Podcast Episode #274: All About Resolutions

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You’re listening to the Balanced Bites podcast episode 274.

Diane Sanfilippo: Get ready! The Balanced Bites Master Class starts on January 20th.

Liz Wolfe: For 10 weeks, we’ll guide you through the foundations of real food nutrition, uncover the myths of the Standard American Diet, provide detailed information for common health concerns, and get you on track to make lasting change.

Diane Sanfilippo: We’re diving deep on topics like cholesterol, blood sugar, digestion, hormones, sleep, and supplements. Each module includes video lessons, workbooks that help you identify immediate action steps, and the Master Class journal to track progress throughout the course.

Liz Wolfe: We’ll be posting discussions in the Facebook group, and hosting live calls to answer your questions.

Diane Sanfilippo: The health practitioner course includes an additional 3 weeks that are all about working with clients. You’ll dig into case studies, collaborate with other practitioners, and access exclusive materials to use in your practice.

Liz Wolfe: We are ready to empower, educate, and support you through this life-changing program.

Both: Are you ready to join us?

Diane Sanfilippo: You’re listening to the Balanced Bites podcast episode 274.

Diane Sanfilippo: Welcome to the Balanced Bites podcast. I’m Diane; a certified nutrition consultant, and the New York Times bestselling author of Practical Paleo and The 21-Day Sugar Detox. I live in San Francisco with my husband and fur kids. I love personality tests that get me totally pegged.

Liz Wolfe: I’m Liz; a nutritional therapy practitioner, and author of the Wall Street Journal best-seller Eat the Yolks; The Purely Primal Skincare Guide; and the online program Baby Making and Beyond. I live on a farm in the mystical land of the Midwest, outside of Kansas City, and I love giving my kid big hugs, with her permission, because body autonomy.

We’re the co-creators of the Balanced Bites Master Class, and we’ve been bringing you this award winning podcast for 5 years and counting. We’re here to share our take on modern paleo living, answer your questions, and chat with leading health and wellness experts. Enjoy this week’s episode, and submit your questions at http://blog.balancedbites.com. Remember our disclaimer: The materials and content within this podcast are intended as general information only, and are not to be considered a substitute for professional medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment.

Before we get started, let’s hear from one of our sponsors.

Liz Wolfe: Today’s podcast is sponsored by Vital Choice Seafood and Organics, where a healthy diet is a vital choice. Purveyors of wild fish, shellfish, grass-fed beef and bison; Vital Choice offers premium quality, sustainably sourced foods that are wildly delicious and delivered to your door. With minimal prep from freezer to table, it’s easy to get delicious protein like wild Alaskan salmon (my favorite) and Wagyu beef into your paleo menu rotation. Vital Choice also has a wide array of ready to eat canned seafood along with satisfying snacks like organic dark chocolates, super antioxidant trail mix, and bison jerky. Celebrate the holidays, and your health, with premium seafood and organics from www.vitalchoice.com.

Liz Wolfe: Hey everyone, it’s me Liz, and I’m here with Diane. Hi friend.

Diane Sanfilippo: Oh hey.

Liz Wolfe: Oh. {laughs} Oh, hey what's up?

Diane Sanfilippo: Oh hey. It’s you there. How you doing?

1. News and updates from Diane & Liz [3:17]

Liz Wolfe: Pretty good. I’m just really curious as to what your updates might be.

Diane Sanfilippo: {laughs} Are you?

Liz Wolfe: Yes. You know I wait for these every week with baited breath.

Diane Sanfilippo: The most timely update would probably be the big giveaway going on over on Instagram. That’s a tongue twister. Over on my Instagram @DianeSanfilippo. A bunch of awesome paleo brands that have given a whole bunch of snacky, yummy, foodie goodies to this big giveaway along with our Practical Paleo cooler tote grocery bag thingamajig; which is awesome for shopping. I mean, I don’t think I’ve given you one, but I probably should. {laughs} Anyway. We’re giving away 25 of these gift packs. So if you haven’t entered yet; where have you been, go enter. But go enter to win, over on Instagram. The giveaway is ending on Sunday, December 18th, so depending on when you listen to this episode, it may have already ended. But there’s there.

Spices! The Balanced Bites spices. I am so excited. I don’t have an exact date; of course, you guys, everybody’s asking. “Will I get them in time for Christmas?” Probably not. Let’s just be real, here. Because I’ve been busting my butt trying to get them out ahead of Christmas, but when it all comes down to it I just cannot stress myself out about things I cannot control. So, I make the decisions, and I do what I can, and their probably going to be out in the early part of next year, but we may be able to get some orders going at the very end of the month, so just keep your eyes peeled. Trust me. It’s like when someone asks if your baby has been born yet; you’ll know. {laughs} You know what I mean. I mean, from what I hear, in those last days or weeks. But anyway, y’all will know. So that’s kind of the big thing going on over here.

And then, Master Class gifting options. I know people are getting excited about the class and we’ve got the info page fully up at http://blog.balancedbites.com/masterclass now so you can read all about the class, what’s included, it’s a 10-week program and you can see what all the modules are and what’s going on with the program as well as all the pricing. The full price of the student course is $497, and the practitioner course is $1497. There’s a whole lot of extra stuff that goes with the practitioner course, as well as if you’re an NTA student or graduate; so if you have an NTP or NTC, I believe it’s 36 CEUs. It’s a ton of CEUs, because the course does require a good number of hours every week.

But we know that a lot of you are looking to ask for this thing as a gift, or perhaps like a gift certificate towards it as a gift, so we’ve got option for $50, $100, and $200 towards enrollment, or the full enrollment of $497. So if you’ve got a friend or family member who is still kind of scrambling to get you a gift; better to grab a gift card for the Master Class maybe than even to Target, because you can get that any time, but I think this would be a really fun way to have somebody be able to contribute a gift of health and education for you and you can get some new knowledge out of it. So there’s that. What’s up with you?

Liz Wolfe: Shoot. I had one; dang it. I had one and now I forgot what it was.

Diane Sanfilippo: Well, the Master Class is like a joint one. So that’s kind of both of our update there.

Liz Wolfe: Yeah. Urggh. I’m so mad.

Diane Sanfilippo: Should I ask you about Baby Making and Beyond; no, I probably shouldn’t ask.

Liz Wolfe: No, you definitely shouldn’t. That’s one where, like; we went in, we thought we were in labor, we came back out, they sent us home, it was Braxton Hicks. Yeah. I don’t know. If I remember what my update is, I will share it.

Diane Sanfilippo: You can share it at any time. Yeah.

Liz Wolfe: I’ll just pop in with it. I have no idea what it was, but it was a good one and now I can’t remember what it was. So I apologize, I’m sorry.

