8 Questions to Ask Yourself in the New Year (Part 1)

In this episode, recorded several weeks into January, I share reflections on the new year after taking a break since mid-December. 

We hear a lot of January chatter about eating differently and exercising. Instead of getting consumed by messaging from the socials and diet culture, today's episode offers you an opportunity to reflect and plan so you may be kind to your future 

This episode is split into two sections, with today covering the first four questions and the remaining next week.

Today's questions include:

• What does an ideal morning look like?
• What are surefire self-care tactics?
• What is a movement contingency plan?
• What does a mental health meal look like?

And because I won't ask you to do anything I won't do, I share my answers to each of these.

This episode covers the first four questions, with the remaining to be discussed in the next episode.

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Transcript

8 questions for a new year or season (Part 1)

Amy: Hello, my friends and happy new year, even though this is launching or posting several weeks into January of the new year, I have taken a nice break since mid December, and I am glad to be back. I have spent some time. Particularly here in January, just observing. I had some things that needed my attention and I wasn't quite ready to jump back in. 

And of course, With kids in college, I tell you what it's lovely and wonderful and amazing to have them home, but also college breaks are really long. One of my kids. Got home on December 6th 

and left on January 12th. It was five weeks of having him home. And this is not a complaint at all. 

I'm so happy that he was home, but it just kind of takes me off my rhythm. It was a lot different when they were home all the time. And so I could easily just kind of get away and. I just felt like I needed to be more present. So it has taken me a little bit of time. And as we have been entering into this January season, I have just been observing and watching. And what I have seen is a lot of typical January chatter. 

And I want to be very clear. I am not. Poo-pooing the January chatter. And in fact, I started realizing, as I was thinking about prepping for this episode, I was like, oh, Not only have I done all the things of January of like, okay, we're going to reset and we're going to, you know, eat differently and exercise. 

And all of that, I actually wrote about it. So I thought I would read to you just a couple paragraphs from my first book for women called your worthy body. Find freedom and health by breaking all the rules. And so each chapter in this book breaks a rule. And the this chapter was called. There's one right way to exercise. 

And when I break these rules, I actually back them up with exercise science and nutrition science. If it's a nutrition episode, But I thought I would just, I just wanted to read to you, it's just these two quick paragraphs, so you can know that I truly come to you with With this conversation of like, yeah, I do this too. I mean, it's not only like, oh, I used to it's like, no, I still do a lot of this kind of stuff. So I'm in the chapter entitled. 

There's one right way to exercise. And this is talking about just the mental excitement of, of exercise. So, let me just jump in for the, for the next two chapters. It says who doesn't love jumping into something new. I admit that while I try to maintain balance all year long, The scales literally and figure to the V tip the other way by mid December, as much as I try to attend Christmas parties and not eat too much, this is a true struggle for me. By month's end, I'm saturated. 

I'm tired of chocolate and wine and want an excuse to cancel all social events and to eat my weight in green vegetables. My husband and I do this together. I flipped through my favorite cookbooks and sites looking for new healthy recipes to try. I establish a new workout routine. Dare I say, it's exciting. The promise of sleeping well, feeling great and working out in the mornings. 

Alors me. It's enough to keep me from quickly getting burned out. After the quote off season of the holidays, switching at my fitness gets me excited. It gives me a new challenge. How much weight can I lift today? How far can I run? Can I get one more sprint in all of these? Give me that push to lace up my shoes. 

When I otherwise may not. And I go in to saying that actually the concept of what's called periodization is really good. So that off time can be very helpful to our body. And switching up our routines is a really great way to. Just to approach our movement. And of course, if you've been with me a while, you know that some of that stuff actually is not exactly what I do. 

I have no idea what I weigh because. I've really shifted my focus away from that even more so than when I wrote. I wish I ran. I'll be in to talk a little bit about this later, but I am not running anymore. And so obviously, I mean, this book was written five years ago and things change in five years, but my point of this is all the talk about like the newness and freshness and restarts in January. I'm there. But as I have been observing. It has made me start to wonder.

What about the rest? We hear a lot of talk about food. We hear a lot of talk about movement, but as we have been learning, especially here on the grace health podcast, there's a lot more to our health than just food and fitness. And I think this is a good time to start asking ourselves some questions that we can apply. 

