Wellness Week #1: 11 Things I'm Doing Differently

1. Writing it all down. Every day, I'm keeping a diary of what I eat and drink, what vitamins I take, how much water I consume. By 9pm every night, I email my diary to my friend and nutritionist Lauren Slayton. The next morning, Lauren responds to the previous day's log and gives me a tip for the day which I then follow (or try to!). This is all part of her fabulous Foodstalking Program. I'm only a week in to the month, but I already wholeheartedly recommend this program. I can imagine doing Foodstalking a few weeks per year.

2. Drinking plenty of water. We all know that staying hydrated is so important, but historically I've been pretty bad about drinking enough water. I'm so exhausted with the three kid plus many other things juggle that I often opt for a cup of coffee to keep going, but now I'm aiming to swill 3L of water a day. Oh do I feel better.

3. Taking my vitamins. Over the years, I've gone in and out of taking vitamins, part due to laziness, part due to conflicting reports from doctors/articles etc. Each morning, I'm taking Vitamin D, a probiotic, and a tablespoon of Live E3.

4. Cooking! This is the one that's truly newsworthy as I've long been an unapologetic Takeout Queen. I've cooked more this week than I have in the past six months. For breakfast, I've been making eggs (organic with Omega-3) and eating them with veggies (avocado, Brussels sprouts, sauteed onions, etc). I've been experimenting with smoothies and for dinner, I've been cooking a fair bit from the Wheat Belly 30 Minutes (or Less) Cookbook. Last night, I made zucchini cakes and kale and artichokes with shaved Parmesan. All of it was delish. And not that hard either. It should be noted that I'm a total work-in-progress and that I added oil to the zucchini mix when I was supposed to just use it in the pan and for my first attempt, all the cakes started melting into each other. Alas.

5. Avoiding the scale. I started the month vowing to weigh myself every single morning and I did this for a few days and then realized this is just distracting. This exploration of Wellness is not about the numbers on the scale, but about healthy habits and lifestyle.

6. Eating real food. I've barely gone near processed food for a week and oh do I feel the difference.

7. Snacking - and stealing - less. I've always been a snacker and I imagine I will always be a snacker, but I have been snacking smarter and less. I'm a huge fan of lower sugar Kind Bars and I've also been snacking on fruit and nuts and turkey jerky.

8. No dessert. At all. Perhaps you can relate to this: If I have dessert one night, I want it the next night. And the next. Rinse. Repeat. Sugar can be a real problem for me if I don't reign myself in. I have been eating dinner as early as possible and then sticking to only water or hot tea thereafter. This was harder in the first few days, but now my cravings are gone. Also: I'm not stealing food from my girls' plates. This is a biggie.

9. Sharing my victories. If you follow me on Instagram, you know that I've been sharing pictures of the meals I've been cooking, etc. I suppose this is either inspiring or irritating, but it helps. It helps to document and share the progress I'm making.

10. Including my kiddos - to a point. It's interesting because I've been feeling like a total hypocrite... I've been focusing so closely on my own nutrition while my girls have been munching on leftover Halloween candy and sipping on sugary milk boxes. But here's what I've decided: Baby steps. If I get my own nutritional act together, it will spill over to the family. And it has! Took the little girls grocery shopping yesterday and Middle Girl had fun selecting the perfect apples and yesterday, the baby chose to snack on pistachios. Oh, and instead of nuking organic nuggets, I cooked them gluten-free brown rice pasta and Husband made them mini burgers. We will get there!

11. Paying close attention to how I feel. Again, this is not about the number on the scale or the size of my skinny jeans. I'll be honest that those things do matter to me, but what matters more is how I feel, how much energy I have, how healthy I am. I want to feel good and strong and poised to meet each day.

What I'm realizing, what really makes me smile: This is not about a month. This is about a life. The above? They are 11 things I hope to continue doing long after November comes to a close. My goals for this week? To keep this nutritional groove and also to prioritize exercise and meditate for 5 minutes a day. We'll see how it goes...

Do you have any good nutritional habits to add?

Why do you think it feels so hard to focus on nutrition sometimes?

Do you have any personal nutritional goals? Feeling better? Losing weight?