When I started my blog, I mentioned that I wanted to start creating healthy habits in my life spiritually and physically. While there has been a spiritual shift, I’m happy to say there has also been a physical shift. I’ve always heard the saying; “it takes 21 days to form a habit”. In the beginning, I wasn’t sure how much I believed that but now, I do!
Over the last 3 months I have taken the steps to create a healthier more active lifestyle. I have changed my eating habits, made conscious efforts to workout daily, and tracked my progress. I’m excited to say since then, I’ve lost about 15 pounds. While I’m not exactly where I want to be, I thank God for the progress I have made.
For this blog post, I wanted to talk about 4 specific things that have helped me become successful along my journey. Please keep in mind I am NOT a professional and I do understand what works for me might not work for everyone. However, healthy living has been strong on my heart so I wanted to share.
1. Figuring out my WHY?
Figuring out my WHY was the number one key. I had to think about my motives to get healthy and lose weight. I began asking myself; why do I want this? Is it to feel comfortable in own skin? Is it to over come health issues? Is it for my future self? Figuring out the WHY has helped me stay motivated on the days I want to give up. As explained in my first blog, my main WHY is because I’m going to have kids one day. Not only do I have to keep up with my children but I also want to start creating healthy habits now that are passed on to them. Knowing that, I keep going. Please believe, there are days that I don’t want to workout and I do want to eat lots and lots of French Fries but because of my WHY, I stay disciplined. What is your WHY?
2. Catching the Vision
Before I started this process, I had a vision of myself healthy mentally and physically. It was a normal work day and all of a sudden, as I was working, this vision popped into my head. I could see it…it was almost as if I was there. I was on the beach, in a bathing suit, smiling and actually confident. From that moment on, that vision never left my head. When I look into the mirror, that’s how I see myself. I have never been confident in a bathing suit EVER and the fact that I was, I knew it was time to work towards that.
I also had the opportunity to create a vision board at the beginning of this year. My vision board consist of a lot of motivational quotes and places I would love to visit in the future. Everyday I look at my vision board as a reminder to keep going. One of my favorite quotes;
“There is no such thing as overnight success. It takes all-nighters, moonlighting, and burning the midnight oil to get to where you want to be”.
3. Staying Active
This was one of my biggest challenges at first. I work from home and unfortunately, it caused me to become lazy. During the week I rarely ever wanted to leave the house let alone workout but, I started small. The first workout I did was about 25 minutes of Zumba (at the time it was all I could take…lol). Slowly but surely, I started going to the gym, going for walks/hikes, and even working out on my lunch breaks! I didn’t worry about working out for long hours in the beginning. I focused on the quality of my workout and making sure I stayed consistent. Now, exercise is my mental therapy. I can be having the worst day and within one workout, I am feeling amazing. So start small!
4. Eating Healthy… but staying away from impossible diets.
Going into this I realized I will make mistakes and I will slip up when it comes to healthy eating but I couldn’t GIVE UP! Most importantly, I refused to resort to impossible diets. One question I ask myself when it comes to my eating is; “Can I eat this way for the rest of my life”? If the answer was no, I knew I wouldn’t make it. There are a million fad diets but I had to be honest with myself. Could I really only eat lettuce forever? Probably not. I didn’t just want to do a diet but I wanted to create a lifestyle change. I know the importance of making healthy eating choices.
Because I’m still new at this, I use the My Fitness Pal App. My Fitness Pal tracks everything. It breaks down all the nutrients, calories, water and exercise I should be getting. To me, the best part about this app is tracking what I am eating. Tracking everything I eat daily makes me want to eat healthier. I never wanted to look at the App and see I was eating sugary or fatty foods all day. On Friday nights, I shut the app off because I have a cheat meal. Some people might not believe in that.. but I do! It gives me something to look forward too and reminds me that I can indulge once in a while. While I love my cheat meal, I didn’t have one in the first 21 days. Creating a solid habit of eating healthy came first.
I could probably go on and on about other things that have helped me but these are just a few things that stand out to me. Looking back, a lot of my journey started with a mental change. I believe in order to create good habits, it always start with changing your perspective. While I’m not a trainer nor health professional, I pray anyone who is feeling discouraged can feel encouraged. Please know that you can take you body and health back!
Jannetta Cox 