Do you avoid space?

Hello, my friends.

You haven't heard from me in the past few weeks. Why?

Well, it's nothing personal, but it's intentional. This intention is called space. I'm not talking about going to out of space on the next space ship launch, I'm talking about that flicker of a moment where you aren't feeling the urge to be doing something - often we hear this doing as "I'm busy."

So, welcome to the New Year, my friends. Have you started to fill-up your plans for the entire year yet or swear that this is the year you'll start working out? I hope your Holidays were fabulous in every way possible, and now let's start the New Year talking about space.

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This concept of space is what I like to call filling the void. What I'm talking about are all the times when we disconnect from ourselves. When we are afraid to go a little bit hungry, so we constantly feed our selves. When we're afraid of silence so we feel we need to constantly have noise around us. When we're constantly consuming information, even when it doesn't particularly interest us. When we're afraid to hear what someone will say to us, so we don't allow them to speak. When we feel we need to run around buying every gift possible for the Holidays because we feel that's we're supposed to do. When we won't allow ourselves time to do something for ourselves without having to involve anyone else. When we feel we need to make a New Year's resolution because it goes with the start of a New Year - even when it's overloading us. When we don't want to feel a negative emotion, so we buy something instead. On and on the list goes.

No wonder we get lost in our thoughts, feel drained, question what the hell we're doing, what matters to us, and lose sight of where we want to go with our lives. We end up reacting to everything around us instead of making progress in the direction we truly want to go.

I'm not sure what direction I want to go you say? Without giving yourself the space to find out, it becomes extremely difficult to find out.

So for this very reason, you haven't heard from me over the Holidays. All thought counter-intuitive, it's a time I work on giving myself a lot of space to make sure I'm not stumbling into the New Year doing the same old - and you for sure don't need more content to absorb that fills your space.

If you haven't made a New Year's resolution, then great. I encourage you to start giving yourself space so that you can find out which direction you want to head.

So, how do you start giving yourself space?

Little by little some small steps you can start with are:

• Slowing down your meals by even a few minutes

• Pause after you've stopped speaking

• Stay still for a few minutes watching your thoughts come and go

• Turn off some of the notifications you receive in your mobile device

• Get out in nature even for a short walk

• Block out times for specific tasks and let people know you aren't available

• Practice only answering calls that are appropriate in the moment

• Take a little time to write what's on your mind

• Practice taking a few long, slow breaths when you're feeling stressed

• Take a shower and focus on noticing the water drops hitting your skin

• Get your to-do list out of your head and on paper instead

• Intentionally reduce the amount of content you absorb (eg: nightly news)

• Have someone else do a task for you that they would find enjoyable

• Listen to music without words, such as nature sounds

• Do an activity where you can shake your body out care-free

I think you get the point.

I'm thrilled to be back writing to you after some "space-time" and I'm looking forward to creating with you this year from a place of clear space. I encourage you to consider giving yourself some space so you can have a year better than any other..

What do I do now?

If you feel you want to do something different this year when it comes to your health and well-being, click here now to schedule a time to talk with me about the challenges you're facing.

I’ve helped many of my clients get crystal clear on what they ultimately want by getting healthier - they're often shocked to find out it's not what they thought.

In good health,

Dejan

P.S. – Want more? Subscribe to my weekly healthy living email to stay connected and informed.

What's your Holiday Health plan?

You might be surprised to hear the word plan when speaking about health as it relates to the Holiday time of year. I understand your surprise.

When it comes to the Holidays, we're faced with many traditions and routines that become automatic without us giving a second thought to the choices we're making. It can be extremely hard to deny the second serving of pie from Aunt Sally. Once we're in automatic mode, then we go along with what we've always done during the Holidays. Just like a New Year resolution, it becomes another year of doing the same old. Now, I want to be clear that there's nothing wrong with the same old if you don't want anything to change in your health. After all, what you'll get is more of what you've gotten in the past.

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However, since you're reading this post, my guess is that your health is important to you and you're looking to make some sort of change for the better. If that's the case, then you have to do something different than you have done in the past. Having a plan for something that might seem trivial such as navigating your health around Holiday time can make a big difference for you. Without a plan, the temptation to over-indulge, sabotage, and be included becomes too much to resist, and you find yourself in a familiar position on December 31st - making the same New Years resolutions for the 10th time.

I want more for you this year. I want this year to be different for you. That's why I've created a Holiday Health Guide to help you enjoy the most wonderful time of year with loved ones while still honoring your health goals because nobody can care more about your health than YOU.

What do I do now?

You can download the Holiday Health Guide by subscribing to my weekly Healthy Living e-mail.

My hope is that you’ll use this guide to take your health to a whole new level. I believe in YOU. You're stronger than YOU might even comprehend.

I look forward to sharing in your success and providing more Healthy Living content in the coming year.

I wish you and your loved ones so much joy this Holiday Season.

In good health,

Dejan

What to do with all that stress?

With the Holiday time of year building up, one of the most common words we unfortunately hear that’s associated with the Holidays is STRESS. However, it isn't just around the Holidays that we hear about the struggle people face with stress. We seem to have accepted that stress automatically comes with life in modern times. It's being mentioned that stress is the new health epidemic of the 21st Century. The truth is that we aren't meant to be operating in a constant state of stress. Our bodies simply can't sustain constant stress over many years.

I believe it's beneficial for us to start changing the way we perceive stress. I invite you to consider that we don't manage stress and that instead, we manage the life activities that we feel cause us stress. So, even though you might be stressed to the max right now, there are still small, practical steps you can take to manage yourself and stay healthy.

Photo by Vera Arsic from Pexels

So, why am I talking about stress in the first place?

The truth is that it sure is critical to acknowledge stress so you can reduce it or cope with it a little better.

Think of it like aiming for a 1% improvement. You may not be able to change the stressors in your life, but if you can manage the impact on your body 1% better, then you’ll stay healthier and more able to handle the stress.

Worthwhile, yes?

Truth: what are some of the effects of stress on your body?

I’m the first person to pretend that stress isn't impacting me, so if you’re like me, then the two of us need to have a “Come to Buddha” moment and get real about how stress IS affecting our bodies.

• Stress increases cortisol production associated with weight gain (especially in the belly), an inability to lose weight or gain muscle and premature aging.

• Stress decreases nutrient absorption due to reduced enzymatic production from the stomach, pancreas, and liver and decreases bile flow from the gallbladder.

• Stress increases nutrient excretion such as urinary loss of calcium, magnesium, potassium, zinc, chromium, selenium and microminerals.

• Stress decreases gut flora populations by destroying healthy intestinal bacteria and can lead to immune problems, skin disorders, nutrient deficiencies, and digestive distress.

• Stress increases salt retention which can lead to high blood pressure.

• Stress decreases the thyroid hormone which can negatively affect your metabolism.
  
  

• Stress decreases sex hormones which lead to loss of libido and low energy.

But you’re not reading this just to talk about problems; you’re looking for solutions. So read on...

How can I reduce or cope better with stress?

Remember, you are managing your activities to reduce your experience of stress by even 1%.

Here’s how you can do that, starting NOW:

• Look at your calendar for the next seven days. What’s one activity you’ve committed to that you can cancel?

• Look at your to-do list. What’s one item you can delegate to someone else in the next 24 hours?

• Consider your schedule today. Where can you fit in 20 minutes for yourself —where you’re not taking care of anyone else or being “productive”—so you can just relax and play and do something mindless?

• Look at your calendar for tomorrow. Where can you fit in a 10-minute walk or Frisbee toss in your backyard? The fresh air and movement will help you cope way better with stress.

• Before your next meal, try what I call the “5-5-7” breath. Inhale for a count of 5, hold your breath for a count of 5, then exhale for a count of 7. Repeat at least three times. This practice gives your body a chance to relax before your meal, which will increase your digestive capacity and help your body pull more nutrients from the food you’re eating.

What do I do now?

If you feel too stressed to relax, and you KNOW it’s affecting your health, your weight and your energy levels, click here now to schedule a time to talk with me about how to reduce or cope better with stress in your life.

I’ve helped many of my clients solve this problem, and chances are excellent that I can help you, too!

Peace + Love,

Dejan

P.S. – Want more? Subscribe to my weekly healthy living email to stay connected and informed.

The key ingredient to losing weight.

As the Holiday Season fast approaches around the world, many of us start thinking about the temptation to overeat, followed by the desire to lose that extra weight we're carrying around.

Weight loss has been on top of the list for millions of people as a New Years resolution. I'm here to tell you that you don't have to wait until the New Year to incorporate some new skills to keep the weight off your body in the first place and avoid weight loss as your New Years resolution year after year.

Photo by Oleksandr Pidvalnyi from Pexels

I get it. There's so much confusion around the topic of weight loss from year to year that it can make your head spin. However, some counterintuitive and simple practices can be the difference between a constant weight struggle and a path to your optimum weight.

One of the practices that are rarely talked about in the weight loss world and is entirely free is breathing. It's the single most natural thing in the world, yet we are quick to forget how much it impacts our bodily functions. 

So, why am I mentioning something that our bodies do naturally as part of your weight loss toolbox?

Ahhhhhhh. Exactly! Because our bodies do it naturally is the exact reason we don't think about breathing, nor do we take the appropriate full breaths that our bodies need to fire up our digestion.

A lot of people don’t know that oxygen is a crucial nutrient for speeding up your metabolism. However, most nutrition books ignore oxygen.

