Our genetics are our physical blueprints. We all know the color of our hair, the tone of our skin, the shape of our nose, our stature, and the rest of our physical characteristics are largely influenced by our genetic makeup. But have you ever wondered how our genetics impact our nutrition? This includes our metabolism, absorption of vitamins and minerals, how our bodies respond to certain nutrients like protein, fats, carbs and much more.

Is it even possible to know how our genes dictate our bodies’ response to nutrition? The answer is YES! Welcome to the future of personalized nutrition, tailored to your unique body and based on your genes.

Genetic testing has been on the rise for several years now. With recent scientific advances, we have been able to understand our ancestral history and find long lost relatives. Now, for the first time, genetic testing can provide us with information not only about our family tree, but also comprehensive information for lasting health.

In collaboration with Pathway Genomics, Healyourhealthyourself is now providing our clients with genetic testing. A partial overview of what your test results will include is below. Everything is presented in a comprehensive report that is based on your DNA:

• Diet: should you follow a low-carbohydrate diet? Or would a low-fat diet work better? Is Paleo or Mediterranean better suited for your body type? We can now look at your metabolism of certain nutrients based on your genes to determine this.
• Eating Habits: Are you more prone to snacking? Do you have more of a sweet tooth than the average person? What does it take for you to feel satiated? Your genetic makeup holds the answers.
• Food Reactions: What happens to your body when you consume caffeine or lactose?
• Nutritional Needs: How much vitamin B2, B6 or B12 do you need? Do you need to focus on getting plenty of vitamin D in your body? Whether or not you need to optimize your intake of certain vitamins is also analyzed in your genetic test. 
• Exercise: Would your body respond better to running or weight lifting? How does exercise impact your insulin sensitivity response and blood pressure? You may be surprised by the results!
• Your Body and Weight: Are you more prone to obesity than the average person? What is your metabolism like? What are your chances of regaining lost weight? 

By understanding your body better, it is easier to select the perfect combination of foods to meet your unique needs, achieve a healthy weight, increase your energy and athletic performance, and reduce your risk of developing certain diseases. This is why I am thrilled to offer my clients the opportunity to receive genetic testing. Once we receive your results, I will provide you with a comprehensive meal and lifestyle plan and work closely with you to help you implement it. Are you ready for the best health of your life?

Interested in learning more? Click here to get started or email me at nomadistanutrition@gmail.com.

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How do you write a future self journal?

And how did this become a thing? 

You”ve heard of vision boards and have learned what it means to have a daily mindfulness practice.

In a future self journal, you sort of combine the two, but with a key difference. 

You’ll be using words, not images, to describe how you want your future life to look. 

It’s self journaling, which is probably not new to you.

But in this case, you’ll be writing about the future self you want to grow into. 

So, what does that look like, exactly?

What Is Future Self Journaling? 

While you can begin your future self journal with some information on where you are now — as the backdrop for the changes you want to make — your journal’s primary focus should be the self you want to grow into. 

To that end, feel free to write about any or all the following: 

• Habits you’d like to change — which your future self already has
• What you’re grateful for about your present and future life
• Your personal aspirations — what you’d like to accomplish and why
• Your perfect day and how it begins and ends
• Your home (location, structure, design) and what you’ve made of it 
• Your family — the people connected to you by blood, friendship, or both
• Your career and what it means to you

Write as much as possible about the future self you want to be, what that person does daily, and what that person loves about their life.

Or write about what you’re doing in the present that will make your future self love you forever.

Why Keep a Future Self Journal? 

Here are some of the key benefits of daily journaling with a future self twist:

• Reduced stress — because you have an outlet for your thoughts and feelings. 
• Gratitude journaling can improve your mindset for the entire day. 
• Clarity of purpose — because you’re taking time to get clear on what you want. 
• Excitement for the future — because you have something to look forward to
• Focus — because your big-picture goals remind you of actions you can take
• Problem-solving — writing about problems gets your mind working on solutions. 
• Increased self-awareness — what you want deep down is tied to who you are

Read on to learn how to create a future self journal you’ll love adding to every day. 

How to Practice Future Self Journaling: 11 Ideas to Get Started 

If you already have a journal, some of these steps will sound familiar. But this will be for an entirely separate journal, so we encourage you to choose a dedicated journal or notebook and give it an appropriate title 

• “Dear Future Self” 
• “[Your name], [future year of choice]”)
• “Time Traveling Notebook”

When your journal’s ready, the following tips will help you fill it. 

1. Make a detailed account of your average day. 

Write down how a regular day goes for you, from the moment your alarm goes off (the first time) to the moment you fall asleep at night.

Before you can create the life you want, you need to be aware of the life you’re living now. 

The more aware you are of your daily actions (even the smallest choices you make), the easier it is to make the changes you need in your daily routine. 

Everyone’s got a routine; not everyone is fully aware of it. You need to be self-aware to choose better actions and better habits for yourself consciously. 

2. Identify the habits you want to change. 

List the personal habits you have, whether you’ve consciously cultivated them or picked them up along the way. 

Highlight the ones you’d like to break and what habits you want to cultivate in their place. 

