Embracing My Health

Now’s Your Chance to Change Your Life!

Take an Embracing Your Health Journey to Greater Health for 8 Weeks (Online Course)

April 1st – May 25th
Registration: $125

Health, and more specifically our struggle with improving it, is often something we keep to ourselves and do on our own. Sometimes that works, but mostly it is a repetitious cycle of starts and stops leading to frustration. Our health is deeply personal and when we are unable to see out health goals accomplished, an overall feeling of powerlessness that eeks into our thoughts and beliefs about who we are.

I know a lot about health, fitness and nutrition – and yet I haven’t reached my goals either. So, in this class, you won’t be alone in on your journey. We’ll be doing it together. Your goals will be yours and I’ll be here day by day for 8 weeks, to help you achieve them. As a group, we will be a supportive and encouraging community committed to each other being farther down and closer to their goals on May 25th than they were on April 1st. Your goals can be as varied as we are. Here are some goal examples:

• feel more energy
• lose weight
• gain more muscle tone and functional fitness
• improving my overall nutrition
• reducing my stress and gaining more mental clarity
• train for an event
• having the support, encouragement and accountability of a community
• simply learning more about how I can feel my best

This course is loosely inspired by Dr. Andrew Weil’s 8 Weeks to Optimum Health. The course content and conversations will be customized to the members of our class. We will learn and discuss:

• physical health topics including
  • exercise
  • nutrition
  • supplementation
  • tips on how to have our body working with us towards optimal health (think: thyroid, hormones, digestion, metabolism and more)
• mental/spiritual topics including
  • stress management (managing our health and everything that our complicated and over-stuffed lives contain creates a lot of stress)
  • getting past emotional blocks
  • what we think about ourselves and how it affects our health
  • what meditation can provide you

This class will be conducted on a private Facebook Group Wall. The book *is not* required and will be used by me to provide some basic structure to our course. But again, this course is going to be customized uniquely to the class. I will be available both within the online class setting, as well as for some individual one-on-one coaching, throughout the entire 8 weeks.

I’m excited to take this class with you. While I am the facilitator and educator for this course -  I’ve found with every class that I teach, I am the student as well. When we join together, we all learn and grow! See you April 1st!

Enjoying my journey, embracing love, life and health!,
Janece Moment

TO ENROLL:

Send your payment my account (janece@janece.com). Once I receive your registration, two things will happen:

1) I will send you a questionnaire regarding what you are hoping to get from the class. Please send that back to me as soon as possible, so I can have your goals in mind as I construct each week’s course.

2) I will invite you to join the private Facebook group created for this course and we will begin on April 1st!

Please contact me with any questions at janece@janece.com.

I think one of the things that make life changes so uncomfortable and hard is that we are straining, eyes fixated, toward the end. Our mind runs through thoughts like these:

I don’t want to be here right now. I want to be THERE… at my goal… where I am DONE! I’m not where I want to be, doing what I want to be doing and being what I want to be. This is claustrophobic and I feel like a victim to this dictatorial regimen (never mind that, not to long ago, I wanted to this regimen to create the change I want in my life) and what would feel really good, really powerful is to do what I want today, right here and now!

It’s no wonder we fight change. In this context, feeling resentment and resistance makes complete sense. From here, today sucks. Of COURSE we want to escape before we get started! And even if it is the first day, we feel the pressure, the need for release from the oppressive confines of our self-imposed regimen. And so we do. We let ourselves off the hook. And most often, after we’ve done that – we regret it. We reassess and rediscover the reason why we made our intention for change in the first place. Something about the way we have been doesn’t work for us any more. It doesn’t fill us with joy and peace. We are unsettled. So we make goals and set up routines and regimens for tomorrow. Wow, are we ever stuck in a loop! How do we get out? Something has to change or nothing is going to change, right?

It’s important, critical even, to have a goal. There is an end, a way of being, that we are seeking. However, we must find a different way to relate to today (today, the day which isn’t the day of final accomplishment achieved and victory) – or that end goal we want and hope for will likely never arrive.

