I know what you’re thinking… OMG, we’ve barely gotten through Halloween yet! But every year, without fail, the hustle and bustle of December sneaks up on us. And what is the first thing to go as we get preppin’ for the festivities? Self-care! You know that it’s true. We’ve all experienced it.  So, now seems like a good time to get an action plan together to pre-empt overwhelm and self-neglect.

Give yourself the gift of SELF CARE

Be specific in the self-care plan you prescribe for yourself by determining what, how often and when you will do something that is entirely devoted to you.

• What things do you currently do to practice self care?
• What might you add, revise or eliminate to optimize your well-being?
• How frequently do you take time out for yourself? Is it enough? Do you need more “me time”?

Review and revise your schedule to find the time for you.  That might mean saying no, or not now, to other people’s requests and any self-assigned tasks that have been standing in the way.  If you are not doing anything (or not enough) for yourself,  you need to schedule it in like you would any other important appointment and stick with it – no matter what!

Try making this plan not just for the December rush. Self-care should be a daily ritual.  And it doesn’t have to be any longer than 2 – 3 minutes to make a difference. Sometimes, the simplest way to do this is to take time out to breathe.

Furthermore, reassess your self-care plan monthly (or at least quarterly) to be sure it’s working for you.  In that way, it will help keep it top of mind and move you to making it a regular habit.

Need Help?

On that note, if you need some guidance implementing self-care and/or movement into your lifestyle, I’m offering a 4-week wellness coaching package at a fraction of the usual cost. For $199, we’ll work together one-on-one where you will:

• Learn practical wellness tips that are easy to apply to your day-to-day life
• Develop new lifestyle practices that help you tune into your body’s natural needs for nourishment and movement
• Reshape your well-being in a way that works for you

Includes:

• Initial consult, complimentary
• 4 – weekly private PT or yoga sessions in the home
• 4 – weekly one-on-one coaching calls
• Program cards with detailed exercise instructions
• Unlimited email support
• And MORE
• Valued at over $500

This Holiday promo only comes around once a year and there are just a handful of spots available. Contact Michelle today to see if the Define Me Way is right for you.

The post It’s That Time of Year Again! appeared first on Define Me Wellness.

In my last post, I talked about one of the most common New Year’s resolutions…The resolve to lose weight.  After re-reading that post, it got me thinking of an often overlooked part of the goal setting process: defining the goal.  I love the structure and process of using the SMART approach to setting goals.  I frequently turn to it when I am creating intentions for myself or coaching my clients in the goals they are setting for themselves.  I wrote about this concept a couple of years ago, in a bit more detail here.

But before you start creating (or possibly revising) those resolutions I’d like to ask you a couple of questions:

• When it comes to weight loss goals (yours or those that you are helping a family member/client/friend with), have you ever considered you might be focusing on the wrong Result?
• What is it you are looking to gain from losing weight?
• If you achieve that goal, does that mean you are healthier for it?

Through my years working with the Health At Every Size® paradigm, I have come to realize a shortfall within the SMART goal setting process and in the way that success is defined.  Particularly when it comes to weight-loss goals, we are focused so much so on the outcome that the actions we take or the behaviours that we may want to shift become secondary.

Searching for the definition of “outcome” I found the following from 3 online dictionaries:

• the way a thing turns out; a consequence.
• something that follows as a result or consequence
• something that follows from an action, dispute, situation, etc; result; consequence

That is all that weight loss is; a potential result from the steps we have taken, a drawn line in the sand that says our goal is complete and we have made it.  Is that all we are looking for in our measure of success? A criteria of pounds lost or body measurements decreased? I challenge the assumption that weight loss equals success, happiness, improved health or anything else that is promised when someone takes on the soul-sucking task of dieting.  And I caution folks on using pounds lost as a proxy for goal achievement.

What if instead you focused more on the Behaviour, rather than the result? Spending more time and energy on the ways you want to live a healthier lifestyle, while taking things slow and being kind to yourself.  That, to me, is more impactful than any weight loss goal (IMHO).  Ultimately, I think it is the behaviour we are looking to change and it is the outcome that is secondary.

How might you be able to reframe your intentions from an outcome-oriented endpoint to a behaviour-focused journey? Tell us in the comments below.

The post And While We’re On The Topic of Resolutions… appeared first on Define Me Wellness.

Happy New Year! I hope 2015 is off to a good start for you. Do you have resolutions or intentions for the year ahead? I do. But I have to admit, this time of year can sometimes be a bit triggering for me. Triggering in the way that I find myself frustrated and angry by all the diet propaganda that inevitably follows most marketing and cultural messages regarding New Year Resolutions. But then, I had a personal Epiphany…

An epiphany is like an “A-HA” that shifts the way you think about something. 

