The Happy Place Worksheet

Creating a Realistic Game Plan:

The goal is to create a game plan that is realistic, taking into account your knowledge and understanding of your body, and complete with good self-care and continued forward movement.
The plan should include the Functional Fundamentals of your body, involving an internal reset of your nutrition, cells, organ systems, and immune system.
It's important to gain an experiential understanding of what is helpful and what sets your body back, and to learn how to keep it optimal, healthy, and happy for the rest of your life.
The game plan should provide you with all the tools you need to live a happy, healthy, and balanced life.

Revisiting and Editing the Game Plan:

Recognize that your body and needs may change over time, so it's important to revisit and edit your game plan as needed.
Set a goal to revisit the plan every 3 to 6 months. Revisiting it every 6 months, at two specific times during the year, can be achievable (e.g., birthday and half-birthday, anniversaries, equinoxes, special holidays).
Consider doing a cleanse, detox, or regroup twice per year, such as in the spring and fall. From a Functional Medicine perspective, a twice-yearly cleanse can be a smart idea.

Congratulations on nearing completion of your Total Health Reset Course! The game plan you create should be realistic and personalized, reflecting your best interests and serving as your guide moving forward. It can be displayed prominently, such as on your refrigerator, desktop, or wall.

The 80/20 Rule. This concept was discussed in an earlier video. This concept is based on a business book by Richard Koch, capitalizing on what is called the Pareto Principle. Although complicated, the piece we want to emphasize is that trying to be 100% all of the time—to expect 100% of yourself, be 100% ready for any change you want to make, plan to change some aspect of your life by 100%-- is often both unrealistic and unnecessary. Often some level below that is usually good enough. One major exception would be if you have an anaphylactic reaction to something, or if you have celiac disease or a major allergy or intolerance. Of course, 100% avoidance is smart. But in most other cases, perfect is not always necessary. So, when you are making a plan for yourself, keep it realistic. But also give yourself a ‘low-ball’ percentage that is just not acceptable, as you know it will start to unravel all of the good work you have done. Know that if you ever get to that lowball percentage, it is time to group up and pull yourself back. A common example might be, say, sugar. You know that your body feels better without added sugar. But your friends or your grandchild loves to bake, and occasionally presents you with a cookie made with lots of love and also some added sugar. This becomes a choice. Each one of us is responsible for knowing ourselves well enough to know what works best. For some, never having any added sugar is necessary to keep from starting to fall down that slippery slope. For others, having something once or twice a week or month doesn’t hurt much and results in great joy. I had one young dad who went into major depressive symptoms every time he ate sugar. He has decided never to eat it again. You need to know for yourself what works for you.

Know where your weak spots are and how to fortify them. You have learned a lot about your body. Do you have gut issues that need to be supported with certain foods, enzymes, or supplements? Do you have inflammation that needs to be kept in check with an anti-inflammatory food protocol and higher doses of fish oil/EPA/DHA and antioxidants?

Do you need to support your adrenals, your thyroid or your sex hormones? Do you have blood sugar issues that need ongoing attention? Are you at risk for heart disease or stroke or want to support healthy blood vessels (I.e. inflammation and lipids)? Do you have an autoimmune or autoinflammatory condition that needs to be kept in check? Do you have risk factors or genetic predisposition to dementia, cancer, or other degenerative conditions that you want to keep in check?

This is also a great time to assess yourself for balance in your life, as well as your levels of stress ability to manage stress, your relationships, your mental/emotional health and how you can support it, your sleep, your work/play balance, level of body movement.

The 7 Fundamentals of Health

Genetics and Antecedents: Knowing Them and Supporting Them
Gut Health
Immune Health and Inflammation
Nutrition Status (Including Supporting Your Mitochondria)
Toxins and Detox Pathways
Hormone Balance
Stress/Mental/Emotional/Spiritual Health

Is your health where you want it to be? Are your symptoms where you want them to be? Brain? Energy? Sleep? Gut? Pain? Recovery? Moods?