Diane Sanfilippo: It’s cool to share it later.

Liz Wolfe: Ok. Oh! I remember. {laughs}

Diane Sanfilippo: Oh good. {laughs}

Liz Wolfe: Ok, I remember. So one of the things; right now is just this huge balancing act for me, I think people know that. But it’s like; full time mom, trying to work as much as possible; getting our big projects done, Master Class, Baby Making and Beyond, and also kind of trying to keep the financial engine going. So I’ve got to kind of figure out what brings some income in while still providing people with good value and good information that I already know and have in my clearly steel-trap of a brain at this point. So one of the things I’ve been testing out this month is I’m doing currently, and when this airs this will be a week after the fact, but right now I’m doing a private group along with Kristine Rudolph, who is another Beautycounter consultant, and we are basically doing a week of hardcore skin issue education.

Obviously we’re both Beautycounter consultants, so it’s a little bit geared in that direction where we’ll say; you can take this product, and then add this science-y active to it, and then it can work in synergy to deal with dry skin or to deal with severely oily skin. And it’s this private group where we’re doing live videos every night; sharing some knowledge and some product recommendations, very low pressure, very casual, people can get their questions answered. So, if you’re in the group, there’s something like 300 people in there. It’s a pretty big group, and we’ve had a pretty engaged audience, but that’s something I might be able to continue to do. If you’re interested in getting an alert as to when I’m able to do that again, we basically created a private Facebook group that you could request to join. If you’re name is like, Mitzy von Scratchen on Facebook, and you have no indication on your Facebook profile that you are a real person {laughs} and not just coming into troll or to I don’t know, be a mole for some competing blogger or something like that, that might be a problem. So make sure you look like you're legit. But if you're interested in jumping into one of those groups and being able to get your questions answered in that format where I’m able to share that one on one answer with a larger group, which helps make it more worth my while, join my email list. I’ll be sending out alerts when I’m able to do those things. Maybe once a month; once every couple of months with different peers in the industry. So if you’re interested, sign up for my updates. That was it. That was what I had.

Diane Sanfilippo: That’s so cool. If people jump into that group after, because obviously you’re saying that’s happening this week, which will now be last week for our listeners.

Liz Wolfe: Yes.

Diane Sanfilippo: But they can watch the replays if you let them into the group, right? Are you doing live videos in there?

Liz Wolfe: Well, I haven’t really decided. We haven’t decided how we’re going to do that, because one of the things we can’t do is come back and answer questions after the big; it’s almost like an intensive. It’s happening this week, and we’re going to close the group down once it’s done.

Diane Sanfilippo: Oh.

Liz Wolfe: Because while we want the information; and maybe we can download the videos and keep them, we can’t continue to go back and answer questions, because it’s that issues of time management and I need to kind of do it and then move on if that makes sense.

Diane Sanfilippo: Yeah, it does. I mean, it’s time sensitive so folks have to get in. Alright, well they can find out on your list the next time you open it up and have a class that’s in there, they’ll be able to get in on it.

Liz Wolfe: Yes, yes, yes.

Diane Sanfilippo: Cool, sounds good.

2. Diane’s digging: her new Instant Pot [11:13]

Liz Wolfe: Alright, so Diane what are you digging right now? What is Diane digging?

Diane Sanfilippo: {laughs} So I got an Instant Pot recently, which kind of goes against everything I believe in. partially; not because of the quickness factor of it, I’m fine with that. I’m still not entirely sure about the nutritional benefits of broth from an Instant Pot, but I haven’t made it yet; so to be determined. Though I do believe that the nutritional value in terms of healthfulness of broth made any which way at home from scratch is far, far better than something from a box on a shelf. Exception to the rule of homemade being homemade frozen that you can get; some places like Whole Foods, like you and I have talked about before, Liz, or Pete’s Paleo; obviously, has amazing broth that you can order fresh. So that’s equivalent to making it yourself.

But, I got this Instant Pot. I feel like it’s something you might like, although I’m not sure you’ll even go there. But it basically takes; it’s a pressure cooker. It’s an electric pressure cooker, and it takes food that would normally go into a slow cooker and cook for like 4 to 6 to 8 hours and gets it done in, I don’t know, anywhere under an hour or even under an hour and a half, maybe, just depending on what it is. It’s pretty darn cool. I’m still figuring it out because; {laughs} I don’t’ know if I want to call it an issue, but I have a thing about concentrated flavor. I do not like watery, watered down, unconcentrated flavors. So what I mean is, often times after I cook something and I take the meat out or the veggies out, and there is some sauce behind, I’ll let it sit and reduce, because I’m like; this looks watery. Nobody wants wateriness; we want sauce. I mean, I’m Italian, from New Jersey; we want sauce.

So, the thing about pressure cookers is; there’s no evaporation. So if you’re somebody who likes to cook and you understand what that means; it means that all the water from the meat, the veggies, whatever you put in there that’s raw; all that stuff always releases a ton of water when you cook, and it releases through an open pot in steam, and then the flavors concentrate and it all cooks down. But what happens when you're using an Instant Pot or a pressure cooker of any kind, even a slow cooker actually will reduce because the steam can leave through the lid of your slow cooker unless it’s got a super seal. But I believe they all might have a little hole in the top. But the pressure cooker closes up, and it is a tight seal, because it’s building up pressure. So I’m still trying to figure out how to make sure I don’t put too much liquid in there so I’m left with a kind of soupy result when I don’t want that.

And I’m also trying to figure out how and what to cook so that I truly enjoy it; because if you’ve listened to this show for any length of time, or interacted with me anywhere online, perhaps you’ll know that I don’t actually enjoy the texture of most slow cooked meats. I just think it’s kind of sticky, and the protein has been breaking down for too long for my palate. It’s not a health issue, it’s just I don’t care for the texture of it. So it’s not something I usually lean on.

However, I think that this thing is awesome, because it cooks things really fast. I can put things in one pot, close it up, it’s going to get done. I tried to make a curry this week {laughs} but I put broccoli in it. And anybody at home who has a pressure cooker knows that broccoli was probably not a good idea to put in there, because it probably cooks in about a minute in the pressure cooker and I had it on for 10. What I intended to be an Thai green curry with chicken and broccoli ended up being a Thai green curry broccoli chowder with chicken. So it completely obliterated the broccoli. But I actually really enjoyed eating it, so that was pretty interesting.

