MIndy’s CallIng

living
healthy
WOMEN’S HEALTH
ready to turn the page on a new year? shred your past
strategies and simplify your goals
It’s a new year, and
you may be steadfast
on your personal evolutionary
path, avoiding cigarettes,
eating more salads, going to
poetry readings, and hitting
the gym daily.
But it doesn’t always work
out that way. I’m thinking of
a January not too long ago.
In the first two weeks of the
year, a flight was canceled,
my laptop died, a pet got ill,
vendors flaked. Oh, and I
ended up getting sick, too.
Lying in bed, working via
telephone, I missed every
best-laid plan of action.
There was a huge gap
between my idea about what
I should have been doing
and what I was actually able
to do.
If you, too, already see
a gap between new year
ideal and new year reality,
take heart. Before you let
remorse convince you to give
up your aspirations, look
at them anew. Focus on the
bottom-line values around
which you want to organize
your actions. Masterful
actions, based on true
values, matter even more
when reality is throwing you
New Groove
By Tevis Rose Trower
a curveball than when life is
sending you easy pitches.
In fact, while one meaning
of “resolve” is steadfastness
or standing one’s ground,
another refers to the “process
of reducing things into
simpler forms.” And that’s
very applicable with New
Year’s aspirations. Reduce
your goals into the simplest
statements (ones that
5-year-olds can understand)
to establish a solid framework
that supports you as
you work to transform your
values into actions—on any
kind of day.
EXPERT TIP
“If exercise eludes you, try until you find something that sticks. Make
sure healthy habits are pleasant so you seek them out instead of finding
excuses not to do them.”—Maryann Tomovich Jacobsen, MS, RD
W ebMD.coM 16 JAN/FEB 2013
Resolved to lose weight this year? Track
your success with the Food and Fitness
Planner, WebMD’s top diet tool.
.com
FACE VALUE
How can you start
to clarify the values
that are at the heart
of your resolutions?
Tevis Rose Trower
suggests asking
yourself three
questions:
What’s your
physical bottom
line? Whatever your
physical goals—lose
weight, do more
cardio, eat healthier—
it’s important to know
what’s driving that
goal and how you’ll
honor that value, no
matter how crazy
your day becomes.
What’s your
professional bottom
line? What do you
want to bring to your
work every day? What
do you want to get
out of your work?
How can you fulfill
that commitment on a
daily basis?
What’s your personalgrowth
bottom line?
Mine is that I’ve got
to be learning to
be growing. That
might involve asking
the cheese guy
for lessons about
cheeses. Or seeing
what free classes the
library offers. Identify
learning opportunities
throughout your day
and act on them.
Then each night you
can rest, knowing you
have evolved.
reviewed by
Laura J. Martin, MD
WebmD medical editor
Peter Dazeley/Getty ImaGes