I’m reading The Gift of Adult ADD by Lara Honos-Webb. It’s still kind of new for me – “coming out” so to speak – but I’m understanding more and more, my gift in the life organization realm is centered on helping people who have been “derailed” get back on track. It’s been sitting there right in front of me the whole time so naturally I didn’t see it. With ADD you’re always buzzing. You miss the cues and then you beat yourself up about it. But if you can appreciate yourself and focus on your strengths instead of spending all your time patching up weaknesses you receive the gift. For a lot of us that requires a major shift in not only how we think but how we live our life. Make a practice of constant appreciation. When you find a strength, articulate it to yourself. Yes, I talk to myself all the time – but I’m always guaranteed an audience of at least 3 – me, myself and I. Think gratitude. The power of creating a self-fulfilling prophecy can’t be overstated.

Inflammation. You breathe in and out and it causes inflammation. You strength train and you’ve got inflammation. Inflammation is a natural part of staying healthy and strong. But continuous inflammation can lead to what’s called chronic inflammation, which research shows can lead to diseases such as type 2 diabetes, cancer, heart disease and Alzheimer’s. Inflammation can also negatively affect certain mood disorders and people with ADD/ADHD, so it’s important to control it with what you eat and drink.
Diet does matter, but it’s a lot easier than you think to nourish your body with anti-inflammatory foods. And it’s not expensive.

Our nation’s fast paced lifestyle has the average American eating way too many highly processed carbohydrates, red meat, dairy, fats and trans fats which experts say is a root cause of inflammation. Lack of sleep and exercise will also have this effect. There’s real evidence that eating anti-inflammatory foods can help speed up post workout recovery, improve your overall productivity and health, and enhance fat loss by improving insulin sensitivity.

Components of certain foods have also been shown to help reduce symptoms related to chronic inflammation like joint pain, memory loss and high blood pressure.

The general guidelines are these:

Eat plenty of fruits and vegetables from the rainbow – lots of different colors. They are loaded with antioxidants which reduce inflammation.

Minimize saturated and trans fat sources like butter, hydrogenated oils, prime cuts of red meat, high fat dairy products and fried or processed food. These types of fats directly increase inflammatory pathways and promote the oxidation of bad cholesterol – not good.

Eat fish, flaxseeds and walnuts or take high quality fish oil supplements. Omega-3 fats are powerful antioxidants that reduce inflammation.

I haven’t always lived the healthiest lifestyle and sometimes I still don’t treat my body with the utmost respect. Getting better though, and I do think about consequences a whole lot more than I did when I was younger.  But what I have learned is that it takes time and commitment to make long lasting changes in your health.  You have to be honest with yourself – the person you really are inside.  You need to get to know yourself really well – and the real reasons why you want to change - strengths, weaknesses, why you work out and why you eat the way you do. 

This kind of background work will help you set the stage for success.  You’ll be better prepared for the challenges that change can and will bring.

How do you get started?  Here’s 5 steps I use

1. Set your goal.  Make sure it’s SMART – Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Realistic, and Time-Based.  You can’t get there if you don’t know what you want.

2.  Create a powerful why.  Why is this goal important to you?  Jillian Michaels says “your why should make you cry.”  Meaning it needs to resonate strongly within to keep you motivated.

3. Know your strengths and weaknesses.  Do you get a better workout in the morning or evening?  When do you have more energy? 

4. Set up for success.  Big one for me.  I tend to think I can have the junk food in the house “just in case” and as long as it’s at the back of the pantry I won’t be tempted.  Wrong!  Surround yourself with good motivation.  Keep your gym bag packed and ready to go, get rid of the junk, create a simple home gym if working a trip to the health club into your busy schedule is impossible.

5. Be accountable.  Hire a trainer, keep a journal, workout with a friend, have someone check in on you once a week to make sure you’re on track.  It’s harder to lie to someone else than it is to lie to yourself.  I should know. 

I received an email the other day from a male subscriber asking me why I don’t offer my services to men in the middle of life.  Well that’s a good question.  My audience has always been women, but since I’ve been dating I’ve had a chance to talk to a lot of guys in their late 40’s and 50’s about life and such – and staying healthy is on their mind.

The fact is, the way we live and age in our country is outrageous   The illness, obesity epidemic, apathy and isolation is a disastrous waste of our bodies and our minds.  I’ve always sensed women were quicker to pick up on that than men.  They seem to sense that something is wrong and to be more interested in change.  Quicker to realize they need to change their diet, get to the gym, to stay connected to themselves and others.  They are a natural for the kind of lifestyle living I talk about. 

But great health – and the optimism, energy, strength and passion that go with it are gender neutral.  So guys bring it on!  There are a lot of health models out there telling us “how” without showing the steps to get there. Fill in those blanks yourself – you have the wisdom. And, there are a lot of us here that will help without the hype!

The day before yesterday I had another coffee dates which was fairly unremarkable except that this particular man was having a really hard time with Seattle’s dark days (SAD – Seasonal Affective Disorder). He told me at length about his depression, the medications he was taking, the side effects of the meds, on and on. I know a lot of people who have trouble with mood this time of year and it got me thinking about complimentary therapy when medication isn’t enough or for milder cases of depression that may be triggered seasonally. The latest research shows that complimentary therapies are being incorporated into treatments to help mitigate the symptoms of depression and restore a sense of well-being and control.
Obviously these strategies aren’t necessarily a substitute for medication and you should always talk to your doctor before considering any health technique you hear or read about. I don’t personally have SAD, but am prone to mood disorder and have been most of my life. Adding these strategies to my lifestyle have and continue to help me with minor depression so if you think you might need a mood booster right about now, this might be helpful to you.

