I have a BIG dream and i’m not ready to let it go. Watch this video to find out what it is, and I’d be honored to know what yours is. C’mon, put it out there and let’s make it happen together!

Can’t see this video? Click here.

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I’m making 2012 my year to do 12 things that, no matter the outcome, I will look back on the year proud of myself for having achieved them. So many times I have gotten to the end of a year only to rag on myself for what I didn’t do or achieve, instead of giving myself credit for the good work I did do. Then I’d make new resolutions or goals for the new year that would eventually be forgotten, and repeat the cycle all over again.


2011 has been a year of a lot of reflection and personal change for me. Two things that have always been very difficult for me, but I have been working on like crazy are patience and practice. Patience & practice come into play with everything all the time, but I’m committed to doing the work, even when it gets really hard. So, for the new year I’ve decided to do something I’m calling 12 in 12. 12 commitments, 12 months in 2012.


12 in 12 – Here’s how it works:


Pick one thing to do consistently every day for a month (see below for suggestions.) It can be something new you want to try, something you want to get better at or something you want to see if you can live without. Commit to doing this thing every day for that month no matter what, even when you don’t want to, even when it hurts, even when it sucks. The practice is the reward. Once the month is up, you’ll start your next thing. You may or may not want to continue the previous month’s practice longer if it’s working for you, however, you still need to introduce something new for the new month.


Example: January I do 25 pushups every morning when I wake up. January 31st I decide that I want to continue doing pushups every morning. February 1st I begin a month of no coffee, while still doing my pushups every morning. Feb 29th (29 days in ’12), I decide that I want to go back to coffee, but still continue the pushups. March 1 I begin a month of meditating everyday, and still continue the pushups. March 31st I decide I want to continue the meditating, and on April 1st will begin one month of no TV. So now I’m still meditating, doing pushups, and trying no TV…Repeat until Dec. 31st.


I’ll be posting my monthly commitments from month to month, for January I will be doing 31 days of yoga. I’d LOVE for you to join me for 12 in 12, and I can’t wait to hear what monthly commitments you come up with. The possibilities are endless!

Remember: no one has a problem with the first mile of a journey. Even an infant could do fine for a while. But it isn’t the start that matters. It’s the finish line. – Julien Smith, The Flinch

Need some ideas on what to do daily for an entire month? Try one of these!

*Any physical fitness activity (pushups, running, yoga, pilates, weight training, boxing, crossfit, walking, biking…) It can be the same one for the month, or a mix.

*Read everyday for a specific length of time (15min, 30min, 1hr…)

*Give up something (TV, sugar, complaining, alcohol, the elevator, twitter/facebook, coffee, texting, Starbucks/Dunkins, eating out…)

*Volunteer

*Write (Keep a journal, start a blog, hand write letters)

*Say hello/compliment a stranger

*Wake up 30-60min earlier

*Take one photo a day

*Meditate (if only for 5min/day and work your way up)

*Try one new food a day

*Learn one new word a day (or five!)

*Unplug by 7pm

*Cook all of your meals

*Look in the mirror and say “You are perfect. You matter. You can do achieve anything. I love you”

*Check your email only at set times of day

*Take public transportation

*Try a different eating philosophy (Vegan, Raw vegan, Paleo, Mediterranean, Vegetarian)

*Do cartwheels and handstands

By the way, Subscribe to my FREE newsletter, and we’ll all stay in touch with each other about how we’re doing with the #12in12 . People do better with group reinforcement!

This past Monday I gave away my #140Conf NYC ticket because I’m having surgery tomorrow (well for some of you, by the time you read this it will be today) and I couldn’t attend. Now it turns out that I won’t be able to attend the very cool Fitness & Health Bloggers Conference in Colorado either.
Major bummer!

So, since I’ll be in bed, hopped up on pain killers, and can’t use my conference pass, I’ve decided to pass it on for someone else to enjoy.  Here is the conference agenda for you to check out to see if you’d like to enter to win. All you have to do is leave a comment below on what you’d hope to get out of the conference and how you’d pass that information/experience on to help others.

Since the conference is already at the end of next week, I will announce the winner this Friday, the 17th. I can’t say what time though, it all depends on how well my heavily medicated brain is functioning.

Best of Luck & Namaste!

]]> http://fitarella.com/2011/06/win-my-ticket-to-the-fitness-health-bloggers-conference/feed/ 8 http://fitarella.com/2011/06/surgery-week-trimming-the-fat-from-our-lives/ http://fitarella.com/2011/06/surgery-week-trimming-the-fat-from-our-lives/#comments Mon, 13 Jun 2011 13:16:27 +0000 Fitarella http://fitarella.com/?p=2165

But, before you do, watch the video for my boobie scoop.

