Simple changes

New Year’s resolutions are easy to make and hard to keep. We all want a stronger body, a cleaner house and a more peaceful mind, but creating lasting changes requires more than just desire. It takes time, dedication and a little expert guidence.

That’s why SN&R spent the first two weeks of 2011 seeking the best advice for healthy living from local experts. Fitness instructor Lorri Ann Code spends her days teaching outdoor exercise boot camps and training triathletes. That’s a vastly different environment from the office filing systems designed by professional organizer Natalie Conrad and the quiet meditation groups led by Zen awareness instructor Caverly Morgan. Still, all three of our experts had surprisingly similar experiences with clients looking to change.

All found that Sacramentans are absolutely overloaded with information and time commitments. Whether a person is looking to declutter a kitchen, find an appropriate fitness regimen or discover their life’s passion, this influx of stimulation makes it easy to lose one’s way.

The answer, all agree, is in adopting a new philosophy. Simple changes—focusing on baby steps towards a single goal—add up to life-transforming habits. In the pages that follow, we’ve listed the experts’ recommendations for tiny efforts that create big results over time.

So dream big, but start small.