Tweaking your diet: Most experts agree now that a diet high in processed foods can be a major contributor to mood problems. A whole food (translate: real food with ingredients Grandma would recognize) approach, with a focus on an increased intake of omega-3 fatty acids can help. Studies show that a diet low in these cellular building blocks has been linked to depression. Oily fish like wild salmon, herring, and sardines are the richest natural sources, but if you hate fish like I do, you may need supplements to reaach the recommended levels. Talk to your doctor about which sources are best for you.

Exercise/Sleep/Light: A workout may be the most powerful way to refresh our brains and our moods. More than a hundred clinical studies have concluded that exercises boosts mood and mental function. The stimulation of the feel good hormone – serotonin and dopamine come into play here. The recommended does: minimum of 90 minutes per week, make it fun, and take it outside. Outdoor workouts do double duty because the air and sun (when it’s out!) energize the body and indirectly improve sleep, another essential for mental health. I notice a big difference on the days I run outside versus working out on the treadmill – I feel lighter and it clears my head.
Try light therapy to reverse mood problems associated with winter months. Get a 10,000 lux light box – which is the equivalent of a bright sunny morning (you can find them online).

For me, yoga “gives my mind a bone to chew on” and really helps boost my mood during winter’s darkness. Studies have linked regular yoga practice to with lower stress hormones and an increase in GABA (the anxiety reducing neurotransmitter).

Some of the best coaching I receive is from my clients. Working today with an incredibly gifted physical therapist who is reinventing her practice in her mid-50′s. She hired me to help her clear away the collection of “resources” as she calls them from past work incarnations to make room for her new vision which includes a new Feldenkrais practice.

We were working primarily with paper, lots and lots of old files, literature, and articles that represented important periods of her life. Her fear was that disposing of anything might erase the memories and achievements of her life she most wanted to remember.

Her AHA moment came when she told me she needed to learn to really understand the value of things – how to respect them instead of fearing them. Whenever we are in doubt about whether what we’re holding on to is adding or detracting from our life, we need to ask if the stuff in questions is aligned with our core values. For some people out of alignment manifests as clutter, for others it may be destructive relationships or health habits. In getting to her goal of releasing what wasn’t enhancing or advancing her life, my client measured those old resources from her past against what was really important to her today, and that made her decision to let go of the past much easier.

Is your house cluttered? If so, chances are so is your health. New findings suggest that people with clean, organized homes (a supportive environment) are more likely to be physically active than those with cluttered spaces. Whether or not the kind of somen who care for their homes are also predisposed to care for their health isn’t clear, but the general principle makes sense, yes?

What are you tolerating in your space that could be preventing you from having a healthier body?

I don’t know about you but the past decade was a pretty tough one for me.  I’m glad I didn’t know that in advance because when I look back,  I wonder how the heck I got through it with as much humor as I did!  I sustained many losses from 2000-2010.  My marriage collapsed, I lost my brother, my mother, my father in law as well as two dear friends.  A precious 7 year relationship ended (although we are still good friends) and my business tanked in 2010.  Maybe you too have suffered your share of hardships.  I know many who have lost their jobs, businesses and homes. 

But what I do believe is that everything is made beautiful in its time and what we’ve lost will be returned to us in ways we can’t imagine.  What the past decade has taught me is that I am much stronger than I ever believed.  I discovered my priorities were out of whack and boy did I get the opportunity to get them straight!   I appreciate more than ever the gifts I came to deliver and thank God I still have a chance to use them to play bigger starting right now.

Probably most of all I’m celebrating the fact that despite everything – I’m still here – and I’m going to have fun!  Your mess can become your message and a celebration of what you’ve been through and how far you’ve come.  I think we’re all a bit too serious most of the time and really what else matters other than we give and receive love and enjoy life?  That’s our purpose here on earth and when we each use the gift we’ve been given to that end, everything changes.   

Mother Teresa said it beautifully, “Joy is a net of love by which you catch souls.”     Happy – emphasis on happy – New Year.

While on vacation last week I came across this great message from author Seth Godin (Unleasing the Idea Virus, Tribes). It’s not only true in the marketplace, it’s a life metaphor as well.

Digital media expands. It’s not like paper, it can get bigger.
As digital marketers seek to increase profits, they almost always make the same mistake. They continue to add more clutter, messaging and offers, because, hey, it’s free.
One more link, one more banner, one more side deal on the Groupon page.
Economics tells us that the right thing to do is run the factory until the last item produced is being sold at marginal cost. In other words, keep adding until it doesn’t work any more.
In fact, human behavior tells us that this is a more permanent effect than we realize. Once you overload the user, you train them not to pay attention. More clutter isn’t free. In fact, more clutter is a permanent shift, a desensitization to all the information, not just the last bit.
And it’s hard to go backward.
More is not always better. In fact, more is almost never better.

Plimoth Plantation

It’s typically the time when we reflect on our blessings and are thankful that we’ve survived our own hardships during the year. I hope you put yourself at the top of the list! Are you thankful for you? Are you taking time to show it by giving your body and your spirit the care and nurturing it deserves?

If not now when? If not you who? Change is possible regardless of what you’ve suffered in the past and what age you are right now. I have no athletic legacy and I’m no superwoman. I was a stay at home over 40 mom of two who (after a divorce and many painful years battling mood disorder) simply refused to believe that my best years were behind me.

Now I get to learn about you and from you – my everyday heroes – strong, savvy, sexy women who have a unique gift to deliver. My mission is to simply help you pack and get ready for your mid life road trip so you’ll have the health, energy and confidence to rock your second half.

And I’m incredibly thankful for that.