Five steps to a healthier body and mind

Being healthy isn’t a new concept, but the way you approach it can be.

Being healthy is not following the correct diet and going to the gym 5 times a week. It’s about getting to know your own body, and finding unique ways in which your body reacts best.

Step 1: Identify your Motivation

Do you want to feel better, look better and have a balanced lifestyle that doesn’t require you to starve yourself. Get a why. What makes you get up in the morning? Make a list of Motivations, that will get you moving in the right direction. Some examples are:

– I want to have more energy during the day

-I want to be more productive

– I want to look better to feel better

– I want to be able to play with my kids and grandkids when I’m older.

– I want to look and feel fitter

– I want to run a sub 4:00 per 1 km

Make your motivations specific to your life and realistic to suit your goals. Do not choose something way out there. For instance, if you haven’t run 1 km in your life, do not set a time for it, until you have tested your current fitness level and ability. If you have never followed a diet, make sure to make a ingredient list and shopping list, to plan effectively and not waste food.

Step 2: Find your cues to execute the habit or activity

Have you ever found yourself losing sight of your goals about 1 or 2 weeks in. I know I have!! The key is to execute the habits or activities after something you do in your everyday life🏋🏼‍♀️ Take something like brushing your teeth, and tell yourself you will do 10 squats everytime you brush your teeth. If the goal is to get fit, you don’t have to crush a 1 hour session in the gym. All you have to do is add incremental exercise sessions during the day. Whenever you have a gap. For example: before lunch, during lunch time, planning food in a specific time in your schedule.

Step 3: Prepare your environment

Something I find definitely helps is removing those negative triggers from your life. If you cannot stop yourself from going to the pantry and grabbing a chocolate, remove the chocolate.

If you find you too are lazy after a nap to work-out, do your workout first. If you keep on snoozing your alarm, put your phone or clock somewhere you have to get up and get it, maybe even next to your coffee machine if it’s close to your room, or better yet, put a kettle or coffee machine in your room if you need your morning coffee.

There are millions of ways to fool the mind into forming new habits. Sometimes that’s exactly what we need, to fool ourselves.

Step 4: Stop fighting the change

Like I said above we reach a time when we make our changes and feel frustrated with ourselves. This can be prevented by stopping being so hard on ourselves. See a setback as an opportunity to get back. Just doing it, is a thing. Stop thinking so much and do it. They say that starting is the hardest part, but once you’ve started, you shouldn’t stop. Even if you have a bingeing day, you can and will get up and try again.

Do not allow that voice in your head to get the best of you. In my personal opinion using positive self-talk is a game changer. Tell yourself you can and you will, tell yourself you can’t and you won’t.

Step 5: Enjoy your life

Make your life worth living, no one is going to do it for you! You can make your life fun and exciting without much of an effort. Doing things like exercise, eating right, and living a fun balanced lifestyle is all reachable and possible, without massive changes.

I hope this post at least helps you to identify where you might be struggling. And hoe you can get where you want to be 🤍