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Hi everyone, hope 2012 has got off to a good start for you!

January certainly isn’t my favourite month, but what I do like about it is how I feel like I have a clean slate and a fresh start. Last January I did a month long vegan detox to kick start the year. Apart from losing perhaps a little too much weight, I really enjoyed it! You can read some of my thoughts on detoxes in this post. Of course I’m mostly vegan now anyway so I won’t be doing a repeat of last January, but I will be making a few changes to my diet for the month.

I thoroughly enjoyed everything I ate and drank in December but my body really is craving simpler cleaner foods. Over the last week I’ve experienced a bloated and tender stomach, head aches, heart burn and poor sleep, no doubt due to eating more sugar, processed food (especially soy), caffeine and alcohol – and in larger amounts than I’m used to.

My plan for January is basically to eat more simply. I’m going to give alcohol, coffee, black tea and processed foods a miss for a while and I’m also going to watch my sugar intake. I’m also going to go easy on the stevia for a week or so as yet again my taste of sweet things is totally off and I want to re balance that. I’m also going to go easy on the gums in my smoothies as I think my digestive system needs a rest from the added fibre. Rather than eating pasta or noodles I’m going to focus more on eating whole grains. Basically I’m going to be eating lots of vegetables, especially leafy greens, fruit, whole grains, beans, tofu, nuts and seeds. 

I’ve been re reading my favourite raw food recipe books and I’m feeling very inspired again, so I’m looking forward to lots of raw food creations!

Generally I’m thinking that my meals are probably going to look like:

• Breakfasts – green smoothies, fresh juices, chia puddings, porridge, buckwheat / raw granola and nut milk with fruit
• Lunches – big green salads with beans or tofu, home made dressings with lots of healthy fats, denser raw salads like my Healthy Feast and December salads, raw crackers and dip with veggies, home made soups
• Snacks – nuts and seeds, dried fruit, home made energy bars, lighter smoothies, tofu cottage cheese and fruit
• Dinners – Buddha bowls, Curries, Stews and Chilli, coconut and ginger lentil and rice stew, raw courgette pasta with raw pasta sauce or creamy avocado sauce
• Desserts – frozen fruit with spiced raw nut milk, raw chocolate, frozen chocolate avocado cups, raw desserts like my raw salted caramel pecan cake

There are a couple of specific foods that I’m going to incorporate into my diet in January to help me feel re balanced:

 

• Honey – I’m going to use this as my main sweetener – contains antioxidants and probiotics
• Aloe Vera Juice – soothes the digestive tract, is good for skin
• Chlorella tablets – very nutrient dense, supports immunity and high chlorophyll content supports cleansing  
• Ground flax – contains healthy fats
• Detox tea – I just like this tea! The flavour is nice and pepperminty and I feel like it helps my digestion.

I received the Aloe Vera juice and Chlorella tablets from Pukka to review. I also received the honey from the New Zealand Honey Company for review purposes. In addition to these I’ll also be using Matcha Green Tea powder from Tea pigs (one of my January sponsors) as part of their Matcha challenge and maca powder (purchased myself, helps to support the adrenal gland and balance hormones)

I’m just going to try and eat well (making sure I’m eating enough) and I won’t be weighing myself. I haven’t weighed myself since the end of November and I don’t plan on doing so again soon! Following on from my thoughts in this post I think 2012 may be the year I ditch the scales once and for all :-)

Fitness wise I’ll be continuing using the same basic format as my last training plan, changing things up every 6 weeks and incorporating a ‘set back’ week when I relax my work outs and do a week long healthy feast. I’m kind of counting this week as my ‘set back’ week ready to start fresh next week. Another reason I’m making this my set back week is because I’m going in to get my wisdom teeth taken out on Thursday. I’m having it done under sedation because they are compacted. I’m expecting to be on smoothies for a couple of days at least! I’m also going to try and do some form of yoga or meditation every day in January even if its just 5 minutes – I know how good yoga makes me feel and I want to focus on that.

January Goals

• Complete my Diet and Nutrition Course
• Do some form of yoga or meditation every day as part of Tam’s challenge
• Sort out my costings and lesson plans for my first healthy living sessions with a local youth club
• Eat simply and according to my plan above
• Don’t weigh myself!
• Enjoy more relaxing outdoor runs
• Change up my fitness routine with the addition of new DVDs and classes to challenge myself
• Break ground on the allotment!

I really enjoyed the couple of relaxing runs I did over the Christmas break and I think I’m going to try and do more runs without the garmin to monitor pace so I can just enjoy running for the sake of running! I’m also hoping to try a kettlebell class my gym is running for a few weeks too.

January Sponsors

This month I am delighted to be welcoming Tea Pigs and Teavivre as blog sponsors.

I’m a massive fan of Tea Pigs and I’m really looking forward to taking part in their Matcha Challenge, for a great discount on their matcha use code MATCHABLOG12 at the checkout for a 20% discount!

Teavivre sell a wonderful range of teas directly from China. I’m awaiting some samples from them to review which I can’t wait to try!

As usual, if your interested in sponsoring the blog you can find the details on my sponsorship page. I’d love to promote other blogs so if your interested I can do a deal that includes designing you a blog button and having the blog button up on KHGS for a month for just £10! Its a great way to promote your blog to some new readers, if your interested drop me an email at laura@keepinghealthygettingstylish.com

It is also my 2nd blog birthday coming up so I’m planning a great giveaway! I’m also going to try and give the blog a bit of a make over if my IT and design skills are up to it.

How do you feel about the January ‘Health Kick’? Obviously I’m all for it, it gives me something to focus on in my least favourite month of the year and helps me to feel rebalanced after Christmas. Do you have any specific goals in mind for January?