We made it! 2021 is in the rear view mirror, and we are eyes-forward, yes? I think there are some important lessons I took away from 2020:

• There is immense power in human connection
• I was given a gift of togetherness with my husband that I may never have again
• Technology is vital to moving forward, but
• Nature and listening to your body are essential

With these lessons, I’m approaching 2021 in a new way. I am not making any “resolutions”, but have decided to really listen and cherish my body and mind in a way that nourishes it and demonstrates loving kindness.

What the heck does that rubbish mean, you ask?

I’ll tell you. I think we mistakenly try on many different “solutions” to better health that are handed to us by our parents, our friends, our society, the media, that are like putting on a dress off the rack and expecting it to hit every curve of our body perfectly. Our bodies all need the same basic things, but the devil is in the details.

Example: we are all told to keep trim, eat right and exercise. All basic concepts. But the details are very different for each person. By the end of 2020, I got to a point when I almost literally became immobile with pain. What happened was, the pandemic, staying at home, moving less, eating to comfort. So I started to hurt, so I slowed down, which made my body hurt more, so I slowed down even more, to the point where I barely walked 1,000 steps a day. And I was eating very high levels of carbohydrates to soothe myself. And I bet you could guess what happened to my weight.

My body was so stiff from lack of any sustainable motion. I was killing myself with food. And I was super depressed. But, rather than signing up for Noom or trying to “maintain cardio 30 minutes every day”, I listened to my body. My body was rigid. My mind was rigid. I needed to loosen both up.

I started meditating daily. It’s not a huge commitment. 10 minutes before you even get out of bed. And again, everyone is different, but I find the app “Calm” to be amazing. I’ve actually been meditating with it for about 6 years now. But the latter half of 2020 I didn’t even have the desire to do that. But I thought, “10 minutes of sitting still? THAT I can do”. And, I restarted my chair yoga routine, just to stretch my body. Right away, my body felt better, as if a silent “thank you” was being spoken.

I next turned to what I was eating. I’ve done every “diet” in the world: Keto, WW, Paleo, South Beach, you name it. And all of them worked, for a time. But they never quite fit. So again, remembering what aspects of all the different diets made my body feel good, I began reducing the frequency of the foods that made my body feel yucky: anything processed, gluten, sugar. In July of 2020 I did give up all beef, pork and poultry, eating only fish and seafood, which has made me feel worlds better (again, this is MY body). And in the two weeks since I started this (yes, I started before 2021) I feel so much better, so much clearer, so much lighter. I’ve even lost 13 pounds. But, more importantly, the aches and pains and sluggishness are gone.

This will be a forever journey, one with many course corrections, I’m sure, but this is the beginning of a year of listening to what feel right to MY body and mind, and celebrating this vessel that has gotten me though 52 years of life.

Next in the series: listening to my body – the first colonoscopy. (Boy do you hear a LOT during that process!)