Those habits of ours aren’t completely worthless. I wish they were because they would be so much easier to drop, wouldn’t they? Those habits give you something that you are both comfortable with and addicted to. How they win out over our intended life changes isn’t surprising – rather it’s stunning when our life changes overcome our habits.

The real work for us isn’t the life change regimen so much as creating a new life, for today, that we love! How do we do that in the face of comfortable, addictive habits?

Here we go:

1. Set your day’s intentions before you start your day. It doesn’t have to be long. Five minutes will do. Although, the more you really know and feel what it is you want for the day, the more success you will have. That can be done in five minutes, but it may take longer.

   In those minutes, say what it is that you want for your day and imagine it. See yourself doing what you want to do today. Imagine yourself crawling into bed tonight and feeling that completely delicious sensation of “Ahh… today was a really good day! I loved my day! I can’t wait to have another great day tomorrow!”

2. Fill in your day with things that you love and make you happy! If having flowers at your desk, or a silly bobble next to your work phone give you that little kid happy feeling – do it! Is there an image that inspires you? Put it on your cellphone or computer wallpaper. Is there a piece of wisdom that moves your heart and encourages you? If so, print it and post it on your mirror! If you love the smell of the ocean and the feel of the breeze against your skin… use your lunch break to eat there, or take 10 minutes at the end of your day to go ocean-side and soak it in. If you want to eat healthy food, but feel like something that is comfort food to you – pick the absolutely healthiest comfort food that still makes you happy and eat a portion of that. If you miss your family or a friend, give them a call. If a hot, bubbly bath at the end of the day is bliss – indulge it! It’s often in the spaces that our habits kick in. If we fill them ahead of time with those things that nourish us and ignite our love of life, instead of the rote ways we’ve lived and move through life up until now, things are not only going to change… they already are changed!!

3. Be forgiving of yourself if you slip into a habit. Beating yourself up isn’t going to create a day that you love. What will make a difference for you is forgiving yourself and then filling that space with loving play and nourishment.

4. Connect with friends who love their lives and are accomplishing their goals! I promise, it does rub off.

5. Take some time at the end of the day to look over your day. What did you love about your day? What didn’t you like? Take some time feel those and then think about tomorrow… about doing more of what you loved and less of what you didn’t. See yourself doing that as you fall asleep. And thank yourself for being awake, for paying attention to your day and for teaching you more and more about what things in your life make you happier and what things that don’t and that you are willing to let go. And then, sweet dreams, my love!

Today is the day! Today is the important day! Love the heck out of your day! And the next and the next! Before you know it, that last day, that day of accomplishment and victory – it will be here! And it won’t feel like such a big deal because every day between today and that day will have been exactly the kind of day you were hoping and dreaming of.

It is good to have an end to journey towards, but it is the journey that matters, in the end.
- Ursula K Leguin

Enjoying my journey, embracing love, life and health!

Yesterday, I was given feedback that hurt. It was honest and not given in malice or unkindness. It hurt because it is true. The feedback was about three things: 1) my weight, 2) my skin and 3) my teeth.  I’m taking time to write this morning to allow the space for me to heal and grow. It’s about my health, weight and food. And it’s not. Everything is my teacher now that I’ve chosen to become a student. I’m looking to learn.

My weight is something I can transform. My skin is a mystery and I don’t know or understand the cause. Because I don’t know the cause, I don’t know the cure. And, my teeth, that I can’t change. A little over 3 years ago, I lost 4 teeth to a chronic bacterial infection. As I’m writing, I see plainly that there are three different types of issues here. First, the things I can change (my weight), second, the that I don’t know that are a mystery (my skin) and third, those things I can’t change (my teeth).

The thing that I can change… that’s where my opportunity is… or if you rather, that is where my personally addressed, hand-delivered invitation for spiritual growth is. This spiritual growth invitation is using my weight as its vehicle. It could be something else. For me though, today, it’s my weight. And it has been for a long time. I wasn’t okay with my weight, even *before* I was overweight (funny that!). It was a problem for me in my mind before it was a problem for me in my body. It points to me that the solution, the peace I will find will be in me before it is in my body. The work is internal. Spiritual.