Not only now, but also. For into the future. And particularly for times that may not look exactly like we think they will, or we want them to. Because a life happens. Jesus said in this world you will have trouble. And I am not making light of that. Please hear me when I say I am not making light of the hardness and the heaviness that is out there. That's why I think it's important to ask ourselves some questions on the front end, so we can to quote Kathy Lipp, be kind to our future selves so we can set ourselves up for continuing to meet the goals that we want, even if the circumstances and the situations will change.

Admittedly, not all of these fall under that umbrella question of what about the rest. But I think that these are worth considering. And I want you to truly consider. So if you are out and about, if you were able pause these, when I ask. So you can kind of think about this. If you love journaling, this is a great thing to take to your journal. 

But I really encourage you to give some thought to these questions because when we do, then these are the things that we can revert back to, or that we can add in when we need them. Let's go ahead and jump into the first question. And this is actually more from like the restart perspective. This is a question that I will evaluate for myself every year. 

And so for all of these questions, I'm going to say this. I don't think it's fair for me to ask you a question without answering it myself. I'm very guilty of this in my personal life, I will ask, I will ask my family questions and they'll say, well, what about you? And I'm like, I don't know. I just want to hear what you have to say. 

So I'm not going to do that to you because I'm trying to be fair. So every question here, I'm actually going to answer as, as it relates to me. And then maybe that will also get you thinking about how it relates to you. I'm not saying my way's the only way. Definitely it's not, but it is a way that works for me. And my situations are my stories and it might help you to identify how you would want to answer that. 

What I'm going to do is actually split these into two different episodes. This episode got longer than I wanted it to. So today we will do the first four questions and next week I will come back and we will do. The second four. 

The first question is what does an ideal morning look like to you? Everybody has their own rhythms. 

Everybody has their own responsibilities. 

And when I say ideal morning, I mean like an ideal morning, Monday through Friday, because an ideal morning for me is like to wake up really early before everybody else. Do some of the things that I'm talking about here are really all of them that I'm going to share with you. And, and then draw that out for like three hours. 

And then by about eight 30, I'm like, all right, let's go get some gym clothes on and work out or move or something like that. But I really, I would love, I really love a long lazy morning. That doesn't happen, obviously. On a Monday through Friday basis because I have clients in the morning. I am trying to get my movement in before I'm leading other people and movement. 

I've got, you know, we all have stuff to do, right. So, this is not a long drawn out thing, but my ideal morning. Right now looks like this. I get up. The very first thing I do is I have a glass of water that I actually just make the night before I put the water from the refrigerator in a glass. And it's sitting on the counter waiting for me because I do like it. First thing in the morning. 

I like it. Room temperature and right or wrong. I know this is not ideal, but I just Chuck it, like, I just chug like 12. Ounces of water. My, one of my sons said at best, he was like, I just feel like my insides just waking up. It makes me feel good to have a lot of water, first thing. And I also feel better about not putting coffee. On first thing in my system. I don't really know. 

That's a bad thing. It's just, I just liked the feeling of having a lot of water, first thing. So I drink a glass of water. And then I make my coffee and of course I'm like feeding the dog and letting her out and all of that, but that doesn't count. Then I. Right now am doing a Bible plan on the YouVersion app or on the Bible app. 

I spent all of 20, 24 doing the Bible recap in a year. So I am now I can now proudly say I completed the Bible in one year. And I wanted to keep with my rhythms of that. And if I'm really honest, like I had that 365 day streak on the Bible app. And even though missing a day wouldn't hurt anything. 

Like I still. I still like seeing that string number. So I keep getting on there. So I've just been doing I've been, I'm just doing an app or I'm sorry, a plan on the Bible app. So I do that. Then I have been writing out my prayers. And this is something that I've been doing for a while. I know I've talked about it. I have always felt a little weird and I don't know why, because everybody in my house is safe. But I've always felt a little weird about like writing it out in a spiral notebook. So I have figured out a hack that works well for me. I got an iPad recently because I needed something updated for my training for my virtual clients. And my kids had told me about the notably app. Notably, like they can take their notes for school on there. 

And my younger son who when he was going to college and going into the engineering school at his university, they said, Hey, if you can get an iPad, we highly recommend it because these classes build on each other in that way. Like you still have those You still have the notes. I'm really getting off track here anyway. 