Then focus on building one of those habits at a time. When you write as your future self, write as someone who’s already cultivated those habits. Write about how you feel when you look back on a day well spent, even if everything didn’t go “according to plan.” 

3. Create a template for your journal entries.

A simple, structured template can help you get started with your day’s entry more quickly by immediately giving your mind something to work with other than a blank page. This can make it easier to get your thoughts down in the morning. 

You can use a list of questions, themes, or affirmations to help you focus or get started along with your template. Use them as prompts for a freewriting field in your template. Or write one at the top of the page to keep in mind during the day. 

4. Start with a gratitude statement. 

This statement can be the first part of your journaling template to ensure every day’s writing begins with five or so sentences about what you’re grateful for. 

Picture those things and take a moment to feel the gratitude before moving on to the next section. 

Your future self will be grateful to your present self for making this a daily priority. 

5. Write to or as your future self. 

On any given day, you can choose whether to write to or as your future self in that morning’s entry. 

If you’re ambivalent, flip a coin or take turns from one or one week to the next. It’s your journal, so you can always change your approach when the mood strikes. 

Whatever point of view you choose for the day, keep the good of your future self at heart. 

6. List your short- and long-term goals. 

List all your goals — short-term and long-term — and write about the reasons behind them. 

You know why those goals are important to you, and some of them probably excite you more than others. Pay attention to how you feel as you write about each one. 

Then list specific steps you can take to reach each of the goals that excite you most. 

7. Focus on what you can control. 

Focus your journaling on things you can actually change — not on things you wish would change but that are beyond your control. Put your focus where you can put your energy to good purpose. 

You want peace of mind and soul for both your future and present self. You can’t have that if you’re fretting about things you can’t change. 

8. Design a morning routine that includes journaling. 

A good morning doesn’t begin with grumbling and repeatedly pounding the snooze button. 

Your day should begin with your mind telling your body who’s boss. Your body wants to stay in bed; your mind knows better. And up you go. 

Journaling gives you a chance to start your day with words that do you good. 

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9. Set reminders to help you create a daily journaling habit.

You can even use a habit tracker app to remind you of your commitment to daily journaling — at least until it becomes a habit. With an app like Productive, you can build a streak you won’t want to break. 

And the longer your unbroken streak, the more your new habit will become an automatic part of your day. Plus, it feels good to swipe it off your list for the morning. 

10. Keep your expectations realistic and your plans flexible. 

Don’t expect massive shifts or breakthroughs in your life as a result of journaling. That’s not the goal.

The most lasting changes happen more slowly. Documenting those changes in a journal gives you something to celebrate and be grateful for. 

Things rarely go exactly to plan. Keep that in mind as you make your plans and devise strategies for carrying them out. 

Storms will come, and you need to remember that the more flexible you are, the less damage you’ll suffer when forces beyond your control threaten your progress. 

11. Remember the takeaways. 

Takeaway #1: Ultimately, your future self depends on your present self, which is the one writing the journal entries. 

Takeaway #2: Words, both spoken and written, are powerful. Use them wisely. Your journal should be a place where you practice being impeccable with your word. 

Just imagine reading over your journal entries a year, three years, five years, or more into the future. Which of your present goals, actions, and ideas will you be grateful for then? 

How Can I Develop My Future Self? 

To develop your future self, you need to have a better understanding of who you are in the present, along with where you want to be. You can even use a future self app or website to send messages to yourself. 

And if you’re wondering, “What should I say to my future self?” here are few ideas: 

• Present concerns and how you plan to address them
• Your current goals and actions you’re taking to meet them
• How you see yourself and where you want to be a year from now
• Your daily routine and new habits you’re proud of
• Changes you want to make and how you’ll make them

In short, think about the life you want and describe it as vividly as you can. This is something you’ll do on your own time, anyway. Resist the urge to self-edit. 

Are you ready to start future self journaling?

Now that you know what a future self journal is and how to get started on one, what will you do this week to build this habit? 

Are your fingers itching to start your first future self journal entry? After all, who doesn’t love a valid excuse to daydream for a bit? 

Writing in a journal legitimizes your biggest dreams (not that you need that). It also gives you a chance to test drive a dream future scenario.

Why not start by sending a thoughtful message to your future self?

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Creating a vision of the future is a process that begins with your identifying what’s most important to you. 

It begins with describing the life you want without sparing the details.

To create a vision in words, you first need to see one in your mind.

And to do that, you need to know exactly what you want to see in every area of your life. 

The nine steps described below can help you overcome your hesitation and finally articulate a vision that’s 100% yours. 

What Is a Vision for Life? 

Your vision for the future has to do with every area of your life. Describe what you want for each of those areas, and you can then sum up your vision in a brief vision statement.

It’s similar to a mission statement but with a crucial difference: mission statements focus on the present — what you’re doing now to realize your personal or professional mission.

Your vision focuses on the future. 

