There’s no magic pill that suddenly helps you become a healthier you or live a healthier life. It takes work. It takes time. But the magic in that, is once you start making the time and putting in the work, it suddenly becomes a way of life. That work and time suddenly becomes effortless.
If you started 2019 with a mindset of becoming a healthier you and striving to create a healthy family but in February, have already fallen into the ‘ways of old’, try these 5 Simple Steps. I think baby stepping your way into a lifestyle change will give you better results than having an all or nothing mindset. I wrote a similar blog post ‘Goals and Resolutions‘ that touches on this very subject as well.
Love On YOU
- One thing that is soooo easy to do, is look into the mirror and start picking at yourself. Right? I’m not going to point out what negative things you might see because this is about pointing out the positive! I think waking up and pointing out a positive, starts the day on the right foot and gives you a better outlook on the day. SO! I like (and have only recently started doing this) to look into the mirror and find one thing positive to say about myself. I brush my teeth and upon looking in the mirror, try to talk nicely to myself – Love on ME! With tired eyes and crazy hair, I say something nice to myself — out loud! Just do it. I know it seems senseless but it really does create a healthier you because what we put ‘out there’ is what we feel. So be kind to yourself and believe what you say!
Eat Mindfully
- January comes and everyone jumps on the latest diet trend or does a 30 day ‘jump start’ diet and by mid February, it’s back to the old habits. Why does this happen more often than not? It’s because the attitude going into a new year seems to be that people want to make the change NOW and want results FAST. It’s hard to reverse a whole year of unhealthy habits in just one month. And when you go from 0-100, it’s hard to keep that momentum so it fizzles out and the old habits come back into play. Keep it simple and just eat mindfully. Start out by adding in more of the healthy foods and eventually you don’t have room in your house ….or your body, for the unhealthy ones. Food is fuel. We all need it but it’s up to you as to how well you want to move. We can’t expect a car to run well on anything other than it’s designed to run on. That holds true for our bodies. We aren’t designed to take in some of the so-called “foods” we ingest. My rule of thumb is asking myself what ‘this or that’ particular food is going to do for me. If it’s not going to serve a purpose to keep me feeling my best, I generally don’t eat it. (This doesn’t mean we can’t have an indulgence from time to time – I’m talking about our daily diet intake of the foods we fuel with). Prepping foods is a great way to ensure a healthy week. Weekdays can get hectic with work, kids and schedules so having some prepped foods on hand, help you to steer clear of unhealthy choices.
Move Your Body
- While we weren’t designed to take in all the ‘food like products’ that are on the market today, we also weren’t designed to be sedentary. Moving your body doesn’t mean that you have to join an expensive gym. We just need to move. If you sit at a desk all day, this is especially important for you. Put a timer on your phone or what have you, and get up and move. Stand up and stretch …..walk around the office, do some squats or just move around those ankles & toes. I sit in little elementary school chairs for some of my day and I get up often and stretch or walk around the room – and yes, I have been known to do a few squats to keep the blood flowing! In addition, start walking at lunch or after work. If you’re not used to exercise or physical activity, start out with those simple walks. At some point, add in weights. As we age, we lose muscle and keeping our bones protected is important. You certainly don’t have to be a CrossFitter or Olympic lifter but simple weight training will do a body good! You don’t even have to join a gym to get that incorporated into your life. YouTube is such a great tool. There are so many at home videos on the web that will help you keep active on a daily basis. No matter where you are in fitness, there is one for you! Just move – your body will thank you for it.
