If your goals include losing weight, increasing energy, improving mental clarity and even relieving chronic health symptoms — you’ve got to focus on creating balance in life, rather than just a one quick-fix-solution.

You can comb through all the statistics and suggestions published around this time of year on how to stick to your resolutions, but the hard truth is, 92% of us will quit by February 1st.

That is, unless, you get that, “How you do anything is how you do everything.”

How you manage any area of life, circumstance or experience, is very likely how you manage every area of life.

Balance Matters

If you’re out of balance in one area, research shows your out of balance in other areas too.

Think about it, if you’re stressed out at work, over-tired because you’re not getting enough sleep, or just feeling defeated because you can never stick to your goals to get the results you most want, do you think you’ll stick to your resolution to eat healthy when you feel overtired after work?

Do you think you’ll stick with getting to the gym, like you’ve said you would many times over, if stress rules your relationships or troubles with finances distracts you?

As a new client said to me, “I’m “successful” in all ways that say I’m successful, but I’m overweight. I’m addicted to food, I’m stressed out and I’m working myself to death. This does not feel successful, it feels crazy.”

The impact of the continual trying and the continual failing wreaks havoc on ‘you’ mentally and emotionally.

The National Institute of Health defines the impact of this recurring high and low cycle as a psychological condition. The question you want to ask is, how does this pattern impact you mentally and emotionally over the long haul?

To break through defeating patterns and an out-of-balance life, balance is your answer and The Wheel of Life is your starting assessment tool.

The Wheel of Life

Last week you clarified your goals for 2018. This week you’ll use The Wheel of Life, a useful tool I use with all my private clients, to make sure that your goals support results and balance.

The Wheel of life shows where you’re thriving in life, and where you need to extend more attention and effort, in an aerial overview kind of way, which is often amiss for many in the goal setting process.

In this assessment exercise, you want to make sure your wheel, the whole of your life is in balance, because you know what happens when you feel out of balance, right? Commitments break. Goals get shelved. Defeat resumes.

Look at each area of The Wheel, like health and finances, career and health, as “spokes,” of a wheel, to tighten up your goals in ways that promote the results you want, but in a smart and balanced way.

I’ve created a FREE worksheet to help guide you in doing the Wheel of Life exercise. Just click below for an instant download.

Download Your Free Wheel of Life Exercise! 

I recommend blocking 15-30 minutes to do this exercise today, to weigh in on the goals you set last week, and how what you discover in this exercise can help you smartly edit them!

If you know you’re caught up in the world of doing, doing, doing, and reacting to life, rather than creating the forward momentum and results you most want, add the Wheel of Life to your New Year’s resolutions and goal setting this year… It will help you identify where you’re at now, and what you need to do, to get what you most want for you life, in a healthy and balanced way. 

I’ve heard many saying this week, “I’m done with resolutions.”

That 2018 is the “Year of Intention.”

No goals. No personal development. No plan.

Intention is the compass now.

What about you? Did you denounce resolutions this year?

I get it. Take good care of yourself. It’s essential. Yes.

But, how do you get from point A to point B, without a plan, without taking action?

The definition of resolution says, “a firm decision to do or not to do something.”

To do. To take action. Or not.

IF your committed to personal growth and development, for you and your life,

• With your health
• With your relationships,
• Or even with your time-management,

It’s irrefutable, getting there is going to require more than intention.

Change requires you take new actions.

I myself have an arms-length of goals I want to achieve this year, from building “my strongest body ever,” to delivering a TED Talk, to even writing a book.

Intention alone would never get me the results I want.

Creating Actionable Goals in 2018

At the kickoff call for my 1:1 coaching program, Your Best Health Project, and as the kickoff for this year long blog series, I, ask one starting question:

What do you want to get out of this program?

Or, more specifically, what are the goals you most want to achieve while we work together?

And then we set the stage of every action you will take to achieve your goals.

Intention matters. You set one in our first session. It guides the program, but actions get you to your end game.

Simply put, intention is not enough.

Without taking new actions, you can’t create change.

I ask you, WHAT top 3-5 goals would you most love to achieve in your health and wellness this year?

As an example, you might say, I want to lose weight.

But “I want to lose weight” is elusive. It’s not specific enough. To achieve any goal, it has to be smart, measurable, achievable, realistic and timely.

If weight-loss is your goal, you want to pick a specific number of pounds you want to lose, and you want to calculate how much weigh you’ll lose each week, each month, to get to your goal weight. Then you want to be realistic for the 6-month period of time we’d work together — you don’t want to set an unrealistic expectation and set yourself up for failure.

