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Taking Care of Yourself: What Are You Waiting For?

August 7, 2012 By Lena Leave a Comment

Do What You Love Each Day

taking care of yourself, do what you love

It’s never too late to start living your dreams. If you are taking care of yourself then you know that taking care of your dreams is an important part of that. It’s way too easy to say “Ill be happy if only…” or “when everything else is settled, then I will…” So why are you waiting? What stops you from going after your dreams and doing what you love each day?

For many, the promise of a steady paycheque is what stops them from going after their dreams. It’s easy to stay in a rut when you know that your bills will be paid and you will have a roof over your head. But the trade-off is often that we are not happy with our lives, and we are definitely not doing what we love.

I have a friend who hates his job, is not happy, and starts every day with “I don’t want to go to work.” He know s he wants better out of life, and he has dreams but when you ask him what he’s doing about them, he says “Nothing. I have to work so that I can pay the bills.”

It doesn’t have to be that way.

You can start living your dreams even when you’re still stuck working a crappy 9 to 5 job that you hate. If you can find ONE thing to do each day that you love and that gets you a little closer to achieving your dreams, then you at least have the feeling that you’re making progress and that makes the 9 to 5 lifestyle a little easier to bear.

For others, it’s not knowing what they really want out of life that stops them from living their dreams. If this is you, take some time and write down all the things you want out of life. Ask yourself this question: If I could do anything I want, and money is no object, then what would I most love to do? When you can answer that question, you not only have your dream, you’re also on the way to recognizing your life purpose as well.

Once you’ve figured out what dream you want to achieve, then start doing the one thing a day exercise, so that you make your new dream a part of your daily life.

Taking care of yourself is a mindset, and doing what you love is a big part of that. Sure, it may take time for all of your dream to come to fruition, but by taking small steps and doing the things you love every day you’ll be living it now instead of longing for happiness to come some day in the future.

(Photo Credit: http://www.sxc.hu)

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Taking Care of Yourself: Tips for Creating Healthy Eating Habits

August 6, 2012 By Lena Leave a Comment

healthy snacksCreating healthy eating habits is one of the bests gifts you can give yourself. It’s so easy to eat unhealthy foods when we are bombarded with advertising for and images of fast foods, candy, snacks and other unhealthy habits. It’s not just that it’s unhealthy — if you’re dealing with any type of disease such as type 2 diabetes, high blood pressure, or heart disease, it can be downright deadly.

Now, I’m no doctor so don’t take what I say here as medical advice. However, as someone who works very hard at controlling my own type 2 diabetes through diet and exercise, I firmly believe that it can be done. I’m getting lots of flack from my doctors who would much rather just stick me with insulin (literally) and be done with it.

I’m getting onto a good rant here and that’s not necessarily a good thing, so back to the topic at hand… Here are a few of the tips that I use to keep me on the straight and narrow road of healthy eating.

1. Eat clean, healthy foods

Creating healthy eating habits is not really as difficult as it seems. Books like Tosca Reno’s Eat Clean Diet and the accompanying Clean Eating magazine make it easy to choose clean healthy foods and cook them in really interesting ways. Diet food doesn’t have to taste like cardboard anymore, and there are enough choices out there to make it really fun to try new recipes.

One thing I have found here too is that you have to be willing to cook for yourself. If your family isn’t willing to try your new concoctions, don’t let that stop you. My son is really resistant to any type of change (and he’s an adult now so I can’t force him to eat what I cook) so it’s come down to me cooking for myself, but it took me a long time to love myself enough to not always give in and just cook what he wanted for meals.

2. Learn to read the labels

Paying attention to the labels when you do buy pre-packaged, processed food is another good habit to cultivate. It’s scare to notice how much artificial crap and preservatives there is in those packages. Not to mention the sugar — glucose, fructose, and corn syrup are especially nasty ingredients when you’re eating to take care of yourself.

3. Pay attention to your body

Weight loss experts say that when you’re first changing your eating habits, you should keep a food journal. By writing down everything you eat for a week, you will see just how much unnecessary food you put in your mouth during the course of a day. We often eat out of habit or just because the food is there. In this case it’s not a conscious choice to eat, it’s an unconscious action that you don’t see until you have to stop and write it down.