When I was given the feedback yesterday, my heart hurt. The first thing I did was react. I cried. I buttoned it up as soon as I could. I did this, partially, because I didn’t want the other person to feel badly. It wasn’t her fault. And partially, I did it because I didn’t want to feel it. Once clear of the initial emotional blast, I started doing normal things that I would be doing in my day. At some point though, I noticed… in the gaps… I’d find myself the kitchen looking for something to munch on. It’s filler. I’ve done this with books and movies too… filling up space so I don’t have to be with what I feel. I’m starting to see my filler activities for what they are. They are crafty tools of avoidance. The activities themselves are not the problem. How I am using them to avoid my emotions, my spirit and the invitation that’s there for me to grow… that’s the problem.

These invitations aren’t loud and so they are fairly easily quieted or drown out by my filler activities. In the space, quiet, open and meditative places, that’s where they speak with clarity. They are easy to hear. Not surprisingly, they are healing and transformative even in hearing them. It’s the resistance and avoidance of them that is so painful and self-destructive. In the things I can change, there are my opportunities for growth. Rather than using fillers, my intention is to seek out those spaces. I’m going to leave them empty and allow whatever is there to come up. And like today, I will discover that I’m stronger, I am more than them. I transcend them. That’s the invitation there for me.

The second is issue is the things that are a mystery in my life. The physical embodiment of mystery for me, today, is my skin. Five years ago, I beat my rosacea. Three years ago, something went wrong with my skin again. My skin is in the worst condition it has ever been in. I thought it might be because we were living in basements. My theory was that there were molds that I was reacting to… but I’ve been out of that environment for almost four months and there’s no change. My skin is angry, broken out, peeling and red. I’ve tried eliminating certain foods with no change. I’ve taken careful care of what I use on my face for skin care and no change. I just don’t know what has caused it. It causes me embarrassment because it is disfiguring. I’ve had young kids ask their moms: “What is wrong with that woman’s face?” They aren’t mean. They just want to know why my face doesn’t look normal. Me too. Sometimes, it makes me want to hide. I haven’t given into that desire, but it’s there.

So, the opportunity for spiritual growth for me is – what is there for me to learn when there are no answers? Ignoring it doesn’t help… and truly I can’t ignore it. It is, quite literally, in my face every day. My desire is to find how to live in the question and be with the mystery in such a way that has me listening and open… as well as accepting and peaceful. I’m remembering this from Rilke:

I beg you… to have patience with everything unresolved in your heart and try to love the questions themselves as if they were locked rooms of books written in a very foreign language. Don’t search for answers, which could not be given to you now, because you would not be able to live them. And the point is, to live everything. (emphasis mine) Live the questions now. Perhaps then, some day far in the future, you will gradually, without even noticing it, live your way into the answer…”

Do I stop looking for hints and clues as to what’s causing this? No. Do I give up trying possible solutions? No. What does it mean for me to love the question… to love the mystery that I desperately want an answer to? Good question. I’m still figuring that out. The first piece of the puzzle I have and get though. I’m not to hate or struggle against it. That means, I’m not to hate or struggle against my skin and face. I’m to love it. Love it! That’s easier said that done… but spiritual growth is a choice and a discipline.

Final issue, the things I can’t change. Wow. This is tough. All three are tough, but this one is a challenge at another level, right? There is no hope for anything different than what is so. My four teeth are gone. I’ve had elated dreams that my teeth were growing back and I woke up crying. I’ve had nightmares were all my teeth are falling out. Losing my teeth was traumatic because my smile was one of those parts of me that I defined myself by. Sometimes, we don’t realize what we have attached to as being ourselves until they are threatened or gone.  Our smile, our youth and beauty, our ability to run, or to be the center of the party, or… well, the possibilities of what we use to identify ourselves as are as varied as we are. Honestly, I’m proud of how I’ve lived after my teeth were pulled. I haven’t withdrawn and I’ve not let it stop me. I don’t feel the pain of the loss often. Once in a while, I cry. Overall, though, I’ve been accepting. In being accepting, I’ve found opportunity after opportunity for growth. One of the biggest is that all this concern, embarrassment and shame I feel about my missing teeth, it does not matter one iota when it comes to being the woman I want to be in this life. Not even a little. Granted, would I rather have a full, radiant smile as I meet and encounter the world? Abso-fricken-lutely!!! But, my ability to love, to grow, to revel in beauty and grace that flows abundantly in every day… well, no teeth are required for that.

