Need some cool commitment ideas for your February 12in12? Here are 12!

1. Spend 1 minute in front of the mirror every morning, privately, saying, “I love you” to yourself. (It’s much harder than you think!)
2. Replace just ONE glass/can/bottle of soda with one tall drink of water each day. (Start somewhere!)
3. Trade 30 minutes. Go to bed 30 minutes earlier and wake up 30 minutes earlier. How does it change your rituals?
4. Write down your intentions. Even if you don’t share these with others, the power is in writing it down. Daily.
5. Tell one person a day that you appreciate him or her, and in what way. Be as heartfelt as you can be.
6. Find five reasons to be thankful today and write them down. Review them all at the end of your month.
7. Try one new song a day, from a different genre, from other countries even. Listen to it a few times in that day. Maybe 3 times.
8. Every day, even if it’s a lie, say, “I’m open to opportunity finding me today. I will look for new paths.”
9. Send three emails a day to people you should stay in touch with more often. Don’t ask for anything. Just check in. Ask what they are doing?
10. Take walking laps around the building at work when on conference calls (if you can). If not, do laps daily on break. (Bonus if the building is on a city block!)
11. Delete one newsletter or other email subscription a day. Are you really reading them all?
12. Write “sit up straight” on a post-it and put it beside your monitor. Do it as often as you can daily.

If you want even more motivation to live a juicier life and attain your goals, subscribe to my free newsletter. Your email address is safe with me. I respect your privacy.

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!

I had planned to write about the good, the bad, the pretty & the pretty ugly, as I make my way through TF’s book, yoga teacher training, competition training, grad school & family/work life, but balance went out the window these last few weeks and with it, my updates

Balance is a funny thing. We’re always talking about “work/family/life balance”, and how great things will/would be if we had it, but really, is it even possible? Think about it, can you really divide your time so perfectly that all the areas in your life are in perfect balance? I don’t think you can. I think there will always be an area or areas that dominate your time, whether it be by choice or circumstance. And that’s okay! But then why do we still keep chasing it?

I’ve decided to chuck the balance idea and just go with the “do the best I can” idea. I love my family and I love everything that I’m doing, so that’s what matters.The never ending merry-go-round of trying to give everything an equal amount of attention can be exhausting, and for me, has often left me feeling disappointed in myself. But the reality is that, with everything I’m doing, I should be proud of myself and enjoying everyday of the journey. And so should you.

Are you?

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?

FitarellaTV interview with  Robb Wolf

RobbWolf.com

(*I’m NOT encouraging a “diet”, this about taking 30 days to see how your body & mind feel, perform & function following the Paleo guidelines)

What keeps YOU motivated?? Tell us in the comments below!!

I am so HONORED to *know* all of you and to be a part of this incredible journey.

YOU inspire me.

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