What’s essential about oxygen when it comes to weight loss?

Most experts focus on carbs, proteins, and fats but ignore the one essential nutrient—OXYGEN—that helps to burn all of these nutrients in the body better.

The bottom line on oxygen is that when you breathe, you burn more energy.

Think of the analogy of building a fire.

When you build a fire, you need two things: wood for fuel and good air circulation.

The same is true in your gut. You need food for fuel and oxygen to stoke your metabolic fire.

This is one of the reasons why physical exercise is so powerful—it increases the body’s oxygen intake and teaches the body to use that oxygen to burn fat even more efficiently.

To further enhance the metabolic activity in your body, avoid drinking water while eating. I suggest you stop drinking water 20 minutes before meals and up to two hours after meals. Why am I suggesting this? Because drinking water while eating dilutes the digestive enzymes that are needed to break down food and prevent full absorption of nutrients from the food. If you feel you need some water while eating, try to keep the intake to 4oz.

How can I start breathing while eating?

Try this simple trick—put your utensils down three times in your meal. Each time you put your utensils down, take a breath.

You can even do this when you’re at a work dinner or out with friends—it can be your ninja super-skill!

What do I do now?

In my health coaching practice, I help my clients completely transform HOW they eat, so they can lose weight and gain energy easily and naturally.

If you’re ready for a radical new approach to weight loss and health, then click here now to schedule a time to talk with me about simple changes that will give you BIG results.

Peace + Love,

Dejan

P.S. – Want more? Subscribe to my weekly healthy living email to stay connected and informed.

How to enjoy the shorter days ahead.

We have arrived in November and the time of year when the days start getting shorter. For many of us, this can bring many changes that can be stirred up inside us due to the change in season. This time of year can also get us thinking about the winter that's just around the corner, and I want to share with you some easy ways to combat that feeling we sometimes get when the leaves fall off the trees, and we start unpacking our winter gear in preparation for the upcoming hibernation months of winter.

Why am I talking about the hibernation months of winter?

Depending on where you live—New York City versus Los Angeles—winter will either be something you dread or something that passes you by without noticing.

Photo by Radu Andrei Razvan from Pexels

Sometimes even people who live in warmer states like California experience cyclical changes that affect their moods and disposition. 

The extreme form of these changes is called SAD or Seasonal Affective Disorder. If you've been following me for a while, you might be aware of my weariness around labeling human functions as "disorders." It's a topic for another post, but for now, let's go with the terminology used in the medical community - consider the fact that there's nothing fundamentally wrong with YOU if you've identified with any "disorder." SAD is a cyclical form of depression caused by changes in the circadian rhythm—a 24-hour cycle that regulates biochemical processes in the body. 

For some people, as the hours of sunlight decrease in the fall and winter, their circadian rhythm cycle can become disrupted. The hormone melatonin and the neurotransmitter serotonin suddenly drop in the winter, and this causes lethargy, depression, irritability, and weight gain. 

So what are my top 10 tips for beating the shorter winter days ahead?

1. Take Vitamin D3: Vitamin D3 is not a vitamin; it’s a steroid hormone manufactured in the body from direct exposure to sunlight. Because sunlight is weak or scarce in some winters, be sure to buy Vitamin D3 supplements to make up for lost sunlight.
   
   

2. Invest in a high-quality light therapy sun lamp: Light therapy sunlamps are often household necessities in states that suffer from lack of winter sunshine like Washington. Be sure to invest in a high-quality sun lamp that you can use throughout the day for 15 minutes at a time.
   
   

3. Hibernate happily: Sometimes it’s best to surrender to winter and take up hibernation like a bear. You can watch movies you’ve always wanted to see or curl up on the couch with a good book you’ve meant to read or get all cozy by the fire in your favorite woolly socks.
   
   

4. Eat warm, nourishing comfort foods: Use this time to make those creamy bean soups and hearty squash and root vegetable stews that you’ve wanted to try. It will nourish and warm your body and spirit.
   
   

5. Watch comedy shows and improv that make you laugh out loud: Laughter is the best medicine. Download your favorite comedian and watch the show till you have a stitch in your side from laughing or put on your dress to impress outfit and invite a friend out to see your favorite comedian live.
   
   

6. Layer up and go for walks outside in the cold, fresh air: Just because it’s cold out, it doesn’t mean you shouldn’t be outside. As long as you layer up with woolly hats, down jackets and long johns, even the snow and sleet will be your friend. Take a stroll on a cold wintery evening and return home refreshed. The stillness of the outdoors during snowfall is wonderous.
   
   

7. Spend time soaking it up in a hot tub or sauna: There is nothing that raises your body heat quite like soaking it up in a hot tub or sauna. Just do it weekly throughout winter. You can’t go wrong.
   
   

8. Find a movement class that makes you sweat: Getting your body moving floods you with feel-good endorphins. So find a high energy dance class like Zumba or African Dance or even belly dancing and get grooving. Then treat yourself to a cup of hot chocolate, or espresso love afterward with your new dance friend.
   
   

9. Buy some fabulous looking winter outfits, so you don’t feel frumpy: Take all your old, moth-eaten sweaters to Goodwill and buy yourself some stylish, head-turning winter gear so you can go out and about in style.

10. Take a vacation somewhere sunny or tropical: If the winter months are merely unbearable, there is nothing that breaks it up better than a short vacation to a brilliant place like Hawaii or Mexico. It will give you the boost to get through the rest of the winter - this time with a tan.
    
    

How will I know which of these tips will work for me?

I'm glad you asked. Start by picking your top three that just jump out at you. Those are the ones that naturally appeal to you the most—so that’s a great place to start.

Next, schedule a time on your calendar to do them starting tomorrow. 

So if you picked hot tub, movement class, and nourishing soup, then go out today and buy the ingredients for the soup to cook tomorrow and find a movement class you can start next week and treat yourself to your local hot tub spa on the weekend.

Once you’ve done your three activities, keep doing them if you enjoy them or ditch them if you don’t. And then start adding more from your top 10 list until pretty soon winter will be over, and you will crave to do it all over again.

What do I do now?

If you are one of those people prone to the winter blues and you want to make sure not to fall into that rut this year, then click here now to schedule a time to speak with me about more ways to make your winter months not only bearable but pleasurable too.

I can help you come up with a plan that feels good in your bones, and I can help you implement it and follow through so that you can beat the winter blues this year for real.

Peace + Love,

Dejan

P.S. – Want more? Subscribe to my weekly healthy living email to stay connected and informed.

Food choice by environment.

Your environment, it impacts the way you feel, behave, think, eat, sleep, and more. For this writing, I'd like to focus on how our environment impacts the way we eat.

Recently, I was in a conversation with a woman from the South. We got on the topic of food, and she proceeded to say how "down south we eat a lot of fried food." This perception was her reality based on her surroundings and conditioning. Just because she lives down south, does that mean that she automatically eats fried food? No. It's just that fried food has become the environment she is surrounded by consistently.

Photo by Brett Sayles from Pexels

This cultural norm can be real for any other environment we find ourselves living in. It can be a coffee shop influencing us to drink coffee, a health food store inspiring us to choose a smoothie, a cluttered kitchen making us feel shut down without clarity on what to eat, a beautiful space with tranquil music making us feel calm, and so on. When day in and day out we're confronted by the same environment we are then pulled in the direction of the same choices we've been making. These choices are often unconscious and lead us toward what we don't ultimately want for our health.

So if we take the example of the woman from the South, she is already predespositioned to gravitate toward fried food choices. Everywhere she turns she will be confronted by those choices that she might not want to make for her health. This scenario becomes a challenge, and it requires awareness to start making some other decisions.

If we take a look at how we can apply the fried food example to a progression, we can take a look at the fast food mentality often found in the Midwest. Now, I'm not picking on any specific groups here; I'm attempting to bring awareness to the mindsets found in various environments and how it impacts decision making. We can learn from these examples to improve our decision making. The fast-food mentality might have us choosing a grilled chicken sandwich compared to the fried food choice, or a lower calorie count than the "bad" fast food place, but the quality of these foods is still weak. We can apply this example to any food choices we make while eating out, such as the low-quality muffin you pick up on the way to work. The nutrients essential to the health of the body are still missing.

So how can we go a bit further to make better choices for ourselves? Taking the fast food examples, we can start looking for a better choice, such as Chipotle Mexican Grill. Chipotle strives to deliver food with real flavors, that comes from responsibly sourced, real ingredients. So, why should you care? Because, by choosing a burrito from Chipotle instead of a Big Mac from McDonald's, you've just made considerable gains in improving your health. You're now eating real onions, rice, peppers, beans, meat, etc. You've also started to change the environment where you eat and also improved the quality of the foods you're eating. Now you're on to something.

We can take this a step further. We can start to look at how is the food prepared. Same goes for eating out and for foods we make ourselves. Is the food smothered with all sort of creamy dressings, heavy sauces, or a massive list of ingredients? Remember, more isn't always better when it comes to preparation. Simple ingredients combined well with the combination of flavors is what makes it tasteful.

Now that we're making higher quality food choices, we have the last part of the equation to these food choices - our ability to absorb the nutrients from these quality foods. I call this part, Quality Eating. "How" we eat plays a significant role here. Are we eating under stress? Are we eating too fast? Are we breathing when we eat?

I hope this has given you a glimpse of how starting from our environment; we're sent on a projection toward eating a certain way.

