What I’ve come to realize is that most people can’t commit to living healthy because they complicate it. 

How often have you set out to lose weight by turning your entire life upside down? Inevitably,  your attempts fail, which leaves you feeling bad because you think you don’t have “willpower” or discipline. 

It wasn’t about willpower. It was your approach that set you up to fail.

The key to success is consistency over time. 

When it comes to living healthy, slow and steady wins the race. Lose the mindset that you’re on a diet for a specific period of time. You are making a lifestyle change. You have to be in this for the long haul. 

When I coach my clients, I recommend small changes over time. For example, if you’re not exercising at all right now, don’t promise yourself that you’ll workout everyday. That’s not likely to happen, and if you start out doing that you probably won’t be able to sustain it. 

Instead, just commit to walking for 20 minutes three times a week and then choose the days and times that you know will work best with your schedule. If you’re not a morning person, don’t try to work out at 5am every day. 

There is no perfect time to workout, the perfect time is anytime that you will actually do it. 

When it comes to eating, the same principle applies. So many people go from eating everything within their line of sight to all of a sudden just eating salads and drinking water. Again, that’s not sustainable. 

As you start out just change one or two things. If you know you shouldn’t be drinking so much diet soda or coffee, then make small changes. Don’t stop cold turkey. Cut your consumption into half.  Instead of three cups of coffee a day, drop down to one, then switch the other two cups out for tea. 

Just figure out what works for you. 

Take a look at your habits that aren’t healthy and consider how you can make modifications.  Every week add one more change until you get to where you want to be. 

There are no quick fixes. It took time to get into your present state.  It will take time to get out of it. 

So, here are 5 practical strategies that work for me:

1. Prepare meals in advance – I like to prepare most of my meals on the weekend so I’ll have food for most of the week. This keeps me from eating fast food. 

2. Schedule your workouts – If its on my calendar I’m more likely to do it, especially if I set a reminder to alert me that I have it scheduled.

3. Do fun activities instead of grueling workouts all the time – I try to have balance, so I mix up my workouts. If I’m doing a hard body pump or boot camp type class today, then I’ll take a Zumba class the next day. If it feels so hard all the time then I’m less motivated to do it.

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4. Change one habit at a time – Don’t eliminate sugar and caffeine at the same time -that’s a recipe for disaster. Tackle the big issues one at a time not at the SAME time. Once you conquer one, then move on to the next thing. 

5. Write it down – I LOVE to journal – I have done it for more than 20 years and it works for me. It especially helps me when I want to lose a few extra pounds. Trust me, you’re eating way more than you think.  If you know you have to write down every morsel of food that goes into your mouth, you will eat less! 

So there you go, some simple, practical tips to help you live a healthier lifestyle. Which of these strategies will you commit to try? 

Until next time…

Peace, Love & Fitness!