Don't set a resolution - do this instead for you and your kiddo with food allergies.

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With the new year comes the talk of New Year's resolutions. Dr. Hoyt loves goal-setting but not with the traditional "resolution" type of goal-setting. Tune in to this episode to learn Dr. Hoyt's 3-step plan for making effective plans for the New Year and how these simple steps can help you and your kiddo with food allergies.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:03):
Hello and welcome to Food Allergy and your kiddo.
I am your host, dr Alice Hoyt,here to talk with you today
about how to have a superawesome 2024.
Those are big words, but, yes,I am going to go ahead and
proclaim that super awesome 2024and this is how you're going to

(00:24):
have a super awesome 2024.
And specifically, yes, this canapply to food allergy, just
like literally everything wetalk about on this podcast, but
this can also apply mom's, dad's, as you're listening to this to
life in general.
And these are the three stepsthat I follow to have awesome

(00:47):
years.
And ever since I've starteddoing this, which is maybe five
years ago at this point fouryears ago no, five years ago I
feel like I have had betteryears.
Maybe that's because I feellike life gets better as we get
older, but I do think absolutelythat my three steps have been

(01:09):
very helpful to that.
So what are those three steps?
First step theme your year.
The first time I themed my year.
So those I'm trying to remember.
So 2018 or 2019, I think it wasin 2018 for 2019.
And the theme was intentional.

(01:31):
And in 2019, I wanted to beintentional about all of my
decisions.
I didn't want to over commit, Ididn't want to under commit, I
didn't want to commit to thingsthat were not in keeping with
what I really wanted to doprofessionally and personally.
So being intentional was anawesome theme for my year,

(01:56):
because then I was able, whenopportunities presented
themselves, I was then able todecide with a mindset okay, I
need to be intentional because Iwant to do X, y and Z with my
family, or I want to achieve A,b and C professionally.
Remembering to be intentionalabout my choices was very

(02:16):
important, and a lot of timesthat comes with taking a step
back and not answering superquickly.
So, in the case of food allergy, if you are thinking about
doing oral immunotherapy orsublingual immunotherapy
depending on what you theme youryear it can help you take a

(02:38):
step back and think okay, I wantto be intentional about this.
I don't want to dive intosomething because someone on
Facebook said that it wastotally life changing and like
okay, I want my life changed too.
Like no, no, no, no, no.
So if you're being intentionalabout your year, whatever you
theme your year, that's going tohelp you make these decisions,
make best possible decisions.

(02:58):
So some examples of things thatI think are great themes for
your year, Intentional focus, myfocused year.
Here's the one that I think isgoing to be mine for this year
present, to be present.
And so when I'm makingdecisions about activities not

(03:21):
just for me, for my kiddos, forour family, how are we going to
be present with each other?
I mean, y'all life gets so busy, right?
So I think present is like areally good theme and as we go
through the next two steps, thisis going to be a little bit
more sense.
Another theme, another reallygood theme, especially if this

(03:44):
year you're thinking okay, Ireally want to tackle the food
allergy.
I know that there are a lot offamilies who have been managing
food allergies with avoidance,and avoidance plan is always
great because even when you'regoing through oral immunotherapy
or subliminal immunotherapy,you're still avoiding the

(04:04):
allergen when you're not doingthe specific treatment.
But a lot of families stillchoose to do avoidance as their
management plan.
And you might be thinking youknow, is OIT right for me or is
SLIT right for me?
And if you're themeing youryear as informed, then whenever

(04:25):
you're scheduling your allergistappointment, this may even
prompt you to schedule anotherallergist appointment, even
though it's not.
You're not due for your annualappointment, right.
Then if your year is to beinformed, then you're
approaching your decisions,you're approaching your doctor's
appointments.
You're approaching themdifferently because your goal
going in there is to be informed.

(04:48):
And if you're ready for thewhole night, why not go live in?
Patience is a great theme,right?
Sometimes we just need to be alittle more patient and
sometimes we just need to sitdown and just rest.
That's the next one on here isrest.
Yes, you can theme your yearfor rest.

(05:10):
Moms, dads, I'm talking to you.
You can have the theme of youryear to be rest, because there's
so much that you are alreadydoing Work, school, your kids'
school, all of these things.
They take up time and energyand sometimes we forget to rest
and that's important.

(05:30):
So those are some great, greatthemes.
And how do you pick your theme,right?
So some questions you mightwanna ask yourself is okay, well
, where do I kinda struggle?
Am I struggling because I don'tget enough sleep?
So maybe rest needs to be mytheme.
Or my kiddo is doing so manyactivities that he or she is not
getting enough sleep, so mayberest should be the family theme.