OK, let’s break it down:

Over a 6-month period, if you want to lose 30 pounds, divide 30 (the pounds you want to lose) by 24 weeks (the 6 months of working together) and you’d easily see that you need to lose .8 pounds per week to get to your goal weight.

But this is only one example, and the math makes it easy to measure.

But let’s say your goal is something more intangible, like you want more energy.

Then you’d choose specific actions that would increase your energy in a very measurable way.

For example, one of my overall top recommendations with every client is, The Math Equation, where I recommend clients take out foods that cause inflammation in the body (which inherently deplete energy reserves) and add in The Wholly Trinity, or greens 3-ways, a green juice, a green smoothie and a meal-sized green salad every day that will naturally increase energy because every ingredient is oxygen heavy (which increases energy).

• HINT — Choose ONE goal, or new habit that you KNOW could make every other action easier. For example, you might choose getting up 30 minutes earlier in the morning, so you can journal and meditate before others in your family wake up. Or, you might choose preparing smoothies and lunches at nighttime, like my client Courtney does, to make mornings more smooth and easy with her family.

Creating Your Goal Plan

Whatever your goal, you can, and you must:

1. Write your goals down. If you write them down, you put them into existence — they become a real target, rather than simply wishful thinking.
2. Choose specific actions that you can measure in very solid ways, and they must be realistic for the time window you choose to achieve them.
3. Publicly declare your goal, and the actions you’re going to take to achieve it.
4. Create accountability with another person, like a coach or an accountability partner.

Research shows that if you write down your goals, share them with a friend, and create accountability with a coach or accountability partner, you will exponentially reap higher results.

Your turn. Your time.

If you know you struggle with accountability (just look back at your 2016 and 2017 resolutions!) and are ready to create the results you want now, by working with me, click here to schedule a free discovery call to see what’s possible.

Or, if you just need a safe space to declare your goals – post in the comments below! Then bookmark this page and come back to stay on track, I’ll support you every step of the way!

I saw a handsome young man walk out of the mall in gym shorts yesterday.

Not a day older than 21 is my guess.

Everything about him grabbed my attention, and it wasn’t his wearing shorts near Christmas in December that stopped me.

He walked with a very noticeable confidence,

An athletic swagger,

A huge smile,

A badass haircut,

And… a shiny, black titanium leg.

And then in a blink of an eye, I saw, that I was wrong.

He had TWO shiny, black titanium legs.

I was driving along preoccupied by the thoughts that time seemed to be my enemy,

And this handsome young man was literally walking with a skip in his step,

On two prosthetic legs.

When I was a young girl, I was taught that Christmas is a holy time that invites us all to reflect on what matters most.

That no matter what the challenge,

No matter what the concern,

No matter what the barrier,

The promise and the Spirit of Christmas belongs to each of us,

That everything and anything is possible, if we believe that everything and anything is possible,

That evidence of Christmas exists everywhere,

If we look for it,

Even in traffic at the mall.

The holiday season is here.

And there’s one thing I know you’ll see at every,

In-office Yankee grab-bag exchange,

Saturday night dinner party, and

After work cocktail party…

The Spirit of the season,

which often looks like,

overflowing plates of cookies,

festive froufrou mixed-drinks, and

tables laden with traditional family favorites,

that you don’t want to eat, and… you so do.

Add to all this festivity, the end-of-the-year deadline-stress,

Hours preparing for your family and friend get-togethers, and

Late-night shopping excursions,

And rather than feel festive, all you feel is exhausted and stressed.

Add in one cocktail to a tired body, and

Bam! Your resistance is double-downed!

Which is why you end up eating, drinking and indulging more than you ever want.

Looking to understand why you feel lousy and gained excess weight after the holidays?

Look no further than stress, lack of sleep and hormonal imbalance.

Yes, when you’re stressed-out and tired, your body produces higher levels of the hormone grehlin, which is also known as the hunger hormone.

When your body releases higher levels of grehlin, you want to eat more, which naturally lowers the hormone leptin, the hormone that tells you to stop eating, that you’re satisfied, that you’ve had enough.

This is one of the biggest reasons why you feel hungry, even when you know you’re not.

This is a likely reason you crave sugary foods and carbs mid-day — you’re body is looking for a quick energy pick-me-up, and carbs does just that — they give you the quick and immediate energy fix you’re looking for.

Plus, you “feel happy” when you eat sugary, carb-y things. Do you know why? Ti’s true, your body releases serotonin, the feel-good hormone with every bite you take!

