I am not a fan of “new year resolutions”. You know why? Because it’s so common for people to make a resolution, stick with it for a couple weeks, then abandon the cause. It’s like come the end of January or the beginning of February it’s not necessarily “New Years” anymore and people lose sight of their vision. If you are the exception and you make a resolution and map out your year with with a plan for how you’re going to meet that resolution, then pat yourself on the back because that’s not common. That’s awesome. I like you! Let’s be friends. I need more inspirational, motivated people in my life. There’s always room in my life for people like you 🙂
I like goals much better. I like deadlines. I like a plan. My goal for 2015 was to focus on becoming healthier, and that had so many sub topics that it really was a goal that would not only take all year, but that also became a constant effort. A way of life.
- It meant I needed to change my grocery list forever and mostly eliminate junk food and buy more and more of REAL food. It meant I needed to expand my personal recipe collection. It meant making the decision that I was going to buy mostly organic and if not at least non-GMO food, which meant sometimes having to drive 25 minutes out of my way and stopping at 3 different stores just to get what we need. I had to start reading labels on everything I bought, not just food. I started to meal plan weekly and that has helped a ton.
- It meant eliminating toxic products from my home. And seriously y’all, pretty much everything that is a mainstream product is full of toxic chemicals. I made a plan to eliminate at least ONE toxic product from our home every month. Something that has been a HUGE help to me in doing so is the think dirty app. Basically, you scan the barcode on a product and it rates it on a scale from 0-10. 0 being great with no toxic chemicals or carcinogens, & 10 being total CRAP. By crap I mean full of ingredients that have a direct negative impact on your health. The sad part? Mostly everything was a 9 or a 10. Even company’s who are pretty smart with their marketing, seeking people who are trying to be natural minded thus branding their company “organix” or “babyganics”. Makes you think that what your buying is safe, right? Nope. Not really. Read the ingredients. Do the research. YOU are in charge of keeping your family healthy, YOU are in charge of making sure the products in your home are safe. Big companies don’t care about safety or well being, they care about profit. Eliminating toxic products didn’t start and stop at our skin care & body products, it has been a total home make over. #getoutofmyhouse That meant throwing away ALL of our current cleaning supplies (because a portion of the ingredients in every single product either caused neurological disorders, respiratory distress and disorders, hormone disruption, immunotoxicity, respiratory toxicity, skin and organ toxicity, had the risk of causing athsma-the list seriously goes on and on. AND those were only the risks associated with the ingredients that were listed–most cleaning products didn’t even list ingredients and I had to look online. Some products I couldn’t even find an ingredient list online). We now use 3 things total to clean the entire house–baking soda, vinegar and thieves cleaner.
- It meant learning more and more about essential oils. It meant finding ways to incorporate these big blessings in small bottles into our daily life to support EVERY system in the body to keep us healthy so that we don’t have to turn to a broken healthcare system all the time that is so quick to write a prescription instead of getting to the root of the problem. If I went into great detail about how these oils have changed our life for the better in this past year, I’d be talking ALL day. So, I’ll just say that we haven’t had any major illness in an ENTIRE year, just an occasional stuffy nose, a runny nose for ONE day, and one incidence of food poisoning (that we kicked to the curb in less than 12 hours. It was a miracle how quickly our immune systems kicked that crud). All year long. I am so thankful for my own health and for my fiances health, but EVEN MORE so I am thankful for the health of my baby. With him being born in December, in the middle of winter I was worried about him getting sick. So, I prayed and prayed for God to guide me and point me in the right direction for seeking the correct knowledge on how to keep us all healthy. God provided, he always does.
- It meant making myself be active, whatever that looked like, even if it was just cleaning my house with my baby in the Tula for an hour and getting squats in through out the day, or just walking around the neighborhood when the weather was nice. I’ve had to remind myself of this daily, it’s required more self-accountability than anything else has and I still slack on it.
- It meant making myself drink more water, which lucky for me is pretty easy to remember when you’re a nursing mother because you are thirsty ALL. THE. TIME.
- It meant making a lot of our own products, which is awesome! It’s empowering being able to control the ingredients that are in the products that you use on yourself and your family. I love knowing EXACTLY what is in everything! Some of my favorite things to make are chap stick, sugar scrub, face moisturizer/acne serum, black head paste, bug spray, and sunscreen. I’m making body butter for the first time this week and I’m super excited! 🙂
- It meant saying no when my fiancé asked if I just wanted him to go get tacos or burgers so I didn’t have to cook and clean. (Even when I don’t feel like cooking or cleaning)
This big goal that I set for myself in 2015 hasn’t been easy. It’s been a life style choice. It’s been something that I have had to be intentional about and remind myself of why I put so much effort into things that could be “easier” if I didn’t care so much. It’s been a constant effort. It continues to be a constant effort.
We are not perfect. Occasionally I cave and we eat greasy burgers and cheese fries. And they’re delicious btw, but I always feel like crap and have no energy after. We’re not on a 100% whole food diet. Sometimes I’m lazy and I don’t work out at all, I sit around and the house is messy. Sometimes I forget to drink enough water. There are still products in my house that need to be replaced, laundry detergent being the only one that I can think of right this second but it’s a huge deal to me.
I honestly believe that by setting this big over all goal and making a rough plan for how I was going to make it happen, that I have been much more active in achieving the goal vs. calling it a resolution and not setting a standard of expectation every day, week, and month to accomplish it.
My goal for 2016? Be intentional in every aspect of my life. In my relationship with God. In continuing to focus on over all health. In my relationships. In my business. In my personal growth. It’s something I’m going to have to work at every day and remind myself of. I have big, big plans. I am so excited to see what all I accomplish in 2016, and I hope you have the same enthusiasm for yourself and for your goals for this week, this month, and this year.
What do you want to accomplish? Write it down. Write down why. Make a plan. Be intentional. Hold yourself accountable.
You have the ability to make this year the best year of your life so far. Go for it!!!
Blog by Tori Alysha 