Who doesn’t LOVE a Fresh Start?!? A New Beginning?

Fresh starts CREATES HOPE.

Turning over a new leaf feels good, doesn’t it?

September, along with New Year’s Day, is what is called
a Temporal Landmark.
It’s a time we can harness to change habits or create new ones.

Diets, juice cleanses and detox
diets SEEM to help with a Fresh Start.
But do they?

This blog post and podcast episode looks at the Fresh Start Effect.

There’s nothing wrong with starting over.

Just look closely at the things you’re choosing.

Are you looking for a FRESH START?

Starting over, new beginnings, and resetting our goals all contribute to a feeling of well being.

Have you ever wondered why?

Fresh starts create HOPE, EMPOWERMENT, and ACTION
steps toward goals.

But, are they all they’re cracked up to be?

September, which is sometimes called the OTHER New Year, the desire to get back to fall routines, and make changes, is as popular a time as January 1st & New Year’s Resolutions!

Fall, like a brand new year, is a trigger to new routines.

Organizing for school.
Cleaning out cupboards.
Changing a wardrobe over. (I still wear white after labour day)

Fall also comes with pressure to go on a diet, disguised as a “detox”, and make BIG lifestyle changes.

As you know, I am not into calorie and food restriction.
I teach Mindful Eating and help you understand your Food Relationship.

Restrictive eating may make
Menopause Digestive Symptoms worse.

You may experience and increased feeling of deprivation.

That deprivation can have you binging on food, AFTER that cleanse is over.

Weight loss programs are positioned as the fresh start to the all too familiar marshmallow campfire nights, and chardonnay afternoons of summer.

We’re going to miss those, aren’t we?

I mean miss those easy breezy times of summer.

It’s great to feel laid back in the summer.
We NEED times like this to unwind and destress.

Fresh food is abundant, we connect with friends and family on the lake, at family cottages. We get much needed sunshine.

Summertime is good for the SOUL, isn’t it?

We also CRAVE routine. While fresh foods are feeding us nutritionally, in the summer, we may feel like we have had too many wine spritzers or picnic cakes. Not that there is anything wrong with cake.

Our bodies signal us to change things up a bit. To “work on our health”.

What better time than September, when we are switching routines, to work on our health! (Except there is also springtime, and New Years.)

Harnessing a Fresh Start makes
changing habits seem easier

Why? Well, change is not the easiest thing, especially without some structure and routine.

Diets, juice cleanses and certain detox’s SEEM to offer that structure.
Some Routine. Humans crave routine as much as new beginnings.

THIS CREATES HOPE.

This episode look briefly at Temporal Landmarks: times in the year, or day, that lend themselves to the Fresh Start effect.

Are they effective? Should you harness them?

Defining a Temporal Landmark.

Temporal Landmarks are times when we feel more motivated to change, over other times.

Turning 50. Or 40. Or 25.
September 1, or the day after Labour Day.
Joining a gym.
A new day. Ever wake up and tell yourself you will eat HEALTHY today?
A new job.
A new relationship.
A NEW YEAR. This one is huge.

The Fresh Start Effect is part of this Temporal Landmark.

Pros of a Fresh Start:

Taking action.
Action does create change, and feelings of accomplishment
Feeling of a clean slate. (there’s a con here too).
Embodiment.
Separating your “past” from your “future” self. This creates a path to the person you’d like to be, to get to the goal you’d like to have.
Feeling like there is a New Beginning.
Increased motivation.
Starting something new creates motivation in itself.
A chance to reevaluate past roadblocks.

Cons of the Fresh Start:

Sustainability of motivation.
Too many changes, becomes too hard to attain.
And sustain. And becomes overwhelming.
Goals can be too vague.
”Be healthy” can be too BROAD. Health is different for everyone.
Can you define your health vision or goals?
Planning your health goals requires tapping in to how you want to FEEL
If your fresh start is a diet, it won’t address emotions and patterning that affects behaviour, like eating habits.
Speaking of habits, are there habit building skills, like tuning into hunger, involved?
If the thing you start is tough to maintain, you may have lower self esteem. This can snowball into an all or nothing mentality.

Whatever you choose to do this September, or New Year’s, know that old patterns resurface, and sometimes we loose motivation.

This is NORMAL and I talk about it in my Mindless to Mindful Course.

Starting a new health practice is a wonderful way to feel rejuvenated.

It’s also a way to feel bad about yourself, if you’re doing something that doesn’t make sense for your body or your life.

Take a bit of time to make sure a habit you want to change, or build upon supports your life right now. And while you may be tempted to start a diet, yet again, ask yourself:

If it didn’t “work” before, why will it “this” time?

(And NO, the answer is NOT that you didn’t try hard enough.
Diets are meant to fail 95% of the time.)

What’s your Fresh Start? Let me know in the comments.

Listen on iTunes

The Pros and Cons of Fresh Starts: September and New Year's Day