(Part 2) 8 Questions to Ask Yourself in the New Year

Inviting the Lord into your time of reflection is Biblical. Even King David did it (see Psalm 139) as he asked God for wisdom in his self-examination of his life. What better One to ask for help but the One who knows us completely?!

Today I offer the conclusion to last week's Part 1 of 8 Questions to Ask Yourself in the New Year.

Today's questions include:

• What Scripture or truth can anchor you when diet culture voices get loud
• What foods feel both nourishing and satisfying to you right now
• What does white space look like to you and when can you fit it in
• What physical signals from your body do you tend to ignore, and how can you begin to honor them?
  
  

Tune in for more depth in each of these questions and hear my answers to each.

Links Discussed:
The Art of Gentle Meal Prep: Creating Space for Sabbath with Kathi Lipp 

Sabbath Soup Cookbook

Join The Stronger Collective

Nourished Notes Newsletter

Core Essentials: Episode 1 2 3 4
30+ Non-Gym Ways to Improve Your Health (free download)

Connect with Amy:
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Instagram: @GracedHealth
YouTube: @AmyConnell

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Transcript

Pt 2 8 questions for a new year or season

Hey, everyone. I'm glad you're here. We are back with part two of the episode, eight questions for a new year or season. So if you are listening to this in the new year, then you can absolutely apply it in the new year. And if you are listening to this in August, then it's just for a new season or really for any other time. But we've covered the first four questions last week. 

If you missed it, please go back and listen. 

And today we will finish off with the last four questions that I think is worth your time. To consider and answer for all of the other times that things don't go exactly. As planned, which is quite often. 

So let's jump back in to number five of the eight questions for your new year.

Amy: The fifth question is what scripture can anchor you when diet culture, voices get loud. And this is especially true right now. You do not need me to tell you that. There's a lot of chatter about. Weight loss and losing weight and all of that kind of stuff. And if you're like me, you still have to fight. To not get roped in to it. So, what kind of scripture works for you to remind you that. Your body size does not measure your worth. And that we can be healthy at any size. 

What scripture reminds you of the freedom we have. 

In our food, in our movement. That Jesus died for, and that we do not need to be bound and chained by diet culture. For me, that is second Corinthians ten five, which is we demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God. 

And we take captive every thought. To make it obedient to God. All of the diet culture, thoughts, all of the diet culture influences that we're seeing. We are taking that captive. We are setting that aside so we can receive the freedom that God has given us in that, and that we can listen to our own bodies. And, 

Just really use our own body wisdom that was given to us. 

And if you are new and you're like women at what. Then I really encourage you to go back and listen to season 21. We did an entire season on intuitive eating. And from a Christian perspective and you can learn more. But that is. Question number five, what scripture can anchor you when diet culture, voices get loud. 

Question six. Is under the food category again. And it's what foods feel both nourishing and satisfying to you right now. Nourishing can come about in a lot of different ways. And in fact, I also talked about nourishment in your worthy body. Nourishment can absolutely be foods that are high in micronutrients and have good carbs and fats and proteins, but nourishment can also be. Sitting around the table with your friends and enjoying whatever it is that you were eating. Nourishment can be. 

Enjoying your family. 

Nourishment can be sending outside and just in. Enjoying something nourishment can be digging into a piece of chocolate cake. If that's what you're wanting, like nourishment can be a lot. It can have a lot of definitions. And so that can come about. In a different way for me. The nourishment and satisfaction is kind of pulling in both enjoying and also knowing that it's going to help me feel and function well. So for me to answer that question, what is both nourishing and satisfying to you? 

Right now? I have been making what I call a green. 

Well, I call it different things. I call it a green and grain salad, or I call it a grain in green salad. Either way it's grains. It's greens. It's very simple. 

 all it is, so I will do kale and then I will cook Farrow. 

I'm actually going to try this tomorrow with wild rice as well. Cause I'm kind of curious about what that would do. And so basically you cook the cook, the Farrow kind of let it cool down. 

Chop up the kale. Into kind of bite sized pieces and then make your salad dressing. So for me, I have, I just use lemon and olive oil and then pour that on the kale and kind of massage it into the kale leaves. This is what makes this is the secret sauce to this salad, because just pouring, dressing over kale. 

