Do you ever look at some people on social media and think, where on earth do you get the motivation to work out so much, eat right, look amazing and live life in between.
Life is a constant juggle. We have work, relationships, exercise, eating, sleeping, breathing, etc. We have so many things to do in a day, where does this healthy thinking come in? You may ask. Simply put, it is honestly the thinking that may make all these things above a little bit easier and lighter.
To think in a healthy way, is to make time before your week starts and everything goes crazy to, regroup, re-evaluate and give yourself grace to have changes in your schedule and time. Sometimes you won’t have time to make a healthy and nutritious meal, or you may not have the energy to cook some extensive healthy plate of food. That’s ok! You don’t need the added pressure. Instead, try to at least have some form of prepared food for those moments. If your budget allows for it, put some healthy snacks already cut up in a Tupperware and put it in the fridge.
Do something like an overnight oats that you can grab and go with. Maybe you haven’t had time to eat and you are in the middle of the day at work. Pack or stock up with some emergency snack bars at work.
We have to make time to reflect when we get a chance. Even if it’s for 10 minutes in your lunch break, or in the morning before you get up. Journalling is a great way of doing this. If your not really a journal person, use your notes on your phone and recap your week, day, month and try to see the positive things you have accomplished. Write down 3 things you are grateful for every day. You will see your mind changing, and hopefully find yourself in a positive and productive mindset, allowing yourself room for reflection and growth.
In terms of movement and exercise. You don’t have to fit your exercise into a 60 minute High-Intensity Workout to have an effect on your body. Break it up into your day, and when you have time. Do bouts of 10 minutes and mix it up. 10 minute walks. Create some accountability by asking someone at work to join you. So it can become a social thing too. Sometimes tweaking something slightly to trick ourselves to do what we need to do is the best way to form habits. Find something you like doing instead of forcing yourself to do an activity you can never sustain.
The mind is so powerful and as humans we live in a state of our Primal mind, the mind that reacts on our temporary needs. Therefore when I want to wake up early for a run, my mind will tell me that it’s too cold, or I can do it later. We have a choice to override this primal mind, and we have to, in order to change our habits and take control of our mind. Which I have written about in a few posts.
We need to give ourselves more credit. We are strong enough to override these thought patterns and form new ones that will benefit us more. Sleeping for more than 9 hours and less than 7 is so detrimental to our health, but if you have found yourself stuck in a bad sleeping habit, like me, you understand how difficult it is to get out of a certain pattern. You almost have to sleep train yourself again.
Sleep is so important to our mental and physical health and completing the cycles of sleep, allowing us to be rejuvenated for a new day. The benefits of proper sleep are:
1. Improves memory
2. Gives us energy and allows us to be productive.
3. It allows our body’s physiological repair mechanisms to take place.
4. Sleep has “major restorative functions in the body like muscle growth, tissue repair, protein synthesis, and growth hormone release occur mostly, or in some cases only, during sleep. “
A resource from the Division of Sleep Medicine at Harvard Medical School.
Nutrition is the equivalent of sleep. Both these have an effect on each other, and are both restorative to our body’s cells. Eating enough of the right type of food to sustain our muscles and brain during the day is key. Now how do you know what food to eat?
This will depend on so many factors, including time of day, how much you move around and exercise during the day, your personal taste preference. And about a million more factors. Now I can tell you to prepare meals beforehand, but you may not have the time or the energy or the resources. With the guidance of a Health coach you can learn to navigate all of these things to make a nutritious meal plan work during the week. Contact me via e-mail if you need some Health Coaching guidance.
Eating wholesome, nutritious meals will leave you feeling accomplished, healthy and ready for whatever might lie ahead of you. Food has a major impact on our mood, and the way we perform during the day. That’s why tweaking our eating plan is a great place to start a new lifestyle. It may even enable you to want to make more positive changes.
If you feel frustrated with your current lifestyle and you feel like you need some guidance to allow you to live a healthier life. Please feel free to contact me.
Xoxo Dan the Wooman
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