We all want to be healthy, right? For me, it’s always been an off and on kind of thing.
I believe it’s mainly because I get so out of balance trying to get healthy that I can’t keep up with all my new rules or exercise routines.
Then I just give up. Only to do it all over again a few months later.
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Recently, I mentioned that I’m working on staying healthy in my newsletter recently and I was shocked at the amount of readers that emailed me back, wanting to know what I’m doing differently. So I wanted to share some things I’ve learned that are helping me get healthy and STAY healthy this time!
Please know that I’m not an expert. I just wanted to share my experience and maybe help you along your journey, too!
10 Things I’m Doing to Be Healthy {and STAY Healthy}
My goal is to keep this simple, so here are 10 things I’m doing to be healthy.
1. Drink Water
No doubt our bodies were made to NEED water. Water can boost our energy and make us feel less sluggish. It can prevent headaches, too! Water also helps us feel less hungry, so we snack less.
My goal every day is half my body weight in ounces.
It sounds like a lot, but I’ve found the key for me {and many people I talk to} is get a water bottle WITH A STRAW! There’s just something about having a straw that helps. I personally have a Bubba and LOVE it!
I’m also using My Water App {free} to count my water intake throughout the day.
2. Find Exercise that you LIKE
If you start something you absolutely hate, your chances of sticking with it are slim. There are people who love running at 4:30am. That’s not me. There are those who love classes at their gym. That’s not me.
I like to walk outside or do a workout video in the privacy of my home. {Leslie Sansone is my favorite.}
Getting a FitBit last year really motivated and challenged me to get up and move more.
I often will use the stairs in my house combined with our mini trampoline to just blast it for 20-30 minutes. I prefer the mini trampoline over a treadmill because I can move it anywhere in the house and be with where my kids are. {I’ve even put it out on my screened in porch while my kids play in the backyard.}
The key is to find what you like…and if you can find someone who will do it with you, all the better!
3. Be Proactive with Food
Ah, you knew it was coming. Food. Years ago, Dr. Gary Chapman wrote a book called The Five Love Languages. I’m 100% convinced he left out the sixth one: Food. Because that’s mine.
The absolute game changer for me was to PLAN out my meals and snacks BEFORE eating them. I had tried a food journal before. But I was only writing down what I HAD ALREADY eaten. Now I’m thinking ahead about food instead of eating out of response to my “love language” and cravings.
Planning ahead means that you plan the meals and snacks for the week and buy only those. You don’t have a batch of freshly baked chocolate chip cookies or {insert your trigger food here} laying around in the house, waiting to pounce on you at your weakest moment.
Planning ahead can also means looking at the restaurant menu ahead of time and deciding what you’ll order for your health instead of your cravings.
I have really enjoyed My Fitness Pal App for helping me document what I’ll eat ahead of time {plus, it counts your calories for you}, but you have to find what works for you.
4. REPLACE Your Trigger Foods
Instead of just taking away the cheese crackers in the afternoon {because you want something crunchy and salty to munch on}, REPLACE it with something else, like almonds. {Add a touch of olive oil and salt to your almonds and roast them in the oven if you’re looking for salty.}
Just taking things away makes me want them more. If I can find a replacement, I have found I don’t crave what I took away nearly as much.
My trigger foods came full on at lunch. I’d look in the fridge and say to my kids, “Let’s just go grab ____ for lunch.” And off we’d go to grab some fast food. Now, If I don’t have leftovers from the night before, I’ll grab a shake instead. It’s filling and I know that I’m not putting a bunch of junk into my body.
Shakes may not be your thing and that’s okay. You have to find what works best for you {so you can STAY healthy}!
The key is to identify your top 3 trigger foods and find a replacement for them.
5. Change things LITTLE by LITTLE
It never worked for me to wake up one day and say, “Okay, I’m never going to eat this, this, and that ever again.” Replace your trigger foods slowly or one at a time. I’m sure people have been successful at keeping up a healthy lifestyle and did it all at one time, but I never have.
