What lead you to start a new healthy lifestyle plan? What motivates you to stick to that plan? What do you do when you slip up to get back on track?
Many of us refocused on healthy eating and a new exercise routine due to a health related wake-up call. For example, realizing we had a few extra pounds to get rid of, noticing a continuous lack of energy, chronic colds, or for me, a diagnosis of chronic fatigue syndrome. Once the new patterns have been established and our initial goals have been achieved, often we take how we feel for granted. We think it won’t matter too much if we skip one piece of our healthy maintenance plan. Then, when we don’t see an immediate negative consequence, we skip another piece. Soon our overall healthy plan is full of holes and we start to see some of the issues that caused us to create that plan to start with.
I slipped into that mode of thinking a few months ago. I was feeling so much better that I forgot how many different things got me to that point. Then I started to see some of my chronic fatigue symptoms resurfacing that I had not seen for a couple of years. I was reminded that the reason my healthy lifestyle plan had several pieces was because each action had a different purpose and they all worked together. What to do?
I began thinking about the importance of prevention. Many health challenges are much easier to prevent than to correct. When we give our bodies the nutrition and exercise they need our bodies can protect themselves from many diseases. And when we fuel ourselves correctly we can have all the energy we need to accomplish everything we want to do.
I am in the process of re-establishing my routine and am gradually seeing results again. A healthy routine has several components and if you have slipped off your plan you may need to reimplement it step by step, but the initial step is recognizing that you have slipped and refocusing on your goal. Don’t spend time beating yourself up, just start back down your original path. Once you have re-established those healthy patterns stick with them so you can fully experience a healthy life.
I would love to hear how you motivate yourself to stay on track in the comments below. Share this blog with yior friends if you find it helpful.
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