As I write this missive in anticipation of the final day of 2015, I’m recalling the multitude of reasons people have shared with me throughout the year as to why they don’t take better care of themselves.

The litany of “yes but’s”, “if only’s”, and “I can’t’s” littering the previous 12 months is enough to goad any mere mortal doing my job into throwing up her hands in an act of despair and surrender.

Fortunately, I’m no mere mortal – or so I like to think.

My unwavering personal and professional belief is that every person has the ability to elevate their health from any level; and because I’ve seen it demonstrated time and again, I can say with 100 percent confidence and conviction that excuses be damned, it’s never too late to care!

I’ve had the inordinate privilege of walking the path of improved health and wellness with so many clients this past year, helping them slay excuses left and right, and I feel incredibly grateful for the lessons they’ve taught ME along the way.

Like, for example, the “Turkey Pan Process.”

One of my newer personal training clients told me about encouraging a friend who is considering engaging the services of a fitness professional (a friend who has long struggled with his weight, fitness and health) to work with someone who will hold him accountable and call him out on his excuses – something she feels is absolutely essential (and one of the main reasons she’s working with US) when undertaking the “turkey pan process.”

Which is this.

Say you’ve prepared a gorgeous turkey for your holiday meal, a turkey enjoyed immensely by all in attendance, a turkey designated “the best ever.” Yet once the festivities are over and you’re faced with the dregs of turkey cookery, are you thinking about how delicious that turkey was? Of course not!

You’re face-to-face with a cold roasting pan full of cold turkey juice. Blobs of grease. A layer of fat.
Charred turkey bits. In effect, your pan is A DISGUSTING MESS!

The mere thought of cleaning it is enough to make you want to toss the pan and simply purchase a replacement. But because it’s a family heirloom, something that HOLDS VALUE, no way could you do that. So you begin to clean.

You dump out the juice, scrape out the grease and the fat, dislodge the charred turkey bits. And as you begin to make your way through the sludge, you see it – a small, shiny twinkle of that beautiful heirloom roasting pan, winking at you through the diminishing turkey sludge, and it encourages you to keep scrubbing and cleaning and scraping, because in the end, what are you left with?

A shiny, sparkly, beautiful roasting pan that you take pride in tucking away until the next big turkey roasting occasion.

And as my client shared, to her, that’s what it’s like when starting back on the path to health. You have to dig and scrape and work your way through the sludge of an unhealthy body, scrubbing and cleaning until you begin to find that shiny bit of healthy – at which point you’re encouraged to KEEP GOING.

And finding that shiny bit of healthy doesn’t take that long, really, once you get over the hurdle of JUST STARTING.

However, if you let that myriad of excuses take over and lead the way, you don’t clean the roasting pan, and you’re unable to appreciate the beauty and value that pan brings to you and those gathered around your holiday table.

Think about that.

Is the value and beauty a HEALTHY YOU brings to the world buried in sludge?

As 2015 fades into a memory, I encourage you to skip the short-lived resolutions and instead, START THE “TURKEY PAN PROCESS”.

If one (or more) of these sounds like you, get out that scrub brush!
* Yes I could go for a walk, but I’m so out of shape.
* If only I had more time, I would cook.
* What’s the point in exercising and eating better, something’s going get me.
* I can’t exercise because I have a bad knee (ankle, elbow, wrist, etc.).
* I have to grab my breakfast where I get my coffee, I have no time in the morning to eat.

WISHING YOU A HAPPY, HEALTHY, SHINY 2016!