How to Ease Into a Healthier Lifestyle

I’ll preface this by saying that I am by no means a personal trainer or a dietician, these are just some tips that I’ve garnered from my own experiences. We’re all different, and what works for me isn’t necessarily going to work for everyone. These are just some simple general ways to start living a little healthier because it can definitely be intimidating at first.

Diet and Exercise Are Both Equally Important

This doesn’t hold true for everyone, there are always exceptions to any rule, but for the average person, it takes a combination of diet and exercise to become more fit or to lose weight. If you’re not eating the right foods and properly fueling your body, you’re not going to have the energy to exercise. Conversely, if you don’t exercise, you’re not going to receive the health benefits that come along with it.

So many of my friends have fallen into the trap of thinking that the latest crash diet or exercise craze is going to magically transform their body, and it just doesn’t work that way. Crash diets are likely to fail, and when you’re not receiving enough nutrients, your body goes into starvation mode, clinging on to every single thing that it gets and severely dropping your metabolism. Also, you can do an hour at the gym every day, but if you’re going home and eating an entire cheesecake or downing a bottle of wine, it kind of cancels that hour of exercise out.

Start Off Slowly and Simply

Much like the fable of the tortoise and the hare, slow and steady wins the race. Take it from me, it’s easy to have one grueling session at the gym, make these grand fitness goals, and then fall short because you bit off more than you could chew. As with anything in life, the best way to stick to something is to start off gradually and then work your way up from there. If you’re having trouble with eating healthy, begin by having one healthy meal a day or try swapping out unhealthy options for healthier alternatives. For example, swapping fried chicken for grilled or baked chicken.

With exercise, start with simple cardio and body weight workouts. Do what’s easy for you but still gets you up and moving. For example, try to incorporate a walk into your daily routine, take up a fun fitness class, the possibilities are endless. It has to be something that you enjoy doing because if it’s something you absolutely hate, you’re not going to continue doing it.

Pay Attention to Your Body

A lot of us have issues with overeating because we eat when we’re emotional or bored or just because we want something, and one part of healthy living is learning how to view food as fuel and paying attention to our bodies. Most of the time, hunger is more mental than physical. Now, this is not to say that whenever you feel hungry, you should ignore it. Our bodies are amazing machines, and we need to eat well-rounded meals in order to keep ourselves running at our very best. A good trick to deal with mental hunger is to try drinking a glass of water and having a thirty minute span between when you first felt hungry to when you have your meal. This trick is a multi-tasker because it helps you get in those eight glasses of water while also helping you decipher whether you’re mind hungry or body hungry. Plus, a lot of times when we feel hungry, our bodies are really just crying out for water.

Stay Motivated!

There are countless ways to keep that initial spark of motivation alive. A lot of people find motivation boards or little markers to show how far you’ve come to be a helpful source. For me, I like keeping positive quotes everywhere and little reminders of why I’m doing this, like a pair of shorts that I bought a couple of summers ago but weren’t able to fit into this past summer.

Be warned of the dangers of “fitspo.” While a lot of the quotes are inspirational, it’s never a good thing to compare yourself to someone else’s body. Not every body is built the same way, and you never know if the women in the photos have attained those bodies through healthy and safe means. A lot of fitness models end up getting breast implants because losing breast tissue is a common result of aiming for that low percent of body fat, so if you have an image of a girl with six-pack abs, skinny arms and thighs, and DD-sized breasts in your head, you’re setting yourself up for disappointment. The only person you should ever be comparing yourself to is you, not your friends, not your favorite celebrity, but you. If you feel fitter, healthier, and happier than you did the day before, you’re on the right track.

Another aspect of staying motivated is to constantly be challenging yourself. Once you’ve grown comfortable with a fitness routine, start switching it up! There are a lot of great month-long challenges on Pinterest that work to improve a certain fitness move or target a specific muscle group, and these can be fun to incorporate into your routine. Once you’ve grown comfortable with having well-rounded meals, try to cut some of the unhealthy things from your diet, like fried foods or alcohol.

Embrace Those Little Wins

Personally, I feel like this holds true for life in general, but really take the time to be proud of each small accomplishment you make. Don’t judge your success based on the number on the scale or the amount of calories you’ve consumed, appreciate every stride that you make. Even though I’ve always been fairly active, when I first started out, I had so much trouble doing squats. I could crank out the crunches or the leg lifts as if they were nothing, but it was a struggle for me just to finish twenty squats because my glutes weren’t very strong. Last month, I incorporate a squat challenge into my workout routine, and I remember feeling so proud of myself when I could do two-hundred squats at the end of the month. Another little win for me was when I could fit comfortably back into my jeans because I’d spent the winter in only leggings or sweater dresses. It’s that feeling of accomplishment, no matter how small, that really keeps you going and makes you begin to appreciate how far you’ve come and what your body is capable of.

Don’t Be Afraid to Indulge

One of the main things that keeps people from sticking with a healthy diet is that feeling of being restricted and focusing on all the things that they can’t have. While it’s probably not the best idea to workout and eat healthy for the workweek and then binge on junk food all weekend, don’t be afraid to have those things that you love. A pizza or a cupcake every now and then isn’t going to totally derail your diet and exercise routine, it just has to be done in moderation. Personally, I’ve found that once you start weaning off of all the junk food, you don’t really crave it as much anymore. Don’t get me wrong, I still have cravings, but instead of pining for cake and brownies, I crave healthier options like peanut butter and whole-wheat blueberry pancakes.

One way to indulge in your favorite foods without feeling guilty is to try to find healthier options that still satisfy your craving. I have countless recipes for my favorite baked goods saved that use substitutions or incorporate healthy foods like fruit and veggies to make them less terrible for you. For example, my mother is constantly craving hamburgers, and while she still has a Big Mac every now and then, most of the time, we have ground turkey meat burgers, salmon burgers, or veggie burgers instead.

Other Helpful Tips

Be sneaky! Trick your mind by eating meals off of smaller plates.

Find ways to incorporate fun exercise into your day-to-day life (I get most of my cardio from dancing like a fool).

Stay hydrated! Sadly, most people don’t drink enough water, and it’s so simple to keep a water bottle on hand or eat more foods that contain a lot of water.

Keep track of what you eat. While I don’t endorse obsessively counting calories, it is important to be aware of just how much you eat in a day because it can be easy to end up snacking a lot or eating a lot of bad things. By keeping a food journal, you can be more of aware of just how much you eat and what you eat in the course of a day.

Fit healthy living into your lifestyle. The workweek can be busy and hectic, so try to squeeze in your workout at the time that is best suitable for you. To resist the call of the drive-thru, make healthy meals ahead of time so that when you get home, all you have to do is pop it in the microwave.

Most importantly, don’t get discouraged. Everyone has their off-days, and just because you have one bad day doesn’t mean that you have to give up or overcompensate by starving yourself the next day or pushing yourself too hard in the gym (this kind of behavior can lead to eating disorders). Just remember that tomorrow is a new day and continue to live healthfully for yourself. It’s not an overnight process, and it certainly isn’t easy, but the benefits of health and happiness are more than worth it.