A lot of people have asked me how I continue to eat healthy and exercise and how I have the discipline to keep doing it. I also get asked the question, “How do I start? I just don’t know how to get going on a healthy lifestyle and keep at it.” My answer is that it really isn’t discipline. It is determination and perseverance. It is mainly because I have experienced what it feels like to be healthy and what it feels like to be sick.
By sick, I mean feeling tired, sluggish, having headaches, sore throats, and feeling bloated. The crazy thing is, I didn’t know that I felt that way when I was going through it. I thought it was completely normal and that was just my normal self. I had never felt any different. I knew it was weird to get sick every 6 weeks requiring antibiotics. I also knew that having migraines was rare, but the mainstream says it is completely normal and some people just have to “deal with it”. I just thought it was my normal and that it was just how I was going to be for the rest of my life. I was just dealing with it.
HOW I DO IT
It wasn’t until I switched to a real food diet that I saw improvements in my quality of life. I realized that my migraines went away and I would get sick once/year instead of once every couple of months. (By sick I mean I would be laid out in the bed with a fever and couldn’t do anything for a couple of days.)
The reason I keep doing what I do and living how I live is because I do not want to go back to those days where I felt bad all the time. People think I am disciplined, but it is really because I WANT this life. I know how I feel and I want to continue feeling this way. I am determined not to go back.
I wanted to share with you how to start a healthy lifestyle because I want you to experience what I have experienced. The first couple steps are practical and the last one is an attitude towards health that you must have in order to succeed. The last step, I think, is the absolute most important step. If you don’t do that, then you aren’t going to succeed. Read on…
If you’d rather watch than read, click here!
SET GOALS
When you first start to set goals, start small. I’m talking super small until you can handle more. Focus on one thing at a time rather than going cold turkey and trying to do everything at once. Calm down people! An example would be drinking water at lunch and dinner instead of a soda/sweet tea. Another example would be walking for 30 minutes, 3 times a week on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday.
Do you notice something about these goals I gave as examples? They are SUPER specific and they are measurable. If you don’t set goals in a way that are measurable, then you will never know if you have achieved them. Once you achieve your goal, you will feel accomplished and have motivation to continue setting goals. This is why we are super specific when setting them.
ADD IN vs. TAKE OUT
We should also change our perspective on our goals. Think about “adding in” rather than “taking out”. Taking things out can seem negative and may depress you. Therefore, you will not strive to achieve your goal. You may end up giving up at the beginning.
For example, set a goal to eat a piece of fruit with your breakfast or lunch with what you already eat. Set a goal to add a green vegetable at dinner instead of taking something else out. This way it doesn’t seem like you are depleting yourself of things you love. Rather, increase healthy things in your life and hopefully those unhealthy items will get pushed out eventually.
When you continue to add healthy foods into your diet, you will no longer have the appetite or room in your stomach for the unhealthy food. The goal is to get rid of these unhealthy foods, but I recommend not cutting everything out all at once. Again, be specific about what you are cutting out at each step.
ELIMINATE
This might sound contradictory to what I just said, but I want you to eliminate things after you have already set your goals and are succeeding at it. Once you have started to set your goals, you know where you stand and you have your mind set on what you want to do and achieve. After this you need to eliminate everything in your life that does not help you achieve these goals.
If you want to stop eating twizzlers, then why would you have them in your house? If you want to stop eating ice cream every night while you watch TV, why would you keep it in your freezer?? THROW IT OUT!!! It is either going to be wasted in the trash or wasted in your body. The only thing it is going to benefit is your tongue because it tastes good and that will last about 1 minute. Is that 1 minute worth it? You have to decide.
Get rid of the temptation so that it isn’t even an option. I do not trust myself to make decisions in times of temptation. If I love to eat Lay’s potato chips (which I actually do, they are my absolute favorite snack–along with Cheetos…..) then why would I keep them in the house? I know myself and know that I won’t have the discipline to refrain from eating them. This is why I do not buy them. However, since I don’t eat them on a regular basis, then I have the freedom to eat them when I am out with friends.
WANT IT
To be honest with you, if you don’t want it, you won’t get it. If you don’t want to eat real food, you won’t. Plain and simple. We do what we want to do.
If your heart isn’t in it, you won’t succeed. If you haven’t convinced yourself that you NEED this, then you honestly won’t be able to live this way. It can be hard to live this way in the way our world is, but it doesn’t have to be. Healthy doesn’t have to be hard. It really doesn’t. But we have to want it. We have to convince ourselves that this is the only way to live.
Our actions speak for what is in our hearts. If you drink soda every day, then you really aren’t convinced at how bad it is for you. If you eat Mcdonald’s for breakfast every morning, then you really aren’t convinced about the damage it is doing to your body. You wouldn’t do it if you were. No one can make you do anything you don’t want to do. I can write all I want and show you all I want about how to live healthy, but if you aren’t convinced about it, then it will be really hard to be successful. I want to do all I can to encourage you in your journey, but ultimately it is up to you.
BELIEVE IT
So many people suffer from completely preventable health problems but aren’t convinced that what they eat is a direct contributor (or maybe the cause) of this problem. I desire so much to help people figure these things out and to get rid of what may be causing them these problems. My job is to convince you that the food you eat is a major contributor to your health. Until you believe, all I can do is talk. Once you are convinced, you start to see the results because you want it and are doing it.
If we are honest with ourselves, we all know how to live as our best selves. We just get in the way of our own goals. We have everything we need to live the way our bodies need. Each individual is different and we have to find the best way to treat our own bodies. Don’t listen to all the advice you hear and follow all the trends. Do your best to find what foods make your body function in the best way possible. That is all we can ask for of ourselves.
Bonus step… TREAT YOURSELF!
Food is good and we need to enjoy it. I have found a way to make healthy food taste just as good as unhealthy food. But you know what? Sometimes I like to eat unhealthy food. Sometimes I like to eat a Big Mac. Sometimes I like to eat Pizza. Sometimes I like to eat Cheetos. (keyword here… sometimes) The reason I can continue to live a healthy lifestyle 80%-90% of the time, is because I enjoy food that may not be the best for my body, but it is good for my soul. I don’t feel any sort of guilt when I eat pizza every once and awhile because I have been consistent with my health majority of the time.
One last thing. It is important to remember that we aren’t living this way to have the perfect body or even to lose weight. We live healthy because we are called to do God’s work. This is God’s work: to treat your body like He created it and like He lives in it so that we can show others to do the same.
I hope this is helpful. Contact me with any questions!
How to start a healthy lifestyle (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NzBqBVg1BBo)