My first experience with yoga was in high school. My voice teacher was a dedicated yogini and tried to encourage me to attend classes to help free my voice. “You will love it, your voice will soar!” she’d say. But I was 15, and yoga to me was stupid. I don’t need yoga to free up my voice, I thought. I already sound good and the Metropolitan Opera will be calling me any day now. However, I took a few classes anyway, and not shockingly, I still didn’t see the point. Men and women pretzeled themselves into weird positions and then just stayed there doing nothing but focusing on their “breath”. I was not impressed at all. Not to mention the positions were uncomfortable! It just seemed like self-imposed torture. And booooring, it was so boring.

A few years later I was deep into my eating disorder. Nothing else mattered. No longer concerned with whether the Met would ever call I focused on food and my body. Yoga had a new appeal because it seemed to me, that only the skinny girls did it. Therefore, if I did yoga, I would become a skinny girl too. The “Oms”, positions, and breathing still had no value to me, but I didn’t care because it was going to help me on my quest to thinness. Once I could effortlessly transition into a headstand, and be light as a feather, I would have met my goal, even if I had to force my body to do it. But the headstand never came, only a lot of head & neck pain.

In 2000 I gave yoga another try. I had begun my recovery with my eating disorder and found that I had a lot questions about myself I needed to explore. A friend suggested I come to a class with her. “This will be different, I promise you”, she said.  And it was.

The people in the class were all shapes and sizes. The teacher said “take one position at a time and just do what you can do, there is no wrong. It’s not a competition so check your ego at the door and focus on yourself. Yoga is for every body.” And from that class on I was hooked. The classes became about me, how I felt and what I could do. I was no longer comparing myself to others or chasing an unattainable ideal. As soon as I gave up all that “stuff” in my head yoga opened up a whole new world for me. Not only am I physically stronger, have increased my stamina & longevity and alleviated injury, but it’s an emotional release for me. During yoga, I am 1000% completely tuned into myself. Sometimes it’s euphoric. And sometimes I cry. But I always, always feel better.

Tomorrow I begin a 200 hour Yoga Teacher Training program, seven intense weekends of yoga from 8am to 8pm. I am incredibly excited, but also very nervous. Yoga has a way of showing you yourself in the most intimate way. It should be a very interesting journey, and I am ready.

Have you ever tried something you didn’t like only for it to appear in your life a new way later?

I stopped doing New Year’s resolution years ago because I never stuck to them. Every year I would make my list of resolutions partly knowing that I would inevitably break them and partly giving myself permission to inevitable break them. Why? Because they’re resolutions! No one sticks to their New Year’s resolutions, right? I then decided that I wouldn’t put out anything about the new year to come, kinda just go with the flow. I *thought* I was being smart because then I wouldn’t be setting myself up for failure, but what I didn’t realize was that I was also holding myself back from creating a purpose, a vision or intention for the new year. Not putting anything out was worse than a resolution because now I was giving myself free range to do nothing.

This year I’m trying something different. Last year I read a post by Chris Brogan about picking 3 words for the new year to come to use as guide posts for things you want to do and accomplish in the new year.  I thought the concept was really interesting, but did I do it? No.  Because once again I fell back into my pattern of not putting it out there. Tonight I got his newsletter for Human Business Works and there he was talking about the 3 words again…I’m taking it as a sign.

Here’s how Chris put it:
Pick 3 words that have a lot of meaning and that you can use as guideposts for things you want to do in 2011. For example, my 2010 words were: Ecosystems, Owners, Kings. I build ecosystems (like the HBW projects), I found more owners (like Estrella for 501 Mission Place and Joe for Kitchen Table Companies) and I tried to be kingly (by not stooping to the level of my critics – I failed at this a few times – and by connecting with other “kings” of my industry – and yes, queens but I don’t mean the word in its gender connotation.  My first time with picking 3 words, I did “Ask, Do, Share,” and it was in 2006 and it was one of my best years yet. Until 2007 kicked its butt, and then 2008, then 2009, and now 2010. Why? Because every year, those three words help me keep a focus that resolutions do not. I just ask whether things I’m doing fit into those three words, and I execute from there.

2010 has been a really great year for me, and I m so thankful for everything. But when I revisit everything that has happened in 2010, my most successful ventures, moments & relationships have been a direct result of speaking up, and “putting it out there.”

So for 2011, I am choosing my 3 words and sharing them with all of you: Centralize. Bulldoze. Infect.

What 3 words do you choose for 2011?