A Healthy Lifestyle.

Adapting a healthy lifestyle and transforming your body start from within. What do I mean by this? There are a few different meanings and thoughts that come to mind that go along with this statement! After reading this, I am hoping you will discover that adapting a healthy lifestyle is as easy as 1, 2, 3 and A, B, C!

You need to be mentally prepared in order to start and maintain a healthy lifestyle. Going cold turkey and changing your diet over night might seem like the best idea, but there is way more to take into consideration. Getting rid of all the junk food in your home is a great start because you just can't go wrong doing that! Getting it out of site & mind is very helpful and effective! Eventually though, you will leave your home and meet up with coworkers, friends, and family. You will stop at the gas station to fuel up (hopefully just on gas and not goodies). You will attend events every single day (big or small) based around food for the rest of your life! There are so many unhealthy options awaiting you, and your pre-programmed mind will be ready to indulge or over-indulge. At some point you will face the decision to satisfy your craving with the tempting, junk food or to fuel your body with the delicious, nutritious food. If you are not mentally prepared, it will be so much easier to just give into your regular ways of eating. Why not? I mean, just about everyone else is doing it, and they seem to be happy, right? Wrong! They might be happy eating their favorite foods in the very short-lived moment of tasty satisfaction. What happens when they over eat because the calories they just consumed are completely empty with zero nutrition (which leads to more hunger and junk food cravings). This causes digestion issues, weight gain (which leads to obesity), and obesity which is the number one cause of most cancers. It is a horrible domino effect. In the long run, all of those junk foods don't bring happiness, they actually bring pain. Feelings of disgust, failure, and actual pain due to serious illnesses are commonly what one will experience at some point in their life if they don’t adapt a healthy lifestyle. It doesn't just affect that one person but it also affects their friends, family, and even acquaintances. Nobody wants to hear that their family, friend, or co-worker is suffering from health issues due to a poor diet and inactive lifestyle. Being mentally prepared means:

1) Educating yourself - It is important to educate yourself regarding junk foods and the effects they have on your body. Just reading up on this information will make you more aware and concerned about what you choose to eat each day. It will make you think twice before giving into a temptation because you will know that the only benefit it will bring is short lived taste-bud satisfaction. It is just as important to educate yourself regarding nutritious foods and the benefits they will bring to your body! There are countless and ongoing studies and researches regarding health foods. Information is always being updated. Reading about nutrition on a daily or even weekly basis is a great habit to get into, because you can never know too much. It will give you a much better outlook on why you are choosing to live a healthy lifestyle. Knowing what foods provide what benefits is wonderful because once you physically start noticing the benefits of health foods taking effect, you will have a better appreciation for those foods and you will want to maintain that feeling by making them staples in your diet. Instead of thinking that you don’t “get” to eat certain junk foods you will be thinking more of how you don’t “want” to eat those foods and how you would much rather take the healthier alternative. Especially once you realize how healthy foods transform your body inside and out! Your mental and physical alertness will be at a peak high. Your organs and muscles will perform amazingly well as intended and you will feel well too!

2) Evaluating on paper – It is also just as important to ask yourself open ended questions about your health along with providing well thought out, in-depth answers. Some great example questions that you should really think about and definitely write down include: Am I happy with my current lifestyle? Why and why not? How will improving my lifestyle affect my life? Good and bad ways? What are all of my goals relating to changing my lifestyle? How long will it take me to achieve these goals? What can I do to make sure I stick to my new lifestyle and achieve my goals? Will I have to cut some people out of my life temporarily or even permanently? Will I have to adjust my schedule and priorities? Will I have to make drastic changes? How can I be okay with these changes? What will I do to maintain my motivation throughout my journey? Etc. It’s really important to dive deep inside your mind and figure out A) Why you want it. B) How you will achieve it. C) How you will maintain it. Without mentally digging deep, all you are going to get is a superficial or insignificant reason for living healthier. There has got to be more of a reason than just: to fit into your old jeans, look amazing in your bridesmaid dress, or the most common reason, “bikini season”. Think about it… Have you used one of those reasons to try and motivate yourself before? If so, chances are that it didn’t get you any further than to that small goal, if even that at all! It all comes from within. You really and truly have to think about it in depth and you have to want it for yourself. Having those questions and all of the answers are a great base for a successful transformation!

3) Taking action and accountability – It is very important for you to make a plan for yourself and take action immediately. Be sure that it is attainable and also well-thought out. You will need to re-prioritize your daily schedule to fit your new goals. This doesn’t have to be very hard either. Make it to where you are completely comfortable with it. For example, if you have a favorite television show that you just have to watch or a girl’s night out that is tradition, alter it to fit your new healthy lifestyle. Instead of just watching that show laying lifeless on the couch, cook up a batch of brown rice and cut your veggies while watching. Place them in containers and refrigerate during commercials. Instead of “girl’s night out” every Friday at the bar, invite them to your place for a "Fitness Friday". Make a new healthy meal and enjoy a glass of red wine while you take measurements, progress pictures, and discuss your goals and achievements. Make it a weekly event and monthly competition with motivating prizes! Whoever wins, the other person(s) treat them to a monthly cheat meal dinner out or a gift card to their favorite clothing store to rock their body in style! You can even keep more inspired with quarterly fitness prizes like a new pair of running shoes, lifting gloves, at home fitness equipment, etc. Fitness can be super fun if you get creative with it! Remember, only you can take accountability for your actions. There are no excuses to not stay on track. If you don’t prepare your meals or go to the gym, (both take less than 2 hours) it is because you failed to plan. If living a healthy lifestyle is truly important to you, then you will make the time to make it happen! You have to be accountable because no one else will be.

The key to success begins from within. You have to think of everything in a positive way. You have to know why you are doing things differently, you need an important purpose. You have to keep yourself in-tune with your feelings (inside & out). You have to find ways to keep it interesting and ongoing. A healthy lifestyle isn’t a quick fix; it is an ongoing process that will transform your life into something extraordinary. It could be transforming your poor health to superb health. It could be transforming your low self-esteem to pure confidence. It could be transforming your physical/mental health to become a positive influence for your family and friends. No matter what it is, adapting a healthy lifestyle for one reason will always open up many more great successes and possibilities. I know it has for me, and I know that if I can do it, so can you! Good Luck! If you have any questions or comments, I am always here to listen and help!