This New Year vow to skip the dieting
and focus on you and your beautiful self!
Don’t conform to a diet plan.
If you’re interested in changing your diet you should try to practice positive habits that will make you feel good. You will soon see that you are able to learn and grow with these new practices! In order to “stick with it” and feel success, it is important that you create routines and healthy habits which are centered on your life and schedule. You will most likely end up bringing yourself success this way versus with a rigid diet plan. This New Year set goals to create positive habits like walking 10,000 steps or drinking 64 ounces of water per day. Use a daily planner or mark off on a calendar the days that you reach your goal to help track your progress and keep you motivated.
Make exercise enjoyable.
Instead of putting in extraneous effort at the gym, practice workouts that you enjoy. This can be something that will get you outside, or allow you to spend time with a friend (or pet!). Physical activity is important for your health and while there is nothing wrong with going hard at the gym, you should always remember that your happiness matters most! As long as you find time to exercise and move thirty to sixty minutes per day a few times a week, you will be just fine. Bonus points if it ends up being fun! Fun exercise ideas? Go for walks with friends, a bike ride with the family, have a dance party or take a community exercise class. Exercise should be fun, not a chore!
Focus on nutrient density.
Instead of focusing on calories, try to focus on giving your body nutrient dense, wholesome foods. In the long run, restrictive diets can do harm to your body and frozen dinner diets are not nearly as nutritious as fresh, whole foods. Try working on having a healthy relationship with the food on your plate and choosing foods you enjoy. This New Year rather than counting calories, think about how nutrient dense your meal is and what your food is doing for you!
Shift the focus inward.
Instead of thinking of ‘healthy’ as a number, think of healthy as how you feel! Pay attention to your body and what makes you feel good. Pay attention to your mental health and what makes you feel safe and sound. Pay attention to your relationships and those who you enjoy!
You are worth it!
Instead of wanting to change your body, try to work on learning to accept and love YOU! Learning body positivity and how to love yourself can be a challenge for anyone with any body type. This is especially true during the New Year season when trendy ‘resolutions’ often revolve around weight loss and working on that ‘beach bod’. Two things to remember on the journey to loving your amazing self are practice and consistency. Remind yourself that you are beautiful and you are worthy- because you are! It is also good to remember that it’s okay to fail. Life is a learning process and nobody is perfect!