But I’m enjoying it. I’ve had it for a little over a week now; got it on an awesome sale. And we’ll link to the one that I have in the show notes, and we’ll also; if there’s another one that happens to be on sale this week, we’ll link to that too. I know there are two different models that are kind of interchangeable; unless you’re really thinking of making yogurt at home, you probably don’t need the extra seventh; they’re like 6 in 1 or 7 in 1; so if you’ve been curious about it, I’m usually posting them in my Instagram stories. Because these things should not live for more than 24 hours at this point, because they’re mostly mishaps. So when I finally nail something, it will head to the blog. But until then, they’re living for 24 hours. And that is the update on my Instant Pot. {laughs}

Liz Wolfe: I have an Instant Pot.

Diane Sanfilippo: You do? Have you used it?

Liz Wolfe: I have. I don’t do a lot with it, but I’ll do chicken soup and beef stew, which all have basically the same ingredients, only one is beef and one is chicken {laughs}.

Diane Sanfilippo: Wow.

Liz Wolfe: And then I’ll do rice sometimes. It’s super easy. We used to have; because I just don’t plan far enough ahead to do the slow cooker.

Diane Sanfilippo: Yeah; that’s exactly the thing I was thing.

Liz Wolfe: And we used to have one of those stovetop pressure cookers that you have to monitor all the time; and as you probably would imagine, I burnt the crap out of many things that I left there and forgot about.

Diane Sanfilippo: Oh yeah.

Liz Wolfe: And that’s very dangerous, so it was really kind of a no brainer once I figured out exactly what it was. But I haven’t done anything really cool with it.

Diane Sanfilippo: Well, when I figure out some more recipes, I’ll share them. And I’m extremely fortunate to have Michelle Tam’s phone number, because I totally texted her the first day I was using it, and I was like; “I’m sorry to anybody who is watching me go through this, because I am so fortunate to have this lifeline.” Because I feel like she’s one of the people; for me, she’s the one, who started talking about it in our little community. But obviously folks have been using pressure cookers for years and years and years. But yeah, I’m grateful to her for introducing me to it. But we’ll see what happens. To be determined how good of an Instant Pot cook I become or not.

Liz Wolfe: TBD. I know Jen Robbins has an Instant Pot cookbook as well.

Diane Sanfilippo: Yes!

Liz Wolfe: That people are just hankering for more, and more, and more.

Diane Sanfilippo: Yes, I’ve been linking to that one. Absolutely.

Diane Sanfilippo: Pete’s Paleo has opened a new location on the East Coast. Since they’re still operating out of San Diego, as well; this means local produce and meat coming from both coasts. And drastically reduced shipping prices. Check out their new and improved website, www.PetesPaleo.com to take advantage of low shipping rates; and be sure to use coupon code 1FREEBACON. That’s the number 1; free bacon, and receive a free half pound of bacon with the purchase of a meal plan. Go to www.PetesPaleo.com.

3. On the topic of resolutions [18:13]

Liz Wolfe: Ok, so what are we talking about today, Diane?

Diane Sanfilippo: Today we’re going to talk about resolutions. It’s a couple of weeks early, which I think is good, because I think it’s a good thing to talk about before the first of January rolls around. And it’s always a hot topic, of course, this time of year, and every year we seem to have a little bit of a different feeling on resolutions, depending on how the year has gone and where we’re coming from on it. I definitely have some new experiences in the last year that I think will be valuable to share that a lot of you guys have heard, but I’ll kind of boil it down today. But there’s no black and white answer on resolutions and whether they’re worth it; and it obviously always comes down to different folks, personal situations. So we’re going to talk about resolutions, motivation, share some of your comments on why you do or do not make resolutions for yourselves.

Liz Wolfe: Okie dokie. This is going to be a Diane heavy episode, considering I have no goals right now, other than general survival. I guess that’s not entirely true. Ok, so we thank everyone, once again, for submitting questions on Instagram. We post these calls for questions on Sundays, so always be on the lookout if you like submitting questions. Ok, here we go.

So we have people that seem to fall into about 4 camps when it comes to resolutions. Camp number one is, “Yes I make resolutions, whether it’s a list or just a goal.” These people still make them. It’s a concerted, you know; it’s a thing that they do, they put them out there.

Second camp is, “Yes I make resolutions with no deadline, it’s more of just kind of an ongoing process, not a real solid goal.”

Camp number three, “Yes, but it’s not a typical list of resolutions.” So I don’t know what an example of that would be, Diane maybe you can chime in there.

And then camp four is just, “No, I don’t make a resolution at all.”

Diane Sanfilippo: Well I think this was the collection of what the responses were over on Instagram; and Niki on my team, she really does a nice job of posting for questions, and then obviously you and I are seeing what people are commenting. But this was kind of the breakdown of what people were making comments about. And so one thing I want to mention before we share some of your responses is the journal portion of the Master Class. I think this ties in nicely with resolutions and the topic today; is that with all of this stuff. And obviously this is mostly for people who; well, not even just related to resolutions.

It’s pretty much proven; I don’t know what the science is, but this is every single success motivation business speaker entrepreneur; anyone out there doing big, great things; the topic of writing down something that you’re trying to achieve; whether it’s a resolution or a goal, or just a personal development thing; writing it down gives it a power that nothing else will. Thinking about it doesn’t do the same thing. Writing it down and putting it on paper gives it a power, and it becomes real when you do that. Because if it’s just a thought, it doesn’t happen. But if you write it down, things become real. So that’s one of the reasons why.

It’s interesting; you know, we have a ton of folks who are going through the Beta version of the program, and some people were kind of resistant to the journaling t first. And I’m like, I get it, but if you’re trying to make changes; and a lot of the folks who are in that program; well, all of them, are practitioners, and they’re really going through the course to try to take it to then teach their students. So I understand some of them are like; well I feel like I understand this content and I’m not in a place where I need to make nutritional changes. Although I think all of us always have something to learn. Not to say we can always be doing things better, but sometimes, yeah we can.

But anyway. What we’re doing with you guys is tracking weekly and daily; weekly reflections, action items, and things like that. And we want it to be your personal journey. So that’s a lot to do with what we’re talking about today with resolutions because we just know how powerful it is when you write something down. And you guys have heard me make the quote before from Gretchen Rubin who I’m like; just totally obsessed with her podcast and content these days, but we manage what we monitor. And so we monitor very well by writing something down. Just to kind of throw that out there.

And we’re making a goal setting download to go with this episode for everyone; so anybody who wants that, it’ll be available with this episode over at http://blog.balancedbites.com, because as we go through some of this stuff on resolutions, we know that out of the four categories of folks who either do or do not like to have resolutions, three-quarters of you do. So, I think having some way to write that stuff down; I think you guys will really like it. So we’ll get into some of the responses that you guys have had, and then we’ll talk about some of our thoughts on it.

