Planning

Family Time is the Best Time

Just as you need movement or exercise and good nutrition for physical health, you also need social connection for your mental health. Endless studies highlight the benefits of social connection. These studies suggest that social connection strengthens your immune system, lowers anxiety and depression, increases self-confidence, empathy, and trust. Spending time with family and friends increases social connection but also provides significant benefits to children. Some of the benefits of family time for children include:

building confidence
creating life-long memories
creating a stronger emotional bond between parents and children
allowing for better communication between family members and others
increasing performance in school
increasing opportunities to model behaviors such as conflict resolution, confidence, and happiness

As you continue practicing social distancing, you can think through opportunities for volunteering, cooking (especially new cuisines and dishes), and physical activities as a few options for family time that can fit into your wellness journey and hopefully start theirs.

Mindful Eating During Stay at Home Orders

Although some stay at home orders due to COVID-19 are being lifted, most people will still find themselves spending a significant amount of time at home. Since we are at home, the temptation to eat out or on the run is minimized. Because we are unable to maintain our regular lifestyles, this is a good time to practice healthy habits such as mindful eating.

What is mindful eating? It is a technique that promotes weight loss and reduced binge eating. As a practice, it is thinking about your food before, during, and after consumption. Practicing mindful eating can help you gain control of your eating habits and feel better overall. Here are some easy ideas on how to start.

– Listen to your body: eat when your body tells you to eat and stop eating when you are full

– Consider where your food comes from

– Eat foods that are nutritionally healthy

– When eating, only focus on eating

– Reflect on how you feel after you eat

For more information about mindful eating, check out Mindful Eating: The Art of Presence While You Eat. If this something you would like to incorporate but need help, let JLH Wellness help you through a health coaching experience.

The S.W.A.G. Challenge

I’m calling all women that are looking to get stronger to join the Strong Women Accountability Group Challenge (S.W.A.G.). You can have the desire to be physically stronger or stronger in adhering to the goals you set for yourself at the beginning of the year. This is a virtual challenge but you will be provided with the tools to succeed. These tools include

-an initial assessment
-weekly encouragement
-weekly workouts
-nutritional guidance
-private webinar
-private virtual team connection
-a prize for the challenge winners

Check it out!

Matters of the Heart

It’s month two into your new year, new you plan. Some may have jump started their efforts, but it’s quite possible that others have not for various reasons. Whatever position you’re in you are not alone! If you’re well on your way that is great! If you’re not remember changing behavior is hard to do. This is particularly true when you’re trying to make lifestyle changes. When trying to make those types of changes you should have a will and a way. An article in Psychology Today indicated that the will is your why and the way is defined as the how. Sometimes people lose focus on why they are trying to change. It’s also possible that the “why” isn’t strong enough for one to commit to the change. You may have had a plan that didn’t quite work out once you got started. If you have fallen off the new year, new you wagon, you can get back on. Assess your will and your way and ensure your goals are SMART goals.

Become a New You in 2020

At the beginning of a new year most people look towards a fresh start. Some commemorate this fresh start by making new year resolutions or setting new goals. These goals are often related to health, finances, time management – just to name a few. The running joke is that by the end of March, most people don’t remember what those goals were or the last time they looked at them. But there are a few steps you can take to develop a healthy lifestyle for many years to come; to become a new you in 2020 and beyond.

One of the first steps towards becoming the new you is to understand the “why” of your goals/resolutions. Failing to accomplish goals often comes from not really thinking about the “why”. For example, losing 20 pounds may be your goal however your reason may be because you want to fit into a certain size. Or maybe you want to stop taking medications. Maybe you want to feel better physically and emotionally. Knowing the “why” is one of the most important steps you can take because it will help you recalibrate if you get off track.

After understanding your “why”, the next step is to make SMART goals. What do SMART goals look like? SMART goals represent goals that are specific, measurable, attainable, realistic and time-based. To develop SMART goals ask yourself the 5 W’s: why, who, what, where, and when. You already know your why so next, determine who will help or support you while you work towards your goals. After that, write out what you want to accomplish. If you have several goals write them all out, then decide which goal or goals to focus on first. When thinking about your what, also determine what you need to accomplish your goals. Are there are certain skills or expertise you need to attain the goals? Once you know the why, determine the who, and narrow-down the what, be sure to decide where you may need to go or not go to achieve your goals. Finally, choose when you will work on your goals based on your schedule and patterns.

Now that your goals are very specific ensure they can be accomplished in measurable increments by developing milestones for your goals. Accomplishing these milestones offers opportunities to reward yourself on your success and helps with self-encouragement. Setting milestones for your goals also helps you consider if the goals are currently attainable. If you want to eat healthier do you know what that means or what that looks like? If you don’t know, what resources do you need to make this goal attainable? If you are not eating vegetables consistently it could be very difficult to change from a regular western diet to a vegetarian diet. It may be more realistic to start by eating 1 more vegetable serving over the next 2 weeks. Once that milestone is reached, you could increase your vegetable intake biweekly. To ensure your goals are SMART you want to have them time-based meaning have a deadline for accomplishing the goal.

The last step to becoming the new you is to get started and stick to it! Research has indicated it takes 66 days to develop a habit, not a month. That sounds like a lot of opportunities to get it wrong and miss some milestones. Let’s be honest, it is! YOU WILL make mistakes. YOU WILL miss some milestones! But don’t sit in your failure. Keeping going! These 66 opportunities give you enough time to ride that wave up and down until your goal becomes a success and forms into a habit that can change your lifestyle.

Changing is hard but it can be done. Hopefully your new goals for the year are meant to change your lifestyle and not just a moment in time. Setting SMART goals gives you the structure to be successful in making lifestyle changes. If you find setting goals and sticking to them to be too difficult, seek out help. Now go make 2020 the year of a New You!