Apart from body detox which people think is most important, there is also the inner purification aspect which I find equally important. As one teacher said “Don’t think so much about what you are putting in your mouth. Focus more on this what is going out from your mouth”. Following the fasting season, I am feeling better as a vegetarian.  I have been what I call a “grasshopper” for the past 13 years. After all those years, my face still hasn’t turned green. Being vegetarian is unusual where I come from. In my home country, Serbia, we can’t have a good party without roasted pork with an apple in the mouth.

 “Don’t think so much about what you are putting in your mouth. Focus more on this what is going out from your mouth”.

– Master Choa Kok Sui, founder of Pranic Healing and Arhatic Yoga.

Discover Thrive by Listening to Your Inner Voice

Being vegetarian doesn’t guarantee optimal body shape, weight and inner peace. I am finally partying with my body after riding a dieting rollercoaster since
my teenage years… there’s more to it than calories counting I have found. In 2015 wasn’t the weight I wanted to be,  but I decided to face with my personal challenges in different way through~by listening to my inner voice. 21 Spiritual Lessons for Surrendering My Weight Forever provided the answers for my quest. I found that we get what we need in the moment we are ready to accept it. I believe there is no such thing as luck. And then I got the chance to dive in a world of subtle energies through a technique called Pranic Healing which introduced me to meditation practices as an important part of my daily routine.

Ask For Support from your ‘Peeps’

Sounds simple, but in practice it was a challenge to send my monkey mind on vacation.

I did it by becoming aware, then recognizing and connecting with my true nature.  Besides the support of my sister, hubby, family and friends, I asked the Universe for an additional boost. That’s how I think the Yogahealer body thrive tribe came into my life. I became a Business manager for Yogahealer. I joined a multicultural team, that works remotely. Our business team tracks business performance and also keeps track of our Body Thrive habit success rate and goals. All team managers choose one Body Thrive  habit which they will embrace for a quarter of a year reporting progress on our weekly team meetings. Check out the spreadsheet image below. Or read more about it in our Yogahealer Business Team  Body Thrive blog post. This is how we support and inspire each other.

Choose One or Two Critical Habits to Focus on

I used to get overwhelmed and often fail when I tried to change my habits. Now I have committed to only changing two habits at a time. First for me is, Earlier, Lighter Dinner and then second is Regular Daily Breath Body Practice. I am actually running 4 miles a day. Instead of late night snacking and long evening lap-top sessions, the family knows the new rule is “Kitchen closed by 6pm”.

I wake up early every morning and have a run in the local football stadium. Organic olives harvesting is also a good “sport”  for me but it’s more for entertainment.  I am so into Breath Body Practices and I am thinking about making a Treadmill Desk like some of the other Yoga Healer team members.

Choose evolution and body thrive as a lifestyle

Thrive as a daily choice for me is challenging, especially when I am traveling. But I have learned to grow in my zone of genius with patience, step by step and a go with the flow attitude. We are responsible for the lives we lead, I believe, so we can’t accuse our parents, partners, friends or a newly elected president for our choices.

Every day I am rewarded with great energy and an inspired mood. I feel good because I am a bit better version of myself today than I was yesterday.

I am lucky that my personal and professional THRIVING are both on track and then some.

I am blessed with gently building habits and trying to treat myself in the way that I would like to be treated by other people. I choose to THRIVE and evolve in my own Mediterranean way!

Y’all, this is New Orleans. The Early Bird Special starts at 8 pm and the band doesn’t go on before midnight. That’s not just a rumor. Those are the rules.

The good news is that every hour is happy hour. The bad news is that the late nights and rich food of this city will do you in. Many a soul has regretted that 3 am daiquiri and fried pickles run, myself included.

The other bad news is that late night food and liquor become so habitual that you don’t even notice the grey pallor of your skin and the extra ten pounds until you go to someplace crazy, like California or Idaho, where people have tans and eat organic chickpeas or whatever.

I gave up the really late dinner habit almost a year ago, the first time I read Body Thrive. I lost 15 pounds in three months. Yes, I also made other changes, but ditching the midnight pizza was major.

So, when I made Earlier, Lighter Dinners my adventure of the month, I thought, “no problem. I already have this down. Now all I have to do is think of something interesting to say on the blog since I actually have nothing to say.”

Except that I do. Because, somehow in the past year, earlier has gotten later and later and lighter has gotten heavier and heavier. And I gained seven pounds, which, I think, is no coincidence.

Once I started actually tracking my dinner times, I realized that earlier has become 6:30 to 7:30 instead of 5:30-6:30, so I set the goal of eating at least six dinners a week by 7 pm.

Because kaizen, y’all. Small steps are do-able.

Aaaaaand…I did it every week except one. Despite the fact that I had numerous evening social engagements and my father visited from out of town for a week.

Here’s how I ate lightly before 7 pm and still had a social life in a twenty-four hour town:

1. I offered to cook. When I had guests over, I invited them to come at 5:30 or 6:00 and made sure we ate before 7:00, dessert included (which I never skip). I love to cook, so it’s no big deal for me to offer to hostess if it means I get to set the terms.
2.  I ate before I went out. I met people for drinks or hangout time after I had already eaten my quinoa and spinach salad. A side bonus of eating before you go out is that it makes going out A LOT less expensive.
3.  If I couldn’t eat early, I ate light. When my friend Claire came over for our crafting coven (it is what it sounds like) and made homemade vegan pizza at 7:30, I just didn’t gorge myself. I wanted three pieces and I just had two.

                                          Hanging out AFTER dinner.

So, then, what happened?

1. I lost weight. I don’t know how much because I don’t keep very close track, but I’d guess about 3-4 pounds.
2. I went to bed earlier. I hate going to bed with a full stomach, so sometimes if I eat late I end up binge watching until I feel settled enough to sleep. My screen time for the month went down dramatically because I wasn’t trying to find a way to wind down from a late meal.
3. I slept better. If my stomach is empty when I fall asleep, I sleep better. And I don’t have nightmares. Incidentally, I had nightmares five out of the five times I ate late during the month. Crazy ones with snakes and exes. Yuck.

                         Earlier light dinners are totally metal.

In other news, taking control of my late eating habit gave me the confidence to take control of some other habits that have been sliding (like grabbing whatever food is around instead of actually cooking) and made me think carefully about what I eat, at least during dinner time. I ended eating much more nutrient rich, satisfying, and beautiful meals as a result.

So, did my social life suffer? Nope. Not a bit. Actually, I think that I ended up having more interesting conversations and interactions with people when I invited them over for dinner instead of meeting out. Plus, eating early gave us more time to enjoy each other’s company before we got tired.

So, if you think that the early bird special is just for shut ins and retirees, think again. Early is the new late.