Healthy living involves more than just watching what you eat and getting your body moving by engaging in regular exercise, although those are both important. It also requires strategies that transform your body from the inside out, meaning it takes into account mental health and overall wellness. If you have determined now is the time for your own personal transformation towards a healthier life, consider the following strategies to get you headed in the right direction:
Set Your Goal
Before covering more strategies, it’s important to consider what your goal is in terms of health. Is it to lose weight? Is it to get certain numbers (cholesterol, A1C, blood pressure) at a specific healthy level? Is it instead to adopt a new habit that gets you moving more or change the way you eat? It is perhaps something outside the physical and more focused on mental health and making positive changes towards valuing others and building relationships. Whatever comes along with greater health is what you want to focus on first and then build upon that. It’s important to set a goal, though not an unrealistic one that is unattainable, as this will just make you feel worse. Set a realistic goal where you can determine if you are making steps towards meeting, and then congratulate yourself on making the first step towards life transformation.
Get Moving
If your goal is to become more fit and to feel better overall as a result, then you need to prioritize moving your body. One way to do this is to join a regular exercise class or get a membership to a streaming service that you can access at home. Be diligent and purposeful, though. Don’t merely say, I am going to work out. Instead, set a time, set a day, and set a tentative schedule for what you plan on doing during that time. Make other changes as well, just to get your body more used to movement. Consider walking to and from destinations (if possible) instead of driving or taking the stairs when you can instead of riding the elevator or escalator. These small changes will really add up as you transform your life into a healthier version.
Fuel Your Body
We tend to want to restrict the body when it comes time to promote health. However, not getting enough fuel isn’t healthier either. While you can reduce the bad food you are consuming, you don’t want to replace it with nothing. Instead, you want to look at your body like a finely tuned machine. It takes the proper combination of high-octane fuel for it to perform as designed. In the same way, your body needs proper nutrients to fuel your body and to get the wellness results you want. This includes clean foods— meaning not overly processed— and introducing super foods into your diet. Superfoods include dark, leafy greens, berries, green tea, eggs, legumes, nuts and seeds, and more.
Prioritize Your Own Wellness and Mental Health
In recent years, mental health has earned more attention than in previous years. This is a good thing because no matter what a person does to transform their body if their mind isn’t healthy, they won’t be able to achieve a wellness goal. Therefore, part of transforming your life into one that is healthier overall is to adopt strategies for managing anxiety and stress, practicing mindfulness, seeking counseling if needed, prioritizing self-care, and just generally being aware of your own mental health and making changes to improve it. Self-care is not selfish. Keep in mind that you can’t help anyone else until you yourself are pouring from a full vessel. So, make your own mental health a priority.
Get Enough Sleep
One often overlooked but immensely important aspect of wellness is getting enough shut-eye. This doesn’t mean just lying in bed long enough, but genuinely getting enough high-quality, restful sleep to recharge your body, both mentally and physically. This involves addressing a sleep disorder if it is present. If it’s not, then you can create a restful environment by creating a cool, relaxing atmosphere with no harsh lights or devices, which can mess up your ability to fall asleep.
Choose an Accountability Partner
When making any lifestyle changes, it’s much easier to achieve success if you have someone in your corner cheering you on. Therefore, to transform your life, it’s important to have someone you can talk to about your challenges and your triumphs and, overall, be accountable too. For example, it’s easy to say you are going to go to the gym or plan to walk a mile on any given day, but if you have someone who is expecting you to do so, then it makes you much more likely to follow through. This doesn’t mean they have to physically go with you; just check in and make sure you did what you planned. Consequently, this accountability partner doesn’t even have to be geographically close to you, just so you trust them to ask the hard questions. If they can meet you at the gym, take a class with you, or walk with you, then that is even better, because you can work on building your relationship while you are improving your health.
Take Small Steps and Applaud Your Success
Getting into an unhealthy lifestyle did not happen overnight, so reversing unhealthy habits and moving more toward wellness won’t happen instantly, either. Be patient with yourself and applaud the small changes you are making and the habits you are adopting. If you choose water instead of soda, if you walk to your next meeting instead of driving, if you go to bed early, so you get enough zzz’s, all these individual steps are worthy of applause and appreciation. Build on them slowly, and don’t feel you have to make all the changes you want to make all at once. It’s not a sprint; it’s a marathon, and like the tortoise found out, slow and steady wins the race. You don’t want to make so many changes simultaneously that you burn yourself out or injure yourself before you can even enjoy any positive changes.
You Can Do It
Making positive changes towards a healthier lifestyle isn’t just about your diet and exercise. It’s about how you are processing stress, how much you sleep, whether you are in a good place mentally, and the quality of your relationships. Some of these elements you can control, others you can’t. However, if you keep the strategies listed above in mind, you will be able to embrace a healthier lifestyle and experience positive life transformation.
Author Bio: Ashley Nielsen
Ashley Nielsen earned a B.S. degree in Business Administration Marketing at Point Loma Nazarene University. She is a freelance writer who loves to share knowledge about general business, marketing, lifestyle, wellness, and financial tips. During her free time, she enjoys being outside, staying active, reading a book, or diving deep into her favorite music.