So, there you go… three physical “problems” are the foil for three incredible and triumphant spiritual transformations!

Everything is my teacher now!

Enjoying my journey, embracing love, life and health!

One big item on my to do list today… give the dog a bath. It’s a big item because when you give a Samoyed a bath, it’s a major undertaking. It’s usually a 2 hour process, sometimes longer depending how cooperative my dog is feeling.  AND… the dog is snoozing peacefully, unbathed, in the kitchen.  Yeah, I got distracted. I was getting ready to give him the bath and thought, I’d like a juice first. It’s been warm here in SoCal, so I wanted something bright and refreshing. I made a pineapple, kale and apple juice.

I enjoyed my juice and started to clean up my juicer. I saw the leftover pulp and thought, “I really want to try a juice pulp muffin recipe…”. I started checking out various recipe ideas online and found one that I could convert for my needs. I thought, no time better than the present… besides… my sweet dog, Tova, was dreaming in his sleep.  I couldn’t wake him now, could I? That would just be mean. Right?

I used Amanda’s recipe, at Pickles & Honey, as a starting point. Partially due to what I had on hand and partially to personal preference, I ended up tweaking it quite a bit. Here’s how my recipe came together. Before you start the muffins, make yourself and a friend some pineapple, kale and apple juice… save aside 1/4 cup of the juice and the pulp for this recipe:

Pineapple-Kale-Apple Juice Pulp Muffins

• 3/4 C. Juicer Pulp (pineapple, kale, and apple)
• 1/4 C. Coconut Crystals (I used Coconut Secret brand)
• 1/4 C. maple syrup (I prefer grade b)
• 1 C. unsweetened almond milk (homemade – have I mentioned I love my juicer?)
• 1/4 cup pineapple, apple, kale juice
• 1/4 C. Coconut oil (melted)
• 1 1/2 C. Flour (I used The Pure Pantry GF Baking Mix)
• 1/4 Tsp. Baking Soda
• 1/2 Tsp. Sea Salt
• 1/2 tsp vanilla
• 1/4 tsp nutmeg
• 1/4 tsp cinnamon

After I announced that I was going to re-launch Embracing My Health, my stomach was a little uneasy. I kept thinking “If I’m doing this, then I really have to do it…”! It’s a kind of accountability I wasn’t sure I wanted. Thing is, I kept getting hints, nudges, and elbow jabs. This is something that I was to do. So I did… and you all have been incredibly encouraging and supportive. Thank you for that.

Already, this project is changing me. Most notably, my head space is changing. Here’s the latest little tidbit that has been working on me. Over the last couple of days, I’ve been listening to the variety of thoughts that float through:

• “I’ve not overcome my health problems up til now, what makes you think you’ll make it this time? You are setting yourself up for embarrassment.”
• “You have so far to go. You’ll never make it.”
• “People are going to make fun of you behind your back.”
• “All your weaknesses are going to be in plain view.”
• “You won’t and can’t make it.”
• “Do you really want to do this? Some days, it just feels better to do what you want to do”
• “This isn’t going to make an ounce of difference for you or anyone else.”
• “You aren’t up to this. Not really.”

On and on it goes. It’s exhausting and rapidly demoralizing. It’s tempting to give into the onslaught, but of course, I’m not going to let that happen.

A couple of years ago, I read the book “The Untethered Soul” by Michael Singer. I reread it this past October. (It’s a great book, check it out!) In that book, Michael Singer describes these kinds of relentless thoughts as a “roommate” in your head:

(The roommate) just talks and talks. You don’t generally notice because you don’t step back from it. You’re so close that you don’t realize you’re hypnotized into listening to it.

