How To Succeed At Healthy Living Even When You Fail
There have been so many stages.
The oblivious childhood stage (eat, play, sleep). The teenage dieting & exercise stage (no eating, only exercise). The college junk food/partying stage (eat and drink all the junk).
The young adult healthy awareness stage (join a gym, learn to love wheat germ). The busy career girl stage (lots and lots of cheese and crackers. and wine).
The exhausted new mom stage (what gym? how about takeout?) The supermom try-to-do-it-all stage (homemade animal crackers, DIY cleaning products, Pinterest inspired birthday parties).
The very full life stage (inspired healthy cooking, barre class, meditation – all fit in around driving kids to sports and homework help).
And there will be more stages to come.
Just like a batch of homemade bread dough, my attempts at healthy living have risen and flopped and risen again.
Your stages will be different from mine but one thing will be the same: constant change.
It’s hard to be healthy all the time. No, scratch that. It’s impossible to be healthy all the time.
But the last thing I want is for you to feel like a failure every time you eat all the cookies, miss a class at the gym or let the kids have artificially colored candy.
The best way to be successful at healthy living is to have a positive outlook and make room for the realities of life.
(print this on cardstock as a friendly reminder)
The Right Mindset For Healthy Living
Whatever stage you are in, wrap your head around these ideas to help you rock your healthy living goals, while keeping a good perspective on reality.I may receive commissions from purchases made through links in this article including Amazon Affiliates. Full Disclosure
Be Balanced
Some call it the 80/20 rule. I like to call it mindful moderation. Be aware of your healthy choices but leave room for indulgences and time off. Eat the birthday cake! Don’t sweat the lack of exercise on vacation! The best recipe for success at healthy living is to not try to do it all the time.Get Educated
Learn as much as you can about healthy food choices and healthy living. Read books. Read blogs. Watch documentaries like Fed Up and STINK with your family. The more you know, the easier it will be to make smart, healthy choices for you and your family.Practice Mindfulness
Being mindful means noticing your thoughts and feelings without judgement. So next time you choose the pizza over the salad – notice. Next time you choose the salad over the pizza – notice. Being aware is what’s important. Nothing is wrong or right. It just is. The more you pay attention to the choices you make each day, the calmer you will feel about them.Be Flexible
The after school sports. The PTA meeting. The report due at work…. you can’t do it all plus make dinner and get to the gym. Don’t expect every day or every week to be the same. The more you build in flexibility to your goals and expectations, the higher your chance of success.(FREE motivation right here!)
I appreciate that you talk about this as a “journey” because it de-emphasizes the destination. No one is ever going to be perfectly “healthy,” and “health” is never a guarantee of a longer lifespan. That’s not to say that living a healthy lifestyle isn’t important, but I tend to agree with you that it’s the journey that’s important. Not the destination.
Yes absolutely Dan – it’s all about the journey! Best of luck with yours!
Last night while enjoying take out with my brother (whom I never see) I “noticed” that I actually really wanted the salad instead of the fries. Then I “noticed” that it was DELICIOUS. That has seriously made healthy eating so much easier over the years. As we’ve transferred from our “paleo stage” to our “startup business with 2 littles stage” it’s been so much simpler to stay in a balanced zone BECAUSE of the things you listed. Accepting the ebb and flow while building a foundation that is nutrient-dense.
Love hearing about what you noticed Alisa! It’s ALL about balance!! Hope you are enjoying your “littles” stage – so fun and exhausting at the same time!
Loving the “very full life stage” for sure. It’ nice to be able to do fun things with kids instead of diaper changing! Im such a school kids mom. <3 Healthy eating seems like a work in progress, we need Spring & warm weather now, gotta be inspired!
Sounds like you have the right attitude Carrie! And yes, Spring weather will help a lot!