4. Group one: those that make resolutions [23:23]

Liz Wolfe: Ok; so let’s get going with some of the responses. These are from the folks who; “Yes, make goals, whether it’s a list or just one goal, big or small.” This one is from Heather. “I like to set goals for the year; smart goals in all areas of my life, and maybe something I’d like to check off my house to-do list; like make a photo book or something like that that I avoid doing.”

This is another one from a different Heather. “I usually have a couple of reasonable goals that I set.” This is from Rachel. “I made one resolution last year to work on sleep hygiene. Get to bed before or by 10 p.m. so I can get up early to work out and still get enough sleep. This affords me the ability to get up early and workout. To do that, I started booking gym classes at 5:30 a.m. a few nights and mornings like that in a row made a powerful impact, and now I’m ready for bed by 9:30 p.m. One goal allowed me to make more overall healthy choices, instead of a laundry list of goals that made me feel like crap about myself and never got accomplished.” I love that, that’s a really good one. And I love the goal of sleep hygiene spilling over into fitness and just overall wellness. That’s awesome.

Alright, this is from Steph. “I always set goals for the New Year; large and small. My husband and I have a tradition of going to a coffee shop on New Year’s Eve day to write them out; often on napkins.” Aww, that’s really sweet. “I know this doesn’t work for everyone, but it really works for me. There’s something to putting your goals on paper. Then I tape them to the wall near the light switch in my bedroom so I see them often.” So cool.

Diane Sanfilippo: Oh, that’s so cute.

Liz Wolfe: Yeah.

Diane Sanfilippo: I love that.

Liz Wolfe: Good memories. Yeah.

Diane Sanfilippo: So, I’m totally with you on Rachel’s note. I think the getting to bed before 10 p.m. thing was huge. And for those of you who have heard, since about this time last year, it was the beginning of November last year, so maybe it was more than a year ago now, that I started a meal plan back then. And one of the things with the meal plan was the exercise I was supposed to do included fasted morning cardio. And at the time, that mostly sounded just horrible to me, and it started out as just walks in the morning. So it wasn’t even like I made the choice to do it; but kind of on the tip that Rachel is saying, because I needed to get up and do this fasted morning cardio; and I’m somebody who wakes up starving, so I can’t just dilly dally and not go, because I’m just going to get hungrier and hungrier. I have to just go, get it done, come home and eat. Same thing where it was like, one big change that kind of shook things up that made me then tired earlier, because I went and did the exercise first thing in the morning, I was more tired at night, and for the last year have probably getting much better sleep than I was getting before that.

And I think that if it is a goal you’re going to set, I love the sleep hygiene thing. Because it does affect so many other things. And it also, you know, setting a goal like “I’m going to lose weight” or something about losing weight; I think the weight loss becomes; I don’t think, I know, weight loss is a result of small choices and small habits that you create and that you adhere to and are consistent with day in and day out for a longer period of time. So setting a goal like, “Oh I’m going to get this thing done and cross off my list” is totally different from setting a goal of weight loss/fat loss, what have you. You know, you can’t say, “I want to lose 100 pounds” and that’s something you can accomplish in the next month. You can’t lose 100 pounds; that’s not the goal. The goal is the discipline and the habit change that’s required every single day.

So I think with resolutions, one of the reasons people may not really stick to them or do well with them is that you’re making a resolution that’s too big without getting real about how to break it down and how to make it happen. So that’s definitely one of the downfalls of sort of poor resolutions or poor goals. I think one of the other ones is just that they can be too; I don’t want to say nebulous, but you’re just not clear on what it is. You can say, “I want to get better sleep” or “I want to have better sleep hygiene” but she was specific. Rachel was specific here when said, “Go to bed by or before 10 p.m.” And I think being specific makes a really big difference. Because you can’t monitor what is better than you did if you don’t know what’s the tracking that you’re doing. Like, ok, did I get to bed by or before 10 p.m. or not? Or you can do something like I’ve been doing with the Fitbit, where I kind of watch and see what the tracking is on my sleep. I think that can be really helpful, too. But you're not really a resolutions person; and I don’t know, Liz are you? I don’t think you’re a goal setter type person, are you? I feel like you just kind of flow a lot more. But maybe that’s just the time of your life that we’ve kind of been friends. I don’t know what your personality is like outside of these.

Liz Wolfe: I don’t even remember what I’ve said in the past. Because I know we’ve done these episodes, before.

Diane Sanfilippo: Well that’s ok. I don’t remember what I said.

Liz Wolfe: I know right; it’s hard. I feel like we need a disclaimer at the beginning of these that says, like, “If I said something two weeks ago and I say something different today, go with what I said most recently.” {laughs} I’m not trying to contradict myself.

Diane Sanfilippo: Oh but that’s; I think that’s totally legit. Because we change, and we evolve, you know?

Liz Wolfe: Yeah. You know what’s weird? Just from talking about doing this episode, I’m kind of trying to decide if at this point in my life, because I’ve given myself; folks know I’ve given myself a lot of grace in the last two years. And that felt good; that felt like taking some stress off of myself. Because there’s that fine line between a goal causing stress and a goal being a vehicle of motivation. It’s kind of like the fine line between love and hate.

Diane Sanfilippo: {laughs}

Liz Wolfe: They’re such opposite concepts; stress and motivation, but it’s just, you can turn on a dime from one to the other. And I think maybe this year, I might actually benefit from having a goal like what Rachel talked about. I loved the sleep hygiene one, because that is probably my biggest downfall right now. I’m dealing with a lot, physically with just tapering down on breastfeeding and hormonal stuff. I don’t know man; I think I really need to have some kind of official thing, where I’m not placing so much value on that end of the night, falling onto the couch with my husband, and watching something for an hour-hour and a half. It’s so tempting as a parent though, because you’re just like, all day long your entire day is not yours. You wake up to a little voice, and you put that little voice down for the night, and you want some adult time, and most of the time that’s screen time. So I think maybe a sleep hygiene goal would really set me on a good path. That might be the way the way to tackle it. Hmm.

Diane Sanfilippo: I think that’s a really good way to look at it. You know, as you're describing what it feels like at the end of the night; it’s not the same and any time I say something like this, it’s never to be like; well, this other thing is a lot like parenthood. Because I am not a parent, so I will never claim to know what that’s like. But what you’re describing, the feeling of, “now this is my time.”

Liz Wolfe: Mm-hmm.

Diane Sanfilippo: That’s how I used to feel at the end of the night when I had a job; and not to say that you don’t like what you’re doing all day with the kid.

