Time to Review your New Year's Resolutions

So here we are, mid July.  Halfway through the year.  I just had my birthday the other day, so I've turned 33.  This time of the year is a great time to look back and see how you've been doing with your New Year's Resolutions.  Try to do it without beating yourself up.  In the beginning of the year we often have lofty ideas about what we'd like to incorporate into our lives, but the day to day is just as important.  Now is a great time to re-evaluate those resolutions rather than simply recommit.  As my good friend and teacher, Kitty Cavalier would say, those goals probably didn't seduce you.  The goals weren't right for you.  Or maybe it wasn't the right time for those goals in your life.  

Check them out.  Did you make some progress in those areas of your life?  Than give yourself credit!  Were you chasing goals that you made to impress someone else?  Ditch it!  Were your goals set too high?  Change it!  In the comments recommit to new goals for the second half of the year.

My goals from my New Year's blog this year:

"For 2013, I'm not going to drink. I am not completely restricting myself, if there is an important social gathering I'm not saying I'm "not allowed." But I don't think I will. I am also going to continue to listen to my body to tell me what I want to eat. But it won't be the same things that I wanted before. I am going to continue to ask myself if my next action will lead me to feeling one of my Core Desired Feelings: Powerful, Energized, Connected, Clear and Free.
As for fitness I have a few goals, they include being able to do 5 handstand pushups, being able to lift 65 pounds for my overhead squat. To be able to do 5 muscle-ups, and increasing my mobility. I would love to be able to do a split. I'm so inflexible.
My other resolution for the year is that I intend to be more authentic every moment of every day."

Well.   There are some goals, that looking back, were created because I was feeling super motivated.  I thought I wasn't going to drink.  I have some kind of mental fight that goes on in my head around alcohol.  Part of me thinks that I should never drink, that complete sobriety is something that a deeply grounded spiritual person would reach for.  And then someone offers me a glass of wine or a dark beer.  Or I hang out with my family for a week.  I am re-evaluating this goal.  For the rest of 2013, I am just going to enjoy an alcoholic beverage when it feels right.  Leave out the guilt.  I'm not sure where I got that sober spirituality image, but I'm making my own rules in my life.
I continue to just follow my body's desires for what to eat.  I am amazed that I still do not need to weight myself 6 months in.  I could tell after my vacation with the family that all the beer I was drinking was making me a bit bloated, my pants weren't fitting very well.  But then this morning I'm feeling great.  And I didn't do anything spectacular.  I'm just listening to what I really want.  What my body really wants.
I am still loving the Core Desired Feelings.  People, this is an amazing tool for your toolbox.  Every day I strive to feel Powerful, Energized, Connected, Clear, Free.  Every moment I am out of sync I can look around me and ask myself what I can do to make myself feel this way.  And there is always a way.
My fitness goals got put on a bit of a hold, but I am recommitting to them.  They are totally doable.  The handstand pushups I made progress on, I am able to do one.  I took some time off of going as much as I was to Crossfit, so now that my schedule is going to permit a regular schedule again, I think these goals are totally within reach.
So how are you doing with your goals?  Let me know!

Finding Motivation

Although I feel like I've got a pretty good handle on what food my body works best on, I am always struggling for the right motivation.  Is it to be skinny, look hot, be strong, have more energy, etc?  I go back to my Core Desired Feelings from Danielle Laporte.  My five are to feel clear, connected, strong, supported, free and energized.  This is true and it is fairly motivating.  But when faced with a red velvet cookie from Safeway, telling myself that I want to feel clear, connected, strong, supported, free and energized does not keep the cookie from my mouth.  I think you need to have that one thing- that image, that word, that motivational thought- ready for those emergency moments.  For some people it's the thought of their children or spouse, or a disease that they have that they are fighting.  I'm still working on mine, but right now what's working quite nicely is that I want to be a role model.  I want to live the life I talk about.  I don't want to talk about how awesome paleo/primal is for you while buttering up a thick slice of bread.  I want to be an example of healthy eating, healthy living, healthy and playful exercise.  I want to show others that it doesn't have to be that hard.  

The cool thing is, it actually seems to do it for me, at least for now.  When offered a delicious, home-baked brownie in the office, I momentarily had a flash of wanting to be a role model for this woman.  And I said no.  Easily and without guilt.  I want to walk the walk for this woman who I have conversed so often with about our ideas of healthy food.  I'm not sure if this will work forever, but it seems strong to me.  It speaks of serving others.  It feels like a better reason than having a flat stomach.

What about you?  Do you have something you remind yourself or (or try to) before deciding to take that bite of delicious processed junk?  Comment below!

This quote below is the "Comment of the Day" on a Marks Daily Apple blog.  Freaking hilarious.  And helpful.

