How Ho Make Your Healthy Changes Stick & Feel Like YOU Again!
1 Decide what you would like your goal or outcome to be. For example, to be pain free, have more energy, or to just be happier…
Realize you can adjust and you are in control of your sleep, the food you choose to put into your body & taking advantage of your exercise opportunities. Those three things alone have a huge impact on how you feel everyday!
2 Choose one easy thing that you could trade out for a healthier upgrade. For example, instead of reaching for soda, drink water. Notice how you feel at the end of the week.
3 When you go grocery shopping shop the perimeter of the store where the REAL, WHOLE, actual foods are! Read ingredients: if you don’t recognize them or there are more than 5- it’s probably not actual food and your body won’t be able to use it as fuel for energy. Worse, it will cause damage to your body.
4 Add a vegetable to your plate with each meal. Eat the rainbow! (Not the Skittles rainbow;) The fruit & vegetable rainbow!
5 Eat dinner for breakfast. Include a vegetable you enjoy.
6 Trade out your dairy products for almond milk or coconut milk. Dairy makes phlegm/plaque and we’re not baby cows!
7 Add a small amount of protein with each meal. An awesome superfood is quinoa: easy to cook; just like rice, yet packed with proteins and amino acids which are the Lego building blocks of your body!
8 Do not take your cell phone to bed with you! choose a reasonable bedtime for you to get enough hours of sleep in put your cell phone in sleep mode and move it at least four feet away from your head.
9 Choose three things you’re thankful for each day & say them out loud either a dinner or before you go to bed at night or as soon as your feet hit the floor in the morning. Thankful people are happier people.
10 3 times throughout the day take 3 quality deep breaths with long complete exhales. Notice how you feel. This has an immediate calming effect on your whole body and all of your major organs.
11 Play and listen to the song weightless. It reduces anxiety by 65%. (Google neuroscience and Weightless by Marconi Union.
12 Be aware of your posture. Hold your head over your shoulders & put a smile on your face. Even placing your muscles into that position releases feel-good, happy endorphins in your brain. Amy Cuddy is the author of Presence & her TED talk about posture – how it affects your mood, attitude & confidence, immediately.
Remember: the hardest part is getting started. Pat yourself on the back for what you have accomplished each day! Recognize what you enjoy and what works for you based on how you feel. If you eat something and it makes you tired instead of giving you energy, next time make the healthier food choice. If you’re too tired to exercise after dinner, try taking a walk in the morning.