How I Stay on Track for a Healthier Year: Beyond the New Year

I’m sure I’m not the only one that feels like we were just taking inventory of our lives for the new year and making changes in our lives, goals and lifestyle? Now that spring has sprung, it’s another season of fresh new life.

Spring is a time of newness and growth in the world around us. We can even see it in the budding of flowers and the way the grass breaks through winter’s hardened ground; it’s a great time for growth in our own lives as well.

It’s a time we typically want to tackle projects, feel the urge to purge as we clean out our closet, and find sandals and skirts again. We want to organize and refresh our space (and even have a few thoughts about health as well, or at least thinking ahead toward swimsuit season!). 

And with all the newness of life and projects that get added to the to-do list, it’s easy to lose focus in the excitement of it all. Sometimes that leads us to a half-organized closet and half-finished to-do lists and projects.

I’ve learned that in order to reach my goals, I have to clarify what they really are. After the January rush of setting our intentions for the year, it’s easy to feel overwhelmed with “staying on track” that we fall off of it all together.

I get it, and I’m right there with you! I’ve learned a few things about goals though… for instance, it’s okay to change them as we grow and progress. So, in the mindset of spring growth and renewal, I’m sharing a few ways that I stay on track and motivated for a healthier year in all areas of my life. Hopefully, you’ll find something in here that helps you as well!

Heads up: This post is sponsored by ChromaDex, but all opinions remain my own.

How I Stay on Track for a Healthier Year

How I stay on track in Work

My life is lived as a self-employed entrepreneur. This means work doesn’t happen unless I make it happen. 

What’s amazing about it is a more flexible schedule. What isn’t amazing is that the work schedule can tend to creep into every area of life… all too easily. 

My goal for this year has simply been to work smarter, not harder. And while in general it’s a pretty generic goal, it’s also allowed me many opportunities for personal growth and study. There is going to be SO MUCH that I’ll be sharing on the subject soon, but as an overview, I’m learning to take on less of a workload (finding that ever elusive balance), stop the myth that is multitasking, how to focus and be present (whether it’s work or play), and divide my workload and lists into increments. 

This section itself can be broken up into so many separate posts, but I will say that focusing on ONE task at a time and working in timed increments has been a sanity saver! I’ll set a “work timer” and during that time will just focus on that one task at hand, avoiding social media and other notifications until that task, or the timer, is complete. Then I’ll walk away for a few minutes before moving on to the next task or timed increment. This keeps me on track because it allows time for the “distractions” without having them interrupt workflow… meaning I get more accomplished in a shorter period of time.

I’ve also been practicing the art of saying NO, gracefully. You may have noticed that I’m posting less often here, which is on purpose. I’m allowing more time to develop other things and new endeavors (that will benefit us all!), have free time with my family, and more! What that means for this space is that I’m posting content I truly feel will be of value to you, and is important enough for me to pour my time into.

It also means that I’m only working with clients and companies that I feel align with my life and values (which has always been the case), and ones that allow me to write and share freely, like this post here. Yes, it’s sponsored… and yes, I wouldn’t share it if I didn’t believe in the product or wasn’t using it personally (but you should know this about me by now!).

 

How I stay on track in Health and Wellness

This isn’t an area that I’ve gone strict. Usually when I want to jumpstart a regimen, I’ll do a strict intro to boost myself into it. My goal lately is striving to be more wholesome. As a family, we want to incorporate more whole foods into our lives, and my intention is MORE water and LESS sugar. With that said, we’ve started growing a garden in our backyard, we’re adding more activity into our lives (I’m currently not a gym rat, but call it a win when I add in a daily activity, especially when it’s done as a family) …and I have added in a full regimen of vitamins. 

With four kids, energy is something I NEED and seeing the signs of aging creep up just isn’t the way I want to deal. Staying young and active for them, means keeping up with their schedule too! 

I’ve come to realize that there are nutrients that my body needs and so much of it is just not in substantial amounts in our food. So even more than taking a regular multivitamin system (which I DO), I was looking for a vitamin that specifically works to help combat the aging, and recently started adding TRU NIAGEN^® to my daily routine. It’s a vegetarian, gluten-free, caffeine-free dietary supplement that has been proven to increase the body’s levels of NAD.

Sounds great, right? But what is NAD? 

The coenzyme nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide (NAD) is found in all living cells, and it aids in cellular metabolism and energy production and even helps regulate circadian rhythm. While many factors contribute to aging, scientists believe one primary reason is the depletion of a key cellular resource called NAD. When NAD levels are low, our cells can’t produce the energy they need to maintain our health as we age. 

Even beauty guru and lifestyle expert Kym Douglas said this about Tru Niagen in an interview:

I think that’s what’s so interesting about this product, because Tru Niagen talks about cell health and cell rejuvenation. I do a lot of talking about our skin, and how to topically treat things in the beauty world. But when you think about it, it really is our cells that we need to keep at optimum level of performance. Then we can truly be the best we want to be. That’s why I was very interested in trying something like this.

How I stay on track in my Household

Something I’ve heard that resonates with me for any area of life is this: Strive for perfection, settle for excellence. Our home isn’t meant to be a show-home, it’s meant to be a place of comfort and peace for our family… so perfection isn’t the end goal. But for me, a place of peace and comfort is the goal.

With a higher workload, and my goal to work smarter, not harder, we’ve hired a housekeeper to take care of the deep clean once in a while. The rest of the time? We all pitch in on cleaning up after ourselves! This has allowed me freedom to let go of the more menial tasks and we can get in a quick clean anytime (which is usually a couple of times a day!). Everything has a place and everyone knows what that place. We’ve been able to build a sense of peace and order for the home.

A question I get asked a lot is how do you “get it all done.” The long AND the short answer is, I don’t. But we do have a lot of systems in place to help up with the daily essentials. Historically, we’re not the best meal planners when it comes to list-making and planning way ahead of time, but we do take a little time to plan some meals for the week together. That takes the stress off of one person. Then, my husband and I take turns in the kitchen cooking while the whole family pitches in for cleanup!

Taking tasks that would usually be mundane and getting everyone involved not only helps to share the burden, but also allows for a sense of pride and ownership. That keeps us all on track for a lived in, yet peaceful and orderly home. 

How I stay on track being ME

In a world of oversaturated social media, blogging, vlogging, news, and more, it’s so easy to get distracted, to let comparison creep in and to sometimes feel discouraged with where we’re at in life, in work, in play, etc. 

We’ve all heard it, but I want to bring up this reminder again: Comparison steals from your present happiness and robs the future of the real you! 

With Instagram accounts popping up that grow by the thousands quickly and seemingly easily, and seeing companies that I’ve wanted to work with partnering with another blogger, I can choose to let discouragement steal from my peace or celebrate the success of others. I can choose to be ME in the midst of it all because my message is different than anyone else’s. When I choose to celebrate others, I’m in turn celebrating who I am, and it’s easier for me to be ME.

I want that for you too, no matter what field you work in or what comparison looks like for you… do what makes YOU come alive! Don’t do what everyone else does because they look successful, happy, or make money doing it. YOU do YOU. I promise, it keeps you motivated through the rough times. 

I’d love to hear what you do to stay on track through the year… the good times and the bad, through the ups and downs. What keeps you motivated to reach your goals?