I want to summarize this progression of food choices for you.

Unhealthy Fried Food >> Fast Food Choices >> Quality Food Choices >> Quality Eating

Quality Food Choices and Quality Eating must be in place for us to be at our optimum health.

Remember, food is meant to be enjoyed. Eat up!

What do I do now?

In my health coaching practice, I help my clients discover how to choose foods that are right for them, and create healthy habits that stick for good.

If you feel frustrated by falling off track with your health goals and need help discovering what’s keeping you from transform your health, click here now to schedule a time to talk to me.

Peace + Love,

Dejan

PS – Want more? Subscribe to my weekly healthy living email to stay connected and informed.

What load are you carrying?

I often mention in conversation that we must understand the load we’re putting on our bodies. When I start explaining this further, I get some confused looks and some AHA expressions. Good. It means that it’s resonating with some and my goal is to help others better understand this concept. So let’s get to it. Shall we?

Every single day we experience something. Depending on how we interpret what we experience will ultimately fade away or be lodged somewhere within us. These experiences that get deposited within our bodies either consciously or unconsciously create what I call load on our body. The burden on your body comes from unprocessed emotions, working out stress, physical pain, lack of sleep, resistance, great focus, demands placed on us from outside sources, demands we put on ourselves, fear of doing something, unhealthy eating habits, and so on.

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When we have so much load placed on our bodies in this way, it’s like a filter that has been clogged and can’t allow for anything else to pass through. This prevents your body from absorbing anything else that might be good for it. Over time the build-up leads to confliction, which leads to inflammation, and then combustion in some shape or form. The last thing I want to see for you is a crisis of combustion. It’s time to clean the filter!

Shifting your eating towards some cleaner options will start reversing the trend of filling the body with foods that will stress the body even more and start reducing the load placed on it. Drinking more water is another way. You can read about drinking more water on this blog post. These are a great way to start, yet there are some important questions that we want to start asking ourselves that will get us more in tune with the load we are carrying within our bodies.

What am I making a priority in my day? What’s important to me today? Is this activity getting me closer to where I want to be? What is making me feel bad right now? What’s something I can do for myself that will have me feeling good? These are just some of the questions that will get you started on a path toward taking a load off.

It’s essential for us to start the process of discovery because as soon as we do, the mind will come up with all the old ways we did things. It will want to go back to what was familiar in the way we processed experiences. The mind loves what’s familiar. It will fight like crazy against anything new. The body is wise, it knows what’s troubling it and what it needs instead. However, it’s imperative for us to clean our filters and move toward receiving the fruit of life. The question becomes can we tune in to the body and give it what it needs? This isn’t the time to blame the body. Allow it to be and do your best to provide what the body needs.

Meditation, yoga, and talk therapy, are just three ways that you can tune in to the load your body is carrying - I highly encourage you to choose one and see where it takes you.

What do I do now?

In my health coaching practice, I help my clients discover precisely how their bodies are getting bogged down.

If you feel confused about what is going on with your body and need help discovering how you can transform your health, click here now to schedule a time to talk to me.

Peace + Love,

Dejan

PS – Want more? Subscribe to my weekly healthy living email to stay connected and informed.

Still hungry after lunch?

It's fall time, the time of year that has my senses renewing. Fall, like no other time of year, helps to get me in tune with my senses with way more awareness, especially around meal time. Have you noticed the "Pumpkin Spice" everything presented to you everywhere you go? I thought you'd relate. So why am I talking about the time of year and senses?

Well, because when it comes to eating, your senses play a huge roll in getting you to optimum health. Ever notice how having a meal at a coffee shop playing mellow tunes, with a calming environment, and savory aromas, leave you feeling satisfied even though you just ate a small sandwich? I certainly have.

Photo by Tim Savage from Pexels

Researchers have estimated that as much as 30-40% of our digestive response to a meal is due to the Cephalic Phase Digestive Response or CPDR.

So what exactly is CPDR and why is it important?

CPDR simply put means that the thought, sight, and smell of food stimulates gastric secretions to prepare for the digestion of food even before you have taken your first bite and that much of the pleasure of eating derives from this anticipation.

The way your brain works is that it must experience this pleasure and satisfaction from the thought of food before eating to signal to your body to stimulate digestive juices. The key here is before you've ever tasted one bite, your body is already processing the food on your plate.

However, if you eat too fast or absentmindedly, ignoring the food in front of you, your brain will interpret the unsatisfying experience within you as hunger. So even though you've just wolfed down a huge meal, you may still feel hungry.

No more shoving fork-loads of unidentifiable mounds of food into your mouth while watching mind-numbing TV or eating yesterday’s lousy leftovers while on Facebook. The point is to give your undivided attention to the food on your plate, and you will be amazed at the results.

So if you eat consciously, how will that help you?

The more awareness and presence you bring to each meal, the less you’ll need to eat. And the less awareness and presence you bring to each meal, the more you’ll need to eat.

For example:

If you’re so busy gobbling down chips that by the time you get to the crumbs at the bottom of the bag, you can’t even remember what flavor they were, then you’re giving up 30-40% of your digestive power, decreasing nutrient absorption and slowing down your metabolism.

Plus because of CPDR your brain still wants to eat because it craves the full sensual experience of eating. So if you aren’t engaging CDPR, the brain registers hunger, saying “Wait! I didn’t eat! I want more!”, even though you've eaten an entire bag of chips.

All right Dejan, I've heard enough. So how do I eat consciously?

Sight: Savor the colors of your food, the beauty of what’s come from the earth, the rain, and the sun.

Smell: Bring the food up to your nose as if you’ve never smelled it before and inhale. Savor the aromas of the food being cooked in your home.

Touch: What’s the texture of your food? Of your utensils? Of the napkin on your lap? Of the table surface?

Environment: What environment are you creating for yourself when you eat? Candles or fluorescent light? Special china or paper plates? A crystal goblet or plastic cup? A visually appealing plate full of food or to go box filled with a mixture of identifiable substances?

Texture: Chew your food about 30 times per bite and notice the texture of the food. Let yourself breathe while chewing.

Pamper Yourself: You may be wondering who are you to pamper yourself? And I ask you, who are you not to pamper yourself? So buy that special ingredient to make your meal extra tasty like truffle oil to spruce up your salad or high-quality dark chocolate for dessert.

What do I do now?

In my health coaching practice, I help my clients identify their favorite ways to implement sensual eating daily.

If you think you may be one of those people who has been shoving down food just to feel full and wanted to get more pleasure out of eating, click here now to schedule a time to talk to me.

To your health,

Dejan

PS – Want more? Subscribe to my weekly healthy living email to stay connected and informed.

Tidy up your mess.

We all have messes of various forms in our lives from time to time. When these messes pile up, we can start to get overwhelmed. I've heard it stated this way recently, old problems don't get better, they just get older - unless we do something about it.

In the state of mind of overwhelmed, we start to feel that we can't handle any more tasks or requests. Yet, we continue to absorb more information, more possessions and more drama around us. With all this clutter swirling around our minds, it's understandable how we can't focus on what's happening in front of us or maintain the connection with people around us.

We need less, not more. What we need is more quality rather than quantity in all areas of our lives. One way to accomplish this is taking away what you don’t need to gain what you genuinely want. It's time to cleanse! Cleansing comes in many forms, not just concerning nutrition. You can start purging with email. Unsubscribe from all those emails that are not important or relevant to your current situation. I'll need to read this later hardly ever happens. What you think you'll read next week, ends up in a folder or unread list only to realize that you don't even care much about it a few months later. While you're on the computer, clear off your desktop screen of all random files and do the same for folders, applications, and accounts.

Another area you can clean up is clothing. Go through your closets and donate those items that you don’t wear any longer. How about the car? Yup, go in there, take everything out and place back only what you need. File cabinets are another area creating confusion. Take the time to throw out all those papers personal and work-related that you know you'll never need. A great book on this topic is by Marie Kondo called The life-changing magic of tidying up.

The point is that every item, every email, every image in front of you is more information your brain has to process, and we don’t need any more brain overload. What we need is clarity to pursue our most desired goals.

What do I do now?

In my health coaching practice I help my clients determine what areas need to be decluttered in their lives in order to create room for improving their overall health.

Click here now to schedule a time to talk to me so I can help you establish a step-by-step plan on how to reach your health goals.

To your health,

Dejan

PS – Want more? Subscribe to my weekly healthy living email to stay connected and informed.

What’s your move?

If you're alive, you've experienced the vitality of moving your body. Remember that time when you broke a sweat from getting your heart rate up and lost track of your thoughts as you experienced excitement in your body? Well, that experience is how moving your body consistently can help you improve your health.

The struggle for us is to stay consistent with moving our body. When we lapse in maintaining a consistent movement routine, we default to old unhealthy patterns.

What is movement?

It’s an activity that’s fun for you and gets your body moving!

Your body is made to move. Therefore, a movement is a type of fuel for your body, just like food. It stimulates and generates energy and good moods, plus it’s a fun way to get outside and connect with old and new friends.

Plus, when we move our bodies, we stir up stale energy and blood flow throughout our bodies. When we do this, we create a crack in our worn-out unhealthy patterns. At that exact time, that's where a window is opened up for us to become aware of the old pattern and follow up with a new healthier habit. By continuing to participate in moving our bodies, we keep opening up possibilities for change.

So, what's your move?