Liz Wolfe: {laughs}

Diane Sanfilippo: No, but when I didn’t like what I was doing all day and I felt like it wasn’t my time, I would stay up later at night, and then I wouldn’t feel great the next day as a result of it. And really I was kind of just robbing myself of much more productive time. For me, my productive time is not in the evening. It’s not good time, and mostly I’m ready to go to bed by 8 or 8:30. I stay up later, because it seems like the right thing to do {laughs} but I really should put myself to sleep because I’m pretty much tired at that point.

Liz Wolfe: Yeah.

Diane Sanfilippo: But I totally get that feeling, too, of well; “This feels like my time to do something I choose to do,” but I think you’re also totally spot on that; but is your day otherwise, like when you do have the days where you have some childcare, how productive can those be? And could they be maybe a little more productive, and not in a, “I have to be productive, oh god!” but just naturally. Is your energy better, is your focus better, because you're getting better sleep?

And I think to the point I was making before about, you can’t just decide, “I’m going to get better sleep” and then in the next two days reap the benefit of that. It’s a long term benefit. So unfortunately, we have to be patient and we have to trust the process, and we have to do the thing, and make the habit, and just make it a thing that we do, and almost not question it when we know that it’s the right thing to do; you know? Is that weird.

Liz Wolfe: Yeah. No.

5. Group two: sort of resolutions with no deadline [32:42]

Diane Sanfilippo: Alright, well that’s cool. So, what about the next group of people who like to make resolutions and they think about the New Year and all of that, but not really time sensitive. Just kind of more of a feeling. This one was from That’s not Paleo on Instagram. We’re not telling this person they’re not paleo; that’s just their handle.

Liz Wolfe: {laughs}

Diane Sanfilippo: This person says, “I usually make resolutions. I have no end goal. For example; ‘make an effort to show people you care about them.’ I want to be a better person, and there is no end goal, I can feel just as strongly about that resolution in December 2017 as I did or will come January 1, 2017.” So it’s not exactly about the time; this person’s saying it’s not about just the New Year, but there’s that.

And then from Mary, she says “No. I had resolutions when I had a disordered relationship with food,” that’s kind of implying that it only has to be about food. She says, “Now if I feel like changing things up, I do it in the moment I thought of it, or I change my mind and don’t do it at all. I know others have no issues with resolutions, but I couldn’t get rid of the pressure, so I just stopped doing them. I tried to be my best all year, setting monthly goals and reassessing. Constant work in progress, not just at the New Year.” So I think there are a couple of things here. One thing I always think about now is the idea of people who are Abstainer/Moderators. And because you and I are so different in so many ways, Liz; like you’re such a Moderator, and I think the mindset of doing a little at a time; or, well I can handle this, I don’t have to be focused just on this. I feel like the Abstainer/Moderator thing kind of spills over into this a little bit, because I am that way. Because it’s either like, I’m doing this thing or I’m not. Either I’m working on this or I’m not. Where as I could see someone with a more moderate mindset is like; well I don’t have to say I’m doing this or not, I just kind of do stuff here and there that contributes to it.

But I think this is really interesting, because if we look at how we stay motivated when we don’t actually make a deadline or don’t actually say what the thing is, we just kind of say, “I’m writing this program.” Like, with a program, with you’re working on, it’s so big that if you just say you’re working on it but you don’t break it down and have a deadline, maybe that’s not as effective for getting it done, you know what I mean. And I think that with people who have a big goal, I think it does become a little scarier when you do break it down, particularly because you realize how much work there is to do. Or because you realize what has to change every single day to make something happen. I find, however, that does somehow takes the pressure off in a way once you break it down and get real about how long something is going to take. So, same thing happens with fat loss. When someone is like; I want to lose this much weight. When you realize that an actual, healthy pace of fat loss with moderate changes that are not too crazy that you don’t feel like you're dieting, is really half a pound a week; when you realize it’s going to take you 20 weeks to lose 10 pounds in a manageable way that doesn’t make you feel crazy, that doesn’t sound like something that people really want to sign up for. People don’t really want to sign up for something that’s going to take almost half the year, because that just seems like a huge commitment. And I think we have a hard time wrapping our minds around doing work for that long to contribute to something that we’re unsure of whether or not it’s actually going to happen.

And I know this sounds like kind of a tangent, or like it doesn’t make sense, but it does. Because if you think about a resolution or a goal with no deadline, it’s just like saying, I’m going to write a book. But you don’t have a publisher breathing down your neck. I would never have written four books without someone saying, “No, Diane; it has to go to print. You have to get it done by this day if you want it to come out on that day.” I could never have gotten it done if I was just relying on myself, without an actual real deadline. So I don’t know. How can people stay motivated if there is no deadline?

Liz Wolfe: {laughs}

Diane Sanfilippo: {laughing}

Liz Wolfe: I don’t know man. Deadlines stress me out. There’s another fine line there, somewhere, I’m thinking. I kind of like the idea of just; maybe this would be the goal. The goal would be, every day just focusing on that day. I’m doing this behavior, this smaller broken down behavior, on this day and every day that I do it is a win. And then tomorrow I’m going to do it, and tomorrow I’m going to do it. So that’s kind of making it small and manageable; I don’t know, am I off base on that.

Diane Sanfilippo: No, I think a lot of writers, for example, will say, they write for one hour every day, whatever it is. Or they write 1000 words every day, whatever it is. And at some point, it’s contributing to the thing they’re trying to write. But they break it down that day. And I think for people who are trying to eat healthfully or build muscle at the gym or get stronger or whatever, I think that’s the only way to look at it. You cannot say, “I’m going to get more fit” and it’s like a big goal. It literally is, “I go to the gym today.”

Liz Wolfe: Mm-hmm.

Diane Sanfilippo: And it’s not a decision, you know, it just becomes a habit. I think that’s kind of what you’re touching on. It’s less about, “I have a goal, I’m going to achieve the goal.” Because I don’t think that’s as motivating for you or as; it’s just more stressful if you phrase it that way. Whereas; for you, I think being a person who has good habits naturally, is something that you would identify. You just have good habits; it’s not about you being goal oriented with those. This is like; you eat well, you eat nutrient dense foods because that’s who you are. So I think part of that is creating those habits every day in a way that you feel is workable and not super stressful; even if it’s challenging at first, maybe.

Liz Wolfe: Yeah.

6. The five love languages [39:05]

Diane Sanfilippo: So this person who said something about making an effort to show people you care about them; I just wanted to touch on that really quickly, because I think that’s a really noble kind of way to approach a resolution; more about how either you want to feel in your life, or how you want to interact with others out there in the world, or in your life, or that you’re friends with, or family, or what have you. And I think it’s fine to kind of not write down what that is, or an end goal, or whatever. But I also think if there are specific people in your life, like a spouse, or your children, or whoever, and you can identify their love language. So this is me getting all geeked out on everybody’s frameworks about everything. But I’m a huge fan of the five love languages; disclaimer, we tried to read the books, Scott and I. we were going to do this thing where we read some of it at night. But we did not love the book.

