Crowd out the old habits and add in the GOOD habits this New Year!

Is it time to experiment with new foods, new exercise, new friends and new careers this new year?
If you are ready to treat yourself better this year, here are some tips to help you get started.
Any change you make regarding food or exercise is considered a "keystone behavior." This means that it will start to impact other areas of your life positively and before you know it, you will be transformed into a butterfly.  I hope that some of these tips hit a bulls-eye for you.

Cut Back These	Add in These	Benefits
Chips and Salt Snacks	Raw toasted almonds, pecans, walnuts, hazelnuts, brazil nuts, pistachios, sunflower seeds, hemp seeds and chia seeds.	Nuts and seeds have preventative effects on diabetes, heart disease, breast disease and manage body weight.
Red Meat	Mushrooms of all types	Mushrooms have the texture of meat and can aid in weight loss. They will give you a better body composition (less belly fat) and are known to help prevent cancer. Add to soups, or saute with parsley and dill.
Sugar	Coconut Nectar, Maple Syrup, Raw Honey, Medjool dates	Sugar is inflammatory. When ingested it goes to our cells for energy (glucose). If our cells are already full of glucose they say "see ya" and send it to the liver to be stored as fat. Try three days without refined sugar and see how good your joints feel and the energy you have.
Coffee	Tea	Relaxing with a cup of tea can reset our physical and mental state in a positive way. Coffee will put our body in the fight or flight mode very quickly and then cause us to crash. There are specific benefits to each type of tea (black, white, oolong, green) and the additive tisanes i.e. ginger, peppermint, hibiscus. Just Google health benefits of tea and off you go.
Holding Grudges	Forgiveness	"Getting over a painful experience is much like crossing monkey bars. You have to let go at some point in order to move forward." C.S. Lewis
Acidic Foods	Alkaline Foods	Acidic foods promote inflammation in the body. Try to achieve a balance between these two. For example, oatmeal, walnuts and blueberries are all acidic. If you ate that for breakfast you should eat a large green salad with veggies for lunch to balance out your body. When the body is too acidic, it looks to alkalize itself, going to your bones to release calcium into the blood. As you can see, too much release of calcium would lead to weak bones. For a complete list of acidic and alkaline foods check out these two articles: http://www.rense.com/1.mpicons/acidalka.htm http://www.vegan-raw-diet.com/alkalinefoods.html
Being a Night Owl	Sleep 7+ hours per night	Sleep removes waste from our brain clearing toxins that could eventually lead to Alzheimer's disease and other neurological disorders according to the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke. Pick one or two nights a week to get in bed before 9:30, you will awaken without your alarm clock and feel like taking on the world.
		Adapted from: Taste for Life, Jan 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