Here are 25 Out-Of-The-Box Movement Ideas:

1. Hula hooping

2. Zumba

3. Nia Skateboarding

4. Rock climbing

5. Surfing

6. Silks/acrobatics/circus arts

7. Trampoline jumping

8. Frisbee

9. Archery

10. Fencing

11. Karate

12. Capoeira

13. Jazzercise

14. Cardio Barre

15. Vinyasa Yoga

16. Pilates

17. Acroyoga

18. Golf

19. Soccer

20. Basketball

21. Hiking

22. Swimming

23. Rollerblading

24. Jump rope

How do I choose my movement activity and add it to my day?

One of the ways I suggest to people that they find an activity that helps them move is to think of activities they enjoyed as a kid. Roller skating? Hula hooping? Basketball?

Add the movement to your day by starting with a regular 10-minute appointment - for you, this might be first thing in the morning, or at lunch, or after work.

Choosing one of these activities will make you feel like a kid again, and that energy is what will have you excited to get on with your day.


What do I do now?

Need help staying accountable for moving regularly? So do most of my clients, so you’re in good company.

Click here now to schedule a time to talk to me so I can help you find the right kind of movement for you—and to stick to your decision to move every day.

To your health,

Dejan

PS – Want more? Subscribe to my weekly healthy living email to stay connected and informed.

5 high impact foods for energy today.

OK. So I'm a food snob. What I mean is that I'm picky about the food that I put in my body. It's more so about the quality of the food and the quality in the preparation of the food than being picky about eating one ingredient over another. When we can taste something in it's purest, high-quality form, we can be surprised at how delicious something can taste even though we might have in the past dismissed it as something we don't eat.

I do follow what's trending in the latest food discoveries, but I do my best not to preach about what you should and shouldn't eat. I believe in allowing the individual to experiment and find out for themselves what actually tastes good and makes them feel great.

It's no secret that many of the foods that we are presented with are filled with chemicals, artificial ingredients, and are prepared poorly. These factors lead us to poor eating habits and many health challenges that are preventable with some minor adjustments.

Without having to overhaul your entire diet, here are 5 high impact foods that you can start mixing into your routine that will lead you to healthier and energetic days ahead.

1. Eggs

This is a simple, yet great source of protein and other vital nutrients. Eggs make for a great snack throughout the day, not just at breakfast time. Enjoy the whole egg, including the yolk. If nature has it, then it must have its purpose - we continue to receive evidence of the health benefits.

2. Steel Cut Oatmeal

Oatmeal is an incredibly nutritious meal packed with many health benefits. Avoid the instant flavored bags that are loaded with sugars, preservatives, and artificial fruit flavors. Instead, go for steel cut oatmeal. It requires a bit more time to prepare, but you can control what you want to put in there. You can try adding almond slivers, honey, jam, your favorite nut milk, berries, or cinnamon for added flavor.

3. Greek Yogurt

Another great source of protein and Greek yogurt packs a punch with much more protein than normal yogurt. Avoid Greek yogurts that are high in sugar and contain high fructose corn syrup. Instead, try plain Greek yogurt with a tablespoon of honey.

4. Kale

There's no debating, eating more greens in our diets has us feeling vibrant, lighter and more energized. Salads are a great way to incorporate more greens into our diets, as long as we aren't loading them up with creamy and high-calorie dressings. Kale is one of my favorite greens that can be added as a burger topping instead of Iceberg lettuce, blended in a smoothie, or added to a side dish such as rice.

5. Dark Chocolate

Eating healthier does not mean depriving yourself of every single sweet. In fact, dark chocolate has more antioxidants than most foods in the produce aisle, so break off a small portion of that chocolate bar for an afternoon snack. A reminder that not all chocolate is created equal. Look for dark chocolate with a cacao content of 70 or more with least amount of sugar and other hard to pronounce ingredients.

Although eating healthy every day can boost your productivity and wellbeing by reducing the stress of low-quality foods on your body, I recommend that you give yourself a break once in a while to indulge in something that you really enjoy, guilt-free of course.

What do I do now?

In my health coaching practice, I help my clients implement healthy foods into their daily routines without having to completely overhauling their diets and get overwhelmed in the process.

Click here now to schedule a time to talk with me if you need the support and accountability to help you make sustainable changes to your overall health.

To your health,

Dejan

PS – Want more? Subscribe to my weekly healthy living email to stay connected and informed.

Rest. Not sleep. Say what?

We spend about one-third of every day of our lives sleeping or should I say trying to sleep. So, if we're going to give that much time to something that our biology requires, why not get the most we can out of it.

You see, sleep is often mocked in our society as a luxury, something that isn't as important as other parts of life, or that we're being counterproductive by wanting a good nights sleep. The truth is that we're after feeling rested rather than the actual sleep.

Ever have a conflict or something bothering you, and you just wanted to go to sleep so you can wake up having forgotten about it? Yet, the next day you wake up unable to shake off the thoughts and concerns about the confliction. This is an attempt to use sleep to help you detox from your confliction so that you can approach the next day feeling better than the day before. In essence, when we're sleeping we're detoxing from worries, foods we eat, stressful situations, physical exertion, stale thoughts, and so on. When we're unable to get quality sleep consistently and we become sleep deprived, it leads to increased food cravings causing us to gain weight, reduced tolerance for stressful situations, poor mood, heightened anxiety levels, and poor decision making.

So, why should I care about getting good sleep?

Good sleep is vital for good health and when you start improving your sleep you'll start experiencing some of these benefits:

• Higher productivity in managing your workflow

• Willingness to participate in spontaneous activities

• Higher energy levels

• Clarity in your thought patterns

• Improved decision making

• Increased patience with others

• Improved conflict resolution

• Feelings of spaciousness

• Feeling optimistic

Sleep isn't something that just happens. We must become intentional about it.

How do I get better sleep?

You can start practicing some of the tips below and rest assured (excuse the pun) that you will feel more rejuvenated and energized than you even knew was possible.

• Practice regular sleep rhythms by going to bed and waking up around the same time each day. Preferably working toward waking up at time of sunrise.
  
  

• Get to bed when you start feeling tired, rather than a specific time you have in your mind, the TV show you got used to watching or finishing just one more task.
  
  

• Create total quiet and darkness in your bedroom.
  
  

• Remove as much electronic stimulus from your bedroom as possible.
  
  

• Remove yourself from the bed and away from electronic stimululous if you wake up in the middle of the night unable to fall back asleep. Perhaps go to a sofa and read a book until you start feeling tired again. You want to condition your body to be sleeping when in bed rather than staying awake.
  
  

• Avoid caffeine after noon time as it affects your ability to sleep.
  
  

• Get regular exposure to daylight for at least 20 minutes a day because the sunlight triggers your brain to release melatonin, which is vital for healthy sleep.
  
  

• Eat no later than two hours before you go to bed because eating a heavy meal before bedtime will impede your body’s natural overnight detoxification process.
  
  

• Write down your worried thoughts before bedtime so you can free your mind and drop into a deep and restful sleep.
  
  

• Take a hot bath or shower because raising your body temperature before bed helps to induce sleep.

Once you've created consistent quality sleep for yourself, you'll become efficient at handling day to day life and then you just might start experiencing shorter sleep time on a nightly bases.

What do I do now?

In my health coaching practice, I help my clients implement these tips and more so they can make the most of their sleep and their health.

Click here now to schedule a time to talk with me if you need the support and accountability to help you follow through like never before.

To your health,

Dejan

PS – Want more? Subscribe to my weekly healthy living email to stay connected and informed.

How do you communicate?

Each day we're communicating with people around us on some level. However, are we communicating deep down on a level that we truly want to be? We often hear how clear communication is important for building strong relationships, but it's also crucial to your health. Let me explain.

Inside of us, there's an inner world that is either expressed or stifled. One of the ways that we express that inner world is through conversations. However, we must ask ourselves, are we communicating exactly what is inside us or are we speaking in code. If our communication is broken, it not only impacts our own wellbeing, it impacts the other person who we want to build a connection with. Our immune system is compromised when we consistently feel that we aren't clearly getting out of our system what is true for us or what we are asking for from the other person. We say it to our children early on, "Use your words now."

Here's what's happening when we are attempting to communicate.

Let's say you have someone listening to you speak. The other person might be listening, but barely hearing anything you are saying. This could be because they are talking while you are trying to talk to them or are distracted by something. If they happen to be talking when you're talking they can’t really be listening to what you're saying. Now, let's say they're truly listening to you speak, you then have what you are saying which is coming out of your mouth, followed by their interpretation of what you're saying. Behind your words, is what you're actually trying to say. You want to make sure the words coming out of your mouth represents what you want to say, that's the only part that you have control over. You can't control the other person having their own interpretation of what you're saying.

Ever get frustrated by a person who doesn't seem to understand you? Well, that's what's happening in that situation. The reason you feel misunderstood is that you either didn't clearly speak what is true in your inner world, the other person wasn't really listening, or you aren't satisfied with their interpretation of what you are saying. This consistent frustration will break down the integrity of your relationship and will make you feel ill over time.

If you are on either end of this scenario, here are some things you can do to improve your communication:

• Try your best not to assume you know what the person is saying based on your assumptions and projections from the past. Come into the conversation with a blank slate.
  
  

• When someone is speaking, focus on them and not on the phone ringing, computer screen or another person interrupting.
  
  

• Avoid overpowering the person you're having a conversation with by jumping in with words or your interpretations that might confuse the person.
  