Liz Wolfe: {laughs}

Diane Sanfilippo: So I’m just going to put it out there. I didn’t love the book; I didn’t like how it was written. But I think the framework is life changing, basically.

Liz Wolfe: I agree, yeah.

Diane Sanfilippo: You think so? Ok, good.

Liz Wolfe: Yes. Didn’t like the book; but love the concepts.

Diane Sanfilippo: Ok, great. So, I’m going to throw this out there and then I need to hear your love language. Ok, so if you’re trying to make other people know that you care about them, I think if they’re close to you; find out what their love language is. And if they don’t know; send them a link. There’s an online quiz you can find out. And it’s so important, because if somebody’s love language is words of affirmation or words of appreciation and you’re trying to give them a gift, then they’re never going to feel that love the way that you're trying to make them feel it. So you really need to know.

So the five languages are words of affirmation or appreciation; gifts; physical touch, which may or may not be appropriate for everyone, but it can be like a hug or whatever, close presence; quality time; and then acts of service. I think some of them have some crossover; I do think quality time and acts of service could have a little bit of crossover, but it’s clear for me that acts of service is kind of number one, and words of affirmation is pretty much number 5. To the point where I don’t like words of affirmation most of the time, because I find them insincere a lot of the time; like, I’m like, I don’t find them to be {laughs} they don’t make me feel cared about. It makes me feel like that person doesn’t even understand me; unless, and this is something I've said to you before, Liz, because you really know me very, very well as a friend. So when you say things to me that are very thoughtful; it’s like the only words of affirmation I can ever really handle and feel love and appreciation through are ones that are so deeply, like you get me and you understand who I am and what I’m all about, and you express that in some way and you express gratitude for it some way.

Liz Wolfe: Aww!

Diane Sanfilippo: And that’s like really heavy. {laughs} It’s really heavy though! There’s a lot of burden on that, most people can’t do that. So I’m kind of like; if you’re not going to do it really well {laughing} don’t do it at all, in a way. I know that sounds terrible, but it’s, you know. I mean you know. You’ve sent me a few texts that I’ve been like; that’s really meaningful to me, because I feel like you get me. So besides that, somebody congratulating me on a work effort; I’m like, meh. It falls deaf. Or I’m deaf to it; I don’t know how you say that. Falls on deaf ears.

But if somebody is like; I’m going to run this errand for you because I know that you’re working on something and that’s really important to you and you’re going to run to the store for me; for some reason, that feels like you really care about me and you value my time as much as I value my time. And that could be because my parents were really big acts of service people. It’s probably huge; it’s huge in my family. So it’s something that I learned through them. So learn someone else’s love language; and I think that will really help.

So what’s yours and Spence; do you know?

Liz Wolfe: I’m trying to remember, because I think I read this. Ok I’m looking at them on Wikipedia, I just pulled them up.

Diane Sanfilippo: {laughs}

Liz Wolfe: So there’s receiving gifts; which is definitely not me. Quality time, words of affirmation, acts of service, and physical touch. I can’t remember what my primary was; I’m definitely not receiving gifts, because I care very little for gifts. Just because gifts; so often they’re out of obligation. I guess I like surprise gifts now and then. Like one time you sent me a bunch of Hail Mary macaroons {laughs} when we lived in New Jersey.

Diane Sanfilippo: Yeah, I think there are exceptions.

Liz Wolfe: And it was super nice!

Diane Sanfilippo: Yeah there are exceptions to the rule.

Liz Wolfe: That was unexpected.

Diane Sanfilippo: Yeah.

Liz Wolfe: Yeah, but I don’t need flowers from my husband, I don’t need; you know, it’s just not a big deal to me. And unfortunately, I don’t think even one of my husband’s secondary love languages is receiving gifts, and that would be difficult for me if it was, because I have no idea. I’m a terrible gifter; and that’s the challenge of the love languages, to get to know somebody else’s love language and to learn and to think that way; hey, they might like this. Because it’s not just about making a half-hearted effort. Like, “here’s some red roses.” It’s like, love languages, receiving gifts, and her grandmother really liked opals, and had this opal bird when she was a child, so I’ll get her… you know. It’s that. It’s deeper than that. It requires some commitment. So that’s not mine.

I think mine would probably be physical touch; but only like back tickles.

Diane Sanfilippo: {laughs}

Liz Wolfe: {laughs}

Diane Sanfilippo: But that’s also in a romantic way, too. So sometimes if physical touch is your first one, sometimes there’s a second that…

Liz Wolfe: Yeah. I think physical touch is maybe my second one. And my first one is quality time, I think.

Hello? {laughs}

Diane Sanfilippo: So do you think Spence knows that? {laughs} I was thinking, can I think?

Liz Wolfe: {laughs}, I suppose you could be conscientious and thoughtful for 10 seconds. I suppose that’s fine. Gosh, I think he knows but I don’t think we’ve really; we’ve been in survival mode for a while now. I think it’s time to kind of reconnect with this idea. He certainly knows that I require an extensive amount of back tickles.

Diane Sanfilippo: {laughs}

Liz Wolfe: And at this point I feel I deserve them and have earned them {laughs}. But it’s hard. He and I both will; we are way too attached to our devices right now. We’re too consumed with that. And I wouldn’t call it a rut, because you know, we both give each other grace.

Diane Sanfilippo: It’s a phase.

Liz Wolfe: But, yeah, it’s a phase, exactly. And it will pass. It’s like; what’s that word? It’s a season. It’s a season. But I think it’s definitely time, now that the new year is coming around, to start thinking about, you know, what’s going to be our path. Is it time to maybe; hey, let’s make something else out of our lives right now. So yeah, it might be time to reconnect with the concept.

Diane Sanfilippo: I think once you know that this is how the other person feels love, it really changes how you look at it. Because the thing; most of the time, dislike, as I said, words of affirmation, that doesn’t mean sometimes I don’t joke with Scott, like; “Oh, do I look pretty today, honey?” {laughs} And most of the time I’m just kidding because I mostly look like dog poop walking around. And those would be words of affirmation and whatever; but his love language is words of affirmation, so for me, I know that when he’s doing his acts of service, if he’s cleaning up after dinner, that he knows that makes me feel loved, so it’s important to him because he’s bothered by the dishes anyway, but he knows that I really love and appreciate when he does that. But then I also make it a point to pretty much always thank him; I never take it for granted, and I always try to use my words to express that because I know it matters to him.