Add to this cascade of hormonal responses, the energy blast your body gets from the cortisol your adrenal glands start pumping, because it deems you’re in a “fight or flight” situation from all the stress and exhaustion AND sugar and carbs!

This blast of excess cortisol (continuously pumping if you’re continuously eating sugar and carbs) is the likely culprit for excess weight gain.

To add insult to injury, excess cortisol can lead you to screaming for more serotonin, which leads to the never-ending hamster wheel of craving sugar AND fatty, processed foods!

So… IF you don’t want to fall down the legendary, holiday rabbit hole of gaining excess weight and feeling sick and unhealthy this year, you’ve got to get a good nights sleep and reduce stress (I’ve got 1000 tips for this!), and you’ve got to balance out the indulgence of the season with a few smart ideas. Want mine?

Your Turn:

Can I help you healthfully navigate the holidays this year with more suggestions, tips and ideas?

What always seems to pull you out, but you want to change that this year?

Post your questions and comments below. I’d love to help.

Ready to take control of your health in 2018? Lets’s schedule a call to talk about your goals. Email me at carol@carol-egan.com

I’ve spent the last few days helping my one-to-one clients draft their 2018 Game Plan so they can make their upcoming year the best yet…

And be one of the 8% of people who DO stick to their New Year’s Resolutions.

If you’re ready to make 2018 your best year yet too, I’d like to share with you 3 simple steps you can do yourself, to create your own winning Game Plan!

Step #1 – Find Your Keystone Habit

To kick off 2018, chose what resonates with you as the smartest healthy habit for YOU to begin in January, per your greater life goals.

In other words, what is one habit you know is holding you back, and needs to go first!

This ONE SPECIFIC thing is known as your keystone habit. A keystone habit has the power to transform your life — keystone habits correlate with other good habits, like regular exercise, healthy food choices, intermittent fasting… habits that go hand-in-hand synergistically together to build on January’s healthy habit all year long, one month at a time.

According to Charles Duhigg, author of The Power of Habit, a Keystone Habit is a small, seemingly benign habit, that inspires a whole host of positive outcomes. In this case, it’s the ONE healthy habit you can do, that would set off a whole chain-reaction of other healthy habits… because you’d now WANT to do them!

I highly recommend starting with The Math Equation, of adding in more greens and taking out the 5 common toxic trigger foods (gluten, dairy, sugar, caffeine and alcohol).

You can also follow my Mini Detox program to walk you through this!

Or you can also choose to add my free Eliminate Excuses email course to the Mini Detox, to help you create some real traction on your own!

Step #2 – Add In A New Habit Every Month

To be successful in 2018, you want to focus on ONE new healthy habit each month. Yes, Think BIG, but focus on ONE SPECIFIC thing at a time — this is the winning formula when we set out on our own to create habits that last.

If you’ve not mastered the previous month’s habit, stick with ONLY it until you feel like you’ve created mastery, even if this takes you all year long. THIS IS where oh-so-many lose out in achieving their resolutions — they take on too much at once, and then feel defeated when they feel overwhelmed by too much change! 

But, once you’ve mastered your ONE Keystone Habit in January, it’s time to add in another one each month… as long as you stuck with your monthly goal.

If you’re looking for some additional healthy habits to add to your yearly goals, here’s some I recommend (and links to read more about them).

1. Daily juicing
2. Eliminate sugar
3. Take out 5 common toxic trigger foods
4. Meditation
5. Journaling
6. Reduce your stress
7. Daily affirmations
8. Surround yourself with Chants
9. Drink more water
10. Practice gratitude
11. Change your inner circle
12. Eliminate disempowering thoughts
13. Probiotics
14. Body brushing

 

Step 3: Check In With Yourself

Whether you want to make your this a quarterly activity, or just check in after the first 6 months of the year, take a moment to slow down. Take time to assess where you started the year and where you’re at now with your goals.

To assess where you’re at now, ask yourself:

• What’s working?
• What’s not working? If something is not working, what did I make it mean? What are my thoughts about what’s not working? Could my thoughts and what I’m making ‘it’ mean be stopping me? Could it be my thoughts and the story I tell yourself be the problem, and not the thing itself?
• What helped me stay on course?
• What stopped me?

Take the time to ask, answer and write down your responses in your journal, so you can track not only what worked and what didn’t work, but the stories you tell yourself about the successes you’ve achieved or the breakdowns you’ve experienced along the way. These answers are solid-gold, they’ll give you insights that can get you back in the game!

And with that – you’ve got your 2018 Game Plan!

Cheers to you making this New Year the one where you start looking and feeling your very best!