(05:53):
Next question where does myfamily struggle?
And then, where does mybusiness struggle.
So for moms and dads who eitherhave their own businesses or
whatever your job isprofessionally, then where are
your struggles there?
And a lot of times, you guys, Ifind this all sort of aligns

(06:16):
Even if we're giving our all atwork, we're still trying to give
our all at home and we justneed to take a step back and for
2024, I really think themingyour year can help you be
intentional about your choices,to make less stress, more joy.
That's what we always talk abouthere less stress, more joy.

(06:36):
So why do we really wanna havea themed year?
Of course is to make our livesbetter.
But like, okay, make your lifebetter.
That's kind of a generic goaland, as you've heard me talk
about before, I'm not all aboutgeneric goals, I'm all about
smart goals.
So what is a smart goal?
A smart goal is a goal that isS-M-A-R-T S specific,

(06:58):
immeasurable, a achievable orattainable, r relevant and T
time bound.
So if you have a smart goalthat can take a goal of I wanna
know more about my kid's peanutallergy, that's a good goal, but
it's not very specific, it'snot time bound.

(07:20):
So instead you might say more.
I wanna know what an error H2,specific IGE level in my kiddo.
I wanna know what that reallymeans for their potential
tolerance and I wanna learn thiswithin the next three months.
And so when you're setting atime bound, specific goal like

(07:43):
that, then you're able to takeaction that is appropriate to
help you meet that goal.
Because, kind of, going back tothe whole and I said it sort of
in just like the whole likeannual allergist appointment, I
fully believe it is important tosee your allergist at least
every year.
But the reason I say at leastevery year is because right now

(08:03):
there's so much changing in thelandscape of food allergy.
More providers are offeringSLIT or offering O-I-T and I
often find sometimes we end updoing our annual allergy
appointment right before school,where it's just kind of madness
.
Right, you wanna get your formsigned, you wanna make sure you
have enough epinephrine, autoinjectors, all the things, and

(08:25):
so it's actually really nice tohave an appointment where your
goal is to sit and discusspotential treatment options, not
necessarily to say, okay, Iwanna do this now, but if your
theme of your year is to beinformed, then that's a very
specific, intentional way thatyou can be informed is by

(08:46):
setting that goal of I wannahave an appointment with my
child's allergist tospecifically discuss treatment
plans, and I wanna do this byApril.
Whatever you wanna do, but Ifind that if we don't actually
set a date for things and theydon't get done right.
And also, some people reallylike to write these down.

(09:08):
I'm a big fan of writing thingsdown too.
I have no book where I writethese down.
I sit here with my pen, so thatis how we do.
Smart goals big fan of smartgoals.
And as you're setting yourgoals, those smart goals are
falling in line with whateveryou've themed your year, because

(09:28):
if you're trying to be moreinformed, then you're gonna have
smart goals that allow you tobe more informed.
So what's the third thing?
As I said, there were threeingredients to my recipe for
having an amazing year.
So the third thing on this listis to choose grace, choose grace
.
I'm not sure when the world gotso crazy or so polarizing, or

(09:56):
so you know whatever fell in theblank, unhappy adjectives you
want to use, but we need to showmore grace To each other.
Yes, and kindness, show morekindness.
If someone gets your coffeeorder wrong, that's a huge
bummer, but it's not the end ofthe world, and so let's show
some grace to that barista whois working two jobs right fell

(10:19):
in the blank.
I don't need to go into detailabout that.
But also choose grace foryourself.
Choose grace for yourself.
Especially if you're listeningto this podcast, it's because
you love somebody who has a foodallergy and it is hard to know
everything about food allergies.

(10:40):
I am a food allergist.
I don't know everything aboutfood allergies.
I talk to world-renownedexperts.
They don't know everythingabout food allergies and this is
literally what they we do for aliving, and so you, as a parent
, you're not going to knoweverything.
That's why it's so important tosurround yourself with good

(11:00):
support, good friends, goodfamily who get it, with a good
board certified allergist who isgoing to hear you and talk with
you about different treatments,and do it in a way that's very
open and engaging, and they'resitting and having a discussion
with you and not just typing andjust show grace to yourself, to

(11:25):
others.
Show yourself grace.
So if you theme your year, ifyou choose to set goals using
smart goals throughout the year,and if you show grace to others
and to yourself, then you willhave a fantastic 2024.

(11:47):
God bless you and God blessyour family.