or sitting in a desk you need energy.
Breakfast items

• Whole grain breads, bagels, and cereals.  You want to use an Organic and nonGMO brand for these selections especially.  If you are not sure why I suggest this, please hit the GMO News tab at the top of the blog.  When you are eating breads I suggest limiting the amount of jams, butters, and other condiments as these are empty calorie items.  A little bit can give great taste and enjoyment, but use them in moderation.
• Fruits.  I love have fruit in the morning because it provides a last energy source that taste great.  Fruits have antioxidants, fats, and are lower in calories than breads and cereals.  Make the mornings easier on you by precutting up fruit and having it ready to serve. 
• Eggs, boiled, scramble, fried, omelets, and quiches will give you protein along with other needed nutrients.  I usually don't eat eggs more than 3 times a week at a max, just to keep from have too much protein in my diet.  If you are vegan than you know to use legumes as a nice filling source of energy and proteins. 
• Fresh Juices
• Smoothies provide an assortment of vitamins and nutrients that are quickly blended and can drink on the way to work or school.
• Vegetables are usually over looked as a breakfast item.  While I was in Scotland I loved my toasted tomatoes.  Oh man where those good and go wonderfully with a side of toast and fruit. 
• Add in some Yogurt, kefir, and natural cheeses.  These have protein, calcium, and carbohydrates, and other nutrients. 

Get Creative, Keep it Fresh, and Make it Enjoyable.

Have fun with your breakfast choices, this is your time to start your day off right and making a delicious breakfast and not feeling like you are rushed gives you a more relaxing day.  Breakfast sets the pace.  If your breakfast is rushed or missed you feel that same way all day long.  By using fresh ingredients you are providing your body with live foods.  These are what will heal and repair the body.  If you are eating items that can last for years on a dry shelf they may not have as much life giving nutrients.  Cereals and granolas are energy and provide life, but throw in some fresh fruits with it.  Milks can add in protein easily and you can change this up a bit with almond milks, rice milks, and coconut milks.  Change it up will give you verity and different taste.  Sit and enjoy you breakfast.  Place everything out in front of you, chew your food, and think positively about the day ahead of you.  By waking up a few minutes earlier than normal, planning your outfit, and prearranging your breakfast you can glide into your day and still sit and enjoy your breakfast.  It just takes a little planning and following through. 

Two things to start today, if you are not already doing it. 
Make a menu for this week's breakfast, and make it different each day.
Record what you are eating and how you are feeling. 

Don't stress about lunches and dinner right now, we will get to that.  This week you are just working on making more healthful breakfasts and working on starting your day right.  If you are drinking mugs of coffee you may want to cut back to one or two cups and include more juices.  Be sure to come back for some great recipes this week for breakfast, some to make a head and some easy to make in the mornings. 

Disclaimer: I am not paid for my announcements, news, or post. These are my opinions and thoughts. I enjoying bring my readers wonderful Companies, Events, Health News, and Green Living.

New Year New You Self Improvement Hop

 

We want to make this year easier for you to find everything you need to help you with a

 New Year New You! 

Every Week we will be link up with other bloggers who are sharing their tips to Self Improvement. 

This is going to be your best year EVER!

 

I am sharing this weeks post on Getting set up to make your New Years Resolutions work. 

 

New Year's Resolutions That Work

What is Negative Self-Talk and Does It Hurt Me?

Goals and Making Rewards That Help and Not Become an Obstacle

Dr Joel Furhman Video Natural Eating

Welcome....Glad you are joining us for the 

Weekly Friday

New Year New You Self Improvement Hop!

The Pitch List Bloggers 

want to make 2013 the Best Year Ever!

We read and follow GREAT Blogs!  

Blogs that have fantastic content on how to make our lives a little better!  

We thought "Let's make a weekly hop. What a GREAT way to share helpful ideas to make our lives better."

If you have a post on anyway to make 2013 better please add it to the linky!

Each Friday we will have a new linky!

Join us for a great 2013 Adventure to a Better Life!


 

Goals and Making Rewards That Help and Not Become an Obstacle

We are all pumped and motivated to improve ourselves and have set some New Year's Resolutions of some kind.  So how to make our goals and what should we use as rewards or motivation?

