Self Care
People tend to stop caring about their health once they get to a certain age, or even when they’re young they don’t care enough about their health, even once they have a health scare it still doesn’t affect them enough to make a change, you don’t want to get to the point where your health is so bad that you want to do something but can’t, because you physically can’t do it anymore, this seems to be when people have a sudden heart attack or have symptoms but don’t take it seriously enough, but if you don’t have good health you don’t have much else left.
Same with bad eating habits people will know It’s bad or the foods they’re eating aren’t very nutritional but decide to do it still, is it laziness.. or just not having the mentality to want to change it, not caring enough, health is the main reason why people pass so early on.
Your partner can affect your health also, if you’re wanting to start making healthier food choices and go to the gym but your partners eating habits are bad, they don’t eat frequently, they always want take away and they don’t care for physical health it’ll make your own health journey harder, I feel if It’s the right partner for you, they would adjust and also want the best for themselves and try to improve their eating habits also, not wanting to workout and eat healthy is a form of self sabotage, why would you not want better for yourself?, to be in better shape, and to have better physical and mental health, the more you ignore it the more of a problem it becomes later, it doesn’t fix itself, you have to find ways that work for you and to improve on your own health, I think to always start first with your mental health, if your mental health isn’t good and your thoughts are negative and you feel low, chances are you won’t have the best physical health either because your decisions are based on how you think and feel about yourself on the outside, to be in good shape I feel you have to have good mental health too, because if you can mentally push yourself in a good way, you can physically do anything.
My own health has been up and down for years, I exercised to stay skinny and punished myself more than just wanting to be strong and healthy, my eating habits were okay.. but I also would binge eat, I managed to kick the binge eating once I dealt with emotional problems I was going through, once I started to address things that were wrong in my life and slowly trying to improve them, my binge eating stopped on It’s own, usually you’ll binge eat because you think you had a bad day or you feel horrible, but instead of sitting and asking why and maybe how can I change the situation It’s easier to get some quick gratification by eating foods that aren’t the best for us but give us that dopamine hit, the binge cycle continues till we work through our own issues.
I still got work to do, consistency is another one, I think you have to set yourself up for the day or week, if you know it gets past a certain time and you won’t exercise make sure you set the day to exercise first thing in the morning instead of after any other activities, so by the time you finally get home after the other activities your energy is low.
Another one is walking, at the start just say “I can do 5 minutes them come home”, it seems short but by the time you walk outside and do 5 minutes you’ll end up doing 10 minutes or more, another is being present, if I think about what happened 3 weeks ago or way to in too the future how can I focus on what I’m meant to do today, it’s good to write a list of things you want to achieve in the future, maybe doing 10K steps a day, so on your days off if you aren’t going out maybe do two, 30 minute walks during the day to help reach those steps, and trying to make the goals achievable, if you don’t have an active job, and if you’re not overly active on days off or at home, don’t force yourself to go to gym 6 days a week and hit 10K steps a day, start small, go for 10 minute walks a day if you can and start with 2 gym training days a week, once your body adjusts you’ll eventually add more into your weekly routine, the main thing is to think how can I sustain this? if you’re wanting to improve your health, your health is for life, not till you look a certain way or lost some weight, it takes work to maintain your mental health and it takes work to maintain your physical, so It’s something you want to keep doing till old age, things you know you can do daily and weekly with minimal slip ups is the best option.
I noticed what you do first thing in the morning affects the rest of the day, I know if I over sleep and sleep in till 11am chances of me working out of going for a walk is slim, I’ll wake up with a headache, I’ll be light headed the rest of the day and have no physical or mental energy, and trying to work up the energy doesn’t work the same as if you woke up early in the morning and exercised, a lot is also discipline, but It’s easier to get these things done doing something you enjoy, don’t like the gym by yourself? try to get your partner to go with you or a friend when they can, once you go a few times with your friend It’s easier later to also go by yourself, working out first thing in the morning works best for me it wakes my brain up first thing in the morning so by the time I’ve finished, my brain is switched on and ready for whatever I need to do for the rest of the day, and it also gives your brain the momentum it needs to get other tasks done in the day, even just going for a walk first thing in the morning the forward movement actually gives your brain the movement it needs to complete other tasks and push through hard task.
I think people may think It’s a matter of walking too much and being in the gym 6 days a week and eating salads only, but It’s about balance, making sure you get movement in during the day, eating nutritional foods but enough to make you feel full and not so much you feel sick, and going to the gym that suits you, if the days you work are long hour days like 12 hour shifts, then go to gyms on the days you have off and go for a walk even with your partner when the sun is coming down, because 1. you’re both getting exercise and 2. It’s a great way to bond.
People that tend to have good mental and physical health are the ones that are usually most successful, you can’t feel horrible about yourself but believe you will achieve so much in life, it doesn’t go hand in hand, pushing yourself and training yourself to have discipline and good habits for your health will spread over to other areas in your life, you have to have the confidence and feel good about yourself and a strong mentality to believe you can achieve whatever you set your mind to do, It’s just taking the first step to see a therapist if you need, book a personal trainer or see a nutritionist if you aren’t sure if your eating habits are the best, none of these are a waste of your time, It’s an investment in yourself and to help improve yourself, the key to achieving anything in life is to always work on self development and improvement, we aren’t born perfect and there’s always something to work on, if you know there’s a bad habit you have and you want to change, start with that.
Blog photo by alyssia.strasser on Instagram
