Kicking Off Your Health Kick

Taking your health back into your own hands is an achievement on its own. For whatever reason, you have decided that you should ditch the dirty habits and start working on yourself inside and out, and that is amazing!

Getting started can be the hardest part… there are so many little things that go through your head like do you need to do a diet? Can you really live without three coffee’s a day or even worse, chocolate? Its winter and no one wants to get out of bed early to exercise when its stupidly cold, so how am I meant to?!
 
Recognising and moving past these mental barriers is one part of the journey which can be challenging but it’s also so exciting once you’ve got a little inspiration behind you. Personally, one thing that I find that helps get me motivated is the excitement of trying new healthy recipes or other health-related things. Something that I have found that helps with this when I’m feeling a little lacking in the excitement department is the Inside Out boxes.

These boxes come as a monthly delivery of a huge variety of health-related samples. I love that I get to try new things that I maybe hadn’t thought of, or didn’t even know about for that matter. It was through Inside Out boxes that I discovered Vital Greens health bars, aka my new favourite snack! I used to always love a good muesli or nut bar but once I saw the sugar content in most of them I started to avoid them at all costs. The Vital Greens health bar has no added nasties, is vegan and contains 1 teaspoon of Vital Greens so it's jam packed full of the good stuff! Plus, they taste so good! Trust me you have to try them!

Another really helpful thing to do is work out the best way to keep yourself accountable. For me, writing down each days health intention works a treat! I spend some time on a Sunday working out what physical activity I want to do on whatever day and write it down on my calendar or fitness tracker (the Inside Out Box comes with an awesome monthly fitness tracker that is super helpful). I also go to the gym with a friend so we work out which days we can both go together depending on each others commitments,  and once we have worked this out, we can't really bail on each other so that usually gives me three guaranteed work outs a week. Perfect.
 
Anyway, going back to getting excited about yo' healthkick! Once I’m excited about nourishing my body with the good stuff, exercising becomes easy because the two go hand in hand together. When you put in the hard work to exercise you don’t want to ruin it with excessive un-healthy food and the same goes for when you’re eating so well, you will be so motivated to make the most of ‘clean eating’ (I’m not the biggest fan of this term but it’ll have to do this time).
 
I guess the point I’m trying to make is that if you find something that excites you, ‘finding motivation’ becomes a thing of the past. Even if that something is working out with a friend or cooking with your partner, take those basic, little things and use them to make your health kick fun. No one hates having fun so make it fun however you like!
 
Another really important thing to help you on this journey is your mindset about ‘having to exercise’ and ‘not be allowed to have certain foods’. If you treat exercise as something you ‘have’ to do, not something you ‘want’ to do, you will dread it as much as putting that huge pile of clothes away that you have been avoiding. The same goes for food – if you tell yourself ‘I can’t have any chocolate today’ you will not only feel like you’re missing out or being deprived of something you love, you will probably want it more!
 
What I suggest is changing the words in your thoughts…
 
Change ‘I can’t have’ to ‘I can have (insert whatever here), I am choosing not to have it’. Go from ‘I have to go to gym tomorrow’ to ‘I’m excited to go to gym tomorrow to see how much I have improved from today’. Every-time you go to say something negative about this health journey, even when you’re feeling 100% over-it, change whatever you’re about to start your sentence with to ‘I’m so excited for…’. My partner and I do it for everything we don’t feel like doing and it’s actually pretty funny the things we blurt out!

‘I am SO excited to do the dishes!’
‘I am SO excited for the weather to be cold and overcast all day!’
‘I cannot contain my excitement for cleaning the yogurt off every surface of the kitchen after knocking it off the bench!’
 
Your thoughts have so much power over you and the best thing is that YOU control them! So tell yourself every day that you’re excited, you’re keen to see what the day brings you and not a single thing will stop you. Say it like you mean it and this health kick will be easy-peasy before you know it.
 
That’s enough from me, now the focus is on you. Take your health back into your own hands. Be grateful for the body you have and learn to love nourishing it with the right foods and rewarding it with exercise (yes that says rewarding, not punishing).
 
You’ve got this!
 
Georgia x