What is a Reasonable Plan for Me?

With some free time over this holiday, I am deciding what behaviors I want to implement for the New Plan routine.  The routine needs to be reasonable and cover the essentials that I feel will lead to my greatest health in mind, body and spirit.  I always seem to be most successful following through on things like exercise and yoga if I do them first thing in the morning.  This means coordinating with Richard, my husband, who has indicated that he, too, wants to get back into a routine with yoga and meditation, in the time we share before he heads off to work at 6:45 a.m.

The things I intend to incorporate into a daily routine in my New Plan for the New Year

• 30-60 minutes of aerobic exercise:  This, for me, is walking briskly around the hilly neighborhood or working out on my Gazelle elliptical machine.  I wear my heart monitor to help ensure I am spending an adequate amount of time in my target heart zone. 

• 21 repetitions of the Five Tibetans yoga from the Fountain of Youth - usually when I am starting again, I will start off with 9 or 12 repetitions (always in increments of 3) and gradually increase to the ideal of 21 reps of each Tibetan rite.  There are great descriptions and more information in the book The Fountain of Youth and on the website that offers the poster below as a free download.  There are numerous YouTube videos demonstrating the Five Tibetans as well.

I highly suggest taking it slowly at first, and/or receiving individualized instruction for these postures and movements.  I have always felt amazing, balanced and energized after a session of Tibetans, which only takes a few minutes, even with the full 21 repetitions.

• Alternate Nostril Breathing - This is an amazing tool to help balance the two sides of the brain, and the energy system that runs up and down the sides of the spine.  My mind always feels more clear, more relaxed and focused after a set of alternate nostril breathing, which, again, only takes a few minutes to complete.  Start slowly with 3-6 full breaths, and work up to 15 inhalations and exhalations.  Often I will add an affirmation with each inhale and exhale, such as "I am the Love of God" or "I am balanced, healthy, and clear" or "I am very very happy"...stuff like that. Here is a YouTube video demonstration: 

•  Meditation:  Anywhere from just a few minutes to an hour, depending on the time availability in the day.  There is a vast array of types of recorded meditations available, and of course the "simple" Buddhist meditation of clearing the mind and focusing on the breath.  This also could be a focused daily reading as with A Course in Miracles, or a daily thought from an inspired mind.

• Tracking everything I consume and all of my activities in My Food Diary at MyFoodDiary.com:  I really like this program because it does all of the adding for me, and lets me know how many calories I have left in the day, along with how I'm doing on saturated fat, protein, and carbohydrate consumption.  As I enter my exercise time, then the calories I can consume increases.  Also, at the end of each day, I get a run down of how I did, complete with smiley and frownie faces. I have created many recipes for my healthy creations and entered them into MyFoodDiary for easy tracking as well.

• EFT and other modalities for clearing the emotional bonds, cravings and detrimental automatic behaviors that arise while I am taking the best care ever of my being.

There are a bunch of further YouTube videos with this gal, along with her website for more information.  There's a general EFT manual as a free download on my website:  www.StephanieBall.info.

I love this technique, and have seen it transform people in various states of unrest, including full-blown panic attack, to complete and utter peace and calm.  I look forward to incorporating it into this journey to help heal the beliefs and behaviors so that I will attain and retain a healthy body along with a healthy mind.

I will contemplate all of this that I wish to incorporate and devise a reasonable plan and decide when to set it in motion.  I'm also still working on my list of memories regarding body image, eating patterns, and exercise aloofness, and will share soon.

Blessings to all in the meantime!