Is your weight a healthy weight for you? Have you measured percentage body fat? Is there more work to do there?

Are there illnesses/health issues that run in the family, or that you have already identified in yourself, that you would like to support, change, or avoid? Do you know how you are going to approach it?

Review this list carefully and make note of what you want to enhance, correct, or pay attention to...

Food Review:

What did you like best about the food changes?
What did you learn from the eliminations/reintroductions?
Which foods are not right for you?
Which foods really feed you?
Which foods do you want to eliminate completely?
Which foods do you want to use only sparingly?
Which foods do you want to incorporate more often into your food plan?
What would you like your food plan to look like for the next 3 months?
What would you like your food plan to look like for the next 3 years?
How has your relationship to food changed?
Do you need further support surrounding that relationship?

Body Health:

How is your gut? Are you digesting well? How are your poops?
Is your gut healthy? Do you think it might still be leaky?
What do you need to do to further evaluate it? Or if it feels healthy, how do you plan to keep it there?
How is your brain? Is it clear?
Are you concerned about it in the long-term?
What might you need to add (food or supplement) to support it?
Are you doing what you need to do to support brain function and minimize leaky gut/leaky brain and inflammation?
How is your level of inflammation right now?
Have you measured it through blood testing (CRP, Homocysteine)?
Are you getting enough Omega 3's?
Do you need to adjust your intake/exercise/supplementation to support low levels of inflammation?
Do you need to consult with a Functional Medicine specialist or Naturopath regarding inflammation?
How is your energy? Is it where you want it to be?
If not, what do you think is getting in the way?
Have you checked your thyroid? Your adrenals? Your female/male hormones? Nutrient levels? Sleep?
Do you have mitochondrial support on board?
Have you consulted with a Functional Medicine professional or practitioner who can do some testing, including testing for low-level infections and toxins that might be behind your fatigue?
How is your blood sugar balance?
Your weight?
Your fasting insulin level, HgA1C, fasting blood sugar?
Does this need work or further consultation?

Body Health Continued:

Is your hormonal system in balance?
Have you checked your thyroid (deeper level/Functional Medicine or Naturopathic testing), your cortisol levels and patterns, your female/male hormones?
Might this be a good next step?
Are you supporting your detoxification pathways?
How can you better support them?
Do you want to further evaluate them with blood or urine testing or genetic testing?
Do you want to bump up your superfoods/antioxidant foods/supplementation to support your detoxification?
How often do you want to put your body through a gentle maintenance detoxification?

Lifestyle and Body/Mind/Spirit:

What activities help you manage your stress?
How have you implemented body movement?
Do you need to add more activities?
What would be some good habits/daily rituals that would help you maintain lower stress in your life?
Do you need help managing the stress in your life or how your body reacts to stress?
Would you think about working with someone who has expertise in this area? (counselor, coach, biofeedback/heart rate variability, meditation, friend, spiritual advisor, EFT (Emotional Freedom Technique), other)
How well do you sleep?
Do you need further evaluation (sleep study, Overnight Oximetry, external device monitoring - Oura, Fit Bit, Apple Watch, etc.)?

Lifestyle Continued:

How is your spiritual health?
Do you need help, companionship, coaching, journaling, gratitude practice, etc.?
How is your social world?
Are you satisfied with the balance between social and personal time?
Do you need more friends who feed you?
Are you feeling supported?
How is the balance in your life?
Work vs. Play?
Receiving vs. Giving?
Is your physical body moving enough?
What would you like that to look like and how would you like to get there?
Have you identified a purpose or purposes in life?
Is this important to you?
What can you do to help you get there?
In keeping your body healthy, what is your WHY?
WHY do you want to keep your body healthy?
When you think about yourself, do you have loving thoughts?
Would you speak to a friend with the same words you speak to yourself with?
Do you enjoy being with yourself?
When you look in the mirror, are you kind to yourself?
Are you honoring your progress?
Does any of this need further attention?

Keep this chart handy to remember what you have gained from doing.