The important ingredients for a successful healthy life!

I wanted to touch on the things that are important to live a healthy lifestyle. The first thing is believing in yourself. If you do not believe you can accomplish the task, you will never start. You then have to have the dedication to see it through. Another aspect to that is to have the will power to push yourself when your head and body are telling you it is to hard. It is "hard" but it not "impossible". Next, if you like me make sure you have a support system in place to help encourage you and celebrate your triumphs. Also, I need someone to be accountable to. As we know, hiring a personal trainer is very expensive so I recruited my boyfriend. I send him pictures of the treadmill and the gym. So if your like me, then find someone who could help you.

Realize that we will all fall off the bandwagon at times. Life has a funny way of creeping up on you and getting in the way. Do not beat yourself up. Just realize what happened and move on. It even happens to trainers. It's okay. Know that the number on the scale is not what's important. It is how you feel and how satisfied you are with how you look, as long as it is not affecting your health. Another rule I must abide by is no junk or unhealthy food in the house because I have no self control. I try before I eat anything to think about how the food I'm eating is benefiting my body. That helps me to make better choices.

If you are a woman, make sure you take the time to take care of yourself (men as well). I just find that as women we are always worried about everyone else and put ourselves last. When I first got back into training after I had my son, it took me awhile to not feel guilty about the hour, hour and half I would leave him in nursery to workout (I stay home with my son). Especially us Moms, we need to make time for it. Again, I found myself being a better mother and more attentive because I had more energy and felt better. It goes full circle.

Lastly, do not let what other people think define what you do. I ran into a lot of opinions and my own thoughts when I decided to start eating clean. The first came from the restriction I put on what could feed to my son. I got a lot of backlash because I don't want him to have cookies, candy, fruit drinks, etc. I was actually told once "You would deprive your son of that". My response was "By depriving my son, do you mean depriving him of juvenile diabetes, obesity, sleeping problems, or anything of the other problems that come along with eating unhealthy. Why yes I will deprive my son of all of that and there is nothing you can do about it because he is my son".  It is amazing how intrenched in our society it is to think that by not allowing your son to eat those things you are depriving them. I also ran into problems with my own thoughts. I often thought about people being opposed to the meals I had to offer them, then worrying about if I would have to cater to their eating habits, and I realized my house, my meals. If they wanted something else, they could eat before or bring their own food.

I do not mean that mean. There are many ways to cook the same food we eat every day, in a more healthy way. I would never think to go to someone's house and demand they cook healthier because I was there so I do not expect anyone to do the same to me. Like anything else, you just have to stand up for what you believe in and not other people's opinions or thoughts affect that.

Here's to a happy, healthy, productive life for all!!!


Here is my reason to live a healthy lifestyle!

Just some motivation!!