He goes on to say how much we could accomplish, if we could just kick out that roommate. However…

“But first you have to realize that you’ve been locked in there with a maniac…. Your roommate can ruin anything you’re doing without a moment’s notice… That part of you can ruin anything and everything, and generally it does.”

I’ve learned a lot about gaining distance away from my manic roommate. I’ve come to realize that it just likes to spout off (and off and off). My roommate doesn’t care about truth or what’s best for me. Not a whit. Once I get clear that my roommate didn’t care about me, my goals or success – I can now listen to it with a healthy dose of suspicion. When I back up, get quiet and think about what’s happening right this minute… the roommate’s blathering moves from all I can hear to mere background noise.

I’ve heard this idea before – but I was reminded of this truth at church this past Sunday. The stuff my roommate tosses out that make me feel regret and shame are sourced from my past. The thoughts that tempt me to feel fear and apprehension are sourced from future. And the thing is, I can’t live in either of those places. I can only be right here, right now. Remembering that has helped me a lot. It’s given me a starting place to make my choices from that aren’t in reaction to, or agreeing with all those “roommate” blatherings.

Much of the mental angst falls away when I take a look at that thought and say: “Is this coming out of my past, or from what I think may be my future?” “Is it filling me with shame or fear? If so, ignore.” There are decisions to be made and at that moment I can recognize the roommate’s inane chatter for what it is. Sometimes, I choose to go ahead and do what I might define as not for my best good. Or maybe I do. But, in that moment, I’m awake. And when awake, I’m choosing. If I choose, then what I have and experience in my life is mine to own. Rather than living as a bumper car reacting to life, I have the power, choice-after-choice, to create my life. It’s means I have to be responsible for how my body and mind feels at the end of the day. Sometimes I’d rather not accept that responsibility – but when I do, I’m no longer a victim and I become a woman who is free. It’s a fair trade.

What do you think?

Enjoying my journey, embracing love, life and health!

one snail, going it alone

Day Ones are always pretty exciting. I feel the energy of what I’ve decided. I’m putting together structures and plans for what I’m going to do. It feels bright and hopeful. But it isn’t too far into that same day… or maybe the next day.. and I start seeing the long haul. I realize that what I want to accomplish isn’t going to happen quickly. It’s going to take time. It will mean taking one step and then another. There might be leaps ahead, but most likely not. When that starts settling in on my mind… the one step at a time thing… feels excruciatingly slow. That energy I feel starts to become less of an energy and more of solid, heavy weight sitting square on my shoulders.

I know this pattern because I’ve had a lot of Day Ones. Years and years of them. I remember them even as a kid. I struggled with applying myself in school and I would create ‘Day One’ of being an A+ student. I had Day One after Day One from 8th grade and into college, over and over again.  There have been Day One goals spanning everything from being a better friend to exercise to taking more risks in my life.

A lot of those Day Ones were launched in my mind the night before the new day. And, in the light of day, I could see the long haul. My mind would start making up what that long haul experience would be. I would start to think I’d know how hard it would be, how miserable I would feel and how little joy would be in my life. Inspiring you yet? Yeah, me either. So my Day Ones rarely made their way to Day Five or Six.

Day Ones have been private affairs too. I learned early on to stop sharing them because I didn’t want to have to explain how I had given up on them. And so the cycle spun on.

Today, as I walked back home from dropping my daughter off at school – I saw a little snail. She was working hard to navigate over the top of the succulent plants. It looked awkward. AND SLOW. Her antennaes reached out to find the next bunch of green leaves to move onto. The expanse of succulent plants was immense. Where was she going and how on earth was she going to get there?

Transformation is slow. I can imagine the end result clearly in my mind, but the in between portion of things seem interminable. I was thinking about this as I watched the snail. I also thought about the people I know and others that I have seen who have transformed their lives in one form or another. Their journeys seem short to me. One moment, they are at Day One and suddenly (from my frame of reference) they are there. If I look more carefully, I notice that it has been weeks, months or years. But having not been a part of their day to day journey – the time has flown by in a flash. Suddenly, they are where they wanted to be! Inspiring!