 

With all goals you should make them obtainable but still a challenge. 
You know yourself best and know if you are someone motivated by a challenge or if you are the person that throws in the towel early.  Knowing yourself is a vital part of change.  You want to give yourself the tools to help you make those changes.  Some people are motivated by a huge challenge while others see that same challenge as an un-climbable mountain.  Take this into consideration when making your goals. 
Here is an example for someone who wants to lose 30 -50 lbs. 
I am going to lose _____ lbs for this year and will meet half the goal by June. 

List the reasons you want to obtain better health and wellness.  This is your accountability tool, and means to motivate you for success.  You need to know what your goals are so you can rejoice in the accomplishments and make adjustments on the areas still requiring further development. 

Rewards are a great motivation to keep you on track and to inspire you onward.  Sometimes these rewards can be negative and hurtful to us.  Say you are trying to lose some weight; you don't want to reward yourself with a night out at your favorite restaurant.  The next morning you might get on the scale and see 5 lbs back on that you worked so hard to remove.  Something you need to remember about weight loss is that your body is set at what it thinks is it normal weight, a set point.  When you lose weight your body might think that it has been in a fight or flight scenario and will look to put weight back were its set at.  When you lose weight you have to maintain that weight for a few months, to a year, for your body to reset its set point.  Frustrating I know, but true none the less.  This is why you NEVER reward with foods, desserts, or things that you have been omitting from your diet.  These are not rewards you need to look at them as SETBACKS.

 

What can be rewards?

I will share with you a few of my personal rewards I have set for myself. 
These are rewards that I have set for different times through the year with a larger reward in December. 

• Pedicure
• New Cook Books
• Movie night
• Golf
• New Jeans
• Hairstyle makeover
• Massage
• Shopping spree $$
• Wrap and Massage
• Spa Weekend:  This is my huge December/January reward.  A weekend at one of my favorite hotels with a spa package, facial, message, pedicure, and healthy dishes.  A time of relaxation and reward for the hard work of all year.  I am someone who likes to visualize my goal.  I also have all year to save up for it, slowly. 

I work my body hard and am sore a lot.  I like rewards that pamper my body, there are many rewards you can chose that are better for you. 
Movie, workout DVD, workout outfit, new running gear, a RACE (love this one), any workout gear, books, makeovers, jewelry, adding to your backyard garden, you get the idea.  These are things that you want to have, but you will work hard for them with not setbacks. 

 

Don't go making these too easy to obtain. 

If you are someone who needs smaller challenges then think about weekly rewards with a bigger monthly reward.  You can get really creative with this; just remember to keep it positive and a challenge. 

 

New Year's Resolutions That Work

You should be working on your food journal.  Remember to look back and evaluate what you have been eating the calorie amounts and how it is affecting your weight gain or loss. 

What is Negative Self-Talk and Does It Hurt Me?

Have you made your positive affirmations to repeat and motivate you?  Here is an awesome example of a friends workspace she made to keep her motivated and strong.  Make your own this weekend!

 

Disclaimer: I am not paid for my announcements, news, or post. These are my opinions and thoughts. I enjoying bring my readers wonderful Companies, Events, Health News, and Green Living.

 

What is Negative Self-Talk and Does It Hurt Me?

What is Negative Self-Talk?

Just like the saying you are what you eat, you are what you THINK.  It is important to notice when we are being too hard on ourselves and use negative self-talk.  For most, we do this so often that we are unaware that we do it and how to deal with it.  Think of your mind as a computer with its set programing of mental thoughts.  We have to identify the statements that have been programed to use and reset them. 

Your thoughts affect how you react to situations in life and most of the time we use them to motivate and inspire us on.  Unfortunately we use these statements to create pressure more than inspiration.  You know the feeling of when a paper or report is due and the deadline is approaching.  We use negative self-talk to make sure we getting it done.  While it helps to get us moving it also creates stress that builds and affects our health.  When we stress and do not relieve or reduce that stress we can cause our bodies to gain weight, lower our immune functions, and create a downwards spiral to ill health.

When it comes to your New Year's Resolutions, motivate yourself with positive affirmations and delete the Negative self-talk. 