To me, 

It's just too bitter. But if you will massage that, 

Dressing into the leaves, it kind of breaks them down a little bit. And it's, it's, it's just more enjoyable. So get your dressing on your kale, then dump your Farrow on it. How much? I don't know. I mean, I probably do a cup or so a Farrow and maybe. Four cups of kale and that's for. Two or three of us. I really, I I'm so sorry. I don't even know. Use your best judgment. What do you want? How much do you want? But that's what I do. Then I just put some grated Parmesan cheese on there and Wawa, there you go. There's dinner. I will also put a side of protein on there. 

I'm I'm really enjoying trout right now. So I'm just having a lot of that steelhead trout. Again, it looks like salmon. Tastes like salmon. Not salmon. So you can definitely use salmon. Instead of the steelhead trout, but that is one thing that I will do, or you can put chicken on there, or if you have leftover any kind of leftover protein, if you want to do that, and if you don't eat meat, then this is still a pretty good thing. 

I would actually, I would add some like chickpeas, 

Or some other plant-based protein just to kind of bump that up, that protein if you're making it on your own, but that is what is nourishing and satisfying to me right now. 

My husband has been digging it as well, so that's been really nice. And then the other thing that is nourishing and satisfying again, it's January, but all things soup. 

Like I just, I love soup so much. I love that I can make a big batch of it and I don't have to make it again. I love that it's warm. I love that. I get a lot of different nutrients in it. I have recently tried the, I think it's called chicken and black bean Chipotle soup. And that is from the book Sabbath soup. Which Kathy Lipp came on. 

Kathy Lipp is the author of Sabbath soup. And that was a really great episode. If you want to go back and listen to it at season 22, episode six, but she talks us, talks to us and teaches us. How to create gentle rhythms of meal, planning and meal prep without it being overwhelming. And she's created this cookbook that goes along with it. 

That gives you like a full week's worth of recipes. And meal planning and like, okay, here's what you need to buy. Here's what you need to do. And it makes it very simple. So that way you can just spend a couple hours on one day and then have. You know, and then have meals basically for the rest of the week. 

So that chicken and black bean Chipotle soup is delicious from Sabbath soup. Highly recommend that. Okay, I've got two more questions for you Number seven. What does white space look like to you? And when can you fit it in. Again, with the newness of January. Sometimes we have a tendency to say, I'm going to get my schedule all organized. 

I'm going to be so productive. I'm going to do all this kind of stuff. And we are when we just schedule all the things. One of my sons finally started using a calendar. And he got really good with his calendar and he would have this color coded calendar of everything he was going to do, and each color represented a different category in his life. 

So it was. You know, school or certain organizations, he was a part of and, or church based or whatever. I mean, it was like color coded to the max. Super impressive. When you look at it. However. If anything got bumped, if anything went over, if anything took more time. It was in shambles because there was no white space on there. 

There was no time for him to have the downtime that he needed as well. And so, you know, he's learning, he learned. 

And what's funny is I would look at that and I would see him just scrambling all the time to do all the things and I would get so frustrated. And then I would take a step back and realize. Oh, he got that from you, Amy. That's exactly how you are. You schedule things so tightly that you do not allow any white space, not only for buffer time, but also for your soul time. Also for, just to have a little bit of. 

 just white space. Like. 

Just a breath. I'm terrible at that. And I'm working on it. I'm working on it. So when you think about white space, What does that look like to you? Again, we're all different. And when can you find it in. For me, white space looks like this. Not always having AirPods in my ears and listening to podcasts or books. I do this all the time. 

I do this all the time and just letting my thoughts. Run free. I have the very best ideas when I'm in the shower. Why? Because I'm not listening to anything. I don't have anyone telling me anything. It is hard to hear my mind think. When I'm always putting things in it. So taking the ears out and yes, I know that this means that maybe you won't listen to this podcast, but you know, what if that's what you need, if you need white space and you think, okay, well, I'm not going to listen to Amy for a month, then go for it. 

I want that for you because I'm not here for me. I'm here for you. And so, and you can always get caught up if you want, but you know, let's but let's evaluate like w what does white space look like? What do I need? So for me, it's not having something in my ears. And the other thing for me is it. It's kind of like what I was talking about a second ago. 

It's not having something. Scheduled. On the calendar. Back to back all the time. I am so bad. This is a really, I shouldn't say bad. Someone's going to be like, Amy, you don't don't tell yourself bad. I know. I know. Okay. Here's a growth opportunity. A growth opportunity of mine. Is if I need to be ready for. My client at seven 30. Then I will back things up. And I will time it, so that at 7 29 and 30 seconds, I am putting my iPad in and putting my ears in. 

Cause that's, that's how I trained as with that. 

30 seconds before it's go time. 

