Are you sick and tired of being sick and tired? Are you ready to make 2016 your healthiest year yet? Us too. Do you want to get healthier and need a friend along the way? We’re here. You have what it takes. We are just here to share some tools.

We have this goal to bring health and hope to the folks of Burien and it starts with you. You can experience your greatest level of health this year. We are here to support you as you make simple changes that add up to huge health gains.

This first quarter is all about changing habits. I would bet that most of us have some unhealthy habits that we would like to ditch and replace with healthier ones. In the month of January, our office will focus on one habit that we think sets our health back the most: eating too much sugar. Sugar contributes to dangerous abdominal fat, is addictive, causes behavioral issues in kids, and depresses the immune system. Did you catch that part!? During this time of year when illness tends to be everywhere, we are depressing our immune systems more than ever with sugar!

The holidays were absolutely full of sugar in the form of cookies, coffee drinks, alcohol, candies, etc. It was too much! Time to get back to normal and kick-start the year with a break from sugar. Please go at your own pace because there is not one right way to do this with every other way being wrong. Any effort you make to remove excess sugar will be effort well spent.

Some of us in the office will be doing the Whole30, which is highly effective but is a pretty hardcore sugar elimination diet and just isn’t for everyone. If 30 days of sugar restriction sounds crazy to you, then how about 10 days of removing all the sugar you drink and replacing it with water. Ditch the sugary coffee drinks, fruit juices and alcohol for 10 days. This doesn’t mean replacing it with artificial sweeteners though…that stuff will kill you even faster than refined sugar. Read more here.

My wife will be tackling the Trim Healthy Mama eating plan and would love to connect with some other women interested in giving it a try.

Others in our office will be adopting the “One Simple Change” approach for the month. For example, do you get too much sugar from eating flavored yogurts (did you know those things are chock-full of hidden sugar!)? How about making one simple change this month: buy big containers of plain, whole milk yogurt or coconut yogurt and add fruit that you puree yourself. This is just one of many possible examples. Tackle just one simple change and experience that small victory, bask in it, then tackle a new change. Changes become new habits in 21 days so imagine all you can accomplish this quarter just be adopting one simple change at a time!

Are you looking for support and ideas as you tackle these changes? Visit us on Facebook and Instagram and connect. See what the folks in our office are up to and share what journey you have embarked on and where you are in the process.

Coming Soon…a Couch to 5K Program in February! Join Dr. Collins, Dr, Scott, Ben, Sarah and Erin as they get ready for the Cove to Clover race right here in Burien. This program starts you off slow and gets you to where you can run/walk a 5K by mid-March. Worried you’re not up to the challenge? Don’t be! Hang out at the back of the group with Erin, who absolutely hates to run! We’ll get there together, guys.