And it’s totally natural now; we don’t think about it all the time. Like, “Well, this is this person’s love language so I’m going to do that.” But I think it really helps; especially either in the beginning of a relationship or the beginning of a new season, like you were saying. And I just think it’s so cute that you’re like; well, with the New Year coming. And I’m like, look at you, making a resolution! {laughs}

Liz Wolfe: {laughing}

Diane Sanfilippo: But I do think that the New Year kind of brings a lot of changes, and it also is a clean slate. I’m sure I’ve said this before; you come through the holidays; and not everybody experiences the holidays the same way. For some people it’s a super joyous time; for some people it’s really sad or depressing. A lot of people have trouble with the holidays for a lot of different reasons. Loved ones who are lost, or break ups, or what have you. So it really does become a clean slate. And I like that; I think it’s a good thing. And I think for a lot of people; especially people who don’t have it within them to do what I call shaking the snow globe; where you literally, at some point in time, just flip everything upside down and see where the snowflakes are going to fall. Most people won’t do that in their own lives; and I think part of what’s lovely about a new year, is that it’s turning a new calendar. You’re starting a new planner. It’s so many other things that are new that, “Why not?” decide something new for yourself at this point in time. And I like that. I think it’s cool. So there you go.

Alright, so we’ve got another category here.

7. Group three: make resolutions, but not typical [48:59]

Liz Wolfe: Alright, next category; alternative resolutions. Making a goal, but not like your traditional list. Ok, this one is from Becky. “I recently started doing a word or phrase for the coming year that encompassed habits I wanted to make or personal goals; whether that’s something physical, emotional, relational, etc. Last year it was just the word positivity; to learn to be more optimistic and see the bright side of things. It helped a lot to just have one word that I could tell myself that helped my attitude in every situation.” I love that.

Alright, this one is from, I don’t know the name. Ally Edwards, perhaps? “One little word, and use that word to focus on several parts of my life in small chunks. For instance, this year’s word is balance. So I focus on balancing my crazy schedule with much needed rest; then adding in balancing my veggie intake with my fruit cravings. It’s an evolving resolution that leaves some wiggle room, because 34 years of, “I’m not going to (blank) anymore,” or “I will (blank) every single day,” failed every single time.

From Paleo Muse. “Yes! I work at Kate Spade, and we have a theme for every year. 2016 was the year of imagination. I use our word as a general intention for the year; think of areas of my life I would like to apply it to, and then brainstorm some ways I could live out my word in a mole skin journal. At the beginning of each month I might make a note in my planner for things I could try that month. I don’t have to do them all, and it isn’t ever an all or nothing thing. Last year, among other things, I wanted to read more imaginative fiction, so I joined a book of the month club. I’m going to do it again for 2017 because it was so fun.”

This is from Fresh Clean and Mostly Green. “We do, but we also set smaller goals all year round. We find both are helpful towards achieving your ultimate goals. For example, this year we focused on balance, and then set specific smaller and more quantifiable goals, a few each season, to help support that larger theme. Whether food, exercise, hobby, family, or social related, it all counts. Looking forward to hearing your ideas on the podcast.”

Diane Sanfilippo: I love that. I love all of it. I think it’s kind of piggybacking on the previous one; where it’s kind of a resolution without a deadline. Maybe it’s not as much of a focused topic of a goal, like an achievement or an accomplishment overall, but just that word. And I’d heard that before; I don’t remember where I heard this concept from at one point, but I’ve been trying to do something similar in my own life where I kind of had this word that I was trying to think; like, that’s something I want to become. Like, here’s this word in my head, I want to become this, I want people to think this after an interaction with me. Last year, it definitely wasn’t happening. I’m not sure it happened this year; maybe next year it will {laughs}. But I think that’s a really interesting way to have a resolution or just kind of a theme for your year. I don’t know.

Liz Wolfe: I feel like that’s what I had over the past year.

Diane Sanfilippo: Grace.

Liz Wolfe: Was kind of the theme of just grace, and kind of take a deep breath and be in this feeling. It’s kind of the theme of aware parenting; it’s just like, any emotion that you’re experiencing is ok, and trying to escape emotions that you kind of had that narrative in your mind from childhood, whatever you’ve programmed that that particular feeling is bad or that you need to get out of it as soon as possible, is not the case. So that was kind of my theme for last year; just be in whatever it is and don’t assign this negativity and this fear to these different emotions, and just know that it’s all ok, and you can walk through them and experience them. You know, there you go. That’s a lot of word for one word; but it’s a concept.

8. Recognizing your personality type and personality tests [52:50]

Diane Sanfilippo: {laughs} I mean, yeah. I think that’s a great way to go. And one of the things I joked about in my intro, was that I love personality tests that totally get me pegged, and I think that this is something that can contribute to this alternate resolution idea, is knowing yourself better, knowing your personality type really, really well and not in a way that’s like, “Oh, I’m pigeonholed to being this.” You are what you are; let’s not freak out about a personality where there are things in it that are described that we don’t love. Because the truth is; there are good and bad qualities to every personality type, and I think what we might view as good or bad is also a bit subjective. And a couple of types that you can check out, or tests that you can check out; we’ve talked about Gretchen Rubin’s four tendencies, which I’m loving. It doesn’t get quite as detailed as something as the enneagram, which Liz you and I talked about that briefly before. I don’t know if you’ve taken the test completely, and I might have to send it to you to take one day when you have a minute.

Liz Wolfe: Yeah.

Diane Sanfilippo: There’s that test, and I think it has some cross-over with a Myers Briggs or this 16 personalities, which is kind of a modern version of Myers Briggs, where they actually kind of name you once your type is decided after you take the test. So just for reference; I’m an ENTJ, which is kind of the standard, bossy, I don’t know {laughs} that’s just me. It’s called the Commander in this one test; the enneagram calls it the Challenger. And I think that knowing more about yourself from these tests and kind of shining the light on the good and maybe challenging part of your personality will really help you to see what kind of goals do I need to set. Do I need to set some really hard and fast goals, because my personality kind of shies away from stuff like that because I’m scared of it? Or does my personality maybe need to look into some more goals around softening; and you and I have had a conversation about this recently.