Years ago, I heard a speaker on her health journey who used to eat a pint of ice cream every night. Instead of cutting herself off of ice cream completely, she began eating half a pint each night, then just a bowl each night, then just a bowl every other night. She did this until she didn’t have ice cream at all at night.
Slow and steady wins the race here.
I’d also include making SMALL changes in this tip. Instead of dumping ALL the ranch on your salad, challenge yourself to leave the ranch on the side and just use half of it. Small and slow changes make things much more manageable and long term.
6. Add More Fruits and Veggies
If you’ve looked at any research on being and staying healthy, you know that fruits and veggies are KEY. But if we’re honest, we don’t get enough! I’m also amused at what some restaurants consider as veggies. I mean corn- really?
We need the nutrients in those green leafy veggies and apples. It helps our bodies in thousands of ways, especially with fighting sickness.
For me, taking Juice Plus+ for the last 14 years has really helped me focus more on getting those fruits and veggies in my body. Before taking Juice Plus+, I was taking a multivitamin. But it wasn’t enough. The vitamins were mainly passing through my body {as they do for most people}. I needed something to get into my bloodstream to make a real difference. You can read more about that in my Juice Plus+ story.
We’re also supposed to fill up half our plate with fruits and veggies. One way I’m doing this is eating less pasta and more veggies instead. I LOVE eating spaghetti with 2 cups of zucchini instead of pasta. SO good. But that’s me. What are some simple ways you can add more fruits and veggies to your plate?
7. Tell Yourself NO
Will power. Oh, it’s SO hard! But I’m learning it’s okay to tell my cravings no. I’ve come realize that just because someone is living a healthy lifestyle doesn’t mean their cravings go away completely. We all have weak moments when that chocolate bar {or insert your own food} is just calling our name.
It’s okay to say NO to yourself. {I must say that it’s okay to also say YES at times, as long we as set limits on that YES.}
8. Be REAL with Your Journey of Getting Healthy
Find someone else that you can lean into when you’re struggling. It can be a friend, spouse, or even a friend that lives far away. Accountability is vital to this journey! We all have days when it’s hard to do this healthy living thing.
One fun thing I’m currently doing is posting evidence pictures of my healthy choices in a Facebook group. That’s keeps me accountable, but find what works for you.
9. Set REALISTIC GOALS for Yourself
This goes along with #5 above. If you set your bar too high and change too many things all at one time, chances are it will be a short-term change. It simply becomes too much to keep up with.
It helps me to remember that real change often doesn’t happen overnight.
And when I set unrealistic goals {like I’m going to lose 5 lbs by next Friday} and then I don’t meet those goals, I’m disappointed and more likely to give up.
In this same vein, we have to give ourselves grace. If I eat the entire roll of raw cookie dough today {Oh, believe me. I’ve done it before!}, tomorrow is a new day. I can’t use that as an excuse to jump off the train completely. I can only control what I do today. Yesterday is gone. Get back on and keep going!
10. Get Your Sleep
This was another hard one for me because I couldn’t see how sleep had any relation to my health. Most adults need 7 hours or more hours of sleep each night to function at their best the next day.
Between real life responsibilities, juggling all the hats of my online business, and homeschooling my kids, I had been getting only about 5-6 hours of sleep for years.
This meant that I was often running on coffee: 2-3 cups in the morning and 2-3 cups in the afternoon. The snowball effect was that I was drinking less water, had less energy to exercise, eating more junk {because I was eating for comfort}, and was getting more headaches because I was dehydrated. See how it works? I never saw it then. But I do now.
Since January, I’ve become more intentional about getting 7 or more hours of sleep a night. And I’m happy to say, I have more energy to exercise and drink MUCH less coffee. I now drink 1 cup in the morning and 1 in the afternoon, but only if I feel sluggish.
I’ve had to reduce the amount of work I expect from myself with the online business, but that’s okay. It was out of balance anyway. Had been for YEARS!
So, there you have it! 10 things I’m doing to be healthy {AND STAY healthy}. The key is life-long change that you can stick with. It doesn’t always look the same for everyone and THAT’S OKAY! Just be the healthiest you that you can be!
*If you want to chat further, feel free to email me at becky@thisreadingmama.com.
~Becky
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