text: A healthy lifestyle does not only mean eating the healthiest green foods, or buying all organic products, a lifestyle is every decision you make in your everyday living. To maintain a healthy lifestyle therefore, there are two things you most certainly need: determination, and patience. Determination is what will push you to choose this, instead of that, while patience will help you in constantly choosing the better option. A healthy lifestyle is not a one night decision, it is a process that is continuously being learned by everyone.
  If you’re new in terms of healthy lifestyle and you’re struggling to sustain it despite knowing its benefits, here are a few steps to aid you in sticking to the best choice:
  #1. Set your goal
  The ‘goal’ in this step is not an end goal, but a train of constant victories. Your goal is to constantly making the choice to pick the healthier option, instead of the other. This may be in terms of the food you eat, or in the number of minutes you want to spend exercising. The goal is that you will be able to stay away from unhealthy habits, by constantly choosing the healthier option over the other, it will become a habit and then a complete lifestyle change. The goal of eating healthy and living healthy will be achieved when the daily process is established.
  #2. Determine your own pace
  There is no such thing as an instant change in lifestyle, this varies depending on the person. For example, you cannot immediately go vegetarian in one night. Usually, this abrupt changes result in a non-lasting lifestyle change. Determine your pace by slowly easing out of your old ways, instead of running for 15 minutes a day you run for 30 minutes, or instead of eating a bowl of cereals you choose a bowl of oatmeal. With gradual growth and constant effort, you’ll create lasting effects by not depriving your body of its usual routine.
  #3. Let others know of your quest
  Oftentimes the cause of not having to push thru with the goal of having a better lifestyle is the people around us. When we surround ourselves with people that do not support our change, it can create a drag in your momentum. Have a sit down with them and explain the process you want to apply, ask them beforehand to support you and understand that their actions may help in your choices. By surrounding yourself with positive influence, there’s less things to worry about.
  #4. Research your options
  When it comes to lifestyle change, the usual challenge we find is the effort of having to think about what you’re going to eat. As you try and feed your body with only the good stuff, it can be straining to constantly choosing fresh produce or organic food. With today’s technology, it is easy to share recipes that are fast to make, instead of being bothered everyday with what you’re going to eat, maybe you can create meals for 3-4 days. There are also other forms and ways to get your needed nutrients such as powdered green juice mixes, so you don’t have to always have fresh greens. Of course the real one is better, but if you’re making a lifestyle change, always have a substitute.
  #5. Be creative
  A healthy lifestyle switch does not have to feel heavy or hard with a little help of creativity. For example, you want to burn a little more fat in today’s workout but do not want the extra cardio work that goes with it, then maybe you can try mixing your running with an indoor activity such as yoga? Mix and match your choices so that you do not feel obliged, but more of feeling inspired. With food on the other hand, you can be creative by looking at new foods you haven’t tried such as chia seeds, flax, granola, these are healthy additions to your dishes and green juice. Spice things up and try to learn at least one new food every week.
  #6. Conquer your limits
  Looking back at tip #1, the second to the last trick in the sleeve is to just keep doing more of what you can. In this world the only limit there really is are the ones you create in your head. Instead of doing 5 pushups a day do 6; instead of adding 2 teaspoons of sugar in your coffee, put just one; if you’ve set an alarm to wake up at 7 am, try to be up by 6:30. These little but constant efforts create a ripple in your daily life, and it is important to understand that these small details are the ones that create the whole lifestyle change itself. As mentioned above, your goal is the awareness of having to choose what’s right for your body, and this goal does not stop or end anywhere as you make an everyday effort. Whatever you plan on achieving, achieve it a step further or higher.
  From setting your goal to conquering your limits, as you can see all of these tips rely on a person’s determination and patience. Without these two working together, there is less balance and your lifestyle change creeps back to its old unhealthy ways. As a final tip, allot 5 minutes of your mornings to meditate, don’t think of anything but your breathing. Meditation is a great way to jumpstart your day and reset your stress especially if you’re just starting out with the healthy lifestyle. Take time to breathe.
  Maintaining a healthy lifestyle is a constant process, you have to be aware and constantly reminding yourself of your path. Do not be frustrated or confined to focusing your lifestyle on choosing the right food, a lifestyle change is more than what you eat- meditate, get your focus, achieve, and achieve further. If you have any tips you’d like to share, please leave a comment down below. Also, don’t forget to share if you enjoyed reading this article!