I’m on my way to Fitlandia

My 30-day journey to wellness begins today

March is here and my commitment to a 30-day journey of self-discovery, good food, healthy eating, exercise and mindful meditation is on tap. I know it will take some planning and some work, but I’m excited. While, I’ve dieted for what seems like my entire life. I am not really looking at this as a diet. I’m looking at this as an opportunity for personal growth.

The program: 30 Days to Thriving

The program 30 Days to Thriving by Christa King, founder of Portland, Oregon-based health, and wellness company Fitlandia. It is a nutrition and mindset program.

The program is a 30-day guided journey through nutrition, exercise, mindful meditations and community interaction. The program is designed to help participants understand their barriers to achieving their health and wellness goals so they can work on them step by step. I am most excited to discover ways to rewire my thinking and associations surrounding food and reward.

I don’t know if you can relate, but for me I associate food more with comfort and celebration than fuel. This association leads to the wrong behaviors when stress rears its head in my life. I am looking forward to gaining awareness of my triggers and developing new skills to more healthfully and effectively manage stress.

Health and wellness goals

As I take a deeper focus on myself, what I care most about is gaining awareness so that I can make good health choices. I really want to decouple, food and reward, as well as using food for a coping device during stressful situations. If I reflect on what typically happens, my reward and coping behaviors are often so automatic that I don’t fully realize in the moment that I am on the wrong path. I am looking forward to creating healthier default behaviors that support ongoing health.

My why?

Intention in life is really important when we strive to make a change. There has to be a foundational purpose to it. For example, if you look at me, you are not going to say, “Hey, that girl needs to lose weight.” I am in the healthy range on weight. That being said, I am certainly motivated to get rid of those final five pounds that seem impossible to shed. However, that is not my driving why. For far too long I have had a battle with how I manage stress and that has led me to make poor nutrition choices at times and to not achieve my goals. When you don’t achieve your goals, it hurts your self confidence and that begets momentum in the wrong direction for a whole bunch of things. I don’t want to be a victim to the challenge.

My driving why is that I want to be a force for good. I want to be an example to my kids and to my community that you can confront challenges in your life and do something about them. I want to have the courage to put myself out there and face challenges head on so that I can be the force for good in the world that I strive to be.

Discoveries lie ahead

My journey is just one small blip in the world. I am going to explore nutrition with new recipes, new ingredients, new ways to prepare familiar foods. I am going to continue my movement plan as that I have under control, but I’m going to explore meditation and new techniques for stress management. I am going to prioritize sleep and take on new habits that foster quality slumber. I’m going to see how this all makes me feel as well as get some quantitative data about weight and body fat. I hope to share the discoveries and learnings along the way.

Wish me luck on this journey. Let me know if you have any suggestions for health and wellnes topics that are top of mind for you. And if you happen to be on a journey of your own, please share your experiences.

About Sarena Regazzoni

Sarena is a freelance B2B writer and communications strategist who has a passion for helping fast growing technology and health companies drive sales through engaging content. You can reach her at sarenaregazzoni.com.