Resolution Not Working? Try This Instead.

One of the most helpful concepts I learned in health coaching school was 'bio-individuality.' Sounds deeeeeeeeep. And complicated. But it's a simple premise that makes a whole lot of sense. And that's actually the case with a lot of stuff in the health and nutrition world - it's just that too many of the food companies, too much of the medical world and too many loosely termed "experts" have realized that in order to make a business out of health and nutrition, confusing consumers is job number one.

So what is bio-individuality anyway?

There’s no one-size-fits-all diet – each person is a unique individual with highly individualized nutritional requirements. Personal differences in anatomy, metabolism, body composition and cell structure all influence your overall health and the foods that make you feel your best. That’s why no single way of eating works for everyone. The food that is perfect for your unique body, age, and lifestyle may make another person gain weight and feel lethargic. 
- Joshua Rosenthal, Founder, Institute for Integrative Nutrition -

The health and nutrition world markets under the guise of simplicity: Just eat this one food and your belly fat will disappear! Follow these three simple tricks and you'll fit back into those jeans like that! Never eat another carb again and you'll shed those plus sizes forever! Okay, maybe those approaches worked for someone. But they won't work for the general public. 98% of all diets fail sooner or later. And since it's January, I'll throw this depressing statistic out at you as well: 90% of New Year Resolutions fail. So many of them health-related.

Are you having trouble sticking to your health-related resolution?  
A different approach may be in order.

I just finished leading 21 women (and one man!) on a 7-Day "Resolution Jumpstart" Purification. The Purification is not about juicing or deprivation, neither of which is a long-term viable proposition. It's about eating whole, real (delicious, mind you) foods, and eliminating foods that either definitely are or could be inhibiting health-related progress including gluten, dairy, added sugar, caffeine, alcohol, soda, diet soda, juice, artificial anything and preservatives.

YIKES!

Let me tell you: that shit ain't easy. It took us - ALL of us (myself included) - a lot of energy and determination to do this. The intention is not for anyone to try to live like this forever. Instead, we cut out all of this stuff at once in order to create a clean slate. From there, we add stuff back in slowly and check how we're feeling. This way we'll know if there are certain types of foods that just don't sit well, and may be at the core of our issues including bloating, acne, low energy, poor sleep, eczema, intense cravings or weight gain. Many of my purifiers are discovering a few kinds of foods were really tripping them up: gluten for one (the source of chronic bloating); dairy for another (the source of chronic eczema); added sugar for still another (the source of intense cravings.) And many have enjoyed as much as five pounds in weight loss after just seven days! Likely the combination of everything.

But none of those specifics matter much if everyone goes back to their old ways once the week is over. The most valuable lesson (even the most miserable of) my purifiers take away from this seven day journey is awareness. Many of us go through our days mindlessly eating or doing this or that. There are no fingers to point here, it's just a reality of our crazed worlds. But for these seven days, each of us was ultra-aware of what we were eating, how we were sleeping, what kind of time we were making for exercise, how much TV we were watching, etc. And, importantly, how each of those things was making us feel.

We'll each decide what to DO with what we learned moving forward, but the practice of being more aware itself is really hard to shake (in a good way!), the positive momentum we've all created for ourselves forms the buildings blocks required for long-term change, and each of us will have our bio-individualistic learnings to fall back on, well, forever.

From one Resolution Jumpstart Purifier:

Last Sunday morning I was shoveling food in my mouth standing up and screaming at my daughter to get dressed for her skating lesson. This week I had oatmeal, have a smoothie and am drinking my unfinished tea out of my thermos. Totally different scene just a week later!

So if you're finding your health-related resolution isn't going so well, the reason might be that it just wasn't the right resolution fit for you. Because it was someone else's diet program, someone else's exercise regime, or it was simply unrealistic. Take just a week instead and practice the art of awareness: it's a real shortcut to some long-term answers.