  

• Give the person space to speak, especially when they're struggling to find the right words to express themselves.
  
  

• Pause when you're struggling to express yourself accurately. Check-in with yourself and locate better wording that matches what you want to say.
  
  

• Use specific words to describe what you want or need in the situation. For example, if you want your money back, then ask about that. If you can't talk about it now, then say that. Don't leave it for the other person to come up with their own solution or interpretation for you.
  
  

• Don't pretend. If you didn't hear or understand something that was said, ask for it to be repeated or clarified.
  

Test some or all of these suggestions and watch how much better you feel.

What do I do now?

In my health coaching practice, I help my clients learn how under expressing themselves is leading to poor health and how to take back control of their health.

If you want to take control of your health the right way and make a commitment to being the healthiest and happiest version of yourself, then click here now to schedule a time to talk with me.

To your health,

Dejan

PS – Want more? Subscribe to my weekly healthy living email to stay connected and informed.

Did you write it down?

Before we can change any behavior within us, we must first become aware of it. One of the most impactful ways that I've been able to bring this awareness to myself is by writing my thoughts down on paper. I said paper, not a computer screen. Studies have shown that taking pen to paper eases depression and anxiety, enhances focus, calms the body and mind, and increases learning capacity - to name just a few benefits.

So often we start to believe every thought that comes to our mind. Just because it's in our mind doesn't mean we are that thought. When we have so many of these thoughts swirling in our minds, it can be difficult to notice that we can choose which thought to believe and which to dismiss. That's where taking a pen to paper comes in handy.

For me, this is a process of getting thoughts out of my head. Getting those thoughts on paper places them outside myself where I can observe from above. At the same time, this allows me to empty the mind and create more bandwidth for productive thinking. Since most of our thoughts are on a repeat cycle anyway, it can become complicated to think anything different. If that's the case, how in the world can we possibly do something different than we have in the past? 

The act of writing will give you clarity and gives you a better perspective on various parts of your life. This is a place to allow yourself to be free with how you are feeling and what you desire. It's your home to explore your life and measure how you are progressing with your goals. You just might actually come up with a goal worth writing down. Good times to write can be in the evening, upon waking up, after a significant event or throughout the day jotting down insights that come to you - which can be reviewed later on.

You might start with a simple 5-minute session alongside your morning coffee or evening alone time. Be aware that this might stir up some emotions within you. For this reason, initially, you might want to avoid the practice when you are attempting to fall asleep. Having these emotions stirred up within you isn't a time to run away or get all worked up. Remember to feel these emotions as they come and go and that you aren't the actual emotions that you feel. You can practice noticing this and letting it wash away along with the writing on paper.

Grab that pen and paper, give it a go and write it out.

What do I do now?

In my health coaching practice, I help my clients learn how to process their feelings and emotions as it relates to their health so that they can make choices that support their health goals. That’s huge!

If you want to take control of your health the right way and make a commitment to being the healthiest and happiest version of yourself, then click here now to schedule a time to talk with me.

To your health,

Dejan

PS – Want more? Subscribe to my weekly healthy living email to stay connected and informed.

It's not a diet. It's a lifestyle.

With fair accuracy, we can look at cultures and find a common thread in how that culture functions. Once we identify an underlying theme, it's fair to call that the lifestyle of that culture because it represents how the majority is doing things. In our American culture, for the most part, we're rushed, we're eating on the go, sitting a whole bunch, working non-stop, on and on. This yields the results we see in our current health crises. Do I need to go there? I don't think so. The same can be applied to you as a person, and we can identify how you do the majority of your life and call it your lifestyle. This lifestyle either produces favorable results or undesired results. So what do we traditionally do? We go on a diet of some sort. Either food diet, exercise diet, destress diet, or whatever modern age diet we can label with some catchphrase.

I'm here to tell you that research shows that regular dieting is a waste of time and energy. Don’t believe me? Read on to find out why.

Why am I dissing on dieting?

According to Dr. Mark Hyman, functional medicine doctor, Director of the Cleveland Clinic Center for Functional Medicine and New York Times bestselling author of “Ultrametabolism” and “Ultrawellness” most diets predictably fail because of 5 reasons... 

1. You try to exercise your willpower to control your appetite instead of understanding there is a science behind hunger.
    
2. Your focus is too much on counting calories.
    
3. Your diet consists of all low-fat foods.
    
4. Your weight is actually affected by hidden reasons that require medical attention.
    
5. You lack a solid health and weight loss plan to guide you on your journey.

Dr. Hyman also says that when the average dieter loses weight, they lose muscle AND fat. 

But once they regain the weight, they gain back only the fat, which will ultimately slow down your metabolism.

Boooooooo. That’s not what we want.

How can I succeed with my health without dieting?

Here are 5 success tips that will keep you in peak health without dieting:

1. Eat enough whole fresh food to satisfy your appetite (your body will be less hungry because it’s fully nourished).
    
2. Eat protein for breakfast to boost your energy for the day.
    
3. Eat your last meal three hours before bedtime to give your system time to digest before sleep.
    
4. Make low-glycemic foods your diet staple such as nuts, seeds, chicken, and fish so your blood sugar stays level.
    
5. Eat good fats at every meal such as avocado, nuts, seeds and olive oil (healthy fats are your friend, not your enemy).

What do I do now?

In my health coaching practice, I help my clients learn how to lose weight, gain energy and feel better than ever… without dieting. That’s huge!

If you want to take control of your health the right way and make a commitment to being the healthiest and happiest version of yourself, then click here now to schedule a time to talk with me.

To your health,

Dejan

PS – Want more? Subscribe to my weekly healthy living email to stay connected and informed.

Facing your decisions.

if you missed the start of this 3 part blog series, you can start here.

At the 40 km to go mark I had been running with the nine-hour bus for about seven kilometers. I was tucked away in the middle of the group just behind the bus driver. I could tell Joseph was poised and very experienced. I had no idea if the others knew Joseph from before the race, but I can sense that everyone had committed and trusted that this bus, led by Joseph would get them to the finish line under nine hours, earning themselves the highly desired Bill Rowan medal. At this stage of the race, I can tell you that I wasn't feeling so hot and it was helpful to be running with a group. At the same time, this is where the mind starts to easily go elsewhere but the task at hand. It starts giving you reasons for slowing down, questioning your reasons for running an event of this magnitude and a slew of other things the mind likes to tell you when it's in discomfort.

When I notice the mind going through acrobatics, I bring my awareness back to my breath. I narrow my focus to the process at hand. One step, two steps, take in water, breathe, focus on the uphill in front of you, and anything else going on around you. This becomes my rehearsal.

This rehearsal is what was getting me through the later miles of this race. The fatigue starts to creep in, the body has been in motion for hours and the finish line is still far away. This is also where I can start to feel like I'm in no man's land. It's similar to standing in the middle of the desert with nothing in sight, except the vastness of it all. I have a decision to make. How will I proceed the rest of the way?

There's no negotiating here. I proceed the only way I know how by embracing whatever will come in front of me the next forty kilometers. I bring myself back to the process of running with the group. I zero in on every detail of taking water from the side of the course, keeping my distance from the feet in front of me as not to trip, handing my extra water to the person next to me that wasn't able to grab any, and we become a moving unit. There's a reason it's called Comrades Marathon, and there's no lack of comradery as we march on in our common pursuit.

The course is now starting to have more and more downhills. Don't be fooled, after hours of pounding the legs on the roads, going downhill requires focus, strategy, and patience. I shorten my stride as much as possible on the downhills in order to minimize the impact on my quads. My stomach is starting to settle now, I'm following the lead of the bus pacer, my energy is slowly rising, and I'm fully engaged with the process. As the kilometers tick bye, Joseph is steady in applying a walking strategy every so often on the uphills in order to conserve energy and slow down the heart rate. His experience is handy on many of the unfamiliar climbs and unexpected twists and turns. Every so often he would reassure us the finishing time to be just under nine hours at the current pace. With so much of the race still to run, I was impressed with the small margin for error in pacing that Joseph kept calculating, while never demonstrating doubt in guiding us to achieving our objective, this is called confidence in leadership.

We continued with the run-walk strategy for a while as the kilometers to the finish line started to approach twenty. I had taken in some of the originally planned nutrition by this point and I also started to incorporate small amounts of Coca-cola into my routine in order to settle the stomach. I typically don't use any of the nutrition supplied on the course, but in this case, it's important to stay flexible to modify the plan based on what will assist the body in getting the job done. I continued to use Coca-cola every other fueling station. The key to this was keeping a consistent intake of this fuel source, allowing the energy to stay high while keeping the volume of fuel taken in to stay low. It's exactly what my stomach was needing. I was feeling light again and my body started to respond with the urge to get my move on.

It's now twenty kilometers to the finish. The sun has gotten more intense and I'm exposed without any shade. I stay conscious about pouring water over my head every aid station that comes up. One of the aspects of completing these events that I love is solving the puzzle as I like to call it. One must consider all the pieces that go into completing this event as opposed to bulldozing through a shorter event without having to stay engaged in the longer process an endurance event demands.

I'm now starting to feel much better. I have more rhythm to my running and dare I say even some pop in my steps. I start to consider going ahead of the group on my own since I was feeling more and more confident that I could improve on my finishing time. When this happens, we are faced with risk. Once this decision is made, it comes with a risk of going too hard, the body shutting down and finishing even slower than I would have run with the bus. What do I do?

