Three steps to making healthy living easier so you can reach your goals.
You know that feeling when you get into a groove.
You’re doing whatever work you’re doing (running, writing, eating well…whatever it is) and you start to feel good. Pretty soon you’re feeling great. Whatever you are doing isn’t so hard any more. In fact, it’s kind of a breeze!
When was the last time you were in a healthy groove?
Finding Your Healthy Living Groove
We’ve talked before about the best way to begin your healthy, natural living journey. The key to making a permanent lifestyle change is to understand your motivation. First, you need to dig deep and ask yourself some hard questions:
- How do you think these healthy changes will affect your life?
- How will healthy living benefit you and your family?
- How do you want to feel in your body and your mind?
Once you know your motivation (I know, it’s not easy – but important!), then you can figure out how to make it happen.
I’m not saying it’s easy to get into a healthy groove, but I think you’ll find it easier if you follow these 3 steps:
1. Learn
So let’s say your goal is to make healthier meals during the week. You’ll want to read up on weekend meal prepping and find some quick & easy recipes.
Maybe you’re looking to swap out your chemical-laden cleaning products for safer, DIY versions? You’ll need to brush up on ingredients and discover the best homemade cleaning recipes.
What if better gut health is your goal? There’s a lot to learn so you’ll want to find trusted resources and dive in.
The learning stage is super important (and frankly, my favorite part!) so you don’t want to skimp on it.
Here’s how you can start learning about the healthy living topics that interest you:
- Visit my Get Started page – I have a lot of healthy living resources already on the blog
- Sign up for my mailing list for access to my Natural Living Resource Library
- Visit your favorite blogs
- Search Google for resources
- Check out the library for books and videos
- Ask your friends for advice
RELATED: Natural Living Basics – Simple changes you can make for a more natural, eco-friendly life
2. Plan
Once you’ve got all that new knowledge it’s tempting to want to dive in immediately. Here’s why you shouldn’t. If you don’t have a plan, you’re likely to stall somewhere along the way.
Take the time to create SMART goals – that means specific, measurable, attainable, realistic and time-based.
Example: Replace 3 laundry products (dryer sheets, stain remover and laundry freshener), with safer versions within 1 month.
Once you have a solid plan, you’ll find it’s a lot easier to not only get started, but continue on to reach your goal.
3. Act
Here’s the fun part! Go out and buy those healthy groceries, cook that vegan meal, try that DIY beauty product, experiment with those essential oils. Enjoy the process and get into your healthy groove!
What helps you get in a healthy living groove? I’d love to hear your thoughts in the comments!
Sheila says
This is a bit new for me and what is key is having the motivation to stick with it. This time, my motivation os not only health improvement, but I am starting to think being healthier is going to be the ONLY way I can keep my auto immune flares to a minimum. I have been less than impressed with Western medicine and am really hopefully this is my answer! I also have a 13 yr old son who I am not helping if I iust keep giving into his junk food preferences. The Mom
guilt is taking over especially as I know I have an opportunity now to teach him about life long ways of thinking that he can also share with his family some day.
So, a method I will use to keep me determined to find my groove and stay the course is to keep reminding myself how this will directly affect the way I feel physically. Once the habits are formed, it should be much easier to stay the course.
P.S I have already started my education (such as reading your blog!, am talking with a holistic nutrionist) and have my Young Living essential oils as well as started or am starting to receive certain wellness services (ie: Reiki, Kundalini Yoga, etc…) for the first time in my life.
Micaela says
I’m so glad to hear about your wellness journey Sheila! It sounds like you are making some smart changes and you’re right, once you develop new habits, it will be much easier. Feeling healthy is a great motivator and so is helping your 13 year old son (I have one of those too!)
Sheila says
Thank you for your reply. This is just a private comment to you, I can’t believe all of my typos!!! I was using a phone omg I am an editor at heart so find my lack of corrections before I sent that initial
message to you tragic haha I appreciate your feedback, at any rate, and wish you a nice start to your week! Take care ….
Susan Crawford says
Those are some great ways to make your life a lot healthier! Don’t forget to exercise and eat good food!