Budig - Aim True: Love Your Body, Eat Without Fear, Nourish Your Spirit, Discover True Balance!

I must start with a massive thank-you to the women who made this book happenmy stellar book agent, Coleen OShea, and my editor, Cara Bedick. You are my dream team. Thank you for believing in and understanding my vision. You are forever part of my tribe.

Deep thanks to the entire team at William Morrow/HarperCollins, especially Sharyn Rosenblum, Emily Homonoff, Molly Waxman, and Leah Carlson-Stanisic. You are a joy to work with.

Constant love for my agent and dear friend Amy Stanton, my manager Denege Prudhomme, and to the entire team at Stanton & Co., who rock my world.

I would be lost without my personal assistant, Isabel, best friend, Caroline, and the entire Shea clan. You are part of my family.

I bow down to my artistic team, who made aim true come to life: Cheyenne Ellisyou are a badass, a dream woman and inspiration. Lesley Unruhyou are genius and gave my recipes the sassy personalities they deserve. Cynthia Groseclosemy partner in crime, teacher, and constant source of inspiration and knowledge. Justin Schram, Kenneth Hyatt, and Nicolette Owenyour killer taste is impeccable! Elissa Genelloyou just get me. We have so much beauty yet to put into the world. Sabra Mizzellmy beauty magician! Thank you for making me glow. Casey Van Zandtyou are THE stage mom extraordinaire. More thanks: Charles James, Tiffany Maloney, and Taylor Harkness. To everyone not named who worked on set with usthank you for the laughs and hard work.

Debbie Kimmay this be the first of many collaborations together. I have immense respect for you and your work. You are a true healer.

To my first mentor, Marty Semmelhack, who taught me the fine arts of making rice and meat sauce. To Giada De Laurentiis, for endless hours of yoga and food gab, and setting the example of what it is to be a powerful woman.

To the amazing companies who generously supported my book: Under Armour, Free People, Sage + Stone LA, Asha Patel Designs, Ox Bow Designs.

Finally, to my tribe: my friends for cheering me on; my family for always encouraging me to reach higher; my sister, Mary Frances, for being a warrior; to Bob and my four dogs, Griff, Keonah, Luna, and AshiI love you all to the moon and back.

Yoga

Clothing from Under Armour Women: www.underarmour.com

Mats from Liforme: www.liforme.com

Props from Manduka: www.manduka.com

Websites + Apps + DVDs:

www.yogaglo.com

www.yogajournal.com

www.insighttimer.com

Aim True DVD (sold on Amazon)

Food

Lucini Italia olive oils and San Marzano tomatoes: www.lucini.com

Sun Warrior Protein Powders (the chocolate and vanilla flavors are divine): www.sunwarrior.com

Garden of Life Perfect Food Green Super Food (the chocolate is tasty): www.gardenoflife.com

Uber Greens (great with the ): www.pureformulas.com

Vegenaise (my favorite vegan mayo choice): www.followyourheart.com

Maldon Sea Salt Flakes (this is my sea salt of choice): www.maldonsalt.co.uk

TeaPigs (liquorice and mint is my nightly ritual): www.teapigs.com

Kitchen

Vitamix blender: www.vitamix.com

Le Creuset cookware: www.lecreuset.com

Body

Doterra Essential Oils: www.doterra.com

Young Living Essential Oils: www.youngliving.com

RMS Beauty: www.rmsbeauty.com

Vapour Beauty: www.vapourbeauty.com

Dr. Alkaitis: www.alkaitis.com

minence Organics: www.eminenceorganics.com

Tarte Cosmetics: www.tartecosmetics.com

Ilia Beauty: www.iliabeauty.com

You are fantastic. A unique being tackling this incredibly juicy human experience that is riddled with challenges, miracles, mysteries, and questions that guide and inspire your path. As someone with the desire to aim true, you know youre reading this book as an opportunity to embrace your talents and find a peaceful state of self-acceptance. Many health or lifestyle books like to point out whats wrong with you. Theyll address where youve gone astray, and then give you a long list of chores and ways to fix yourself.

Let me make something abundantly clear: there is nothing wrong with you! You are a fully equipped dream weaver who makes magic reality with your toolbox full of experiences and passion. Every laugh line on your face tells a story, any scar displays your strength, and stretch marks are code for growth and willingness to evolve and change.

In fact, we are all perfectly imperfect, like Mona here. The Japanese call this wabi-sabithe acceptance of transience and imperfection. This doesnt mean you take a big sigh and accept the cards youve been given with dismay. It means you play whatever cards youve been dealt with finesse and austerity. We continue to grow every day because of our individual and collective life experiences. Our perceived flaws, whether physical or emotional, are what make us unique. Strong doesnt mean fitting medias version of healthy. Beauty doesnt mean flawless and eternally young. Smart doesnt mean making safe choices. The world doesnt need an army of Barbies and Kens. We need crooked smiles that show our humor, loud laughs that stem from the belly, and crazy, innovative ideas to save us from the safe but monotonous norm.

Its easy to forget to take pride in who we are when weve become habituated to focus on whats come before or whats next. This can be in our own life (in the form of past relationships or future jobs) or the lives and events surrounding us in person and in our digital lives (in the form of that person on the mat next to you acing a pose or that digital friend who always seems to be three steps ahead of you in terms of life goals). Regardless of these emotions triggered on your walk down memory lane or looking ahead, understand that you wouldnt be you without those experiences. Every experience is an opportunity to grow.

Along this journey, there will be tears of joy and hot springs of pain, but they all count and make us the wiser. Instead of focusing on perfecting ourselves, lets focus on what makes us shine.

What Makes You Come Alive?

I tend to get two distinct reactions from people when I ask this question in the workshops I teach around the world. The first type of person rattles off a list like a four-year-old ordering at an ice cream shop:

I love my dog! My family is the center of my universe! I cant wait to practice yoga every day! I get seriously emotional over professional baseball!

The other type of person looks at me with wide, puppy-dog eyes and a shrug of the shoulders after coming back answerless.

The truth is, knowing what makes you come alive isnt the easiest thing to know or understand. Were here to figure that out together. Some of us are deeply aware of what were passionate about, while others may feel like theyre just trying to stay alive one day at a time, fighting the daily grind of life. To repeat the first lines of the Artemis prayer, make my aim true. Give me goals to seek and the constant means and determination to achieve them. If we want to get to these so-called goals, we need to make our aims true. The first step toward this is working to understand what gifts you have to offer the world. Your natural talents and innate giftswhen understood and used dailyare part of what makes you come alive. Once we know what makes our heart beat, its easier to understand what goals matter to us versus the ones that we may have been working toward mindlessly.