And if I get stopped. Or if I get a call or if I'm walking by my husband's office, when he's working from home and he has a question. Then I can answer it rather than just pushing everything up into the last minute. So what would happen. What would happen if I just decided, okay. Everything is going to be set up, not even by like seven, 15. Probably seven. 23 7 25. So I had five seconds, five minutes of white space. I, I, this is a challenge to me as I'm talking, I'm like this, I have got to do this more rather than like coming in hot to everything I'm doing. So that's the answer. 

That's my answer. I know it can be very different, but what does white space look like to you and where can you fit it in? And there's a lot of benefits of white space. but that is your seventh question to consider number eight. What physical science from your body do you tend to ignore? 

And how can you begin to honor them? 

I just kind of had a lot going on over the holidays. On January 1st, I went out for a walk. I was by myself, everybody here was watching. Like the football games, the playoffs or whatever. And I was like, I'm out of here. It was a nice day. 'cause I was just kind of in an amped up state. I was a little more stressed and I was walking and I was, I was of course listening to a podcast. And just, everything was just a little more intense. I'm about two miles from home and my hip flexor, just something seizes in it. It's not an injury, but just something I don't even know what happened with it. 

And. Instead of calling and saying, Hey, I need to come up. I ignored it. Which I'm sorry to admit that I still do the things that I say you shouldn't do. I was like, I'll be fine. I slowed down and again, I'm like, I'm walking. I'm walking. This is not like, this is so much better than some of the other times that I've had. 

I'm like, I can walk. But also my body's a little bit older and it's different and it did not want to walk home, but I made it walk home and I paid for it for 12 days. It like my hip flexor was hurting for 12 days. It was. It was really painful. Aye. Ignored it. And what I should have done was at least like stopped and stretched and stretched when I got home and just paid a little more attention to it. The other thing that will happen to me more from a. I don't want to say a chronic basis, but a continual basis is my chest gets really tight. 

When I get stressed, I feel my stress in my chest and I can just feel it seizing up when I take the time. To have some mindful breathing or some meditation. I can literally feel a knot in my chest. And so what I do is when I'm breathing in exhaling, I'm just visualizing that exhale, massaging that tightness out, massaging that tightness out. Inhaling. Releasing the tightness. And I don't, I can't tell you the science behind it. I can't tell the reason behind it, but I'm telling you it works. It works for me. If I don't pay attention to that, then it only gets worse. 

And then what happens is my upper back will start to tighten up. So ignoring those little signs that are not life-threatening, they are not like, this is a real problem. But they will add up. And so I encourage you to think about like, what are some of the things that your body's trying to tell you right now? And maybe you don't even know what it is, but you just start to pay attention. 

Maybe start to put the pieces of a puzzle together or see if there are patterns or anything that you can learn that you're trying, that your body's trying to teach you. And maybe the answer is you just need to go to the doctor. And I am raising my hand over here. I have had a lower back upper glute issue for a long time. 

I have tried many a ways. Of helping. And I finally just I'm in the process. I don't know. I don't know yet. But I'm in the pro, like I went to the doctor, we got some imaging I'm going to do, be doing some more imaging just to find out like, is what's the problem? I don't know. So do you need to go to the doctor about something it's a new year? 

I know we have not met our deductibles, but let's meet it early and then you can. You know, you can enjoy the benefit of that the rest of the year. That's my philosophy, at least because I'm like, okay, well, I'm just going to get this taken care of. And then, and then we'll see. So that's the final question. 

What physical signs from your body do you need to do? You tend to ignore and how can you begin to honor them? I know that's a lot of like random questions. In a lot of different areas, but I also think it's important to pay attention to these because life is not always going to go as we planned. And if we can identify the answers to some of these. Then when we hit the speed bumps, they're not going to be as high and they're not going to be as hard. 

I would love to hear your answers to this. 

I'm actually going to have a post on Instagram that will prompt these to you, and you can answer them there. I have been, 

Not very active on Instagram lately. I'm, I'm trying to figure out what my relationship is with Instagram and I don't know. So I'm just avoiding so healthy, right? 

But anyway, I hope that helps you navigate the beginning of your year or the beginning of your season. 

If you are not listening to this real time. 

And by the way, if you have not already go ahead and hit that follow button or subscribe if you're watching on YouTube. So you don't miss an episode, that's actually really helpful to me. I know it seems kind of silly, but it's very helpful to the program. And letting all the providers out there know that it is valuable to you. 

So they will share this with others. Okay. That is all for today. Go out there and have a Grace Day.