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| Image Credit: Teenage Crime |
Hi there! I was never that girl who was super into healthy
eating, working out, and simply being good to my body… until now. I didn’t grow
up in a household that promoted that very much. It wasn’t a big thing for my
parents because growing up, getting enough food to eat was already an
accomplishment, so that didn’t leave much room for being picky, which is
unfortunately the downside of trying to lead a healthier lifestyle – it can get
expensive.
I got into working out multiple times last year starting in
February, but they were really short bursts of enthusiasm that got interrupted
by big life things, making it extremely hard to continue. Just before school
started again after my big trip to Vietnam, I made an effort to eat much healthier
and work out. I don’t do any sports and only swam and skated growing up, so I
wasn’t a very active child. I actually enjoy swimming quite a bit, but never
continued with it.
After making that change in my life, I noticed that I became
a lot happier and felt a lot better about myself. I know that saying that I “started
eating healthier” and “started working out” are probably so vague and not
helpful, so allow me to elaborate.
Before I begin, just a little disclaimer: I am in no way an
expert and am not trying to say that you have to do this and this to be healthy
or trying to be pretentious and say that I’m super healthy because I’m not. I
try really hard and these are simply tips I’ve found helpful on my journey.
1. STAY POSITIVE.
When you start thinking about all this healthy stuff, it can actually have the
opposite effect and make you feel like crap about yourself. Remember to stay
positive and when you’re making goals, make them because you love yourself, not
because you hate yourself, a little something I learned from Gerry from floral
and freckled.
2. Being healthy is important. I’m definitely guilty of
saying, “Oh, I’m too busy to work out,” or something along those lines. Of
course there are exceptions to this, but you should put working out and all
that good stuff at the top or very near the top of your list. Yes, I agree that
school is super important as well and I take it really seriously (a little too seriously at times, honestly) but so
is being healthy. Yeah. So let’s get into things.
3. Assess your
current health. How healthy are you eating? Are you working out? Make a
(mental) list of things you need to work on.
4. Hold yourself
accountable. While you should write your goals down or acknowledge them and
all that, don’t be too hard on yourself. Make this journey to a healthy life a
positive one instead of a negative one where you get down on yourself for “messing
up” every single time.
5. Start small. Maybe
you just can’t run like me. Start out with small goals for yourself like
running for ten minutes or so a few times a week. I’ve heard people say you
should start with fifteen or twenty or whatever, but if you really can’t run
(again, like me), ten minutes straight is bad enough. Slowly increase your load
bit by bit.
6. Blogilates is the
BEST. I’ve mentioned my love for Cassey numerous times, but she is the best
person to get you motivated. Her voice makes you want to keep working out and
not want to stop at all. I’d really recommend checking out her videos
especially if you’re just starting out.
7. Eliminate (for the
most part) junk food. Let’s face it here, junk food is bad for you. I used
to love it before, but after eating more wholesome foods for a while, I started
to hate it honestly. Or at least, I’ve tricked my body into not liking it for
seven months. Substitute things like chips with fruit or hummus, etc.
Substitute Nutella for almond butter, things like that.
8. Take your food
into your own hands. That means having a hand in grocery shopping to pick
out food that is good for you and nutritious as opposed to processed and
packaged stuff that has no nutritional value. Also, cook. Yes, I said it, cook. Who knows what restaurants put in their
food, so the only way to be super safe is to make the food yourself (or a
friend or family member can do it, you get the gist) to be sure of what you put
in.
9. Treat yourself!
You should always remember to treat yourself and try operating on a YOLO
meal-type thing. It’s a term in the Blogilates community that basically means
the meal you treat yourself to every week that’s like a reward at the end of
the week. It’s always been in the back of my mind to start doing this, so I’ll
be starting this with all of you guys next week! If you don’t remember to treat
yourself, one day, you might just explode and binge on junk food and completely
lose the motivation to keep at it.
Which tip did you find most helpful? Do you have any to add?
How important do you think being healthy is? Share your stories below!
Thank you so much for reading!
- J
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