Be Good to Yourself
Find creative ways to incorporate a spa lifestyle into your day. Take the stairs instead of the elevator, go on daily walks, join a yoga or dance class, get a massage. Establish good habits to reduce stress.

Give Positive Affirmations
Be kind to yourself, stay positive, and give yourself daily affirmations, as the power of positive thinking truly works! Don’t allow negative thinking, as it has a terrible impact on self-confidence and motivation, and it will drain your energy. If, in your mind, you tell yourself that you can’t do something, you will believe it and you will set yourself up for failure. Don’t allow that thinking to enter your mind! Eliminate the word ‘trying’ from your vocabulary and replace it with ‘doing’. Know that you can and will meet your goals! Start off each day by looking in the mirror and saying something positive about yourself. You may even wish to write affirmations on post-it notes and stick them in various places that you will see throughout the day.

New Year New Beginning
Forgive yourself and others for past indiscretions. It’s never healthy to hang on to things from the past and it will only serve to hold you back. Instead, appreciate the valuable lessons from those experiences. Let go and live in the present moment. We live so much healthier when we have a clear head and heart!

Eat Right
Pay attention to the ingredients in your food. Make sure you eat a well-balanced diet and drink at least eight 8 ounce glasses of water daily. Eliminate processed foods and sugars as much as possible, while increasing your intake of fresh fruits, vegetables, rice, and legumes. Remember that moderation is key and it is far better to eat several small meals each day, rather than a few large meals. Talk to a health coach and let them help you!

Monthly Visits to the Spa
Practice a healthy lifestyle by taking care of body, mind, and spirit. The spa offers a variety of wellness programs and treatments that will help you to take a holistic approach. Visit us and see which programs will support your specific goals. The spa experts can help you de-stress, rejuvenate and relax! This is your time to look and feel great inside and out!

Have Fun
Take some time out of each day to do something fun. Spend time out in nature, find a hobby, or join a local interest group. A big component of leading a healthy lifestyle is maintaining a balance in all areas of life. If you work very hard, then you need to play just as hard. Get out and enjoy life!

Have an Attitude of Gratitude
Last, but certainly not least in living a healthy lifestyle, is to have gratitude. We live much happier when we don’t take things for granted and enjoy what life has to offer. This increases vitality and is significant in keeping away heart issues, depression, fatigue, and a myriad of other ailments. Be thankful for what you have and what you have achieved. See the blessings in any given situation. A small change in perspective can create great change in life.

Living a healthy lifestyle can be a major change for some, however it’s very achievable. Change brings progress and growth. Be sure to go back over your plan regularly to see where you are in meeting your goals, and make adjustments as needed. Keeping the aforementioned in consideration, one can easily get on the fast track to better health. Stick with your plan and, by the end of the year, you will see a brand new you!

Ingredients:

• 1½ lb pounds roasted cashews
• 3 tablespoons chopped fresh rosemary leaves
• ½ teaspoon cayenne pepper
• 2 teaspoons brown sugar
• 2 teaspoons sea salt
• 1 tablespoon melted butter

Directions:

Preheat oven to 375° F

Place nuts on ungreased baking sheet and bake for around 10 minutes, until warm. Combine fresh rosemary, cayenne, sugar, salt, and butter in a bowl and add the warm nuts. Coat completely. Serve warm.

Enjoy!

Define your Fitness Goals
Have clear cut goals and put them on paper. Be sure to keep them realistic to avoid setting yourself up for failure. When your goals are achievable, the great sense of accomplishment that comes with meeting them provides even more motivation to continue on with your fitness routine. Also, incorporate flexibility, not rigidity, keeping your plan open enough that you can make changes at any time as needed. Have your goals placed somewhere that you will view them daily, as a reminder of that which you are aiming.

Take it in Steps
Start off on a smaller scale and build up, aiming for progress not perfection. If, for example, you decide to add jogging to your exercise regime, you wouldn’t suddenly start off by jogging ten miles the first day; you must build up to it, starting off with perhaps one mile, and then progressing to the ten miles over the course of a year. The key to having a program you can stick to is to gradually build up, so you don’t burn out and give up early on.

Keep a Journal of Your Progress
Here you may wish to add things, such as what routines you do on which days, what in your routine you enjoyed the most, the foods you ate, any other activities you participated in, your energy levels, and how you felt overall, both physically and mentally. When you track your progress, it's easier to go back and review to see what works best for you. What works for one person, may not work so great for another, so this is your very own research and development. It’s good to periodically review to see where you may need to make changes to better suite your needs.

Proper Planning
Your new fitness routine should fit well within the rest of your schedule. In this hectic and fast-paced world, it’s far too easy to let well intended plans fall by the wayside, due to a busy schedule. Create a space in your schedule for the specific purpose of going to the fitness center and be sure to stick to it. Some find it easiest to go first thing in the morning, before continuing on with the rest of their day, while others prefer going after work. Whatever time works best for your schedule, be sure to make that commitment.

Hire a Personal Trainer
For best results, you may want to hire a personal trainer. They will customize your workout, keep you motivated, and educate you. It’s also good to find a workout partner. Make a pact with them to keep each other motivated, hold each other accountable, and make it enjoyable! We are more likely to stick with our commitments when we involve other people. It’s okay to be choosey when picking your workout partner, as you have to be sure that this person will continue the support when the going gets tough.

Create a Ritual
Each evening, prepare your bag with your necessities, such as workout clothes, towels, and water. As you do so, think about the planned activities for your workout and think about how great it will feel when you finish. Set your bag by the door, so that when you head off to work the following day, you can quickly grab it on your way out. In this way, you leave no excuses. If you wake up late, you’re still prepared.

Call in the Troops!
Get support from others. Let family and friends know your goals and ask that they support you. Those who care about us are more than happy to help us when they see that we’re working to make healthy changes in our lives. Also, when we tell others our goals, we are more likely to stick to them.

Keep it Consistent
It takes at least thirty days to make or break a habit, while it takes ninety to make it automatic, at which point it comes with ease. Expect bumps in the road. Starting a new fitness routine takes effort; realize nothing good ever comes easy. What’s important is to pick yourself up and keep going, even on those low energy days. When you leave the fitness center energized and in better spirits, you’ll be so thankful that you did!

Make it Enjoyable
Load your mp3 player with your favorite music to take with you and put variety into your routine. Think of something silly to say to yourself at the end of each rep, something that will make you giggle. Do whatever you can to make your fitness routine enjoyable. The more you enjoy it, the more likely you are to repeat it and repetition is necessary to make a habit.

Reward Yourself
In the beginning, reward yourself just for showing up, but after you’ve been at it for a few months, begin rewarding on a monthly basis or for meeting your milestone goals. Make the rewards suitable to your goals, such as getting a new article of workout clothing or some new sneakers, something that will motivate you to continue on with your routine.

With the right planning and effort, you will meet and possibly even exceed your goals. Anything is possible, when you put your mind to it. Step into this year knowing that you can and will achieve your goals. You will be a regular fitness center-goer breezing through those reps before you even realize it, so say hello to a more fit you and goodbye to those Winter blues!