Walking a little further down the path this morning, I noticed that there were a lot more snails on the succulents. All of them heading somewhere. And I noticed that many of them had found other snails to travel with. And while not an aesthetic image thing… you know those slime trails they leave behind them? Well, that trail created easier paths for the other snails to follow.

two or more are better

This afternoon, I’m imagining myself as a snail traveling up the succulents. It’s awkward and slow. And, good news! Some have gone ahead of me to help ease my way. As I travel, I find it encouraging to know that, my own journey will make it easier for those coming alongside and after me too.

Enjoying my journey, embracing love, life and health!

Hello. Again. I’m back.

My name is Janece Moment. Most of you here are my friends and I want to tell you a little bit about what I’m up to. I am re-launching my health blog, Embracing My Health, with a new mission.  For those of you who have followed either of my blogs, my Facebook wall, or know me face-to-face… you know that I’m an avid follower and advocate for health. I follow doctors, health professionals, health bloggers and activists. I read medical  journals and industry magazines. I do this because I see our physical, mental and spiritual health as a powerful gift that shapes our daily lives.

That said, over the past three years, my own health journey has been frustrating. Prior to that, I was making some great strides. I lost 45 lbs from my all-time high of 295 pounds, I conquered my rosacea and I was feeling good. But over the past three years, I have only lost about 10 pounds of additional weight, the condition of my skin has reversed and is the worst it has ever been… and on top of that, I have severe joint pain that ranges from uncomfortable to painfully debilitating.

I love encouraging health in others and sharing what I learn… but I’ve felt that I had to “arrive” at my own optimal health before I could do that. But recently, I started to notice something about all the health information that I follow. There are amazing before and after pictures of health transformations – but it is rare to walk along with and take the journey, the ups and downs, with someone. It can be hard to believe that the person I see, in those after photos, really had the same experience that I’m going through in transforming my health. I know they did and they are inspiring – but it’s easy to start rationalizing that somehow they had it easier.

I get why it isn’t done much. The journey is not as pretty. It’s vulnerable. And I know I’d rather keep the more unpleasant parts of my journey out of the public eye. I’ve done that and worse for years. In fact, it used to be chronic. I not only hid my journey, but I hid myself away. I avoided seeing friends or going to events because I was too self-conscious of my appearance. I’ve made enormous strides in not hiding. And launching this is one line in the sand drawn against hiding out. And part of not hiding, for me, is coming out from behind my words. Once I get the recording, editing and uploading issues ironed out, I will be sharing with you not only by blog but also vlog.

I’ve been inspired past by own resistance and fear to do this by many things. Here are a few:

• Brené Brown’s ongoing conversation about the power of vulnerability (if you haven’t heard of Brené – start by watching her TED Talk – she’s amazing).
• And I’m inspired by my daughter, Amira. She is a light and beauty in this world that inspires me every day. And, I’m her role model right now. And that being the case, I want to be an example of how to use the tools we have been given to transform our lives.
• I have a lot of friends who have already taken on their own version of this and have succeeded or are nearly to their goals. They are my inspiration as well.

Today is August 30th, 2012. Day 1.This begins my journey. I hope you’ll join in with me on this journey – and please come share yours with me as well.

Enjoying my journey, embracing love, life and health!

After declaring to yourself  and maybe others that you are setting out to accomplish a specific goal… do you find yourself swinging wildly in the exact opposite direction?

This is a pattern that I have and one that has buckled my commitments at the knees again and again. There is one key difference this time from the others though. I know it. It isn’t happening or going to happen without my being clued in. So even if that backlash happens, I’m feeling okay. BECAUSE, I now know about it and can see it for what it is… a tactic, a trick for staying in the status quo I’ve lived in up until now. And seeing it as that, its power shrinks. Even if that backlash “wins” this time and maybe another one, two or more – it’s running scared. That tactic has been spotted. Brought out into the light, it is much easier to see it for what it is… and that is something that I no longer want.

‎”‘How does one become a butterfly?’ she asked pensively. ‘You must want to fly so much that you are willing to give up being a caterpillar.’” -Trina Paulus

I don’t know that this particular post will resonate with anyone else. But the truth of it and it’s message are ringing clear and true for me. And I do hope it does and will for others too.