A new week is upon us and soon to be a New Year! I hope your holidays were filled with fun activities and you were able to slow down and reflect. It can sometimes be hard to slow down and reflect. If you’re a little bit like me, you might appreciate routine. Routine represents safety, familiarity and not feeling out of control. Sometimes the holidays can make a person feel out of control. It’s not the holiday itself, but the preparing for the holidays.
Oftentimes during the holidays, disagreements with our partner can take place, or our kids are out of control. Really anything or anyone for that matter can trigger us to emotional eat. Or sometimes it’s the thought of, “It’s the holidays, so I am going to eat whatever I want and then “ fix” it later.” Can anyone relate to this? If so, I want to help you with this type of thinking. Of course it’s fine to enjoy some of your favorite foods. The thing people don’t like to hear is this: There is a cost to overindulging. There is a cost to emotional eating. There is a cost to binge eating. Are you willing to pay the cost?

This leads me to my next thought and that is this: Do you know the negative cycles that you do not want to continue to repeat in 2020? If so, this is where you can begin to see a breakthrough occur. Knowing is half the battle. The next step is implementing action steps to change. For example, this holiday season I made my favorite cookies. They are white chocolate macadamia nut with cranberries. Delish! Needless to say, they have been a downfall of mine in the past. But because I have been working on having a healthy mindset towards food,  I was able to enjoy half of a cookie one night, and 1 cookie a few days later. Now the old me would have been eating the batter, and having several cookies so for me, this was huge! It’s important to note your progress along the way. This is why having a Health Coach who can celebrate these victories-both small and big-are important. 

As we step into 2020, let’s challenge ourselves with our current habits and disciplines. We only get 1 life and it is time to upgrade to the next level in our health. But it starts with our mind. Who is ready to let go of habits that are not serving you? If so, please reach out. I would love to stand with you and support you. Our health matters and if you have been in the same place for a long time and not happy, what needs to change? Are you putting bites of this and that in your mouth when you aren’t even hungry? Are you rewarding yourself with sweets or food in general? Are you just eating food because it’s free (Costco samples, ect) or because it’s offered to you? Take inventory of what is tripping you up. Let’s rock our health together. I know I want to prepare again to run a 5K.

Remember this, our bodies are pretty much capable of anything. It’s our mind we have to convince.

Here’s to an amazing successful health filled week ahead and HAPPY NEW YEAR!

To your success,
Erica Matthews
Certified Health Coach