Wednesday, June 25, 2008
If you are ready to live a healthier lifestyle, the first step is to get organized and figure out your plan of action.
• First, sit down and create a goal-oriented timeline that will give you tips on what changes to make each day, week or month. Writing down your feelings during this health and wellness journey will help you spot problems along the way and be able to address them easier. What motivates you is vital to your success: it can’t just be about losing weight. It is about making a significant lifestyle change to live a long and healthy life.
• Next, clean out your kitchen and remove any processed and fatty foods or anything you feel may be a bad influence.
• Then write up a new grocery list after perusing healthy recipes. Adding fruits and vegetables and lean proteins, as well as removing fat, will make a huge difference.
• For the future, plan out your meals ahead of time, and prioritize so that there is 30 minutes a day left for exercise. Whatever time of day works for you the most, work out at that time if you can. There are many ways to get cardio and weight training into your daily routine besides going to the gym: watching a fitness DVD, biking, walking, swimming or playing sports that break a sweat.
• Get enough sleep!
• If you have any medical problems, ask your doctor to help you choose a nutritional and fitness program.
• Don’t buy in to dieting hype: “fad” diets call for extreme change and significant caloric restriction, which sets someone up for failure. Dieting is not the answer; depriving your body of calories will cause your metabolism to slow down.
• Make changes slowly to become better accustomed to your new, healthier lifestyle. You will notice a change in how you look and feel. Don’t obsess over a scale every morning, but let how your clothes fit tell you your progress.