Recognize when you use Negativity Self-Talk 

You are in a inner dialog of negative self-talk all day long.  About 75% of what we say to ourselves is used against us by ourselves.  Maybe some of it was said to us over and over in school, home, work, but we have to change it.  If you have statements or thoughts that have these phrases in them then you need to start with those.

• I can't
• I don't
• I'm sorry
• I tried           
• I can't finish this
• It won't be in time
• It's not good enough, it's not clean enough
• I wish I had more energy
• I doubt
•  All these indicate failure and you want to motivate not demean.  How many of these do you say daily?  You can change them around to say "I will and I can!"  I know I use to say these statements to myself often throughout the day in just my chores and schedule.  I looked at my accomplishments with negative influence that it was done, but not the way I wanted it.  I learned to say "look at all I accomplished today", instead of what had to be left for tomorrow.  I learned that not everything goes as planned and I stayed positive in my work.  This decreased my stress and helped me be a better Stay at Home mom. 

When situations arise we tend to bring up old emotions of negative self-talk because it becomes habit.  This becomes a stressor that results in anxiety and a state of chronic stress.  This is where we will break this cycle with Positive Affirmations.

Our mind stores past experiences, beliefs, and ideas, just like a computer.  But like any computer they are only as good as the information that is stored in it.  You control what is put in your computer (mind), and it is important to program your memory bank with positive, healthful thoughts. 

 

5 Steps to a positive healthy mind

• Presentence.  State your desire as if it has already happened.  “I am relaxed and calm", do not say a want to be relaxed and calm, you want to claim that it already is.  Do not say "I will get organized" but rather, “I am well organized".  You are training your thoughtful state to feel the phrase and it is something that becomes automatic. 
• Make it Personal.  Use the word I or your name.  “I am healthy and happy". 
• Use positive phrases only.  Do not say, "I will not lose my temper".  What happens is your mind pictures you blowing up or yelling?  It recalls the results of the negative what it.  In stead say, "I am calm and relaxed", or "my emotions are correctly expressed".  I am not saying so not express your feelings or to suppress them, but rather to give your self positive memories to over come the stressor to stay calm and manage the emotions that are arising.  Affirmations help you to relax and understand your behavior. 
• Be specific.  If you want to lose weight that make it about that fact.  First visualize yourself as the person you wish to be.  Make this a picture to carry with you.  Phrase:  “I am losing weight healthy and I am 10 pounds lighter", and see yourself happy, healthy, and the ten lbs gone. 
• Be realistic.  If you want to make $100,000 next year and your current income is $30, 000, then this is not a realistic affirmation.  If you are 50 lbs over weight and you want to be 50 lbs lighter in 2 weeks this is not realistic.  Make a plan of increase or decrease within a realistic level. “I am 5 lbs lighter this week".  Or "I will be making $5, 000 more next year".  When we have a goal of realistic affirmations our mind looks to make that happen. 

 

For affirmations to work you must repeat them. 

You want to pick 3-4 phrases and repeat them throughout the day. 

• Say your affirmations before bed and when waking. 
• Say them when relaxing or meditating on the affirmation. 
• Say your affirmation both in your mind and say aloud.  Hearing the affirmation reinforces the message.  Be sure to listen and believe. 
• Write down your affirmations.  When we see them in writing it makes a strong visual connection. 
• Repeat your affirmations into the mirror.  This will create rapid changes to see you and hear your voice saying and owning the affirmation.

  Examples

Find a quite place or a place of comfort.  Breathe in deep through your nose and out deep through your mouth.  Slow your breathing to deep breaths in and out. 

1.  "I am calm and relaxed".  Breathe in and out slowly.

2.  "Everyday in everyway I am getting better and better".  Or “Healthier and Healthier" Breath in and out slowly.

3.  "I am filled with energy all day long".  "  am getting Stronger and Stronger"

Breathe in and out slowly.

See yourself as these imagines. 

 

What are some Positive Affirmations you will start using today?

 

Be sure to see yesterdays Post on New Year's Resolutions That Work. 

This is your year to make some awesome changes. 

 

Disclaimer: I am not paid for my announcements, news, or post. These are my opinions and thoughts. I enjoying bring my readers wonderful Companies, Events, Health News, and Green Living.