A good way to get past this is to ask yourself if you are really hungry BEFORE you start to eat. Chances are you’re not hungry, but bored and eating to pass the time, or upset about something else and eating to cope.

It may just be that you’re thirsty too. Reach for a glass of water before you eat and you may find out that what you thought was hunger was really just your body asking for a drink.

Creating healthy eating habits is an important part of taking care of yourself. These are just a few tips to get your started on paying attention to how you eat for both weight loss and optimum health. Like I said earlier, I’m no doctor so check with yours before you go on any type of diet or weight loss program.

Photo Credit: http://www.sxc.hu

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Start Your Day With Confidence: 5 Steps to a Powerful Morning Routine

August 2, 2012 By Lena 7 Comments

create a powerful morning routineOne thing I’ve learned in my journey to regain my self-confidence is that if you start your day confidently, it will be much easier to continue that way. When you can get up and get moving in the morning you set yourself up to make it through the day on your terms instead of on other peoples’ terms. The secret, I’ve found, is to create a morning routine that sets you up to start the day feeling confident and in control.

I have to admit, I was never a morning person. For years I would stay up all night and not even go to sleep until the sun started to rise. Forget doing anything more strenuous than turning on the computer before I downed at least half a pot of coffee. A morning routine was not even a consideration in those days. And productivity was definitely not my strong suit.

I learned quickly that in order to feel in control of my day I had to train myself to get up in the morning, and on my terms so that I could act and do the things that were important to me, not just react by waking up when the phone rang, the dogs wanted out, or my son came home from school for lunch.

So, if the idea of a morning routine is as foreign to you as it was to me in those days, here are a few tips to help you get started and creating your own powerful morning routine.

1. Figure out your plan before you start.

Ideally, you want your morning to start on your terms. Knowing what you want to do in the morning before you go to bed the night before gives you a reason to get up and get moving.

The best thing I’ve found is that if you make your early morning “me time” you can follow through on the rest of your day with confidence because you’ve already taken care of yourself first.

2. Train yourself to wake up earlier.

One of the reasons you need to figure out your plan first is because you will need to figure out how much time you will need for your routine. If you’re anything like me, that means you’ll have to learn to get up earlier than you do now.

You can train yourself to gradually get up earlier every day. My preferred method is to set the alarm earlier by 10 minutes every week. You won’t necessarily get your whole routine in the first few weeks, but it makes it easier for your body to get used to getting up earlier if you do it gradually instead of chopping a whole hour of sleep off of your night.

3. Train yourself to go to bed earlier.

There really is something to that whole “early to bed, early to rise” thing. You need at least six hours of sleep in order to let your body refresh and replenish, so in order to get up earlier, you may have to also learn to go to bed that much earlier as well.

4. Get out of your bedroom as fast as you can.

The longer you linger after the alarm goes off, the easier it becomes to stay under the covers and reset the alarm for later. If you get up and go wash your face, brush your teeth and do all that necessary morning stuff, you’ll find it easier to stay up and start your routine.

5. Keep your routine the same every day.

After all, it wouldn’t be a routine if you changed it every day!

Seriously, having a routine gives you confidence because you know what you have to do when you get up in the morning. If you have to answer to other people during the course of your day – and really who doesn’t – starting your day with a routine of your choosing gives you the power and confidence to do that because you have taken the time to take care of you first.

A Sample Morning Routine

Now that you have the steps down, what does your morning routine look like?

A good morning routine should take care of you before you start taking care of everyone else. It should feed your body, mind, and spirit in whatever order works best for you.

My own morning routine goes something like this:

check my fasting glucose numbers
wake up the body with a quick exercise routine I learned from my aqua yoga instructor.
Wake up the spirit with 10 minutes of meditation
Grab a drink of lemon water to jumpstart my metabolism and detox my liver.
Write morning pages (an exercise I learned from Julia Cameron’s The Writing Diet)
20 minutes of yoga to really get the body moving.

By the time I get all that done, my son is up and getting ready to go to work. So we have breakfast together and then he goes to work, and I start writing for the day.