IF you know you’re ready to put your health and wellbeing on your calendar in 2018, and want 1:1 support, let’s talk. You can schedule a call here. I currently have TWO spots open for new clients and would love to support you, if we’re a right fit!

My Dad LOVED Creamed Peas and Pearl Onions, so I made this recipe in his honor, for YOU! He would have LOVED this recipe, because every ingredient is so clean, fresh and… plus the recipe is gluten-free, dairy-free, paleo-friendly AND super delicious. When you look over the ingredients, you’ll feel confident that everyone will love the fresh spin of this holiday classic… It’s a total crowd-pleaser, because even those with food sensitives can indulge — Booyah!

Yes, I always recommend organic as your first choice for all ingredients, when available.

Ingredients: 

• 2 cups of fresh or frozen peas
• 10 ounce bag of fresh pearl onions
• 1 parsnip, chopped in food processor
• 1/2 small onion, diced
• 1 cup almond milk
• Sea salt and cracked black pepper to taste

Sauce: 

Saute onion and parsnip until cooked and tender. Add to Vitamin or high-speed blender with almond milk, sea salt and cracked black pepper. Puree until well-combined and creamy.

Pearl Onions: Immerse in boiling water for 2-3 minutes. Remove. Let cool. Cut the root end and pinch out of onion skin.

In saute pan: Add peas, onions and sauce and simmer on a low heat until vegetables and flavors come together. Season with salt and pepper to taste.

Buono Appetito! Happy Holidays!

If you make this recipe, I’d love to hear how you liked it in the comments below!

Forager’s Pie is said to be the “hot cousin” of Shepard’s pie. I like that, in the spirt of ‘out with the old, in with the new.’ This recipe then is, yet again, a fresh spin on another classic, with a lighter, cleaner line-up of ingredients!

The idea of foraging conjures up hunting and gathering — I love this idea of spending hours hunting for the perfect mushrooms in the ‘wild,’ but that I don’t know much about which ones are safe, and which ones aren’t, I went to Whole Foods and filled a bag with shiitakes and baby portobellos!

The mushrooms, with the marsala wine and fresh thyme and rosemary, add a rich savoriness that says Fall through and through.

You’ll love this recipe! It’s so good, that a crust would only get in the way!

Ingredients

• 1 large Vidalia onion, diced
• 4 cloves garlic, minced
• 5 carrots, peeled and diced
• 2 pounds shiitake mushrooms (or personal favorite), cleaned and sliced
• 2 pounds steamed sweet potatoes (2 medium sized, 1 extra large), pureed
• 3/4 cup marsala wine
• 1 1/2 cup Kite Hill, ricotta cheese
• 2 Tablespoons coconut oil
• 1/2 teaspoon fresh thyme, minced
• 1/2 teaspoon fresh rosemary, minced
• 1/2 cup, fresh parsley, minced
• 1 cup almond milk
• sea salt and cracked black pepper to taste

Preparation

Puree steamed sweet potatoes in food processor, with 3/4 cup of almond milk ricotta, sea salt and black pepper until creamy and well-combined. Set aside.

Saute onion, garlic, carrots, coconut oil, sea salt and cracked black pepper on medium-low, until translucent. Add marsala wine and simmer for 5 minutes. Add mushrooms, fresh thyme and rosemary, and simmer until tender. Add almond milk and 3/4 cup ricotta — Stir until well-combined.

Scoop vegetable/mushroom sauté into a glass baking dish. Layer half the fresh parsley. Top with pureed sweet potato. Bake at 350° for 45 minutes. Top with remaining parsley and serve!

Optional: Add a layer of sautéed greens of your choice: Spinach, Swiss chard and broccoli rabe are all great choices!

Buono Appetito! 

If you make this recipe, I’d LOVE to hear how you like it in the comments section below!

Most everyone loves pumpkin pie around the holidays… and like everything I make, I say fresh is best!

While I have used fresh pumpkin, I LOVE the ease of substituting sweet potatoes too, because they’re easier to handle. So in this recipe, Fresh Pumpkin Pie I offer you the choice to use either pumpkin, or sweet potatoes. Whatever you choose, they taste very similar. Heck, even Betty Crocker said to feel free to use them interchangeably back in the 1950s!

This gluten-free, sugar-free, dairy-free and paleo-friendly recipe is the best I’ve come up with to date for a fresh pumpkin pie! The almond milk ricotta beautifully takes the place of cornstarch and cream, to hold the filling together and add to the pie’s overall custard-like creaminess — think pumpkin cheesecake! The stevia can be used liberally, without fear of slipping into a a sugar-coma after dinner, and all the ingredients come together for a delicious and healthy dessert for you and your family!

