New Year, New You (& Me!)

2008 is upon us. Happy New Year to all!

For most of us, whether we outwardly say it to anyone or not, our goals will be to be more financially secure and payoff debt, lose weight, and exercise more. I will admit those are all somewhere on my top 5 list; however, I have not quite organized the list yet (a busy girl needs to get on that!). I do know the top of my list last year and will continue this year, is to be responsible for my own health. This does encompass the 3 key goals mentioned above, but more to continue to listen to my own body through self-awareness.

In 2007, I made it my ONLY priority to take my health in my own hands. I had started the journey in 2006, but really took the lead with this in 2007. The first step in any self-help process is to realize that you have a problem. Not many people are wired to think that health is their problem. We are generally wired to believe we get old and as we stumble upon a new health crisis to hit the doctor for answers. Right? I did that for my entire life - until last year. I finally took the onus on myself to blame me for feeling bad - and you know what - that totally changed the way I viewed lifestyle and healthcare. When I took a step back and looked at how food and drugs are marketed to consumers, it really appalled me. Also, I took a hard look at what I was putting in my body (both over-the-counter and prescription medicines and food) and used that self-awareness to monitor the way I felt after ingesting anything. Seems simple, but it was the single biggest awakening in my life.

How could all this food and medicine I was told that would help me - be so bad for me? After all, certain foods were supposed to help me lose weight and make me feel better and have more energy right? And each of the doctors that prescribed medicines had to have some scientific basis to make me feel better....right? After all, they did have the white coats and all that medical school training? I just could not get over the fact that my entire life these things were supposed to be right, and now who am I to think this could all be very, very wrong. Trust me, I felt like the lone wolf with people around me (family & friends) thinking that now I was weird for starting to think differently and for myself. I seriously got the advice from a family member to go to another doctor and get some more medicine to feel better. That is when I realized that I knew more about my body than anyone in my family or another doctor, that did not know my entire history of doctors!

So my advice is to start thinking what is right for you in the New Year, not what is right for everyone else. I will be focusing in 2008 to provide you some good resources I have found from my journey. Genetically we are all very similar with the number of genes in the human body; however, we are all very biochemically different based on our lifestyle, environment and age. So be more aware of marketing efforts aimed at you in the New Year, and as busy as you get this year, please take some serious time for your self-awareness and health...focus on what is right for you!

Finding myself in Sedona

ok...so it has happened...the big event...4-0! and you know what - I feel great. Could that be that I am on vacation in Sedona to celebrate my birthday with a group of my closest girlfriends also turning 40? I am not sure if it is the power of the mystical vortices here or the support and great friendships that transcends time. I have had 5 days to reflect and "chill out"...and be on my time - something that does not happen enough for all of us busy women. So in the spirit of this blog - how does this impact our health? Well here is what I learned and felt during this trip:

My girlfriends - well honestly, I don't don't what I would do without them. When you have good ones, you never let them go. These are the people that have made me who I am and will always be there, much like a very close knit family. We all have come to Sedona with our different issues - looking to find answers to our current struggles and take a break from the grind of daily life. Some are dealing with divorce, others with the balance of school/kids/husband, others with work issues and big personal decisions/changes...and yet all of this is incredibly stressful and so hard to overcome when you have to make it through the week with your busy schedule. So what happens? The weight of the world accumulates into stress which then becomes a health issue that impact many women - and the girls of the Sedona trip are no exception. Stress has manifested itself in different ways: insomnia, eczema, weight, tiredness/anxiety, digestive issues, and of course the mental drain that ensues....and the worst - lack of self confidence to make change happen. The trip to Sedona (a well chosen spot since we are all over worked!) was to relax and take the time to find answers. Some chose comfort in spiritual healers, some through climbing to extreme vortex spots, and others through deep meaninful discussions over pitchers of margaritas.

Today is the last day of our trip, and to reflect on our trip we did a very important thing last night - had a lessons learned (again over margaritas) on what expectations were met with our trip. So we all answered the following 3 questions: 1) Why did we come to Sedona? 2) What did we expect on this trip? 3) What will we take away from the trip when we go back to our daily lives? In the end, none of the psychics in Sedona really did anything but tell us what we already knew - we have the power to make change happen. Even if that wasn't what we all expected to hear for our $100...it sent a very powerful message: you can't expect to find a miracle cure for all your answers. In the end, many of us were disappointed with the generic info the psychics had to offer, but during our spiritual margarita pow-wow, we were all committed to take back control of our lives from others that were wearing us down (work, bad friends/relationships, our inner selves) and make change happen for the positive. For in the end, positive lifestyle changes and mental attitude meant that we would all be alive and healthy for the big 5-0 and beyond!

As I sit here 2 days before turning 40, I am reflecting on my past memories and experiences and yet am excited about future opportunities of the next decade of my life. I am not sure I could of said that about 2-3 years ago. I was totally afraid of this milestone and felt un-easy that my life was now about to be half over. My 20’s brought me a sense of identity with college, relationship mistakes and living by myself. My 30’s brought me the two greatest ‘loves’of my life – my husband and beautiful daughter. And now 40? Hmmm…it should be an open canvas and thanks to getting my health back in order – it will be! Venture with me into this new decade and learn from my past experiences looking at life from the perspective of a truly busy girl…could that be you too? I don’t intend to slow down, but fine tune the engine to high performance. In the fine words of the wise young savvy sage herself, Natasha Bedingfield from her song “Unwritten”,:
“I am unwritten, can't read my mind, I'm undefined, I'm just beginning, the pen's in my hand, ending unplanned….”My story starts here…..

I started this blog to share my knowledge gained over the past 3 years to help other women with their own health related issues.

My hope is that my experience will inspire women to take control of their health and to seek out answers to how they feel, and not to except unremarkable care from the medical community.

Your body is too important, and only you know how you truly feel.

Take the first step by empowering yourself with knowledge for better health choices!