New Year's Resolution for 2022?

On this journey to health and wellness, I have learned many things that have impacted my daily choices and what motivates me. To keep this blog post short and to the point, I will inform you of three things that failed me and three things that have been successful and sustainable.

Failures

1) Exercising in the Spring to achieve a "beach body". This never really worked well for me because it was not sustainable. Once the Summer was over I would return to my old habits of not monitoring what I ate and by the time the first of the following year, I was routinely 15 lbs heavier than my "beach body" weight.

2) Following trendy diets. Trends are just that, they come and go and may not be sustainable for a number of reasons (time required to plan, the time required to cook, or budgetary constraints).

3) Making New Year's resolutions for superficial reasons (outer appearance, riches, etc). Making a New Year's Resolution is something that we learn to do from the time that we are children. It has always been the topic of conversation in my family. Now we have the wonderful vision boards to accompany those resolutions! Where would we all be without a good vision board? I have learned that decisions based on emotions and zeal do not last long and are often not planned for appropriately.

Successes

1) All success stories start with a plan. If you plan to earn more money, apply for jobs that pay more or create a way to increase your streams of income. Should you choose to aim to become healthy and fit, for this to be sustainable you have to plan for it (meal planning, exercise regiment, meal prep, etc.)

2) Surround yourself with people that will help to keep you encouraged. This may mean expanding your friendship circle. The gym and fresh produce aisles may be the place where you meet your accountability partner (always exercise caution when developing new friendships).

3) Finding an internal and connected motivation. While the "beach body" motivation did nothing for me, prioritizing my health and wellness to be able to be fully present with my children and loved ones for as long as I can have been wonderfully awesome. On days when I feel like just laying around and not exercising, I think about them and the quality of life that I want to have when enjoying watching them grow. I also think about the condition I want to be in as age. I know very well from my training that the decisions that I am making now can either increase or decrease the chances of being diagnosed with a preventable chronic medical condition.

As you bring in the new year, I challenge you to decisions that will align with your plan to be healthier. We hope that you stay tuned. Share our blog so that your loved ones can join us on this journey called life.

Happy New Year 2022

Alita-Geri Carter, MSN, RN, CPN-PC

CEO and Founder