The healthy lifestyle commitment is different from a ‘getting in shape’ promise, or a ‘keep fit’ vow made post-party. My healthy lifestyle is the result of step-by-step lifestyle changes. These days my body and mind tell me what I need. Do yours? I know what I have to do to have energy, be ready for life’s challenges and to produce at work. Every day – wherever I am – I need to move, eat clean foods, and drink lots of water. It wasn’t always like this, but now it is my way of life.
Read on to see how you too can turn a love affair with lifestyle changes into a permanent healthy lifestyle commitment.
Healthy Lifestyle Commitment: Why Do You Do It?
When you decide to live with someone it is a big day. It impacts every corner of your life – and work. You decide to share square footage with another persons habits and values. S/he does the same. You learn to compromise, communicate and make choices that suit both: You enter into a partnership commitment.
Before this day you will have had other partners. But – then you fell in love… The flirt becomes a date. Then you see each other all the time and you like it. You become one part of a couple. The joint decision to make the arrangement a committed partnership is the result of step-by-step communications that lead you to conclude that it is time for a ‘happily ever after’ decision.
The Me, Myself and I Contract
A change of lifestyle is very much the same. You come to a decision to change to a healthier person. It can be because you choose to change or because you have to (doctors orders?). You might even be caught in the ongoing trend of living healthier.
It doesn’t really matter what sparks your wish to get off the couch. A healthy lifestyle commitment is a contract with me, myself and I. You know what you need as a result of daily interaction with your body and mind. Before you reach this conclusion the lifestyle change road will have taken you for a few rounds.
The move from lifestyle change to healthy lifestyle doesn’t spring upon you like a proposal. It is far more subtle. You take action with small achievable steps that make a difference. You go from a lifestyle change plan to forming habits. Your healthier ways become a way of life. This lifestyle is the ‘new you’. A healthier, happier and more productive you. The healthy lifestyle commitment becomes your partnership for life.
To get to this state of mind you need to start with a plan, understanding of what inputs are needed, and most of all inspiration to keep going. Tip: Join our mailing list for inspiration, tips, tools and special offers here: Subscribe
Healthy Lifestyle Commitment: Why Don’t You Do It?
To be told that you have to do something is not a recipe for success in most cases, right? You are likely to react if you get clubbed over the head with a must-do. If someone suggests that we should live a bit healthier, most of us take a negative stance. You don’t want to hear that you have to veer off a favourite habit, or shift focus.
This is especially the case if you feel uncomfortable with an aspect of yourself, and deep down know that a change would be good – but you won’t admit it out loud.
If the recommendation to change comes from a source other than a medical one, you are likely to revolt. It that perhaps a sound reaction?
Doctor, Friend or Foe?
The doctor’s order will lead to action (in most cases) and is likely enabled by dietary and fitness professional advice. It will help you get started. Your progress will be followed, and you will feel looked after. You still may not like it but you will grumpily obey, right?
The friend or family member is a different story. They may mean well, but are not always right. How many parents out there fall pray to society driven thinness as a fantastic thing – and instil unbalanced dieting on their children? Friends can get you caught up in fitness fads that do more harm than good such as synthetic supplements for body building etc.. This kind of ‘change need’ is not what we mean by lifestyle change. It is unbalanced, medically questionable and can provoke disorders.
If you weigh up the advice to change (or not) you need to look at the source, explore the ‘why’, and really strive to understand the impact of not changing. The odds are always in your favour if you allow good old research to convince you of a ‘yes’ or a ‘no’. Ultimately small steps in a healthier direction will trigger changes which can lead to a long-lasting healthy lifestyle. Keep on reading to see how.
Healthy Lifestyle Commitment: From Change to Long-Lasting
The change commitment requires a plan to get going. Feel free to search thegoodista.com for +100 articles about lifestyle change methods, and lifestyle change planning. Book a coach to get an individual, tailored plan for your wellness needs.
A structured approach with balanced steps get you further than spur of the moment inputs. The idea of a healthier way of life may sound good, and even if little does help, the actual commitment isn’t there. You’re flirting with the idea of a healthy lifestyle rather than making it a part of you.
Trend, Chore or Choice?
What Are Your Wellness Goals?
Balance and knowledge of what your body systems need are keywords! A commitment takes work, patience and understanding to grow into a lasting partnership. It takes two to tango. With a healthy lifestyle a number of variables interact to signal that they need to be watered, fed and looked after to ‘tick’ all the boxes.
Lifestyle change can be a trend you follow – because newspapers, shops and TV touts products that are supposedly more healthy than others. In itself its good to make choices that are more organic, and walk to work instead of taking the bus. However, if your health infatuation is a fashion thing you’re also very likely to fall out of love as soon as the season changes.
When you’ve been told to lead a healthier lifestyle it can feel like a chore. You find yourself resisting because you miss what you cannot have. Options look tempting, and the natural reaction is to jump ship, right? The way forward is to get a better understanding of what it is you are giving yourself by making healthier choices. You are after all only cheating yourself – no-one else.
Even when you have made the healthy lifestyle commitment it may not go as planned. You can feel depleted, lack energy and crave foods. This is a signal. You’ve probably gone too far: Overdone the training; eaten too little protein or carbohydrates; or become dehydrated. It is too easy to go too far when you start a new way of life, and you will get told off. You overcome this by making renewed vows to listen to your body and mind and sticking to them.
Moderation and Balance
The road to a long-lasting healthy lifestyle is a journey. It takes you via the initial infatuation of seeing yourself change to new goals and challenges. You can get side stepped, over- or underdo. These side roads are designed to give you a deeper understanding of how a balanced every day approach works best.
If you respect your body you give it what it needs – when it needs it. The mind will work with you here too – as it starts to interpret signals in a clearer way. It will tell you that you need a walk to clear your head, and how a big glass of water will clear the headache.
You know you are on the right track when you listen to yourself. Balance is the art of moderating your input with output – when you rest, move, eat, sleep and drink. Deeper understanding of what a real healthy lifestyle is comes when dark chocolate, and lazy mornings in bed are as welcome as a green juice and a morning run.
A healthy lifestyle is all about balance. You gain knowledge of how to feed, exercise, be mindful and use the added energy productively without burning up the reserves. Your healthy way of life becomes a permanent long-lasting commitment for life.
Healthy Lifestyle Commitment: For Life
To stick to a healthy lifestyle commitment you have to consider what your body and mind needs. Clean, nutritious food; lots of hydration; less stress; a fitness programme; mindfulness and laughter. You build a healthy lifestyle and live it. Every day – wherever you are.
The result of an initial lifestyle change programme becomes new healthy habits. These form part of a new you. Before you know it the commitment to yourself takes a new form. It is a partnership. You know how it makes you feel. The energy and stamina you have. How you can resist stress and react with focus. A healthy lifestyle impacts every part of you.
Just like a domestic commitment – you live it and don’t want to be without it. Therefore you treasure it. Your heart and mind work with and for you – every day. It is a long-lasting partnership with yourself.
Look out for Part 2 in this series where Fitness Industry Training share their ways to stay motivated to exercise regularly – some really common sense and new tips that I highly recommend!
Continue reading The GOODista healthy lifestyle blog for inspiration and welcome join our mailing list.
Trackbacks/Pingbacks