Living a healthy and harmonious life is totally possible if we set the intention for ourselves. If you’re like a lot of people (myself included), then you’re probably kicking off 2018 with a list of New Year’s resolutions. As a Functional Nutritionist, I am often asked ‘what kind of New Year’s Resolutions does a nutritionist make.’ I wanted to share what A Nutritionist’s Healthy New Year’s Resolutions might include. It is my personal journey that I hope will inspire you to abundant health and wellness.
My New Year’s Resolutions
As I reflect back on 2017, I am visualizing my goals and intentions for the new year and sharing it with you now.
1. Practice More Gratitude
I love being in the state of gratitude! A good friend of mine gave me a beautiful book of prayer and meditation for Christmas. It is designed to help you build a practice of gratitude through daily readings. I decided to read one of the daily readings every night before I go to bed. I started this ritual and I can already say the positive shift is uplifting.
2. Cleanse my body through detox programs
Like most people, I feel the need to cleanse my body of accumulated toxins. I am marking my calendar for a total body detox several times throughout the year starting in January 2018. For the fun of it, I will solicit other people, including family and friends to join me on these programs.
3. Clear my mind and negative emotions
In addition, to my physical body detoxes, I will complete some cleansing of my mind in the form of ridding negative emotions and thoughts that have logged their place in my body. These negative emotions are showing up as physical issues such as fatigue, aches, pains and some inflammation. Through emotional releasing programs, I will also clear unnecessary feelings such as fears, anxiety, disappointments and other forms of negativity.
4. Spruce up my diet
I always aim to eat healthy with healthy meals and a balanced diet when I plan and prepare my meals. The challenge is when I am not in control of the foods prepared by others or when away from home. This situation causes me to fall short of my healthy eating habits. Being a nutritionist, this is a big “no-no” for me. To remedy this situation my intention is to better plan ahead to stay on track. I will prepare more meals and snacks that I can bring with me in times when I am less in control of the foods I eat.
I will load up on more super foods that are considered “functional foods” due to their high amounts of phytochemicals and/or antioxidants. These foods are known to have a potentially positive effect on your health beyond providing you with the basic nutrition that your body needs such as phytochemicals, antioxidants, vitmains, minerals and more. Read my article on the 25 Top Functional Foods for Health for my favorite list.
As I celebrate the New Year with family and friends today, I am currently away from home. Instead of snacking on the “so-called” healthy foods such as gluten-free chips and roasted nuts, I decided to be proactive and bring my own snack to share with everyone. I brought my homemade guacamole dip and sliced up some organic cucumber. It turned out to be a satisfying and healthy snack while keeping in line with my healthy New Year’s Resolutions. Everyone else seemed to enjoy this healthy snack too, especially after indulging during the holidays. I hope I inspired everyone to keep the healthy eating habits going!
5. Create more healthy recipes
The idea of experimenting with new healthy meals enlivens me! It motivates me to create more healthy recipes to include in my diet. Of course, I will share all my latest recipes with my patients, family, and friends on my blog and with my social community. Stay tuned as I continue to publish new recipes on my .
6. Take time to relax
As a practitioner, I often recommend downtime for my patients as it is so necessary to rejuvenate and heal the body. Since I already have a yoga practice, I will continue this ritual and look for other healing modalities. My action plan is to add other downtime relaxing rituals such as hiking, aromatherapy and more quiet reading time.
7. Get more sleep
I recognize the importance of adequate sleep for healing your body. Sleep is restorative and necessary to heal your brain and for your anticancer defense. As a businesswoman, I sometimes fall short of getting enough sleep myself. My goal and intention are to turn off the computer well in advance of bedtime and start my evening regimen of nightly hygiene and meditative reading.
8. Accept imperfection and move on
Everyone who knows me, knows “Miss Perfectionist” is my middle name. While this is a good trait to have most times, at times it can become a crutch to not getting things done. I’ve decided to let go of some of the minutiae and let it be. This will reduce some of the stress of trying to do so much and help get more off my plate. My new motto is “Just do it!”
9. Share the wealth
I am not referring to money (although that would be nice), I’m referring to the wealth of knowledge that I have come to learn through my studies and clinical experience in the health field. It is my passion to expand my expertise and help as many people regain their health. This past year, I have embarked on the social media channels to share my passion and knowledge with the online community. In 2018, my intention is to share more of my new content and engage even more with my readers. Sounds like a whole lot of fun and many more health buddies to come!
10. Walk the talk
As a practitioner, I always encourage my patients to make lifestyle changes related to diet, exercise, getting to the root cause of health conditions, stress management techniques and more. As I make my recommendations, I witness the positive changes they experience. This also motivates me as it consistently reminds me of the benefits of these recommendations. My goals and intentions are to stay in the present moment and keep myself on top of my self-care programs regardless of how busy my life gets. This is especially important when I find that I have so little time for myself. It is a gentle prompt to stay the course and walk the talk.
The message I want to share with you, is we all have our own challenges in maintaining a healthy lifestyle and desire for greater wellness. As a nutritionist, I too may experience the challenges of staying healthy in an imperfect world. However, I am fortunate to be at the forefront of incredible knowledge and opportunities to make conscious changes.
I am privileged to be in the health field where I have so much information and knowledge available to me. It is with full consciousness and purpose that I have decided to make these intentions for 2018. I am excited as it is going to be a great journey full of growth, empowerment, and health. I hope to guide and empower you to reach your greatness!
For more suggestions on setting your Healthy New Year’s Resolutions for 2018 read my previous article.
Do any of your New Year’s resolutions include improving your health?
Do you want to share your healthy New Year’s Resolutions for 2018? What breakthroughs do you want to achieve this coming year?
As you read through my intentions, I’d love if you would share in the comments section below what healthy New Year’s Resolutions you plan to make to bring more health and balance to your life.
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