Want to feel and look healthier?
Don’t know where to start?
Follow this progressive 6-week guide to ease yourself into one healthy habit at a time and transform your life into one full of empowerment, discipline and progress.
· Week 1 : Change your mindset
Incorporate Gratitude, Affirmations and Goals into your daily routine.
Naturally, any transformation begins in the mind. If you aren’t ready for a change, then it’s not going to happen. That is why changing your mindset is the first and most important step towards a healthier lifestyle.
Now, I can bore you with some basic psychology and list the Stages of Change, or you can just do a little reflection on your own and notice that nothing in your life, or anyone else’s, has changed unless they really wanted it to. Any notable lifestyle changes require effort, and a lot of it, so you must be truly, honestly, completely ready for the challenge.
Now I am not saying that you need to be on the ball 100% of the time. Not at all. I am saying that you need to be succeeding far more than you are failing. You need to be completing your steps, you need to be disciplined enough to accomplish your daily goals and you MUST have the drive to push yourself when you “just don’t feel like it”.
A good way to begin strengthening the mind – actively changing the way you think.
Begin your days by going over what you are grateful for, what is great about you, and what you want to accomplish.
This can be as simple as: “I am grateful for the roof over my head, for many aren’t so fortunate. I am strong and can overcome anything. And my goal for today is to be more positive.”
As you train your mind and become better at this, feel free to get more in depth. Make a list. Add to the list. Be grateful for people, objects, experiences, lessons. Build yourself up. Give yourself compliments, whether you believe them or not. Focus on positive self-talk. Make goals. Big goals, small goals, short-term goals, long-term goals. Write them down, tell your friends.
Stay focused.
· Week 2 : Drink water
Get rid of the pop, the juice, the chocolate milk and the slurpees.
If you aren’t ready to cut it out, then cut down.
This was my first step towards leading a healthier lifestyle, so I do understand that this is easier said than done if you “don’t like water”. But trust me, you will come around. Your body will thank you, your mind will feel less cloudy, and the excess weight you will easily shave off by simply eliminating these calorie-dense drinks will surprise you.
· Week 3 : Stretch
Stretch for 5-10 minutes daily.
You know what, I’ll be honest… Even I have a hard time with this one.
But if you can spend three hours a day on your phone like the average person does, then you can take 3% of that time to stretch instead. No excuses.
Find a beginner Five-Minute Full Body Stretch here.
· Week 4 : Get moving
Start with 20-30 minutes of exercise every day.
Whether you run around and play soccer with your kids, go for a leisurely walk or run stairs with your bestie, get moving for 20-30 minutes every day.
The biggest goal here isn’t necessarily intense exercise or cardio, it is more about establishing the mental fortitude to overcome that Activation Energy, the motivation to get going.
As you realize that you have the power, that you can get up and get moving even when the couch has viciously sucked you in once again, you will continue to strengthen your mind, which will in turn help you strengthen your body.
Read about Activation Energy and Mel Robbins’ 5 Second Rule here.
· Week 5 : Eat your veggies
Incorporate green veggies into at least two meals per day.
Two meals is a good start.
Many people live on America’s most delicious snack foods that are all cooked very conveniently in the microwave, therefore missing out on many essential micronutrients. For this reason, incorporating veggies into your meals can be difficult for some. I suggest experimenting. Try different veggies. Cook some, eat some raw, mix some in a stir-fry, try spinach in your smoothie. Whatever you must do, start eating your green veggies.
· Week 6 : Get strong
Incorporate a strength training program.
Have you tried weightlifting? How about yoga? CrossFit? None?
Whatever you like, do it. If you don’t know what you like, try it.
Do the same thing every week or mix it up, whatever you prefer.
The way in which you strengthen your body really doesn’t matter. At the end of the day, we want to do what makes us feel good, we want to do what we enjoy. For this reason, no one can say that CrossFit is better than traditional weightlifting or that Pilates is better than yoga. We are all unique, therefore it is up to everyone to decide what works best for them.