With summer right around the corner and life getting back to “normal”, this is the time when many of us want to improve our health and fitness. While having specific health and fitness goals in mind is excellent, people often go to extremes to accomplish these goals. They try the newest fad diet or workout trend and often end up exhausting both their mental and physical energy.
This usually leads to either quitting altogether or reaching these goals and being unable to maintain them. Viewing health and fitness as a lifestyle rather than a part-time hobby or 30-day challenge, you develop behaviors that improve many areas of your life.
Living a healthy lifestyle can inspire creativity and teach you discipline, adaptability, and balance. This will not only leave you looking and feeling better, but you will show up as a better version of yourself for the people in your life that truly matter.
Health and fitness are about more than the way you look, they are about
- the way you feel.
- your quality of life.
- the focus you have at work.
- your ability to move.
- your psychological state.
When you’re truly healthy, you are in a better mood and can physically do more. You can do things like walking your dog, bike riding, or hiking
- FIND EXERCISE YOU ENJOY
Maybe it’s Bike Riding or Pilates, it’s important when it comes to staying consistent with your workouts. If you are continually doing exercises you don’t enjoy, and they leave you feeling drained physically and emotionally, it’s only going to last so long. You are better off finding exercises that make you feel good, and you can stick to long term, even if it’s not the most intense.
- BE PATIENT WHEN IT COMES TO REACHING YOUR PHYSICAL GOALS
Remember, results take time. Be easy on yourself. Nothing good comes easy.
- DON’T GIVE UP THE FOODS YOU LOVE
Find a way to make your favorite foods healthier. If pizza is your favorite food, don’t give it up. This will leave you feeling deprived. Get creative and use ingredients to make a healthy version.
- DON’T COMPETE WITH ANYONE
This is your life and your journey. No two people are the same, so you should never compare yourself to others. As long as you wake up every day and try to be better than you were yesterday, you are on the
right track.
- TRY NEW THINGS
Step out of your comfort zone. Try a new fitness class with a friend and explore different foods. Grocery shopping based on what’s in season is an easy way to begin experimenting with different foods and exposing yourself to a wide variety of fruits and vegetables. Stepping out of your comfort zone and switching things up will keep things interesting and help you stay motivated and inspired to make this way of living a permanent lifestyle.
“Fad diets” or “workout challenges” only last so long. It is unrealistic to be going at 100 MPH all the time. We are all human. Life happens, stress comes and goes, and schedules can get thrown off. When we choose to live a healthy lifestyle, we learn to accept these things and ADAPT.