Start by listing each of the categories and brainstorming what you want for each: 

• Relationships — a loving and compatible partner; good relationships with your children; close friends who are always there for you (and vice-versa).
• Health — physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual health; an enjoyable and effective fitness routine; optimal nutrition; an empathetic/challenging therapist.
• Self-Care — taking time every day to meet your own needs.
• Career — getting started, building your brand, advancing in your chosen field.
• Finances — paying off debt, saving for retirement, setting aside money for travel.
• Home — buying a house, making DIY home repairs, finding an apartment you love.
• Education — college degree, reading, online courses, certifications, internships.
• Recreation — travel and adventure, hobbies, new challenges, vacation plans.
• Community — volunteering; supporting causes you believe in; joining protests.

Think of the categories you could expand on for a whole life vision board or a series of boards focusing on specific areas of your life. Expand on every one of them. 

9 Steps to Create A Vision for the Future 

With all the categories to consider for your overall vision, the prospect of summing it all up in one statement can seem impossible or reductive.

The following nine steps can help you work through the process and create a statement covering all the bases. 

1. Deepen Your Self-Knowledge

Get to know yourself and your deepest desires better. Otherwise, you’re likely to repeat the visions you’ve heard others express and adopt them as your own. 

They sound admirable enough, after all. Maybe that’s what you (should) want, too. 

As you grow, your vision will likely change — partly because you have a better grasp of who you are and what you want and partly because you’ve learned to think for yourself. You’ve decided to stop basing your life on other people’s values and priorities.

Your identity, your life, and your vision are yours and no one else’s. 

2. Ask Yourself the Right Questions

Make a list of questions related to the categories listed above, using the following examples as a starting point: 

• Relationships — How do you see your closest relationships? What changes do you want to see? What seems impossible right now but still highly desirable?
• Health —What health challenges are you facing? Who will help you face them? What progress do you want to see?
• Career — What is your dream career, and why? Where do you want to be with your career 3/5/10 years from now? What do you need to get there?

Ask yourself each question and answer it truthfully. 

3. Review Your Past

What can you learn from your past and your present to help you build your vision for the future? 

What opportunities have you passed up because you feared the consequences of failure or because you knew it didn’t match your life or habits, and you feared the cost? 

What choices have you made that have taken you in directions you didn’t want to go? And what have you learned from your experiences? 

You can take responsibility for your choices without torturing yourself for them. How do past decisions relate to your habits? And what will you do differently from now on? 

4. Let Your Imagination Run Wild (and Take Notes)

Give yourself permission to daydream and imagine your life as you want it to be. 

Even if some parts of it seem impossible or out of your reach, there’s no telling what solutions you might think of if you’ll just allow yourself to dream. If you still ache for something lacking in your life, giving up on it won’t make the ache fade away. 

If anything, it just goes deeper and affects more of your life until you decide to do something about it. Daydreaming about what you want gets your mind working on how to get there. Don’t forget to take notes. 

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5. Plan Backwards

Once you know what you want your future to look like, you can plan for the present by asking yourself what needs to change and how you’ll change them. 

List the things in your present that you don’t want to see in your future. List the things in your future that you don’t see in your present. Then outline the changes you need to make and the habits you’ll need to build to make those changes stick. 

6. Choose New Habits

Decide what new habits you want to build to replace those holding you back and keeping your mind in a perpetual fog. 

With those new habits come new thoughts — ideas you haven’t thought of before. This is the power of good habits; what you do influences how you think. Your patterns of acting influence your habits of thinking. 

Choose those that will get you closer to your vision.  

7. Create a Vision Board

You can create a large one to hang up in your home or workspace or use a journal or scrapbook to create something more portable. The point is to make a physical and visible representation of what you want to see in your future (as well as your present). 

Every vision board should reflect what you want, not what you think you should want. 

If you’d rather create something you can access on your phone or tablet, you can also create a vision board on a website or using an app. 

8. Find Inspiration in the Visions of Others

Look to examples of other’s visions and pay attention to your internal responses to each. Retain what resonates; disregard what doesn’t. 

And don’t forget to talk to the people you want to keep in your life to get their insights on your life in the present and what they’d like to see in your future. 

Ask them about their own personal visions, too. What could you do to help them create their own visions for the future?

While drawing inspiration from them, you might also inspire them to take more consistent action toward their own goals. 

9. Sum Up Your Vision

Take what you’ve written so far about your vision for the future, and sum it up in a brief but powerful statement. 

If you write stories, think about how you put yourself in your main characters’ heads and write dialogue by essentially taking dictation for the voices you hear. 

Imagine one of your characters is having an epiphany and finally articulating what they genuinely want — with a few well-chosen words. 

Sample Statement of a Vision of the Future

If you’re not sure how to sum up the results of the steps described above, reading some examples of personal vision statements, like the ones in this post, can bring it all together. 

Here’s one example to get you started: 

“ Although I value my introverted nature, I intend to experience more human connections in my life. I recognize the value of stretching myself and interacting with more people.

To this end, I am setting the goals of joining a book club and hosting dinner parties twice a year.” 

Ready to Create Your Life Vision?

Now that you know how to create a vision for the future, what will you do today to get closer to articulating your own? What will you do to get closer to it?

You are responsible for the path you’re on right now. Take a hard look at where that path is leading you and ask yourself if that’s where you want to be. 

If it’s not, look at where you do want to be, and find out what it will take to get there. 

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