With all of my clients I work on “Progress NOT Perfection”! We take small steps towards change not leaps and bounds. If your nutrition is awful, you haven’t exercised in 20 years and you hate the gym, how can you expect to change that immediately? So pick a small obtainable goal, so that we can see real achievement and real results.
Start with one thing we can change, and let’s keep it positive! Rather than choosing something you won’t do, let’s choose something you WILL do, something that you know is good for you and something that you believe will make your life better!
If you eat from the Standard American Diet (SAD Foods) of processed foods, sugary drinks and carbohydrate rich meals then make the simple choice to add a vegetable that you like to every meal you eat. How often do you get to add something you enjoy to your daily routine? And if you’re anything like me then being told NOT to do something makes you resistant. Now you get to do something during the day because you chose to do it; no one is telling you or forcing you. That’s pretty liberating!
After we make one healthy choice it becomes easier to make others! Maybe try eating more natural or organic foods and removing the processed stuff that our body doesn’t know what to do with so it stores it as fat until it can figure it out. Then we are no longer taking in harmful pesticides, hormones and antibiotics that change our metabolism and make us sick. When we decide to eat closer to the Earth, eating foods that are nutrient rich and whole keeps us the way we were intended to be: healthy and vital!
If stress is a part of your daily routine then we need to find a way to bring your emotions down and calm your mind. I work with many busy professionals who have very full lives: careers, bosses, dogs, mortgages, ferrets, children, wives, husbands, boyfriends, girlfriends, deadlines, projects, school…not to mention the bombardment of stresses we get from technology: cell phones, laptops, desktops, Skype, email, snail-mail, fluorescent lights, loud music, car horns, texts, alarms, IMs, Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter… OMG!!!! I’m getting stressed just going through the list.
How can we reduce the cyber-clutter that throws off our natural rhythm, keeps us up at night and wakes us in the morning? Start small! Take 5 minutes—turn off your phone, close your computer and walk away. Find a quiet place and just breathe and be still. This might be challenging at first. In the beginning, 5 un-stimulating minutes can seem like a century but those 5 minutes will do wonders for your mental health and wellbeing. Try not to think about your To-Do List or emails you haven’t responded to. Try to be still, close your eyes and go to your favorite place, maybe the woods or the beach. At any point in the day you can press refresh on your psyche and start your day all over again. This little bit of self-care will make you want more, and just as eating right nurtures your body, this “Me-Time” will help nurture your soul.
Exercise, although very important, is just a part of the health equation (for crazy people like me it’s a bigger part). If you are renovating a house you need to make sure that the foundation is solid before you remodel the kitchen and it’s the same with your body. Let’s make small steps towards big changes and lasting results!