"Imagine you’re at a friend’s house enjoying a piece of homemade cake. It’s absolutely delicious, the best you’ve ever eaten. You ask the friend for the recipe. The friend lists the ingredients: flour, sugar, butter, eggs. Then the friend adds, “Oh yeah, and pee. I peed in the cake batter before baking the cake.” You immediately put down your fork. Just a moment ago it was the tastiest cake you ever ate. Now you don’t want to take another bite. The next time your friend serves cake you don’t take any. Even if everyone around you is eating the cake and saying how great it tastes you don’t need any special will power to avoid it. You simply don’t want it because you know what’s in it.

The next time you pick up a package of some highly processed food, look at the ingredient list. It’s pee cake. Just walk away.

 Read more: http://www.marksdailyapple.com/weekend-link-love-244/#ixzz2UoKI1M7s"

New Year's Health Goals

It's been a while since I've written on the Life, Health, and Food blog, since I've been on a bit of a spiritual hiatus.  I had completed a paleo challenge with the Crossfit Oahu team, this time called "Natural November."  I did great and once again was looking pretty fit at the end.  When the challenge was over I repeated my same cycle of eating massive amounts of "non-paleo" foods- especially anything with wheat and sugar (cookies, bread, crackers), alcohol and some fried foods.  I've gone through this many times and blogged about it before.  I have no definitive answers.  All I know is that every time I complete a challenge I "fall off the wagon" but every time it is not as destructive to my body.  Since I've been doing the spiritual thing I thought to myself that I would just ride this out and see what happened.  To just really go for it, to listen to my body and try to figure out what I really wanted and see what came out of that.  I didn't want to stop myself and promise that I would eat "better."  I wanted to wait for something to tell me it was time.  So for much of December I had strange combinations of Oreos, whipped cream and bacon for breakfast, if that's what I was craving.  If I felt like eating a "paleo" dinner, I would.  If I felt like potato chips for dinner, I'd go for it.  And if I wanted the entire bag of potato chips in one sitting, then I let go and ate them.  And for some reason, I never felt guilty.  The whole month of December I listened to my body.  I had a couple of evenings where I had some cravings and I walked to Safeway with the express purpose of finding what it was that would fill that craving.  I wandered all the aisles and I decided nothing was off limits.  Was it pickles? Was it cookies? Was it pretzels? Was it cookie dough? Anybody following me around would think I was crazy.  People go to the grocery store with lists!  I just wandered.  I'd pick something up and put it in my basket, but I might get to another aisle and decide that no, this chocolate bar would be better.  I stopped stuffing down the craving beast and let it out into the open.  I talked to it.  I listened.  Sometimes we had a miscommunication.  Turns out the cookie dough was not ever really the answer.  One time I picked just the right donut and enjoyed every single bite.  One evening it was pretzels and Guinness.  It was really fun to explore this feeling.  I've written a little about this before, too.  Do I want something crunchy?  Something sweet?  Something fatty or fried?  While I wandered around the store I had time to really pinpoint it.  As the end of December was nearing I began to have moments where I doubted myself.  I thought I would have to do another challenge or set some restrictive goals- goodbye bread and alcohol.  As I was washing dishes one day I thought, "Okay, tomorrow I will go back to eating healthy."  And it was strange.  I've gotten so used to questioning my thoughts and beliefs and this time, I didn't believe myself.  I was saying it, but it was untrue.  So I took it back.  I told myself I would not make a commitment or goal about restricting something from my diet until I could feel it was time.  A couple more times I had the thought that I was ready, but it wasn't true.  Then for some reason on December 18 in the bright and early pre-dawn hours I woke up and thought, "Okay, I'm ready."  And it was true.  It was a release.  I didn't have to stuff my face with sweets, but I didn't have to restrict myself completely anymore.  And still, I waited for the New Year to start eating better.  I wanted to make sure.  And for the rest of the month, I felt like I was saying goodbye.  Farewell, Guinness.  Farewell, wine.  Farewell, bagels.
For 2013, I'm not going to drink.  I am not completely restricting myself, if there is an important social gathering I'm not saying I'm "not allowed."  But I don't think I will.  I am also going to continue to listen to my body to tell me what I want to eat.  But it won't be the same things that I wanted before.  I am going to continue to ask myself if my next action will lead me to feeling one of my Core Desired Feelings: Powerful, Energized, Connected, Clear and Free.
As for fitness I have a few goals, they include being able to do 5 handstand pushups, being able to lift 65 pounds for my overhead squat.  To be able to do 5 muscle-ups, and increasing my mobility.  I would love to be able to do a split.  I'm so inflexible.
My other resolution for the year is that I intend to be more authentic every moment of every day.
What are your resolutions for this year?