You know you can’t get through January without being inundated by the New Year’s resolutions push to lose weight or get healthy. It’s all over the internet, on TV, and I’m sure at least half of your friends are on the bandwagon with their new diets and gym memberships. That’s great – whatever it takes to get them and you – into the gym!

But, I think that there might be something else causing people to be overweight that can’t be fixed in a gym or on a diet, and I think it’s time to start putting some focus on it.

I think being overweight may be a symptom of toxicity.

I think that some weight could be your body’s defense mechanism against all the toxic elements in your life.

I’m not just talking about the toxins and chemicals found in fruits and vegetables that weren’t grown organically, or chlorine in your tap water, or even the chemical-based detergents and cleaners in your home. I’m talking about the toxicity that is created in the rest of your life: your job, your relationships, even the information you consume in a day.

If you are in a job you hate, or you work for a company you don’t believe in, or you don’t get paid enough for what you do – all of that leaves you in a toxic situation.

Yelling at your kids, being frustrated with your significant other, losing your temper at drivers on the road, or the barista that got your order wrong, or didn’t ring you up quickly enough, if it always seems like you’re at odds with the people around you or they’re always letting you down… sound familiar? Guess what? You are creating toxicity.

If the bills are piling up and you’re not planning for your future and retirement, but you keep spending money, you’re living in toxicity.

If you spend hours a day watching your Facebook feed or catching up on world news, with all the terrible things that seem to be happening lately, you are feasting on toxicity.

Being healthy is about more than eliminating processed foods and changing your soap and moisturizer. Your body is constantly dealing with the stress of all this toxicity. How can you expect it to respond well to fitness and good food if it’s constantly fighting a battle for balance within?

To be holistically healthy, to create the WHOLE YOU, you have to address ALL of the toxic areas of your life. @hayleyhobson (Click to Tweet!)

Stress is the leading cause of inflammation in the body and if you are constantly living in it, it can create a domino effect. Your body is in toxic overload, inflamed, and swollen because you’re stressed out, which stresses you out even more. Before you know it, you’re screaming at the kids which wears you out, lowers your willpower and resolve to be healthy, and the next thing you know, you’re curled up on the couch, watching Housewives of Orange County, with a glass of wine and chocolate to ‘reward yourself’ for all the stress in your life. It becomes a big, awful, endless circle of bad habits reinforced by stress that, whether you believe it or not, is in your control to change.

I’m not saying it’s easy to change! Finding a new job that you love is tough stuff! Catching yourself before you blow up at the kids when you’re REALLY ANGRY feels impossible. But why struggle and suffer with the toxicity of a job you have no passion for? Are you going to look back when you’re old and gray, and be glad you stuck with it, with no stories to tell, and nothing from it but a mediocre 401k? Or are you going to realize that life is short and you have to make the most of it every single day and do something to change the toxicity in your life?

I’m asking hard questions, I know. But if you want to really be holistically healthy, you really have to look at your whole life, not just what’s in your refrigerator.

XO Hayley

Hayley Hobson is an author, speaker, business coach, yogi, Pilates instructor, and holistic nutritional expert based in Boulder, CO. Her unique and intelligent style promotes strengthening while softening—empowering her clients to heal not only their physical bodies but their hearts and minds as well. To learn more about her nutritional courses, events, and custom programs, visit hayleyhobson.com or follow her on Facebook or Twitter.

I have a webinar coming up on January 15, about the true nature of weight loss. I want to get past the magic bullets and the fads and get to the heart of really being healthy, clearing the toxicity out of your life.

Image courtesy of Jodi Green.