When it comes right down to it, how you start your day is your choice. And that’s as it should be. It’s your day, and you need to create the routine that works best for you and allows you to not only start the day with confidence but to carry that confidence throughout the day. These tips should help you get started.

You’ve got the time, you’ve got the plan. Now make it count, and enjoy the start of your day!

What does your morning routine include? Share your answer in the comments below.

Photo Credit: © Jeraxx | Dreamstime.com

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Taking Care of Yourself: Six Tips for Creating Me Time in Your Busy Day

July 31, 2012 By Lena 12 Comments

create time for yourselfOne of the best ways to take care of yourself is to create some sort of “me time” every day. Yet it seems like there are never enough hours in the day for you to take one just for yourself.

You know you have to have time and space to rest and recharge your own batteries before you can give your best to taking care of everyone else around you.
So how do you get the time that you need?

There are ways to carve out time for yourself, you just have to get a little creative about it. Here are six ideas you can use to create your own “me time”.

1. Wake Up Earlier

You may have to go to sleep a little earlier to accomplish this, but getting up earlier in the morning is a great way to get some personal time in to start your day. My favorite way to start the day is with a cup of coffee and my journal, knowing that I don’t have to do anything for anyone else until other people’s alarms start going off.

2. Make a Date With Yourself

You schedule doctor’s appointments and dentist appointments and your kids’ sports and after school activities in your calendar. So why don’t you schedule yourself in? If you make an appointment for a date with yourself and put it in your calendar, you know that time is yours.

3. Your Lunch Hour is Your Time

If you work outside the home, then take the time during your lunch hour to do something just for you. It can be as little as going for a short walk, reading a novel, or browsing in your favorite store. Anything that relaxes and recharges you for the afternoon to come is a great way to give yourself some priority time in the middle of the day.

4. Take a Few Minutes To Unwind At the End of the Day.

When you get home from work, give yourself a few minutes — even 15 is enough — to relax and unwind before you dive into family activities. Lock yourself in the bathroom if you have to, but make sure you have that time to make the switch from working woman to mom as peacefully as possible. Just be sure you tell your family what you’re doing, so they don’t think you’re avoiding them!

5. Take a Personal Day

If you have personal days off, make sure you use them. Take a day off every once in awhile to do whatever you want for the day. You don’t even have to leave the house if you don’t want to. You can spend your day working on your hobbies, or visiting with friends, or going to the beach (it’s very relaxing at the beach when everyone else is working)… the sky is your limit because it’s your day to do whatever you want.

6. Rest When Your Children Do

The first thing my mom told me when my son was born was that when I put him down for a nap, to make sure I napped too. It was one of the best pieces of advice she ever gave me. There’s so much temptation to do as much work as you can when your kids are sleeping, but when you do that you often tend to be tired when they’re waking up and ready to go again. Take the time that they’re asleep as “me time” and even if you don’t sleep, as long you’re doing something relaxing for yourself you’ll find you have more energy and are ready for whatever adventures post nap-time brings.

By making the time for yourself, even as little as fifteen minutes a day, you will find yourself much more rested and able to deal with whatever life throws your way. If you think you can’t make these ideas work with your schedule, start small. Just take one at a time and see how it fits with your life and your schedule. There’s nothing wrong with taking baby steps to get to where you want to be, and you will find that even small changes in your schedule add up over time.

How do you spend your “me time”? Please feel free to join in the discussion below.

Photo Credit: savit keawtavee / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

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Taking Care of Yourself: 5 Baby Steps to Putting Yourself First

July 30, 2012 By Lena Leave a Comment

taking care of yourselfYou’ve heard the old adage, “If you don’t love yourself, no one else will,” right?

Yet how many of us, women especially, put ourselves last on the food chain, and every other chain when it comes to taking care of people. How many times have you shunted your own desires aside in favour of doing whatever your partner or your children want?

Don’t get me wrong… I’m not saying that it’s a totally bad thing to want to care for and nurture your loved ones. But it is wrong, and it is detrimental to your own health to always do so at the expense of your own needs and desires.

I also know from experience that putting yourself last can be a hard habit to break. So, in the spirit of taking baby steps to taking care of yourself, here are five little things you can do to put yourself first.

