Having a blog is a lot like keeping a journal. I’m thankful that I’ve remembered to include the name of the incredible pizza joint in Buenos Aires, pictures from wine country in Australia, race recaps and more. Reading this posts years later brings back joyful memories. The past year was filled with career milestones like publishing my first book, lots of travel for pleasure and work, the birth of my first niece and the first big purchase for Sarah Fit, LLC – a new car! However, as good as things got, I still would compare myself to others. This may come as a shock to some of you, but to those close to me, it will not. For this reason, my resolution is stop this self inflicting stress. I’m going to practice gratitude regularly through yoga and be kinder to myself. Listen to my full resolution below and how you can keep your own this year.
I signed up for a spin class at Recycle Studio this morning at 8:30 am. On my walk over, I thought about how the New Year brings opportunity for fresh starts. I challenged myself to give up sugar for the first week of 2014, but this little voice inside my head kept saying, fat chance.
I love that the instructors at Recycle always give you a little message to think about during your ride. Katie B who taught this morning told us how she isn’t the biggest fan of resolutions. Neither am I! She mentioned that it just makes us think about all the things we want to change. It causes us to reflect on what we don’t like about ourselves. What a shitty way to ring in the New Year, right?
She suggested to all of us a resolution of being kinder to ourselves and others. This way, if you want to lose weight in 2014, instead of making that your resolution, being kind to yourself will allow you to stop treating your body like crap and start eating things it can actually use for energy and health. If you struggle with binge eating, instead of beating yourself up each time you eat too many cookies, practice self compassion and try to discover what emotions are causing your behavior. Try to understand how your feelings effect your actions and start there instead of blaming it on a lack of self control.
After class, I had a green juice from the Ripe Stuff. My body loves this stuff and if I’m going to be kinder to it, I thought this was a good place to start. I came home and had a Cinnamon Raisin Ezekial English Muffin with peanut butter. If you battled chronic fatigue over the past year, couldn’t lose weight despite giving your best effort, you may not be optimizing your health through nutrition. Join my New Year’s Challenge with Inside Tracker to get healthy in just 8 weeks. Two winners will receive a brand new iPad Air or iPad mini. Last day to sign up is the 16th but the earlier you sign up the more time you have to improve your cholesterol, vitamin D, calcium levels, resting glucose, blood pressure and more! Optimizing these will help you lose weight, find more energy and boost moods among other benefits. It’s an eye opening experience.
So, for a girl that hates resolutions, I have two and a half.
- Being more kind to myself and others.
- Stop comparing myself to others (which goes hand in hand with the first).
The half-resolution is my sugar free challenge for the first week of 2014 – still that little voice is telling me I can’t which is why it’s just a half. If I don’t do it, my kind resolution trumps this one. I’m not going to beat myself up if I can’t do it 100%. Do you struggle with comparing yourself to others like me? From job success, friendships to family, it’s something I’ve always kind of struggled with.
