Adopting Healthy Lifestyle Habits: the easy way
Image courtesy of: Iqbal Nuril Anwar from Pixabay
Have big dreams of feeling better in your 30s and 40s than you did in your 20s? Struggling to know where to start with your health, while juggling kids, a profession, and a resemblance of a social life? Wishing you got started your health journey sooner?
Welcome, you’ve made it to the right place!
We’re going to talk about some of the most basic, attainable changes you can do TODAY to better your health. If you’re feeling overwhelmed with the amount of information on the internet about how to “be healthy”, consider this: healthy means something different to everyone, whether that be losing weight to be healthy, having more energy levels as a sign of being healthy, or having a healthy mindset that allows food freedom and allows for the most enjoyment out of life. Whatever “healthy” means to you, it all comes down to whether what you’re doing is achievable, and realistic in the long-term. Gone are the days of crash dieting (cabbage soup diet, WHAT was that!?) and now is the time to treat our lovely, incredible bodies with the respect and compassion that they were made for.
When I refer to long-term changes, what I mean is can you maintain the positive habit for >6 months? 1 year? 5 years?
Let me give you an example: if you decide that low carbohydrate, or <100 grams of carbohydrates per day, is the way to go, you could very well maintain this eating pattern for a least a few weeks, maybe even a month or more if driven by internal and external motivation (more on this later). 3 months later, it’s your birthday, and your best friend who lives across the country has mini cupcakes delivered to your house. You enjoy 3-4 mini cupcakes, because yum and it’s your birthday, and you feel guilty because you already had plans to visit your favorite pizza joint for your birthday dinner and feel as if you broke your pact with yourself to follow a low carbohydrate diet. Do you avoid the birthday treats forever and/or deal with the guilt, OR find an eating pattern that allows for flexibility within your choices, zero guilt, and actually supports your health in the long run?
Start here.
Ask yourself this question:
“What’s one thing getting in your way of reaching your health goals?”
We’ll call this a barrier. Perhaps it’s…
Drinking alcohol too regularly.
An inconsistent exercise regimen.
Lack of time to prepare meals at home.
Once you’ve established your barrier, next ask yourself how you can set a goal to begin to break down this barrier. Let’s use example 1 here. If you’re consuming 2 alcohol drinks 5 nights per week, and feel that’s excessive, can you set a goal to reduce to 1 alcohol drinks 5 nights per week? Or 2 alcohol drinks 3 nights per week? The key is choosing something that is realistic to your current stage of life. For most individuals, I do not recommend the cold turkey method, or setting a lofty goal such as avoiding all alcohol for a week (or longer). If you jump from 10 drinks per week to 0, you’ve far succeeded your goal anyways, and that feels good! However, if you set a goal to decrease your alcohol by 10 drinks and only cut back by 2, that could leave us feeling like we’ve failed ourselves, and that doesn’t feel good. Keep it realistic, keep it attainable, and most importantly, start small.
Bottom line: If you don’t think you can do it forever, it definitely isn’t the place for you to start.
Remember, improving your health takes months to years of consistency. When you’re starting out on your health journey, it’s OK to have lofty goals, though I recommend choosing habits that are attainable in the immediate future.