Just because I’m not a super sensitive person; just interaction wise, personality wise, doesn’t mean that other people aren’t and that my interactions with them can’t be a little bit different sometimes. I think knowing ourselves helps us to figure out not only how to make and adhere to resolutions and how to break them down in manageable way, but just to kind of shine that light on and know; do I have a tendency to shy away from these things, and do I need them or not? Am, I driven; am I a really driven individual; which I’m super driven, but I’m way unfocused unless I put things down on paper to make it happen. I’ve got way too many ideas, way too many things I’m trying to get done, that none of them will ever get done unless I put it to paper and set a date and pay someone money and make it happen. I send in the payment, and things set in motion, and then I’m really on the hook. But I’m not going to operate and get things done without that. But some people may be just fine.

But I would argue that the vast majority of us do need to write things down, what we decide to write down and how we decide to resolve to change things in our lives; whether it’s kind of nitty gritty or whether it’s big picture; a word, a feeling. I don’t think it’s that important, I think it’s totally personal, you know. I think we all need to figure that out for ourselves, and the thing that Scott and I are doing this year. And we kind of started it, I think we started it right after Thanksgiving; because we’re like, well the New Year is coming but let’s start now. We started writing down goals, and I think I made 7 different areas; 7 different categories. I kind of just decided on categories that we would use, and that’s what we would use to create this worksheet for you guys, so you can use it that way or not. But yeah, we’ll show you. Maybe we’ll talk more about that as we get past this week, once you guys can download it and use it and interact with it, so that should be pretty cool. But yeah.

9. Group four: Do not make resolutions [57:15]

Alright, so what about people who don’t want to set resolutions at all? This is kind of our last category that we’re going to wrap this show up with. So Denise says, “I used to, then I realized I used the new year as an excuse to eat less healthy foods during the weeks leading up to it, because of course on January 1st I would become some brand new person who exercised all the time and only ate paleo.” {laughs} That’s kind of funny though. “I thought my old habits would magically disappear, and expected the old patterns and behaviors I had a mere prior to vanish. My resolutions never jived with the person I actually was. Example; I am not a morning person. Yet I would declare that I would exercise before work 4 days a week. It was exhausting, and a giant heaping failure. Now I approach goals with a realistic expectation and a kind attitude towards myself. Eating well and exercise are done because I love my body, not out of self loathing. It’s still a process, and it’s slower than I’d like, but changing my attitude has made all the difference.” Love that.

And Kelly says, “Nope! I don’t like the pressure that comes with the resolution.” These are really interesting, because maybe these people are rebels, and the pressure that comes with the resolution; that’s like your own, you’re deciding that. Like, nobody is putting the pressure on you but yourself, so if that’s pressure, I think it’s kind of funny that that feels like pressure. But I don’t know, I think that’s kind of an interesting way to put it.

But what Denise is saying about “expecting who I was 12 hours to be different tomorrow” that’s exactly what I was saying; it’s not about all of a sudden you’re this new person. It is about; like you said, that one change that’s going to cascade into other things, or maybe it’s the one word you focus on. Yeah, I don’t know; just a shift in that way, that will change a lot more other things.

Liz Wolfe: Okie doke, well I think this whole ‘no resolutions” thing; if people are like, “Yeah, that sounds like me” then go listen to last years’ episode on resolutions, because I was probably riffing on that pretty hard. Like, I probably was all about that.

Diane Sanfilippo: You were all about what; not making resolutions?

Liz Wolfe: I think so, probably. Or maybe it was the year before. Wow. Many years have gone by very quickly.

Diane Sanfilippo: I don’t remember. Yeah.

Liz Wolfe: I think I’ve been anti-resolution in the past. But it’s just all about; it’s just figuring out exactly how your personality works and what’s going to be most conducive to you finding some semblance of success, ability to be proud of yourself in the New Year. There’s no right or wrong; there’s no should or shouldn’t.

Diane Sanfilippo: I think, too, one of the, I guess, I don’t know. A last thought I have about it; the idea that it’s ok to not set goals. I actually I don’t think it’s ok to not set goals. I think we are goal-oriented animals. I think we do well with a goal. I think the problem is that sometimes people set a goal that they don’t really want to achieve, and I think the problem is also that we are not happy that we don’t really want that thing, so here’s what I mean. If you have a lot of weight to lose; and I just keep coming back to that because it’s a huge goal for a lot of people, or it’s a thing out there. Maybe it’s not a goal. There are some people who really don’t want to lose the weight, for whatever reason. Maybe there’s an emotional thing. Maybe they are a rebel, and they’re like; well, society says I should look this way but I want to look this way. They are happy with how they are, and that is totally cool.

But we cannot be forced to achieve something we don’t truly want. So I think for a lot of people you might look at goals or resolutions as something that you think you should do, that you don’t know that you really want to do. And I think if you really sit down and look at it as more as creating an intention and a vision and how do you want to be in the world; more of that and less of, “I will earn X number of dollars.” Which, if you want to do that, that’s fine too. But if that’s not; if it’s not like; if writing down, “Oh, I’m going to lose 20 pounds by April” if that’s just stressful and creates a problem for you then that’s not the type of thing for you to create as a resolution or goal to look at it totally differently. So I think that really matters, and thinking about who you are and how you want to move through the world.

But I do think that the New Year is a great time to reset things. I think people are in mostly a positive mindset. There’s not a ton of sabotaging going on; so if you are trying to eat more healthfully and make better decisions, it’s an easier time to do it. And I think I probably said this last year, too; it’s like, all the holiday treats are out of the office, and everybody is eating their bran cereal again, or whatever the heck they think is healthy. So people are kind of back on the wagon, you know. And I don’t think it’s the worst time to decide; you know what, I’m going to shake things up and do something new. So if that’s you, then don’t feel like you’re just obliging to the system by doing that. {laughs} There are so many things that become fresh and new in a new year; so use it. Use it to your advantage.

Liz Wolfe: The Balanced Bites podcast is sponsored in part by the Nutritional Therapy Association. The NTA trains and certifies nutritional therapy practitioners and consultants (including me; I’m an NTP), emphasizing bio-individuality and the range of dietary strategies that support wellness. The NTA emphasizes local, whole, properly prepared nutrient dense foods as the key to restoring balance and enhancing the body’s ability to heal. Nutritional therapy practitioners and consultants learn a wide range of tools and techniques to assess and correct nutritional imbalances. To learn lots more about the nutritional therapy program, go to http://www.NutritionalTherapy.com. There are workshop venues in the US, Canada, and Australia, so chances are you’ll be able to find a venue that works for you.

Liz Wolfe: Ok. I think it’s time to close it out.

Diane Sanfilippo: Yeah.

Liz Wolfe: Alrighty, so that will be it for this week then. You can find me, Liz, at http://realfoodliz.com/ and you can find Diane at http://dianesanfilippo.com. Join our email lists for free goodies and updates that you don’t find anywhere else on our website or on the podcast. While you’re on the internet, leave us an iTunes review. See you next week.