I challenge you to find a REAL pumpkin pie (you will have to spend hours on that alone) that is as fresh and delicious as this recipe!

Crust: 

• 3/4 cup walnuts
• 3/4 cup pecans
• 1/2 cup dates, or dried apricots
• Vanilla powder or extract
• Pinch sea salt

Place the nuts, dates (and/or apricots), vanilla and sea salt in a food processor and process until a fine crumble forms and sticks together. Press the mixture into a glass pie dish using fingertips lightly dampened with water to prevent sticking. Feel for highs and lows in the mixture, and press it evenly into the baking dish. Refrigerate until ready.

Filling: 

• 3 cups mashed pumpkin or sweet potatoes (process in food processor until smooth)
• 1 cup Kite Hill almond-milk ricotta
• 1/2+ cup almond milk (add accordingly, to maintain a thick texture)
• 3 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
• 1 teaspoon ground nutmeg
• 1/4 teaspoon ground clove
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• Stevia to taste

Instructions: 

In Vitamix, process all ingredients, until well-combined (add the almond milk slowly, to maintain thick creamy blend of ingredients).

Preheat oven to 350°.

Pour sweet potatoes mixture into pie-shell and bake for 30 minutes (watch carefully, to not burn crust).

Let cool for 30 minutes or more.

* For a dairy-free whipped topping, beat with hand-held beaters, full-fat coconut milk, vanilla and stevia to taste!

Serve and enjoy!

Buono Appetito! 

 

For a gorgeous blend of seasonal color and flavor, this hearty roasted root vegetable side dish is sure to be a healthy star at your seasonal celebrations!

Ingredients: 

• 3 medium red beets, washed and sliced thickly in 1 inch rounds
• 3 medium sweet potatoes or yams, washed and sliced thickly in 1 inch rounds
• 3 carrots, washed and cut in 3 inch pieces
• 3 parsnips, washed and cut in 3 inch pieces
• 1 -2 sweet onion, sliced thickly
• 1 head of garlic, peeled and separated cloves
• Fine sea salt to taste
• Cracked black pepper to taste
• 1 teaspoon minced fresh rosemary
• 2 Tablespoons coconut oil

*  If you want to spin this recipe to be sweeter and still healthy, as an alternative to the overly-sweet version of holiday sweet potatoes, toss the cut vegetables in a stevia infused olive oil, before you place them in the baking dish. Drizzle the remaining sweetened oil over top, per the directions below.

Assemble:

Preheat oven to 375.

Cover the bottom of a large glass baking dish with coconut oil. Place red beet slices and sweet potato slices flat in the baking dish. Add carrots and parsnips. Cover with onion slices and whole garlic cloves. Sprinkle with sea salt, cracked black pepper and fresh rosemary. Roast for about 1 hour, or until tender.

Arrange all roasted vegetables on a serving platter. Serve and enjoy!

Buono Appetito! 

Fresh cranberries are available for only a short season each year, so I say put the traditional canned, or overly processed cranberry sauce aside this year and try my Fresh Cranberry & Fruit Relish for your holiday festivities.

Every ingredient is fresh, healthy and distinct to the season, with their bright, tart and sweet flavors blending in perfect balance.  Since this recipe is not cooked, I recommend you make it the day before, so all the flavors marinated and meld together.

Ingredients: 

• 1 bag of fresh cranberries, rinsed and picked over
• 1 medium apple, peeled, cored and deseeded
• 1 large orange, peeled and deseeded 
• 1 cup fresh raspberries
• 1/2 cup orange juice (only to achieve desired texture)
• Stevia to taste
• Pinch of Sea Salt
• Reserve a few whole cranberries and thin orange skin curls for garnish

Optional:

• 1 Tablespoon Fresh Ginger
• 1 teaspoon Cinnamon

Pulse each ingredient separately in a food processor. Add to bowl on the side. When done pulsing, add orange juice (to achieve desired texture), stevia and sea salt. Pulse fresh ginger if desired, and add with cinnamon. Mix to thoroughly combine.  

Garnish with whole cranberries and/or orange skin curls.*

* To Make the Orange Curls: Make a slice through one side of the peel and the pulp, all the way up to the rind on the other side. Cut the pulp off of the peel so that you have one long thin strip of peel. Twist the peel into a curly-q shape. The peel will naturally hold its shape.

Buono Apetito! 

After you make this recipe, I’d love to hear how you and your family liked it in the comments below! Happy Holidays!