Small Changes

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Yesterday, at the opening of my best friend's mom's school, the group of us were talking about holistic health.  I've always been interested in the holistic health because it's not about a certain diet, or medication, or exercise program.  It's simply about treating your body right and living your life a certain way.  That just means paying attention to what works for YOU and what doesn't work for YOU.

Now, I'm not a doctor, nutritionist, or expert by any means.  I'm simply a student, athlete, and yoga teacher who knows what works for my body at any given point of time.  Sometimes.

What I like about holistic health is that there are so many ways out there to help your body.  

Having a bad day?  Try aromatherapy.

Feeling sluggish?  Yoga or a change in foods can help.

Tired all the time?  A small tweak in what you eat can change that.

I'm not perfect.  I eat my fair share of pasta, carbs, ice cream.  You name it, I eat it.  But I think that part of the holistic lifestyle approach is doing so in moderation.  For instance, I know that my stomach doesn't react favorably to fried foods.  But, I LOVE fried foods.  The solution?  I have it once or twice a month.  

I also love pasta and ice cream.  The solution?  Eat a small salad with your pasta and load it up with veggies.  Just last night I ordered some pasta, but added some eggplant into it to fill me up.  As for the ice cream, I have it when I want, but I'll add some fruit with it.

This isn't turning into a diet post, I promise.  But I do know when I eat something, whether or not it will help my body or not.  That's one reason I became a vegetarian.  Meat (even organic) just made me tired.  I function so much better without any meat, poultry, or fish in my system.  

I also know when I don't work out enough, or relax enough, my body doesn't like me very much.

I need to be active in order to be happy.  And I need to get outside and literally smell the roses in order to stay sane.  

This year especially, I've become more in tune to my body and what I need to stay happy.  That's why I'm going to start making small, simple changes to my diet and lifestyle.  These are things I have always known I need, I just always push it off.  But not anymore.

Instead of changing every little things at once, I'm focusing on two things this week.

1)  Drink 64 ounces of water everyday.

I don't drink nearly enough water as I need.  Especially as an athlete, I can tell that when I drink a lot of water, I have more energy.  I have this big bottle that can fill 32 ounces, so my goal for this week is to drink at least two of these.  

2)  Do 15 minutes of yoga everyday

With my hard practices and injured shoulder, I haven't been doing enough yoga.  Since going to 2 hour classes on the weekends is too much, I'm going to incorporate 15 minutes of yoga into my day.  This is just to stretch me out, loosen me up, and clear my mind.  Whether I do 7 minutes in the AM and 8 minutes in the PM, or 15 minutes right before bed, I know I need this change.

I guess the point of holistic health is just doing what helps your body.  I'm not saying these things will help everyone.  I just know that these changes are going to help me from feeling so sluggish in the winter.

If you plan on joining me to make one or two small changes this week, leave a comment telling me what they are :)