Before you write too many New Year's Resolutions...Read This.

I don't know about you, but I am really hard on myself and never seem to be satisfied with my accomplishments when I look back on the year that is leaving us. This year we say good-bye to 2013. I tend to start with the negative: I did not get enough done, I was not a good enough mother, wife, sister, daughter, friend, employee etc. I still have closets to clean and drawers to organize and stuff to donate....and ...and ....and.

I never liked New Year's Eve celebrations, the drinking, the overeating, the watching the ball drop, the feeling that life in the year of 20_ _ had gone too fast.

I have a strangely different attitude this year. I have never before felt this calm about another year moving by. As I contemplate the reasons why, I have discovered something that I did differently during this year than all other years: I have taken better care of myself. I HAVE TAKEN  BETTER CARE OF MYSELF. There, I said it!

I am not saying I have been perfect in every area. For example, going to the gym has been put on the back burner more than it should, but I jump rope in the garage if only for 10 minutes a day. I have concentrated on figuring out what was missing in my diet to cause intense cravings and the need to eat more often than I should. I have figured out how to eat for energy and for my best health. I am relying more on holistic practitioners to figure out how to keep me healthy. I am staying out of the conventional medical world where prescription drugs abound.

I have experimented with dairy, fats, proteins, raw cheese, grains, and yes chocolate too.

This New Year's Eve, I will have a very different feeling going into 2014. I am going to continue my "Year of Ultimate Health" which began April 2013 and ends in March 2014.

Before you write down all of those harsh New Years Resolutions ( I will never drink or eat again!) that are broken by February, why not just write down this one: "I WILL TAKE BETTER CARE OF MYSELF IN 2014!"

Make a declaration which states your intention for 2014 and write it out on a piece of paper. Post this declaration at work, on your wall in your home office, on your dashboard in your car. Just by writing it down, your mind, body and soul will take you there, I promise.

I made my declaration last April and it has worked beyond my wildest dreams:

April 2013 - March 2014

"The Year of Ultimate Health"

 

I wish you love and health in 2014.

To Your Best Health,

Denise Lovat
Certified Health Coach

Visit my website at: http://www.deniselovathealthcoach.com/Services.html
to schedule a  free 1-hour health history consultation.

Holidays Bring PeopleTogether ....are you sure?

No matter how hard we try, holiday-time can be stressful and sometimes unpleasant. Perhaps you and your mother's relationship has suffered this year. Maybe you and your spouse have been so busy taking care of your family and children that you have not made anytime to keep the fire burning. Do you have an old friend whom you are estranged from for a silly reason? Do you wish they were still in your life?

When we repair relationships, it can benefit our health immensely. Love relationships can bring immense happiness and joy, but when they are out of line, they can be the source of unhappiness, stress, misery and bad health.

Whether it is your mom, your sister, your brother, your spouse or and old friend, this December is a good time to start to heal and repair. You can try some of these strategies to get you started on the road to relationship recovery:

1. Make the first move: Who cares if you have to be the one to reach out. We are past the trivial, aren't we? Give this person a call and ask them to meet for a tea, coffee or cocktail. Tell them you were thinking about them and that you want to get together.
2. Learn to forgive: Harboring angry feelings about a relationship are unhealthy habits which cause little pockets of unhappiness in your body. Some day if you have enough of them they can present as disease. Forgive everyone for everything even if it is hard. The power of forgiveness is for the person who forgives, for you!
3. Change Yourself:  You know that saying, "the only person you can change is yourself." It is true. You can only change yourself and your reactions to other people's behavior. Instead of reacting with scorn or silence, reach out and heal.

If you need some help with your spouse, this is a great article about a technique called
H-E-A-L: http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/the-mindful-self-express/201304/four-steps-relationship-repair-the-h-e-l-technique

If you need some help with your mom, this is a great article about moms and daughters but could apply to anyone: http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/the-mindful-self-express/201304/four-steps-relationship-repair-the-h-e-l-technique

To Your Best Health and Merry Christmas!

Denise Lovat
Certified Health Coach

Visit my website at: http://www.deniselovathealthcoach.com/Services.html
 to schedule a  free 1-hour health history consultation.

Can you make the necessary changes to live out your life in good health?