So the notably app. It has a function of, you can lock out. Like certain subjects. So now, even though, again, everything like my husband is totally trustworthy. He never gets into my business. He never noses around. He's not sneaky. But for some reason, it just brings me peace. So I get on my notably app. And I've got my apple pencil and I'm writing out my prayers. And it is secure. And like, if I lose the iPad, nobody can get it because it's a finger touch. 

So anyway, So I write out my prayers and then after that, I just do some mindful breathing for four minutes. I have a timer on my app or my watch. And I just do that. So to summarize, because I know I took a lot of tangents here. I promise I'm not going to spend. As much time on this one. What does an ideal morning look like for me? 

It's get up, drink a glass of water, have some coffee. Do a Bible plan on YouVersion. Write out my prayers. And meditate. And then later I'm I actually have been doing some more in-depth Bible studies, but I'm trying to do those a little bit later. I'll let you know if that works into my rhythms or not. So that was question one. Number two. What are your sure fire self care tactics. Like I talked about earlier life. Happens. When we create our reset plans, we assume homeostasis. 

We assume that everything is going to be the way that we think it's going to be. And it's supposed to be, and guess what? That doesn't happen. And because of that, we need to have some go tos of. Okay. I have to pour into myself. I have to feed myself. I need to take care of myself. So I can take care of other people. But we need to know what that is. 

And self care for everyone looks very different. For me, like, I know a lot of women love to go get their nails done and that feels good for me. It's a waste of time. I am not interested in spending the time sitting there. I am not interested in spending the money. I would much rather buy a new shirt if I'm going to spend money. I just don't like it. 

And therefore I have naked fingernails all the time and I'm just fine with that. 

My self care tactics. Phil, the introverted side of me. And one of them is something we've talked about before, and that is be still time. Nothing. I I'm trying to think if anything fills my soul more and I'm kind of thinking, no. That nothing fills my soul more. Than sitting outside. When possible. And just envisioning that God is sitting next to me. And that's it. 

And just being in the presence of God and be still, and know that I am God, Psalm 46, 10. I'm doing that off the top of my head. I hope that's right. 

I don't have a ton of prayers. I don't have a ton of praises. I don't have, like, I don't have all the stuff I'm just setting. And that is so soul filling for me. And it brings me peace and it reduces my stress. So that is one of my sure-fire self care tactics. Another one that maybe is a little less deep is reading a novel during lunch. When I eat lunch, I'm often catching up on the news. 

That's that's really the only time that I am reading the news. I don't have the TV on all day long. I have the pour over, which is an apolitical. News aggregate that comes out three times a week. So I do get that and that's all done from a Christian perspective, but the way I get my news is on my iPad. But if I want to do a little self care, I get the whatever novel I'm reading and I just open it up and I read it while I'm eating. 

And that just feels lovely to me. It feels like, Ooh, this is, you know, it's, I don't know. Like, I feel like I'm supposed to be being productive and. Y, I feel like watching or reading the news is more productive than reading a novel. I don't know, but it's just, it's great for my brain. It's it? I don't know. 

I just really liked doing that. So that is something else that is for me is a surefire self-care tactic. The other one is taking my dog on an afternoon stroll. The caveat to this is when the weather is not crazy. I live in the Houston, Texas area. Taking a dog, taking my dog on a stroll at. One 30 or one o'clock or whenever in the afternoon is not lovely when it's August. But right now I'm recording this in January. 

It is. It's nice. It's cooler. I get a sweater on. I'm not going to sweat. It's great. So that, that is a self-care tactic. Sometimes. Sometimes it's not, but that is the answer. My answer to number two. What are your sure-fire self care tactics? 

Another one for you. Another third question. What is a movement contingency plan. Chances are, if you move regularly, you have. A plan. You have a program, you have a routine, you have something that if I said, what do you do on Tuesdays? You might be able to tell me now that's not everybody. I know. Or maybe it's that like, okay. 

I just try and get a walk-in three times a week. And if I can just do that, I'm happy. So everybody has their own. You know, rhythms when it comes to movement. But even with that, there are absolutely times that things just don't work out. If you plan on walk and the weather's really terrible, then you're not walking. 

If you rely on a workout partner and they aren't available, then maybe you don't do it. 

