Is It Time For You To H.A.L.T?

Frustrated woman waiting for a phone call in Christmas kitchenThe holidays are upon us, and for many it’s the most challenging time of the year.

The heavy emphasis on love and joy, family togetherness and endless festivities can easily take you down, special diet or not.

Worse still, what if the holidays find you alone?

What if you’re dealing with a recent break-up, an illness, or worse still – a death in the family?

Can you relate?

While there’s no question these things are difficult any time of the year, the pain and heartache increases ten-fold during the month of December.

Yet the bigger issue is this: when you’re up against life’s challenges, do you still find time to take proper care of yourself?

How do you deal with those typical stressors we call ‘Life’, that will inevitably come your way?

This is where some mental gymnastics come into play – in the form of a self-coaching technique known as H.A.L.T.

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U Is For Unaware

U - UNAWAREThis past weekend, I listened to an amazing interview with Joe Cross.

In case his name doesn’t ring a bell, Joe Cross is the hero of Fat, Sick & Nearly Dead – he turned his life around by going on a juice fast.

As he puts it, the food you put in your body is information. If you’re starving yourself of the RIGHT fuel (aka food), is it any surprise that things go wrong?

The thing is, 70% of all disease is caused by lifestyle choices – not your genes!

What are those choices? They include things like: what you eat and drink, what your sleep patterns are, how much exercise you get (or not), whether you smoke – and also how you manage stress.

Which leads me to this question:

How connected are YOU to how you’re living your life?

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Is It Time For You to H.A.L.T.?

Frustrated woman waiting for a phone call in Christmas kitchenDuring the holidays, there’s a lot of emphasis on love and joy, family togetherness and endless festivities.

But what if the holidays find you alone?

What if you’re dealing with a recent break-up, or illness, or worse still – a death in the family?

Perhaps you can relate?

While there’s no question these things are difficult any time of the year, the pain and heartache increases ten-fold during the month of December.

When you’re up against life’s challenges, do you still find time to take proper care of yourself?

I experienced this first-hand in the past two weeks, when my mother spent the weekend before Christmas in the hospital. Even though her caregiver stayed with her, I still made numerous trips back and forth from home.

I didn’t feel like cooking. (There was little time to shop).

The holiday cookies I had planned to bake were put on hold. I found myself eating on the run – grabbing a quick snack from the fridge (or cupboard) to tide me over. It being the holidays, there were plenty of sweets on hand so my choices weren’t always the best (even though they met my gluten-free, dairy-free, sugar-free criteria).

While sugary anything is very easy to come by this time of year, it’s certainly NOT what you or I, or anyone needs during times of stress.

Yet, there it was – comfort food that fit a need.

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