I find myself at the grocery store almost every day of the week.  I like looking at the produce, shopping and having that time to relax and discover new things to buy. I really like older people and talking to them in the grocery store brings me joy.  The elderly are very sweet and interesting. The elderly always have comments about the price of food, the quality of food or the weather.

I was saddened by my conversation this week with an older diabetic man. His resistance to change, even when his life depends on it, seems stronger than his love of life itself.

We were admiring the sweet potatoes and how they were .59 cents per pound. He said "these sweet potatoes look great don't they?" I agreed and asked him how he usually cooked them. He said he baked or boiled them and that he was a diabetic. I told him that I bake several sweet potatoes in the evening, slice them in half, add coconut oil and put them in foil so that I can reheat in the morning for breakfast. I told him that I dip the delicious hot chunks of sweet potato in almond butter and that sweet potatoes have become my favorite breakfast.

He indicated that his doctor told him not to eat any fat or oil, so coconut oil was out of the question, (proper cell function depends on good fats). He then told me that he was a widower and that when he found out he was a diabetic, he was a vegan for a week and "never felt better." He went on to say that he liked the "traditional food like meat loaf, steak and baked potato."

I almost asked him to repeat the sentence that he just said and to listen carefully to what he was saying.

He said "I was a vegan for a week and NEVER FELT BETTER!" If that was the case, why wouldn't you want to feel that way always and forever? Why would you revert back to what is making you sick?

I am afraid he does not understand the impact that food has on his health. I am afraid that his doctor has not made it clear that he needs to drastically change what he is eating and that each time he eats, his food goes to the cellular level to either make his body work well or to disrupt his cell function and wreak havoc. I am afraid it is too late for this gentleman to make the changes necessary to live out his life in health and joy.

Can you make the changes necessary to live out your life in health?

Here are 11 tips to help you live to be 100!

1. Don't retire
2. Floss every day
3. Move around
4. Eat high fiber breakfast
5. Get at least 6 hours of sleep 
6. Consume whole foods
7. Be less neurotic
8. Live like a Seventh Day Adventist: cherish your body on loan from God
9. Be a creature of habit
10. Stay connected
11. Be conscientious

For more detail on each of these tips, go to: http://health.usnews.com/health-news/living-well-usn/slideshows/in-pictures-11-health-habits-that-will-help-you-live-to-100/12

source: US News and World report

To Your Best Health,

Denise Lovat
Certified Holistic Health Coach

Visit my website at: http://www.deniselovathealthcoach.com/Services.html
 to schedule a  free 1-hour health history consultation.

What is derailing YOU from reaching your health goals?

If you are not prepared for meals, this could be derailing you from reaching your health goals?

Today is Sunday. Sunday used to be my least favorite day. I would think about the week ahead of school or work and wonder how I was going to get it all done.  In college, Sundays were strange days because it was a lonely, uneventful day full of homework and feeling bad about being behind on homework and missing family time.

Now, Sundays are my favorite days. I have claimed them as mine! I have made Sunday's my day of cooking and getting ready for the week. Instead of letting the week knock me down like a title wave, I control how my week begins by having loads of prepared food in my refrigerator to take wherever I am going or to eat at home at meal times. I feel as if I have at least 10 extra hours a week just by taking the steps to PREPARE for meals in advance. Do we eat left-overs everyday? YES and I think it is the only way to live!

Today my cooking is underway with green lentil soup with kale, carrots, onions, celery, seranno chili peppers, tomato sauce:

I have also prepared spaghetti squash and acorn squash to add to our meals as sides:

I tried out these collard green wraps, with all raw julienned beets, carrots, cucumbers, green peppers and smashed avocado. I had one for lunch and loved them:

Lastly, I baked four sweet potatoes and have the coconut oil already on them to reheat and smother with almond butter for my breakfast of champions this week!

I hope you can take some time on Sundays to prepare for your meals for the week ahead. It is a great way to stay healthy and stay on track to reaching your goals.

If you would like the Vegan Collard Wrap recipe, please got to http://www.deniselovathealthcoach.com/Services.html. Where it says "request information, send me an email and write COLLARD WRAPS.

To Your Best Health,

Denise Lovat
Certified Health Coach