Motivation to Live Healthy
I’m super glad that society has shifted towards a more health-conscious lifestyle in the last couple of years and that it is continuing to make health a bigger topic of conversation. There’s a social appeal to leading and living a healthy lifestyle that, while not the greatest source, is a great motivator. But what happens when all those days, weeks, months, and years go by and you start losing the will to eat well, exercise, and all in all lead with a health first type of mindset?
As someone who heavily prioritizes health, I know that following the “health rules”, if you will, feel constraining and like a chore at one point or another. Starting is, and always will be, the most difficult step in the journey to living a healthy life. The funny thing is that you’ll often have to start over multiple times throughout life after taking a “mini-break” or going through a general lull period - a.k.a. me right now. No matter if you’re feeling lost, unmotivated, stuck, lazy, or all of the above, here are some tips to help motivate yourself to live by a perennial healthy lifestyle:
Progress Focused Mindset
As with any pursuit, leading with a mindset of continual progress will carry you forward no matter how unmotivated or lazy you get at times. Every day presents you an opportunity to make some form of progress, whether that’s eating one serving of fruit or running 10 miles. Any little thing can aid towards the greater good in the long haul.
When you look at how far up the mountain is from the bottom, you can easily get discouraged. However, if you lead with the mindset that you just need to put one foot in front of the other, slowly, but surely, you’ll find yourself making great strides towards the peak. That’s no different when it comes to our health, and by utilizing this mindset, you can help aid your mental health as well, which is just as crucial in the entire health space.
Switch Things Up
As alluded to earlier, health can feel taxing given its “checkbox” nature. Following routines and plans only can work for so long until the high and appeal of such programs fade away. No matter how minimalist and a lover of strict plans and routines you might be, we as humans all inherently crave some sort of variety in life.
So when it comes to figuring out your nutrition, exercise, sleep, etc., plans often leave little room for flexibility to change things up after a defined period of time. By changing things up, you psychologically are stimulated with a flight or fight response, and if you can get past the initial hurdle, you’ll find yourself flowing with positive inducing endorphins as a result of the newfound change. Don’t be afraid to change it up!
Continue Learning
Similar to the progress focused mindset tip, we can all benefit from knowing that we are constant learners in life. No matter how much you may know about a particular subject, there is always the potential for untapped knowledge resources that can open up your mind to something absolutely revolutionary.
New knowledge also brings excitement with it once you can apply it. By constantly learning and researching, you can easily feed into tip #2 of looking to change things up from time to time.
Create Your Personal Vision
Now we start delving into the intrinsic source of motivation. No matter how many of these tips you follow, if your own inner “why” isn’t clear, it will be all too easy to keep falling off the wagon as many times as you get back onto it. It’s as cliched as it gets, but it is the simplest and easiest way to keep yourself focused.
When it comes to health, I’ve personally found that you need to find a long-term health-related goal(s) to strive for that aren’t strictly aesthetic focused. It’s good and all to achieve the aesthetic results, don’t get me wrong, but the urge to stray from that goal for that one slice of pizza will eventually outweigh the aesthetic goal(s). Think more along the lines of how you want your body to function going forward so you can live a certain way for yourself, your friends, and your family. That’ll truly keep you personally invested in maintaining a healthy lifestyle for the long haul.
Feel Your Body
We all know that feeling when your body sends you messages asking why you had to do that to yourself. Conversely, we know how crazy good it can feel when your body feels clean and in “peak performance” mode. Your body will tell you everything you’ll ever need to know when it comes to your health. However, that does not mean, by any means, that you shouldn’t continue to check up with your doctor from time to time for a general health check at the very least.
When your body is in a funk, you can take that as an indicator that you may need to take greater care and caution with what you’re feeding it as well as how you go about moving and exercising with it. No two bodies are the same, so no single type of nutrition, sleep / rest, exercise, etc. plan will work for both you and me. Everyone has idiosyncrasies that need to color how you go about approaching the different areas of health in your day to day life.
These tips have helped me a great deal to stay motivated and keep at it. By no means is this an exhaustive list of everything that can work. Likewise, some of these tips may not work for you, but I hope they can at least serve as a springboard for you to tap into your own exploration of how to motivate yourself. Through it all, keep smiling knowing that you’re doing your best and that everyone else around you will be happy that you’re trying to benefit and prolong your life!
“The mind and body are not separate. What affects one, affects the other.” - Anonymous
