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!