Despite feeling slowed down by remaining with the nine-hour bus, I decided to stay with what got me to this point. Of course, there were thoughts of doubt circling my mind, but once I made the decision I stuck with it. I want to point out, that it's inevitable in these events that we're going to be faced with these decisions at least once, often it's multiple times. As is in life decisions, what decision will we make? I can tell you that my decision was conservative.

Once I made my decision, I was confident in proceeding to the finish with strength and pride in what I'm achieving. The bus continued with its run-walk strategy and encouragement for one another. I was now even more committed to staying with the group and being a part of it in every sense. As we were getting closer to the city outskirts of Durban, we had a few more uphills of smaller nature to tackle. Joseph was still shouting out pace times and reassurance that we were on pace to meet our goal. I also could tell he was tiring and his body was covered in sweat. I still believed in this man and his guidance to know what it will take to get us there.

Something that I was realizing in the closing moments of this event was my preparation and goal. You see, I estimated that my body was in shape to complete the event in eight hours, but my approach during the event was loose. It wasn't detailed. I didn't break down the exact paces needed to be run to achieve that goal. However, it wasn't my goal for entering the event, so it was ill-advised for me to make that goal up in the middle of the event. I was aware of all these facts, and it's important for us to be real with our selves in these situations. In this example, I can tell you that had my goal been to run eight hours, it would have required approaching the race from kilometer one with that goal in mind, knowing exactly where I need to be at checkpoints, practicing that exact pace in training, training with kilometers in my mind rather than miles, and many other factors. In other words, it would require me to be very, very specific in all aspects surrounding that goal. Reality is, I didn't have that goal as my target, and that's just fine. Should I desire that goal in the future, that's what it will take.

Now back to the closing kilometers of the race. Joseph had guided us like the champion that he is, he cared for our wishes over his own, and lead like a solid leader that he is. I was feeling better and better each closing kilometer. Joseph, having sensed that he would slow the group down, released the group to go on their own at five kilometers from the finish line. Once again, Joseph demonstrated his selflessness.

We scattered all over the road on our own, like cattle released from the gates. My legs were full of running, I could feel my heart beating faster and faster. I could see the stadium hosting the finish line in the distance. The street opens to a wide boulevard with plenty of space to run. There are people lining the streets cheering me on. My pace is quickening each stride, I'm filled with excitement and euphoria of having covered the last eighty-seven kilometers. I'm running closer and closer to the stadium in front of me and I hardly feel I'm running. I'm in some other reality that is only inside me and there are subtle cues such as the walkway over my head with a banner with the race slogan, No Turning Back that pulls me back to the consciousness of what's around me.

What's around me is people of all races, colors, and shapes lining the final few turns on the boulevard about to turn left entering the stadium. As I'm running around the left bend in the road, I look up at the bright blue sky. At that moment I have a wave of calm and surrender cover my entire body. My eyes tear up, I'm overcome with the emotion of people I never met in my life cheering for me. For a moment I forget about the finishing time and my focus shifts to the dip in the road going under the stadium. I feel like those athletes at the Olympic Marathon finishing at the Olympic Stadium. I imagine this is what it must feel like when I watch the Olympics on television.

I'm in the darkness of the tunnel under the stadium running toward the light in front of me. It's a right turn into the stadium. I'm greeted with a deafening roar of the crowd. I'm so excited my legs are turning over so fast I feel as if I'm about to trip over myself. I'm overcome with tingling and goosebumps all over my body. I'm not even concerned about the finish time, because I know it's in my grasp. I'm running around the last bend of the ninety-kilometer course and waving to the crowd. I'm so engulfed by their energy that I'm blowing them kisses as I come to the last short straightaway with the finish line in front of me.

At that moment, I don't want the moment to end. I slow down to a walk to absorb as much of this energy as I can contain. People are running past me to get to the finish under nine hours. Me? I'm in no rush, I have all the time in the world to cherish every last step of this special moment. I turn around with my back toward the finish to face the crowd one last time. Thank you, Durban. Thank you, South Africa. Thank you, Comrades Marathon. 

I'm home, 8:57:24. This is Comrades Marathon 2018.

This is part 3 of a 3 part blog series featuring my experience of running the 2018 Comrades Marathon. Thank you for following along.

What do I do now?
 
In my health coaching practice, I help clients get unstuck from their old conditioning and start living with a healthy mindset that empowers them to create a future that better serves them. Click here now to talk with me 1-to-1 about where you really are in your life and what changes you will need to make so that you can start living your goals and desires now.
 
To your health.

Dejan

PS – Want more? Subscribe to my weekly healthy living email to stay connected and informed.

Showing up is a win.

if you missed the start of this 3 part blog series, you can start here.

The leadup to Comrades Marathon 2018 was filled with ups and downs of logistics. This time around it was my friend Bari and I heading to Durban, South Africa alone, opposed to the support crew we had with us in 2015. Going into this trip, I reminded Bari several times to prepare for the two of us to make this happen on our own. Making it happen is what we did.

After our arrival at the city of Durban on the eastern shore of South Africa, we proceeded to the expo. We navigated through all the hoopla relatively quickly, and after some last minute logistics, we returned to our apartment located along the seashore. We knew it was vital for us to get good sleep on this night, two nights before the event. We relaxed and off to bed we went.

I had woken at some point just before dawn still feeling restless. After some tossing and turning, I managed to fall back to sleep. And then, I was woken by a banging noise from an unknown direction as I rubbed my eyes to gather my barrings. I realized that the banging was coming from the balcony. I pulled back the curtain to hear a man saying, "your friend is trying to get inside." Get inside where I thought to myself.

I then realized that Bari was locked out of the apartment and it was now 3:30 in the afternoon. I opened the door for Bari, and we broke out in laughter over the whole thing. She had gone for coffee earlier in the morning, thinking I would be awake when she returned, so she locked the keys inside the apartment. Apparently, my body needed all that sleep after days of traveling and moving around. Had she not come to find me still sleeping, when would my body finally have woken up? I don't know.

Saturday evening involved preparing all the race gear and nutrition for the race. After a homemade dinner, we went off to bed as we had a very early wake-up. We needed to drive over to our transport which would be taking us to the start of the race. I'm never quite sure if I'm wholly sleeping the night before a big event like this. It always seems to feel as if I'm half awake. It's now 2:30 in the morning on race day. Time to rise.

We had prepared most of the gear the night before, leaving us with the task of organizing the pre-race breakfest to be eaten along the way. Race morning is all about efficiency. I like to have as many functions as possible on autopilot, leaving the mind to rest. We drove the short way to where we were to meet the ride that was scheduled to take us to the start line.

The start line was in Pietermaritzburg, about an hour away from Durban. We would be driving the reverse direction of the Comrades Marathon to get to the start. The planned departure times and arrival time to the start line appeared adequate to prevent missing the beginning of the race - so we thought. We were relying on two local people we never met to get us to the start line. They were chatty and excited to be helping out two Comrades runners. During the ride, we shared stories of our Comrades experiences, all while slowly getting pre race nutrition down our throats. I was feeling relaxed and prepared for whatever the day had in store for me. I had many thoughts, memories, and spirit of Comrades running through my mind. There's a mystical sense to this process that can be hard to put into words. All I can say is that it's unique.

As we made our way toward the race start with plenty of time remaining, the traffic came to a standstill. I wasn't worried since we had over an hour until the start time, and we were only a few exits away. However, the traffic didn't appear to be moving and the minutes were quickly ticking away. A few people started to run alongside the parked cars on the road to get to the start on time. I began to wonder if Bari and I would have to do the same. However, we trusted that we would be led to the start on time by staying with our ride. We were cutting it close. Apparently what happened was that instead of one exit being closed near the start line, two ramps were closed, leaving a massive backup of vehicles, including the official bus transportation backed up in traffic. I'm not even sure if the people on those buses made it to the start line on time. Welcome to Africa.

After finally getting off one of the remaining exits for the start line, some zig-zagging, twists, and turns, change of routes, we got let out of the car to run the rest of the way toward the start line. I had no idea where we were, how close the start line was in the midst of the early morning darkness. All I knew to do was run along the main road in the direction of all the other people running. The race starts in seven minutes. I'm running with my shoes untied and weave right and left along with all the other runners. Bari is with me until I tell her I have to stop at one of the toilets I see on the side of the road. I quickly wear off toward the toilet to take care of business, while Bari continues towards the start line. I didn't want to chance to wait to go to the bathroom because I wasn't sure where the start line was and what was available once I got there.

I now exit the toilet, go through some fence and finally encounter a race official belting out corral letters. I follow her directions for corral D to the right. Now, my assigned corral is F, since D is close to F, I figure it's close enough, and I dart in the direction instructed. It's now pitch dark, and it feels like some scene from a movie that involves a mugging in a dark alley. I hear "D"  called out from somewhere and I run toward a street where the voice appeared to come from. I pass by the official that yelled out the "D" corral, ignoring the fact that my bib had F written on it. 

I'm heading for the start line. Stop me if you can.

At the end of the street, I finally meet the corrals, and I make a left, guessing the start is in that direction. I see the lights coming from the starting corrals, followed by a sign for corral C. At this point it's madness, and nobody is checking the accuracy of the individuals corral. I enter the small opening in the fence as I'm greeted by the massive crowd of runners. I remembered that my shoes were untied, so I kneel down and take care of my shoes. After tieing up my shoes, I had a couple of minutes of taking in the atmosphere before the cannon went off, signaling the start of the race. I  made it to the start of Comrades Marathon 2018. I made it, but I was wondering where is Bari in the sea of runners behind me. Was she even there?