This year I decided to do things differently, to think differently. Me getting angry at a $60+ billion giant, well-oiled marketing machine and allowing myself to be triggered, just drains my energy and does not serve me or anyone. Instead, to quote Gabby Bernstein, “I choose love, instead of fear.” I can’t force anyone to see things my way, just as much as the diet industry can’t force me to return to a lifestyle of deprivation, obsessive exercise and self-criticism.

My intention this year is to refrain from reacting to that messaging.  To just take a deep breath, do my work the way I feel moved to serve and let the actions of others not set me off course.  Put the focus where it’s important: my health and well-being and what I believe is my ultimate purpose in life (i.e.: this)

I ran a campaign last month on Twitter and Facebook with the hashtag #MyEpiphany. The intent was to help folks find a more positive alternative to setting and achieving those 2015 wellness-related resolutions (if inclined to set them).  Here are some interesting discoveries (some my own and some from followers/ friends/ colleagues):

• Deciding to retire from Judo because my need to win revolved more around my weight and less around my sports achievement
• When I realized my beliefs around food, weight and exercise were harming, not helping my well-being
• Discovering that only I know what’s best for my health and well-being. I just need to be willing to listen
• When I decided resolutions to diet/lose X # of lbs were an ineffective use of my time and energy
• Throwing out my scale!
• Another #MyEpiphany for me was discovering intuitive eating as a more body-positive and self-loving approach to mealtimes
• #MyEpiphany was realizing food preoccupation, weight control, and over exercising are usually symptoms of something else…
• Exercising isn’t only good for my physical well being but essential to my mental and emotional well being
• When I decided resolutions to diet/lose X # of lbs were an ineffective use of my time and energy
• When I discovered #HealthAtEverySize, a non-diet and truly holistic approach to mine and my clients well-being.

• Health is subjective.
• Did you know the long-term success of diets is only 5%?!? Hmmmm…
• There are umpteenth reasons to exercise that do not involve the perceived need to reshape the body.
• What could you be doing differently? Have it come from a place of self-acceptance, care and love.
• Make it about the overall benefits you seek – improved energy, more mobility, less pain/stress – not the numbers on the scale.
• Setting goals: I focus on behaviours I need/want to change to create MY best health

Let’s continue the conversation in the comments below.  I’d like to know…

What’s your Epiphany around your health and wellness? How might you do things differently this year? How are you going to reshape your well-being without the diet?

The post 2015: The Year You Reshape Your Well-Being (not necessarily your waistline) appeared first on Define Me Wellness.

As I prepare to facilitate my Resolution to Reality workshop, I’ve been reflecting on this simple goal that has remained a habit all these years, wondering…Why did I succeed at that resolution but fail at others? It seems the moment I create a resolution that involves taking something away (i.e.: food) or with a high expectation (i.e.: lose x number of pounds), I immediately set myself up for failure.

Resolutions are meant to set the tone for the year but setting one based on weight loss, restriction and calorie counting creates negative vibes as you head into January.  So, as you get ready for 2013, try to reframe those resolutions to be more positive.  Here are my top ten ideas to move you away from the dieting mindset and into a more successful and self-loving year:

1. Remove the scale as a measurement of your success.  Instead, make it about feeling good through improved health, more energy and/or reduced stress.
2. Do not renew magazine subscriptions or buy them from grocery store checkouts.  The airbrushed pics and hyped-up articles on the latest diet or celebrity beauty tricks only make us feel bad about ourselves and cause us to be more self-deprecating.
3. Focus on self care at least once a day.  Find something to indulge in that is entirely devoted to you.
4. Set a positive affirmation for yourself and say it to yourself each morning.  We say it to others all the time, but the simplest mantra you can say to yourself is “I love you”.  You might not believe it at first but saying it regularly will make it more true.
5. Move away from the diet mentality.  Instead, decide to become more intuitive with your eating choices through being present at mealtimes.
6. Assess eating choices as supportive versus non-supportive, as opposed to negative self judgments of good versus bad.
7. Join a self esteem and positive body image forum.  Surround yourself with positive thoughts and discussions that lead you to love your body as it is now.
8. Be mindful of body image related comments you discuss in front of children.  Instead, let them hear you making positive statements about who you are, inside and out.
9. Fat is not a feeling! Search for the true feeling you feel when ever that self critical “I feel fat” comment pops up.
10. Forget the “Exercise Rules” and look for fun in your active lifestyle, defining what “active” means to you.  One woman’s pleasure (running, as an example) is another woman’s poison (idea of pure torture).  Look for activities  that make you smile, that you find easy to incorporate into your routine and changes your overall well being.

These ideas are meant to get you thinking on a different resolution path.  A path that is kinder and doesn’t involve the words diet, detox or deprivation.    So…I want to know….What other ideas do you have for setting positive resolutions for your New Year? Or, how are you going to make one of the above ideas applicable to your 2013 self-improvement plan?

The post 10 New Year’s Resolutions (that don’t involve Diet, Detox or Deprivation) appeared first on Define Me Wellness.