Over the years I have faced many challenges that interfere with my health and wellness goals. I wanted to share with you ways that I have found to be helpful to lead me closer to my goals.
There is no doubt, everyone leads a busy life. I have the opportunity to talk with several people each day and the number one phrase I hear is “I am just so busy, I can’t”. I too once felt this way until I was able to look at my schedule through a different set of glasses. My health has been in my top 3 priorities in life for several years. After losing my lovely mother to cancer in 2001, I decided that I am the owner of my health, if I am able to get my body in a balanced state and feed it the right nutrients then maybe, just maybe I might be able to ward off this nasty disease. Therefore I went about finding ways to improve my health, and as I became older and taking on more responsibilities, I have had to find ways to keep moving forward towards my goal.
The number one advice I have for people looking to become “healthy” is to journal about what health means to them. This is a great exercise to look at the different areas of health. I am here to tell you health is not just about eating the “right” foods, exercising every day, or even about eliminating things from your life. Health is all encompassing of how you treat your body. This can be from the thoughts we think, the activities we put our bodies through, the food we put into our bodies, the mindset of how we see ourselves, the ways in which we deal with stress, and so on. When there is clear definition of what health means to you and how it can impact your life, it is much easier to work on creating goals for yourself. This is ALL about YOU! Yes you read that correctly, your health is ALL about you. In speaking with several people, I find that individuals want to get healthy for their loved ones. This is great, but wouldn’t it be even more empowering if they wanted to get healthy for themselves first? Unfortunately most of us put other people first, which is great, and we forget to focus on ourselves and what we really need. When we can focus and turn some of our attention back on ourselves, we are going in the right direction and making YOU important!
Now that we have addressed how to start, I will share with you some ways that I create my healthy lifestyle and how I stay on track. Let’s start with the easiest first FOOD! It’s everywhere, that corner, this corner, everywhere we look there is food promoted by companies enticing us to come in and eat! Here is a quick guide to help guide you in better decision making in regard to food:
Preplan and pack your lunch
Order grilled anything over fried
Ditch the pastas and rice, order more vegetables
Get dressings on the side and use sparingly
Skip the artificial sweeteners
Skip the sodas and tea, go straight to water
If you eat out choose places that have lower calorie foods
Prepare to take half of the meal to go and get the to-go box when your meal is delivered
If the feeling of “guilt” sets in when ordering or picking out food trust yourself and don’t get it!!!
Allow yourself a small treat, when you have been hitting your goals!
Food is a great way to start changing your health, however as mentioned before, there can be several components to becoming healthy. Mindset is a huge area where we struggle with wanting to get healthy. Mindset is the way we talk to ourselves, the way we view how things happen, the way we perceive the world happening around us, etc. One way to get our mindset focused is to create goals. In my online course, I am able to help individuals look at their goals and assess if they are tangible or not, if they strengthen the person or limit them, and make sure the goals are consistent with what where they want to be in the future. Goals are ever changing, and need to be re-evaluated often. It is ok if you set a goal and fall short, where people fall off is not committing to what it takes to reach their goal and not taking the appropriate actions to get there. This is when it is often good to have an experienced person guide you and look to see where things went right, or could have improvement. One of my goals has been to become a figure competitor and get on stage! Yes that is scary however it also excites me beyond belief. In order to get to this goal, I must start small and create goals that lead towards getting on stage. This year I am able to commit to my goal and prepare for stage in May. I have my goals written in several places to remind myself what I am working towards. This has been a game changer in my life. The more we can be reminded of our goals, the harder we will work for them. Where ever you are with your goals, keep them close to you and look at them often.
Journaling, mindset, and goal setting is just the beginning of keep on track with health and wellness goals. Commit everyday to do something positive to keep you moving forward in your journey. The more we can focus on moving towards our goals, the higher the possibility is that we will be able to achieve what it is we are looking for.
Much Love,
Dr. Parish
