Make Health Your Priority for 2013

I always avoided New Year's Resolutions. My follow through with lifestyle changes has always been terrible in the past. After watching "Fat, Sick & Nearly Dead", I ran to the store and bought a juicer. That went well for a couple of weeks until I forgot that peaches had a pit. I tossed the whole fruit in there and nearly had a panic attack when the seed started bouncing around with the blade. I also stopped because after bringing juices to work each day, my boss was making fun of me endlessly and singing some "Juicy Juicy" song after each sip.

Then there was the time I wanted to buy a stationary bike. I hadn't been to the gym in months and this was when I started to gain some weight. I was convinced that I could place it smack dab in the middle of our living room while I played some video games or watched a movie. We really didn't have any room to actually put a stationary bike in our tiny apartment and we had a small gym at our apartment complex that I never visited. Not even once. The idea died out after looking up the prices and I steadily gained more weight.

When I decided to make my lifestyle change nearly a year ago, I didn't begin on January 1, 2012. I had laughed the idea off a month or so earlier when I watched Forks Over Knives and thought, "Wow, I get the idea, but that looks really hard." In January, a month after her diagnosis, my mom finally told me that she had Type 2 diabetes. My first thought: "Well, I must be next." Looking back, that is seriously some narrow-minded thinking and a defeatist attitude.

Resolutions are tricky. You have to want to change. There's no easy way around it and you'll need to be dedicated. Over the last year, I went vegan and almost immediately tried to convert everyone that I knew. Why did I do that?! I truly believed in the science and that it could help me restore my health (and it certainly did). Most people didn't like the fact I was trying to change them and I learned one thing: only YOU can make the changes you want to make. No one can do it for you, but you don't have to do it alone.

If you've been telling yourself you need to lose weight, lower your cholesterol, reverse your heart disease or diabetes, then it's time to take a good look at your eating habits and assess what's really going on. I know it's not easy. I wish I could stand by you, help you go to the grocery store, cook some plant-based recipes and cheer you on at the end of each day when you've resisted all the animal products you've encountered. Most people won't get it, but you're making a change for you and your health. I'm here to help, listen and guide you into plant-based success. Seriously, contact me if you need anything, and make 2013 the healthiest year you've ever had!

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