In your quest to reinvent yourself, you made a decision to build your ultimate healthy lifestyle. After all, health is the first wealth. There is no point working yourself to the point of exhaustion and then spending your hard-earned money to recuperate your health. Sometimes, however, with programs like LifeVantage, you can get the best of both worlds: financial growth and health.
Unfortunately, you found it much harder than you imagined to eat and drink the right things, to plan all your meals ahead of time, to get enough daily exercise, and to cut down on some bad health habits.
Well, don’t feel bad about it. This is what most people go through when they decide to make a drastic change in their diet, exercise routine, and lifestyle choices.
Here are four challenges people who decide to adopt a healthy lifestyle face and solutions to overcome them eventually.
Challenge #1: Confusion
You are not clear what you should do.
While you have some ideas about eating right, you are so used to eating out or eating processed foods because you don’t have time to cook your own meals; hence, you don’t know how to make the transition.
Steps to take:
- Read a book on having healthy nutrition and take notes. If necessary, read other books, visit health-related blogs, watch health-related YouTube videos and talk to people on health forums. Get a clear picture of what meals to prepare.
- Look at your schedule and figure out when to prepare meals in advance. This way you have something to eat when you are stressed out and hungry. You won’t fall into default mode of grabbing whatever you can get your hands on fast.
- Get specific recipes on easy-to-make healthy meals so that you optimize your time in the kitchen when you do your optimized food preparation.
Challenge #2: Disapproving of yourself
You are disappointed with yourself. You set yourself some lofty goals and made plans to follow through on them. However, you made mistakes and began to slip into your bad habits—perhaps, eating fattening, salty, or sweet comfort foods when you had a rough day. You beat yourself up for letting yourself down.
Steps to take:
- Recognize that this is part of the journey. It’s rare for someone to give up their old habits without some regression. Consider it as a part of the course.
- Accept that you made the mistake, forgive yourself, and move on.
- Take preventative measures. Throw out all your junk food and avoid stocking up on them the next time you go shopping. If you don’t have any convenient snacks, you will just have to go through the withdrawal symptoms. Eventually, you will lose all cravings for foods that aren’t good for you.
- Find your triggers and develop alternative strategies. Perhaps you feel exhausted when you get home and just loathe the idea of exercise. Your trigger is fatigue and frustration. The alternative strategy is to make sure you get your exercise in before you go to work or during your lunch break. This way, you don’t have to force yourself to exercise when you are not in the mood for it.
Challenge #3: No support.
You may find that your family does not like what you are doing. It makes them feel uncomfortable. They like you the way you used to be. Now you are no longer available in the evenings because you are out running in the park. Now you no longer have favorite snacks in the closet, just a refrigerator full of fruits and vegetables.
Steps to take:
- Ask for their cooperation. Explain to your family what you are doing and why you are doing it, then ask for their help in achieving your health goals.
- Find like-minded friends. If you don’t have friends who are willing to join you in your quest for a healthier lifestyle, add some new friends.
- Surround yourself with books, videos, and other media where you get exposure to empowering information from experts in healthy living. In a way, you’re having a conversation. They are speaking and you’re listening.
Challenge #4: You hate exercise
Exercise has never been your forte. You would rather sit down with a good book, watch a great movie, or spend time chatting with family and friends. The idea of getting sweaty and uncomfortable for an hour or longer is a complete turnoff for you. Worse still, you also end up with aches and pains because you overdid it and sprained muscles and overstretched ligaments.
You have managed to spend years avoiding exercise, so why spoil a near-perfect record? Sure, you have a few extra pounds, but, hey, look at Nancy…now that’s heavy!
Steps to take:
- Admit that being a couch potato has its downsides.
- Don’t compare yourself with people who are doing better or worse than you. It’s not relevant. You are on your own journey. Things relevant for you are your own cardiovascular fitness, flexibility, and strength.
- Get around people who love exercising and try to understand their perspective. They will tell you interesting things about how well they sleep and how they enjoy more pep and a better sex life. Enthusiasm is contagious.
Why Change Is Difficult
A psychologist would say that any change is difficult because your subconscious mind does not like it—you are taking a risk by going against the familiar. However, through patience and persistence, you can reeducate it to accept a healthier lifestyle.
Article Submitted By Community Writer
