How do you stick to your healthy diet and lifestyle despite the crazy, crazy, modern world that you live in?
In the video I did on being vegan in Tanzania, I talked about how actually easy it is to eat healthy because of the relative ease of finding healthy food and the less prevalence of the unhealthy junk foods among other things. Every time I visit the States I rediscover how much harder it is there. I tend to binge on the unhealthy or less healthy things that I can’t get in Tanzania. I go through a phase of, “Oh, finally I can get these vegan cookies. Oh, finally there’s these vegan cheeses, vegan meat substitutes,” and things like that. I go overboard at the very beginning. I have to work my way back towards my healthy lifestyle goals.
In this video I share why you might struggle to eat healthy and stick to a healthy lifestyle and 14 tips to help you be successful. Here is a summary of what I cover in the video.
Why we struggle
#1. The constant media promoting the unhealthy things. Advertisements on TV, on the radio, when you go into the stores, there’s all these things that are on sale that are offered to us as being delicious vegan alternatives.
#2. The addictive nature of junk food, packaged food and restaurant food. The food producers have created a wonderful mix of sugar, fat, and salt that is very satisfying and very addictive, making you want more and more and more. So many of the things that we have trouble avoiding, is because they are designed to be addictive.
#3. Many people are living a high-stressed life. It’s expensive to live here, which means there’s pressure to work, work, work, work, to do more, be more. The time pressures can make taking time to make healthy meals, exercise, rest or other healthy lifestyle choices very difficult.
#4. Many of the social situations that you might be in are also not necessarily conducive. If the people that are around you are doing are things that are not in alignment with how you want to live your life, then it can be more difficult to do make the healthy choices that you really want to make.
#5. Sometimes after all the stress we just need or want to soothe ourselves to help us feel better. And so, you turn to these addictive and unhealthy things because they momentarily make you feel better. You feel like a treat like “I deserve a treat today!” The high stress, high pressure, fear based, anxiety inducing lifestyle that many people live is not conducive to healthy living.
All of these things together can lead us to move further and further away from living the healthy lifestyle that we want. Of eating healthy foods, of getting outside and getting into fresh air, of spending time meditating or reading, of getting exercising, doing yoga, of having positive healthy relationships, of learning something new, of taking your passion and turning it into something that’s rewarding to you.
The modern fast paced go, go, go profit driven lifestyle that is prevalent in modern westernized society is often not conducive to living a healthy liberated lifestyle.
So what do we do about it? How can we take living in this lifestyle and make it work?
Now for me, I left the USA because it just is not for me. But that isn’t something that everybody can do or wants to do. There are many examples of people who are living a healthy wellness focused lifestyle right here in the midst of this fast-paced stress filled life. So how can you do it?
Here’s those 14 tips for being successful.
#1 Observe your now. I highly suggest (as usual) doing a wellness journal, a food journal. It’s really the key to your success. In this journal, take the next week to two weeks without changing anything and just observe and write down what’s going on. When are the times that you’re most likely to choose unhealthy options? Where are you when you are likely to choose unhealthy options? What’s the situation? Who’s around you? What are the unhealthy options that you choose? And what would you rather be choosing? What is the impact of the unhealthy options? Write it all down. Here’s how to keep a wellness journal.
#2 Get clear on why this matters to you. What are your goals? Why are you trying to live this healthy lifestyle? Are you trying to lose some weight? Are you trying to reverse disease? Are you trying to deal with some emotional and mental issues? What are the various things that your healthy diet and lifestyle will help you achieve?
Write all these things down in your journal too. Not just in regard to food, but how you want to be living your life. Because when you are not your healthy best, it becomes harder to do the other things that you want to do in your life.
#3 Just being a witness of what’s happening. This is my own experience these couple of weeks. At Whole Foods they have this nice fresh from the bakery box of vegan chocolate chip cookies. I have a sweet tooth. That’s my weak point. I’m seeing these cookies in the kitchen and I’m thinking, I want some of these cookies to go along with my coffee, which is another thing I don’t normally drink on a regular basis when I’m in Tanzania. “Oh, I see. I’m wanting these cookies.” With this observation, it’s not about self-blame. It’s not about bashing myself. Oh, you shouldn’t. No, it’s just, “okay, I see I’m having this feeling, this desire.”
I found that I was able to notice that and then move on and not get the chocolate chip cookies. At least that time! I did get some later in the day, but that particular time I was able to get past it.
#4 Start your day healthy. I always like to eat a big bowl of fresh fruit in the morning. As much fruit as I can. It makes it easier to keep going on that healthy path. Maybe start the day doing some meditation or journaling or whatever the things are that you’d like to incorporate more of into your life. Start the day with that as much as you can. I also try to not get too into work things too early. I allow myself a good hour in the morning to take care of me. To eat the way I want to eat. To get outside and walk. To do some meditation. Maybe to do some yoga.
#5 Make being healthy, eating healthy easy. Make sure that your refrigerator in your kitchen is stocked with easy to eat healthy things. Lots of fresh fruit, fresh vegetables. The ingredients that you need to be able to make fresh food. Have a yoga mat at home. What are the things that you can do to make making those healthy choices easy? Identify one or more restaurants that you can go to where you can get healthy food. How can you make making those choices easier on yourself?
#6 Find a number of fast recipes that are nutritious and delicious. A fast stir fry. A really good salad. A pasta dish that you can throw together in a few minutes. Find yourself a few recipes that are very quick and easy to make and that you enjoy eating so that you will not hesitate to do it.
#7 Make sure that you’re stocked with healthy snacks whether that be nuts and seeds, a trail mix, or fruits, or healthy homemade low sugar cookies or muffins. What can you have on hand that will be a satisfying substitute for the unhealthy things that you normally choose?
#8 Don’t wait until you’re starving, starving, starving. Then you’re more likely to choose something that’s unhealthy. Have healthy and satisfying things on hand that you can grab when you start to feel hungry.
#9 Don’t go shopping hungry. Make sure that you’ve you have had something to eat before you go to the grocery store then you’re less likely to buy things because you’re starving.
#10 Try to avoid those areas of the stores where you know are the most tempting. Don’t go down the chip aisle. Don’t go down the soda aisle. Stick to the areas that have the healthy foods that you want to eat.
#11 Minimize your exposure to ads. Mute the tv when they come on and when you do watch scrutinize it think about what it is that they’re saying what is the motive behind that ad and does it actually make sense is this really to benefit you or is it to benefit the.
#12 What healthy rewards you can have for yourself instead that would be rewarding for you after a busy day? A bubble bath? Getting a massage or taking a walk? Start looking at other things that you can do to soothe yourself that are more healthy.
#13 Chances are good that you’re going to have ups and downs. You’re going to try something and it doesn’t work or you just or you have a particularly stressful day and you just can’t seem to get just keep yourself on track. Use that experience to think about how you can be more successful the next time.
#14 Find a wellness buddy. Somebody else who’s on a similar path as you and together you can support each other you can be accountable to each other.
This path of healing is more than just about getting physically healthy and off your medication. Those things are important of course. But it also allows you to become the person that you are meant to be. The person who is really inside of you, that’s trying to get out. It allows you to be able to listen to your intuition more and to really liberate your powerful and beautiful self.
What could living a healthy diet and lifestyle do for you?
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