Sticking to a Healthy Lifestyle

Do you have trouble sticking to a healthy lifestyle? You know what you need to do and have a plan but you can't seem to stick to it? It's a rather common problem. we think will make a huge difference! That is to find out what truly motivates you because if you don't have a strong motivating factor, you're not going to stick to your health plan for very long. weight loss is a motivator for sure, but it's a short-term motivator. people are motivated until they lose the weight and then they go back to their old ways and then they regain the weight in some cases.

 what we are talking about is figuring out things that will motivate you long term so that you can make those lifestyle changes and really stick to them for the long haul and not just for a couple months. We can illustrate this better with an example so we had a client who did everything to at T and it was amazing because most people can't follow plans to T and we don't expect them to either but she was really motivated, so we asked her what's motivating you what's keeping you going because you're doing an amazing job. she had a really interesting thing to say - her main motivating factor was not to lose weight it was something she was trying to do she was trying to lose weight but that was on her main motivation.

Her main motivation was to set a good example for her daughter. She wanted to become a role model for her daughter. her daughter could learn healthy habits as well and that was amazing because it's such a strong motivating factor and something that's going to motivate her every single day. So even if she falls off the wagon for a couple days, she'll get back on it because she has that strong motivating factor. Now obviously that motivating factor may not work for you. What works for you may not work for me - we're all different. But we wanted to give you that as an example.

Now an example of what motivates me is my mother passed away when I was 28. She was only 51 - she had a heart attack and it was a result of diabetes and diabetes is a lifestyle disease. Obviously, it has a genetic component but it's mainly lifestyle - you can prevent diabetes if you take care of yourself. my main motivating factor for becoming a holistic nutritionist and taking care of myself is to prevent diabetes. Now what we suggest you do is sit down, get a piece of paper and get a pen - brainstorm! Figure out what it is and motivates you write everything down. Whatever pops up in your head- there's no wrong motivating factor.

Once you've written down a couple factors, figure out which one really means the most to you and which one is a long-term motivating factor. And you know what write that down on a post-it note stick it up on your fridge or a mirror that you look at every day. It's a constant reminder as to why you're actually on this healthy plan and why you're trying to live a healthier lifestyle. number two is time management. a lot of people know that they need to eat healthy it's going to require some cooking, but they can't seem to find the time.

Now we know we live very busy lives today it's not like it used to be but we all have 24 hours in the day and some people can manage to do a lot more than others and we think it comes down to time management, efficiency and you know asking for help when you need it. our suggestion is to figure out where you spend your time. for three days write down a time journal - every single hour of yours account it. This is going to be a little bit tedious but it's going to give you a really good picture. we figured out how much time we were spending on social media and on our phone just aimlessly scrolling and you know what that is time that you could use for other things for cooking for meal prep for exercise for meditation for all the things that you think you don't have time for.

Number three - make cooking more enjoyable. when it comes to healthy eating, cooking is usually part of the process because we believe that it's much better to have home-cooked meals. Because no matter how well you try to eat when you're out you really don't know the ingredients that they're using and you don't have control over what they've put in their food but when you're cooking at home you have a lot more control. we do understand that not everybody likes cooking. we didn't like cooking when we first started, but you have to realize when it comes to long-term health enjoying cooking and making it less of a chore goes a really long way.

 Number four - people the plan really well and two weeks in something happens life happens or they've got something going on or they're busy they've gone on vacation and they fall off the wagon completely and never get back on it because in their mind they need to do the plan perfectly. Health is not about being perfect all the time. It's about doing what you can and doing the best. you know it's Friday and you feel like you really need a piece of cake enjoy it don't beat yourself up for it don't feel like you need to punish yourself with an extra workout the next day.

You don't need to do that and don't use that cake on Friday as an excuse to eat poorly on Saturday and Sunday so you can start on Monday. Don't do that. That's not the way to go because that is the perfectionist attitude Do your best every day and when you want indulge don't beat yourself up for it because you are in this for the long haul. Not for the short term -for the long haul. strive for progress not perfection!

Number five - find a buddy now this person is someone who's going to help you stay accountable. It doesn't need to be someone who's doing the healthy eating and living plan with you, it just needs to be someone who you're comfortable with and someone who can push you. Talk to your buddy once a week or once in two weeks whatever works for you and tell them what your progress is and what your setbacks are and see if they can give you some sort of advice or you know their opinions on the matter and they can help push you in the right direction. when we have someone to talk to and someone who will keep us accountable we are more likely to stick to a plan as opposed to doing it on our own . So those are the five things!