Getting to the start of any of these monumental events is already a huge success. To get to the start takes planning for travel, putting in many months of intense training, commitment to the goal, navigating the unexpected events that come up in the midst of juggling training and life, on and on the list goes. Going into this event, I estimated that I can complete the 90 km route in approximately eight hours. That was a rough estimate without a detailed breakdown. Thinking about it and doing it are two different things. I did, however, know the pace required to achieve that result, which is 8:34 per mile. I also listened to a few podcasts that covered the best way to navigate the route. There was so much talk about the "down" run and holding back in the first half of the race. These suggestions also come with various perspectives with contradicting details that I often ignore for my own interpretation from what I read and hear, combined with my experience from training. For the moment, I was enjoying the atmosphere as I shuffled past the start line, chatted with other runners, and made sure to find space for my next step. 

Since I made it all the way to corral C, I knew it was only a matter of time until Bari will be making her way up to me. I was intentionally holding back my race for her to catch up to me. It wasn't long, Bari was now calling my name as she zigzagged her way to me. We have united once again.

It was pitch dark outside as we ran together, watching our steps to make sure we didn't trip on one of the many road dividers or runners going at a slower pace. Early on in a race such as this, the crowds are still thick, and it's difficult to settle into a pace or find a rhythm to the run. People say that running the Comrades Marathon is like your entire lifetime unfolding in a single day. The day was just starting to reveal, and I was wondering how it would go. I felt very relaxed and kept reminding myself to stay that way, to hold back the urge to go faster or get ahead of the people in front of me. Bari and I were now running together for about seven kilometers, and as we started going down a steep downhill known as Polly Shortts, I let my body go with the gravity. That was the last I saw Bari on the race course. I shortened my stride to minimize the impact of the downhill and let the body go. This would be my approach for the rest of the race. I settled into a comfortable rhythm, focused on all the details of taking in water consistently, breathing easy, and relaxing my upper body. I was having fun meeting people along the way and having chats with them. We were all in this together. The kilometers were ticking off, I was feeling good. I was surprised at the length of the uphills and the steepness of the downhills. Then again, it has been three years since running this race, and I was running it the opposite direction.

As I was passing the 20 km mark, then 30 km, I started to break the race down into 10 km segments. Keeping track of the per kilometer pace, calculating the distance covered and anticipating the next checkpoint, was all starting to get jumbled in my head. I decided to just focus on the checkpoints that I had written on a piece of paper which would give me an idea of how close to an eight hour finishing time I was. I knew I was consistently behind pace based on the previous checkpoints. I was quickly learning that in a race of this difficulty and length, falling off the pace early makes it very unlikely to make up the time later in the race. Yes, the second half of the race consists of mostly downhill, but I wasn't sure how fast I would be able to cover those descents. I was content with staying in the presence of the current 10 km segment and making my way to the 50 km point where a crew of Comrades enthusiasts would have my remaining nutrition, and I could get them to rub some sports ointment on my legs to ease some of the tightness.

My legs were feeling a bit tighter than I anticipated, and as I was clicking off the kilometers in the 40 km segment, I realized something strange. I typically take my nutrition every one and a half hours, but on this day I was not desiring the planned amount of food. I didn't feel a drop in energy or the empty feeling in my gut. I just let it be once I realized that it had been a while since I took in something. Even my stomach was a bit off with strange noises, passing gas, and feeling empty, yet I didn't desire any fuel. There is no time to hyper-analyze any of this, except to keep moving forward and manage whatever comes up.  I then forced a portion of the energy drink I use down my gullet. What came up next is a quick detour toward the toilet on the side of the road. No fuss, no tantrum, no questioning, just a standard #2, followed by a #1 and back on the course I went. This all happened just as I was approaching my support crew, and as I got back on the road, I see the nine-hour pacer with a large group passing by. I wasn't sure what to make of this. You see, this is Comrades, and it's pandemonium on the roads, it's hard to tell if the pacer is accurate. Are they running faster than the predetermined finish time? How accurate are these pacers?

I had no time to process this at the moment. My focus was on taking my remaining fuel from the crew. This exchange looked something like the pit crew at a Formula 1 race track. My flasks were quickly handed to me while another member of the team rubbed ointment on my quads and hamstrings. I was suddenly back on the road and tangled in the group of runners falling in behind the nine-hour pacer. At that specific moment, I found myself there with that particular group, so I ran along with them. At Comrades, these pace groups are called "buses" and the driver of the bus is the pacer at the front of it. On the pace flag of the bus driver was his name, Joseph. Joseph also wore a green number indicating he finished this race 10 times. Seventeen times to be exact, according to his bib having 17 printed in the lower left corner.

I thought to myself, I'm in good company. Once again, it was a reminder that we're all in this together. The support along the course was incredible. People line the roads endlessly. They offer their own food in addition to the race organized fueling stations. The people are everywhere shouting encouragement as they call out your name. This shouting doesn't end until you have crossed the finish line and gone to meet your supporters. The finish is still far away.

This is part 2 of a 3 part blog series featuring my experience of running the 2018 Comrades Marathon. You can read the next part of the series here.

What do I do now?
 
In my health coaching practice, I help clients get unstuck from their old conditioning and start living with a healthier mindset that empowers them to create a future that better serves them. Click here now to talk with me 1-to-1 about where you really are in your life and what changes you will need to make so that you can start living your goals and desires now.
 
To your health.

Dejan

PS – Want more? Subscribe to my weekly health tips email to stay connected and informed.

Out of control.

On June 4th, 2018 I departed for South Africa to participate in the Ultimate Human Race, the Comrades Marathon. The day started with the scheduled car service not showing up at 8am as planned. After a phone call to the owner of the car service company and minutes ticking away, I made the decision to drive the one and a half hours to Denver International Airport.

Yes, I was frustrated with the screwup and my mind kept going to all the stories of "how could," "he should have," "I can't believe..." All that chatter does me no good when it comes to catching a flight in 3 hours, an hour and a half drive, parking, shuttle service, and passing through security.

So where does my focus go in a situation like this? It still goes to blame, the victim, and all that trash. So, I choose to focus all my energy on the details of making this flight. I drive on.

When I travel, I always put myself in the mindset of adventure. I never know what surprises will pop up and how far off the plan I will be taken. You see, when traveling by way of an airplane, I am completely out of control. Being inside that cabin always puts me at ease. I know, this might sound crazy to some, but I have made a choice to be on that plane, and now I surrender to faith, and other people who are managing all that comes along with the travel experience.

Once I'm up in the clouds, as much as I may want to convince myself that I'm in control, it's just mind torture - it's the ultimate surrender experiment. At that moment, I'm not flying the plane, I'm not the weather, I'm not the maintenance crew that did the safety check, I'm not the air traffic controller managing the flight patterns, in other words, this whole thing is more significant than me.  So, as I arrive at the gate in time for boarding, I'm surprised by the availability of an exit row seat, Yesssssss. It's the long legs ya know.

After one pleasant surprise, I'm greeted by another surprised not so desired. As we prepare for taking off, the captain informs us that we'll have to return to the gate because of a reason that I understood as a safety check after his long-winded explanation. Then the mind starts up again with its chatter.

You see, the scheduled arrival time to New York for my connecting flight to Amsterdam is only one hour before take off. The captain assures us that the delay will be brief. However, the mind still goes through the worst case scenarios. Then I remind myself just how out of control I am. I sit back, relax, and enjoy the slow breaths easing me into closing my eyes. As we go through a quick safety check explained by the captain, we are back on the runway waiting for taking off.

And we're off.

A few minutes into the flight and the woman next to me grabs hold of my arm as we encounter some turbulence. She says "I'm sorry." I respond with a "No problem." At that moment I'm reminded of our human connection. That woman could have grabbed the armrest, but instead, her instinct was to grab hold of another human. She went on to say, "It makes me feel better." It made me think of our human desire to feel we aren't alone. Instead, the act of holding on to the arm of another human gives us the experience of feeling we're together on this out of our control adventure called flying on an airplane.

Just then, I looked across the cabin at the human heads peeping above the headrests and realized we have all surrendered at the mercy of this flight whether we know it or not. The time is now ticking, and it's getting closer and closer to the departure of my connecting flight to Europe, eventually taking me to South Africa. I start to estimate the arrival time, arrival gate information, distance to the departure gate, and what my friend is thinking as she waits for me at the departure gate. I do all this as I stay present with the fact that so many factors are out of my control. All I know I can control is my actions once that airplane door opens.

I ask the flight attendant for the departure gate directions, and she provides me the instructions on how to get to gate B28. The instructions didn't sound as if the departure gate was too far away and after the captain makes his final announcement, I estimate I will have approximately 15 minutes to get to the gate. In the midst of all the anticipation, I'm texting my friend as much information as I know about our status on that plane, and she is talking to the crew at the departure gate informing them of my minute by minute status. 

Then silence.