I mean, like just things happen. Right? And so I want you to think about what is a contingency plan. What is something that you can do when it doesn't work? Under that and included in that is when you just don't have it in. You. Life is life. Life is hard. And when you are dealing with things, it may not be the time to try and hit a new, you know, lift a certain amount of weight. Or it may not be the time to go super high intensity because you're already just really stressed out or you may need that. Again, these are questions for you to ask. 

One of my contingency plans is to pull up the apple fitness plus or whatever they call it. 

App. And I search in there for a 20 minute yoga video. I have instructors that I like, and I'm kind of, I've been exploring some other ones and I just do 20 minutes and that feels good to me. It feels like it's the right amount of time for me generally, sometimes I go down to 10 minutes but typically like 20 minutes is like, okay, I can do that. 

I can, I can just, I can commit to that without it feeling like it's too much or too heavy or too hard. The other thing I'll do is I'll just walk now. Granted, I live in an area where you can walk most of the year. You might get really, really hot and really sweaty. But you can typically get. Outside to go walking. 

So that's an nice option and alternative for me. And that just might be a mile that might just be me taking the dog out and. When I say a walk like my heart, rate's not really getting up. Because if, especially if I take my dog, she's getting old and she just likes to sniff everywhere. And so I'm stopping and sniffing. 

And so I finally was like, whatever, if she's going to stop, if I'm taking her, I just know that it's not like an exercise walk. It's just movement. So maybe we have to reframe that as well. So number three was what is a movement contingency plan. Number four. What does a mental health meal? Look like. We had counselor Ruth OPO on back in season 16, episode nine. 

And she talked to us about mental health and food and nutrition. She's an integrative nutrition therapist. And she will use the beneficial qualities of some foods as a helpful tool to help manage our mental health. Does this mean that if we only eat the foods that she recommended, that we will avoid depression and anxiety and other mental health issues? 

Absolutely not. Does it mean that we can support. Our mental health. In as much as we can with foods that are beneficial. Yes. So it's no guarantee. It doesn't mean you're going to cure depression. If you were having a really great meal of mental health, because it is so much more than what you eat so much more than what you are, how you move, but. If we just kind of want to do something to just support it, just to give it that little extra umph. Then. Having a, a go-to mental health meal. That you can easily make, I think is a beneficial thing and something to consider. 

I know when I have these little seasons of like just being down or not feeling myself and I can kind of feel when they're coming on, I have one go-to mental health meal. And that is. There's a lot of different ways of calling it, but I call it a Buddha bowl. So that is with a keenwah base. And then, and this is going to, I'm just going to throw out some stuff. 

 This doesn't mean I include all of these all the time, but I just kind of we'll rotate with whatever is around and what I have available. 

Basically, I start with keenwah and I like to put some a rugala in there because I really like a rugala. My husband doesn't like it as much. And when my husband and my son is home, then I will actually kind of make it like a bar so people can just make their own. But if I'm just making it for my husband and I will just, I'll just put it in there because he's amazing. 

And he just eats whatever I put on his plate. It's like so wonderful. But in the Buddha bowl, so I'll have keenwah, maybe I'll have a rugala. I'll put kimchi in there. Kimchi is a great fermented food. It's good for your gut health. We'll do olives and nuts. So healthy monounsaturated fats. I'll do some sort of a protein generally. 

If I've got this mental health focus, I will do. I do still had trout because my husband is allergic to salmon. Salmon is absolutely an option, but that's just not an option for us. So I don't do it. I'll sometimes like dissect cucumbers or chickpeas. Or throw chickpeas in there. If I have left over. Asparagus or brussel sprouts. 

I'll throw that in there. So really it's kind of like kitchen sink, availability of vegetables, and I'll just throw it in there, but that is a really nice way to get a lot of plants. And we have had conversations about our gut health. And all roads lead back to eating a wide variety of plants. So that is the intent of the Buddha bowl is just to get a whole bunch of plants in there. So that's the fourth question. 

What does a mental health meal look like for you? And we can just say right now, or in this season. 

We will actually pause there and finish out next week with the final four questions. If you do not already, please hit that follow button or subscribe. And that way you will be sure to get the episode or the second part of this episode, because if you don't and if you don't follow or subscribe, then you might miss it. 

And I know you don't want to. Okay. That is all for today. Go out there and have a graced day.