3 Ways to Jumpstart a Healthy Living Today
Especially if you’re starting from square one, transitioning to a healthy lifestyle can seem overwhelming. The first thing you need to do is to stop looking at it as one big, huge task.
Healthy living is made up of hundreds of little, easy—not overwhelming—decisions and habits throughout the course of the day. Start small and the pieces will quickly start to form something amazing. Here are three little things you can do to jumpstart a healthy living:
3 Things To Jumpstart A Healthy Living
1. Start The Day By Complimenting Yourself
Call me a hippie, but I can’t say it enough: happiness and a positive attitude are just as important to a healthy living as diet and exercise. Self hate and being hard on ourselves just creates a downward spiral of emotional eating, dissatisfaction and unhealthy choices. Trust me, I’ve been there!
Starting your day with a positive attitude and in good spirits will have a snowball effect of goodness throughout the day. Even if it’s something silly or seemingly trivial, think of something you love about yourself or that you’re good at and spend the first couple minutes of your day focusing on it.
Maybe you just nailed a presentation at work the other day, maybe you kick ass at yoga, maybe you have an amazing singing voice—maybe you’re just having a good hair day. Whatever you’ve got going for you that morning, celebrate it!
2. Stop Cravings For Unhealthy Snacks
Half the time I reach for something unhealthy, I’m not even hungry—just bored or trying to procrastinate. And this is not a healthy living!
Next time you’re about to munch on something that makes that little voice in the back of your head shake its head, tell yourself you need to wait 15 minutes first. Go do something else while your 15 minutes ticks away, and 90% of the time, you will have forgot all about the snack and stopped craving it by time’s end.
Sometimes the line between thirsty and hungry can be blurry when listening to your body, so it also helps to have a glass of water during the 15 minutes. You might find that you weren’t really all that hungry anyway, just a little dehydrated.
3. Replace Dessert With A Snack That’s High In Healthy Fats
Out with the sugar, in with the healthy fats. Instead of sweets, opt for a snack like nuts, trail mix, almond butter on a banana, or my personal favorite—half an avocado drizzled with a little honey (ok ok, there’s sugar in honey, leave me alone).
Foods like these that are high in healthy fats will fill you up and leave you feeling satisfied, while also providing you with nutrients you wouldn’t get from a bowl of ice cream or slice of cake. Do, however, pay attention to portion size. A handful of almonds = perfect dessert. A two-pound bag of trail mix = not so much, if you aspire to a healthy living.
If you’re not a dessert eater, apply this swap to that mid-morning doughnut you eat at the office.
Source: PumpsAndIron
