Do you ever find yourself getting caught up in over-thinking healthy and what it takes to live healthy? In my journey of living a healthy lifestyle, I have found that over-thinking can lead to feelings of inadequacy of not doing things right, and getting so overwhelmed that it turns into something that is not enjoyed. Living a healthy lifestyle should be about simplicity, enjoyment, fun, balance, and all those fabulous things in life that make life worth the ride.
I come from a background of extreme athlete, competition, and counting every
gram of protein, carbohydrate and fat I put in my face, in addition to the supplements taken at spaced out intervals throughout my day, and the intense workouts all tucked neatly into my very organized trainer binder. Whew…I think about that now and remember how strict, stressed, and really undernourished I was during that time. My body fat was not at a healthy level for a woman, I was not having a cycle and my hormones where so out of whack that it took months for my body to get back on track when I made the decision to discontinue treating my body that way. Now…am I saying that competing is a bad thing…NO…I am not saying that and I applaud everyone’s goals for health and fitness, but what I am sharing is that it did not work for me for an extended period of time. Further, this was not a life-long sustainable way of health for my body, mind and spirit. I just wanted to make that clear before any backlash hit my page. What I am sharing about this time in my life is that I did over-think health, but I was not really thinking about health per se as my goals were to look a certain way and not considering feeling a certain way. Fast forward to many healthy years later…
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| Getting Back to Healthy |
I do not over-think my healthy lifestyle and teach quality over quantity, simplicity over difficult, and enjoyment over feeling overwhelmed. I designed a very easy nutrition guide for my clients that I use myself and have received rave reviews, as well as fabulous results that are life-time maintainable. I never want healthy to feel like a burden to me or my clients. I do believe in a health plan and structure when it comes to food prep and having food ready to go for the week, but that is the only effort required for a healthy lifestyle, alongside a consistent exercise program. I put in the time to cook my food and enjoy what I cook. I no longer count calories, keep a journal, although this can be helpful when first beginning a program, and simply eat healthy food throughout my day without calorie restriction….AMEN. I believe in keeping food to their simplest form and eating it raw or close to raw if possible, and I am talking mostly about my fruits and vegetables here. Of course, I crock pot chicken like no other, boil a boat load of organic eggs, crock pot large amounts of brown rice and steal cut oats every week. This has become my habit or healthy eating life and feels as natural as breathing to me now. I will also share that I do splurge in moderation, although I prefer to cook/bake my splurges because to me there is nothing better than a home-made cookie, pie, or brownie warm from the oven. Also, I do not like how overly sweet, salted or incorrect fat saturated purchased desserts can be and prefer to control that part of my splurge intake. So, the point I am driving home about my nutrition and how I think about it…is that I DON’T OVERTHINK IT…I eat to live and keep all kinds of healthy REAL food in my refrigerator and pantry and ENJOY my food. I realize that my body needs all kinds of fabulous nutrients and I have no worry about eating anything healthy that will fuel my body in a great way. If it is healthy, I eat it…that is how simple I keep it.
Turning to my fitness program or exercise, I have come full circle with that as well. I used to keep a journal years ago of my programs, weights that I lifted, gains, reps, intensity, duration, type, frequency, rest periods…OH MY. Again, I am not insisting that doing this for anyone else is a bad thing, but for me, it became mechanical and going through the power intense motions of pushing my body to the limits without regard for ME. This was years ago, and I now treat my body with more TLC and exercise to maintain a healthy body…that is now my goal. The journey with my exercise has taken on a whole new meaning as I dedicate my programs to taking the BEST care of my body with the limitations that I have and do what works well for my body without aggravation, or flaring this or that up. I no longer keep a journal but now enjoy workouts that I feel like doing on a specific day, and avoiding sore muscle areas, along with listening to my body if it needs a rest…I rest. The body needs to move for health and my focus is to move my body for health, to maintain the muscle that I do have, stretch to ensure range of motion through my joints, and perform cardio enough to work my aerobic system. I really enjoy my workouts and keep them fresh all the time with lots of variety…today was taking my puppy for a long walk/jog and utilizing park benches for step ups and squats along the way. I go with what works, I do what it fun and don’t over-think it. If I perform 15 squats instead of 20…so what…it is better than no squats. That is what I am talking about…doing the BEST I can with what I have and enjoying the journey.
I can say that not over-thinking healthy has provided a much healthier and
IN YOUR FACE MOTIVATION
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Stay Healthy~ Darla
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