We wait for the airplane door to open. Thankfully I'm seated toward the front of the plane, and the crew has asked the passengers without a tight connection to stay seated to allow people like myself to get to our connecting flights. The doors open, and I'm sorting myself in between the slower moving passengers, out the plane door, zig-zagging in a tip-toe walk-run motion in between people as we exit through the gate tunnel. I reach the tunnel exit and spill out into the terminal open space. I'm free to run. I make a quick right with my roller bag behind me and get into a full out acceleration weaving between people. At this point it appears I'm going at snail pace and I'm scouting whatever open space I can find in the midst of the crowd.

I'm running on my toes now at a full sprint as if I'm at the Olympics running the 100-meter dash. Everything around me is a blur. I can't even make out distinct faces in the crowd, as I'm focused on what I can control - running as fast as I can without knocking any people over. I'm running, and I'm running. Then I approach an escalator, luckily without many people on it. I'm now skipping steps focused on reaching the top of the escalator and how much longer to the gate. I get to the top and see the straight shot down the corridor. I start counting down the gate numbers, B46, B44, B36...

In my full-out sprint, breathing in all the oxygen I can, I never even looked at the watch to see if I'll make it.

Gate B28... I made it as the last few passengers are boarding the plane and my friend waving her arms at me. I slow my pace as I hand my passport to the woman behind the counter and hug my friend. We are both laughing at the comedy of it all, and we walk over to the tunnel entrance to have our boarding passes scanned. We're on our way to Amsterdam.

As I sit in my seat, I reflect on the fact that no matter how many times I was faced with being out of control, it all works out. All we can do is sit back and enjoy the ride.

This is part 1 of a 3 part blog series featuring my experience of running the 2018 Comrades Marathon. Read the next part of the series here.

What do I do now?
 
In my health coaching practice, I help clients get unstuck from their old conditioning and start living with a healthier mindset that empowers them to create a future that better serves them. Click here now to talk with me 1-to-1 about where you really are in your life and what changes you will need to make so that you can start living your goals and desires now.
 
To your health.

Dejan

PS – Want more? Subscribe to my weekly health tips email to stay connected and informed.

Are you living in the past?

When we look at old pictures, reflect on a trip we took, or recall memories with friends and family, we can often find our selves living in the past, wishing that we could relive past moments.

Reality is that the past is the past. While we play back those past memories, notice that we are looking at the past events through the eyes of the present moment. We're merely experiencing those past events in the present moment and those events can't be replicated.

When I work with clients, they often say, "I want it to be like it was". Truth is, it can never be the way it was. However, we can experience the same feelings in our body as in the past, which brings us joy, yet we might be living that joy through a different experience than in the past.

I'm called to share a part of my own story I had written 3 years ago, as I prepared for the longest run of my life. Three years later, I find myself at the peak of training for the same event again. Be sure that it's never the same experience, just a few familiar parts. Oh, and I now live in Colorado, change once again. ;) Enjoy!

As written 3 years ago:

I'm a firm believer that all events of the past lead us to the current point. My story began in a small town called Zablace, located on the coast of Croatia. 36 years later here I am living on Long Island in the state of New York. Now, many events have transpired in between all of that. Some of it went like this.

In 1986 my mother took her own life away. My father protected my emotions like they are made of porcelain. Two years later I met my future stepmother for the first time. My father departed for the states and remained there for a year to get married to my future stepmother. My sister and I stayed with my uncle for the entire year. Then my sister, father, stepmother and I all came to the states in the summer of 1989. I was introduced to my two new stepsisters for the first time. I started 5th grade at P.S. 184 in Whitestone, New York without speaking a word of English. The following year we moved to Bellmore on Long Island, and I started 6th grade at a new school, Newbridge Road Elementary. A year later I started 7th grade at yet another school: Grand Avenue Middle School. After two years I started High School at another school, W.C. Mepham. At this point, I was beginning to adapt to change. I started running on the track team the winter season of my freshman year. Running has stuck with me ever since.

Sure there have been times away from consistent training along the way, but in some strange way, it was woven into the fabric of my very existence. It has connected and bonded me to people who to this day are closest to me. After many years of completing Marathons, Triathlons, and Cycling for hours on weekends, I started to wonder "why." Why do I do this? Why am I drawn to it? Why do I need it? Why is it that I want to do more of it? Why? Why? Why? At different points in my life the "Why" has had different explanations. As I started to connect the dots and navigate the allies of my heart I had a conversation with a friend. I explained to her that I felt I was blessed with the gift to be able to do this and I wanted to do more with it. I explained to her my story and the history of my mother taking her own life and how I don't want to run away from it. I can't change it, and I don't want to change it. I own it, it's mine, it's a piece of me, and I'm proud of it. I told her I wanted to increase my athletic performance and some way somehow raise awareness for others who might feel they are in the dark. She pushed me; she challenged me, she pushed me some more in my athletic endeavors. However, I still wasn't sure "how" I was going to contribute to raising awareness for Suicide Prevention.

In time, without planning on it, my "how" presented itself. While I was training for the 2014 NYC Marathon my friend Bari was making a routine visit home from Louisiana and asked me if I cared to share a few runs with her. She happened to be training for the NYC Marathon as well, and I was excited to share a few runs with her. As we ran along and caught up on life, she began telling me about her desire to complete the Comrades Marathon in 2015. Now I had heard about this event through the running magazines and such, but it was the last thing I expected to hear from tiny little Bari. She went on to explain her plan for the upcoming year to include returning to South Africa in March and staying there for three months and completing Comrades. She matter of factly said to me "Hey I think you would be a great person to do this with." 

Running long distances is one thing, running Marathons is another, running ultra-marathons is perhaps a whole other sport. Regardless, it wasn't the running part that I was avoiding in committing or flying to South Africa; it was simply defaulting back into the abyss of daily life. It wasn't until a month or so after Bari, and I completed the NYC Marathon that our conversations on those training runs started to creep back into my consciousness. Specifically recalling her telling me how her friend Andrew took his own life the same year her friend Hillary was going through her battle with a brain tumor. Then there was the time when Bari was uncertain about her initial trip to South Africa, and I told her, "Go, or I might never speak to you again." Booooommmmm.

It was like an alarm clock going off on a Monday morning, and I realized that I was playing the "someday" game with my desire to raise awareness for Suicide Prevention. It was clear this was the opportunity to get started. As you can imagine what followed was a barrage of phone calls and text messages between Bari and myself to get ourselves organized. We started brainstorming how we can have the most impact and along the way have picked each other off the floor when the training felt overwhelming. But each minute we remind ourselves of what we are trying to achieve. While yes there are three specific causes on our radar, this is about transcendence no matter what your darkness might be. I'm extremely grateful for this opportunity and all the encouragement of friends and family. I send you all my love.

- Dejan

What do I do now?
 
In my health coaching practice, I help clients get unstuck from their old conditioning and start living in alignment with the future they want to experience for themselves. Click here now to talk with me 1-to-1 about where you really are in your life and what changes you will need to make so that you can start living your true desires now.
 
To your health.

Dejan

PS – Want more? Subscribe to my weekly health tips email to stay connected and informed.

Anti-aging tips for hands.

Dejan here to share with you my 3 top super simple beauty tips for helping you to get baby-soft, silky smooth hands in 3 days so you can put your best ‘hands’ forward! 

But first, why am I talking about loving up your hands?

Good question! I’m talking about your hands because your hands all too often get a bad rap don’t you think? We treat our faces like Cinderella—the belle of the ball—and our hands like her ugly sisters! 

But if you think about it, our hands do all the hard work! Way more than our faces. We use our hands all day, every day, to cook, to clean, to write, type, drive, to eat, to wash—to do practically everything, and then sadly, we get home and give them a quick wash with some generic soap. 

I know my hands are just crying out for more TLC! Aren’t yours? 

So what are my 3 tips for baby-soft, silky-smooth hands?

First, in case you are wondering, I want you to know that I would not recommend this if I hadn’t first tried it myself. So the last 3 nights, this is what I did to achieve baby-soft, silky-smooth hands and you can do it too! 

Here are 3 items you will need to help you get started: 

1. A good quality gentle exfoliator that is good enough for you to use on your face!
    
2. A good quality additive-free high SPF (30+) sunscreen also good enough for your face!
    
3. A jar or bottle of organic coconut, olive or almond oil to set on your bedside table!

How will using these 3 things give me baby-soft silky-smooth hands? 

Here’s how: 

• When you wake up in the morning and wash your face with your gentle exfoliator, apply it to your hands and give them a good rub and massage including your fingers. 
   
• Before leaving the house, when you apply sunscreen to your face, apply it to your hands too especially to the top part that gets the most sun exposure.
   
• Before bed, repeat the same application with your gentle exfoliator on your hands as you did in the morning. 
   
• In bed, reach over to your organic bottle of coconut, olive or almond oil and apply a blob to your hands massaging them all over. (Remember oil is oily so be careful not to stain your sheets and wait until your skin has absorbed all the oil before lying down.)

Voila! I guarantee you that in just 3 days you will marvel at the difference this makes to your hands, and in no time you will be sharing these 3 tips with your friends and family! 

It’s time we gave our hands the tender love and care they deserve for all the hard work they do for us day in and day out, don’t you think?

What do I do now?

If you’ve had enough of hiding your aging hands from the world, then click here now to schedule a time to talk with me about other ways to put your best ‘hand’ forward in your life.

No more hiding your hands, it’s time to let your hands be the star of the show, so you can reach out and touch life while feeling great about yourself and your skin.

To your health.

Dejan

PS – Want more? Subscribe to my weekly healthy lifestyle email to stay connected and informed.