The Path to Wellness, Where do I Start?

 

I am going to be straight up honest with you. Today the path to wellness can be one of the most challenging things you’ll ever do. But why is that? Shouldn’t eating vegetables, fruit, proteins, oils, and other nutrients be easy? The truth, while eating basic vegetables and fruits is easy, we eat and drink a lot of things that are not good for us. We start choosing convenience over being smart. Most of time when we try finding wellness, we end up on different fad diets, and those fad diets either temporarily work or don’t work at all. The capital T truth is … wellness is a lifestyle not a fad. Wellness is not a diet, it’s a day in, day out decision. So do you want to start the path of wellness?

Audit Your Goals: This should be the number 1 thing you assess. What do you what to accomplish? The reason why we set goals is so we have short-term or long-term motivation. Goals also help us use our time, knowledge, and resources carefully. Because none of that should be wasted.

Take Action: Create precise, measurable, and realistic goals for yourself, e.g. I want to lose 20 pounds in the next 2 months. For an added challenge have someone hold you accountable to your goals.

Audit Your Current Eating Habits: Believe it or not, there are some people who never realize how many times they go through a fast food chain or eat out on a weekly basis. That is the basis of the problem. We get so far into bad habits, we don’t recognize them as bad.

Take Action: Cut the fast food & don’t eat out. Limit or cut out caffeine drinks. Eliminate pop and diet pop. Stay away from pasta and talk to a nutrition expert about what grains you should be eating.

Audit Your Exercise: After you audit your eating habits, you should know if you are putting the time in at the gym or not.

Take Action: If you are not a big gym person or you don’t know where to start then pair up with a friend or family member! Did you know that, “Having a reliable workout buddy increases your chances of sticking with your program?” according to Elizabeth Lombardo, PhD, MS, PT, psychologist, physical therapist and author of A Happy You: Your Ultimate Prescription for Happiness (Morgan James, 2009). Beware though a con to having a partner is if they stop showing up and then you are left without a partner.

Audit Your Emotions: You are going to see changes in your emotions and need to know how to deal with them as you change your eating habits and exercise.

Take Action: Start understanding the challenges and ways to cope with anger, stress, joy, fear, and happiness.

Audit Your Work Life Balance: It is never healthy to spend all your time at work. Take breaks and learn how you can best contribute to the job without risking things too much.

Take Action:  Don’t allow yourself to get that burnout feeling. We should actually get fulfillment when we do things correctly in our careers.

Final Take Away:

It really comes down to life choices. We all have the power to choose what we eat, what we drink, what we think, and what we do. I always tell my clients one thing: ”You can make the time to be healthy now, or take the time to be sick later.”

Remember to consultant a qualified doctor when it comes to trying new foods, whole food supplements, and exercise.