Switch to Safer
- If you follow me, you know that I am a Beautycounter Consultant and while I use the phrase ‘switch to safer’ a lot when sharing products from the line, I do suggest switching to safer in your home too. When trying to reach optimum health, most of us forget that even using toxic laundry detergent can hinder that goal. Picture this – you’re eating mindfully, taking a nice walk on a daily basis and perhaps have even cleaned up your make up/skin care bag BUT you’re washing your clothes with harmful ingredients. These clothes, bedding, towels or what have you, are touching your skin and you’re breathing in all the “loveliness” they add to help keep your laundry smelling fresh & clean. All the while, that fragrance could be the very thing that is hindering optimum health. So take a walk through your home and see where you can start making changes. Unless you can afford to toss it all and start over, I suggest replacing one thing at a time, as you run out of it. Dish soap, floor cleaner, glass cleaner, stove/oven….etc and so on. There are 2 apps I use: EWG Healthy Living & Think Dirty. You can scan products using the bar code with these apps and see where they rate. I buy products in GREEN zone. EWG has a specific Skin Deep link on their site and this is where I usually point people to take a look at their personal products such as make up, skincare, hair products etc. See where your products fall when you input the info. If they are outside of the GREEN, you might want to start looking at something to swap that product out with.
Surround Yourself w/Positive People
- This is such a simple step but probably the hardest to implement if you’re a people pleaser. And there’s nothing wrong with pleasing people BUT if those people are bringing you down, you should probably get them out of your life. I had a friend who looked at life as the ‘Glass 1/2 Empty’. I’m opposite. I’m a ‘Glass 1/2 Full’ kind of girl. She had been a friend for years but I often found after we’d been together, that I felt drained, sad & weighted down. Her humor was the best — always cracking jokes but one day I realized her jokes were always at the cost of someone else. She found it necessary to put others down with sarcastic comments (….in a funny way), in order to build herself up. I don’t even know if she realized she was doing that ….or if that was her intention but when I brought it up, she said I was being too sensitive. As time went on, I realized she wasn’t the friend for me because I didn’t feel good around her. She put people down with her humor, she complained about each and every thing and she really never saw the good in anything or anyone. I didn’t enjoy the time with her anymore and I honestly felt like it was a chore to get together. I didn’t like the negativity in my life so I stopped that friendship. It was hard but needed and in turn, I didn’t feel anxious anymore about getting together or trying to figure out how to squeeze a get together in OR worse, trying to figure out how to bow out of a coffee date! I didn’t realize what her friendship was doing to my health. I wasn’t the best version of me when I was with her. I was an emotional mess when trying to schedule visits etc. and that in it of itself, isn’t a good state of health to be in. There’s also a gossip at work who tends to chat about everyone and is in on every little “goings on” at work. She is nice on one hand but more often than not, I find when we run into each other and have small talk, I walk away feeling ‘meh’. And I know it’s because I feel brought down by ALL THE INFO she just spewed my way. I can’t very well get her out of my life when we work together but I can try and steer clear when possible. When you can’t completely get this person out of your life, be honest. I did tell her one day, “Okaaaay girl. I get that you love a good gossipy story but I like these people and I’d prefer to stay out of it.” She has respected that (thankfully) and doesn’t try and pull me in. All this being said, I just want to remind you that the people we surround ourself with should be a positive experience and bring out the best in you! Keep the people in our life that want to see you succeed and are truly happy for your successes, support you in hard times and are positive influences. If you have people in your life that bring you down or make you feel less than, maybe it’s time to start cleaning out that area of your life too.
Well, there you go my friends! I’m sure there are many other areas we can touch on to create a healthier lifestyle and healthier version of you but I’ll leave it there for now. These are things that I implement and I can truly say that I am a genuinely happy person with a positive mindset. I am not perfect – don’t get me wrong but the more we make and take the steps to create a healthy lifestyle, the more we can deal with the downs or trials that come our way. When your body is not fighting off the “bears”, it can give the attention to the obstacles we might come face to face with. So try and clean up food & products, get moving, keep positive people in your life but most of all, be kind to yourself! Start each day lifting yourself up with one (or more!) positive thought – but say it out loud……believe it! But most of all, remember to laugh! Laughter truly is the best medicine and helps change a mood – which in turn, elevates endorphins and helps you be a healthier YOU!