1. Schedule “me time” for yourself
2. Pay attention to your diet
3. Do at least one thing you love every day
4. Take care of your body, mind, and spirit
5. Start a journal

Over the next few days, I’ll write more on each of these steps. What started me thinking about all of this was a recent survey by the Canadian Diabetes Association which found that many people believe that Type 2 Diabetes could be prevented if we just take better care of ourselves. As a Type 2 person, I found myself thinking about that, and I know that if I’m honest with myself I don’t always take the best care of me. And I don’t really have anyone else to take care of except myself.

You’re invited to join me in the conversation simply by leaving comments below. I look forward to talking with you about all the ways we can better take care of ourselves.

Thanks for being here!

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Becoming More Self-Aware, Part 2: Three Steps to Envisioning Your Best Life

February 18, 2012 By Lena 3 Comments

i become self-aware of the vision I am creating for my lifeIn sticking with our theme of becoming more self-aware, one thing we need to talk about is vision. Specifically, what do you want your life to look like?

As you become more aware of your strengths and weaknesses, and your self-inventory becomes more focused, you’ll find yourself developing a vision of what you want your life to look like. This vision is important to living your best life because, to quote the Toby Keith song, “If you don’t know where you’re going, you might end up somewhere else.”

If you’re ready to create a vision of your ideal life, keep reading for a three-step plan that will ensure you end up exactly where you intend.

Write out your vision.

Am I sounding like a broken record yet? Even if I am, I’m not taking it back. Writing down your vision of what you want your life to look like is one of the best ways I know to get clarity on it.

Here’s why…

As you write out your vision for the various parts of your life you are able to see better how each piece fits into the whole puzzle. For example, you probably have visions around your finances, your relationships, your career, your spirituality, and your home just to name a few.

What happens if your visions for the different parts of your life are in conflict with each other?

For example, one of the things I’d really like to do is travel. I also have a burning passion to create a rescue shelter for big black dogs. Not being home for large stretches of time is definitely in conflict with running a shelter for dogs that need my time, love, and attention. I will need to find a way to mesh these two pieces of my vision so that I can still travel even when I have a ranch full of big dogs needing my time, love, and attention.

Writing out the vision helps me to wee where things already fit well, and also what areas might need a little more attention to bring them to reality.

Visualize your vision.

Once you have your vision written down, the next step in the plan is to visualize it. Sure, you’ve been visualizing as you’ve been writing but this is where you really step up your game and take the creation of your life vision to the next level.

There are a number of ways you can do this, but the three I like best are:

  1. Read your vision to yourself every day. Out loud and with all the emotion you can muster works best. If you find yourself in situations where reading out loud is impossible, then by all means read it silently but still put as much emotion into the reading as you can. This gets your creative energy flowing and puts it out to the Universe that you are serious about what you want to create and achieve.
  2. Meditate on your vision and the feelings that living your ideal life bring out in you.
  3. Make a vision board on which to store the images of your ideal life. You can cut pictures out of magazines and make a traditional vision board, or you can save pictures online in a slide show and use them as a screen saver. Personally, I do both.
  4. If you’re inclined to share, you can also set up a vision board on Pinterest and let the whole world in on what your vision for your life is.

Don’t be afraid to make changes.

Your life vision doesn’t have to be something that is created and set in stone. It can be as fluid and alive as you are – and it should be just that!

Your life will change as a result of people moving in and out, new opportunities presenting themselves, and as you grow as a person. All of these events will also cause your vision to change over time. Always be open to changes and allow enough flexibility in your plan to incorporate all the good things that are headed your way.

Why Creating a Life Vision is Important

At the beginning of this article I said that creating a vision of your ideal life is important because it makes sure you get to where you want to be. It’s also important for another reason – it allows you to be as much in control of your life as possible.

One thing I’ve learned over the years is that if you don’t set a plan for your own life, someone else will and their vision for your life will rarely be the same as what you would want for yourself. Isn’t it better to be as in control of your own destiny as you possibly can be?

Taking the time to set out your own vision and working to bring it to fruition ensures that you are focused both on building your self-awareness and becoming really clear on exactly what it is that you want to achieve in your life.

Are you ready to get started?

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