When you say to your friends, to your family, and to your co-workers that you are trying to get healthier, food is usually one of the first things on the list that people try to tackle.
Correct?
Well, if you’re reading this, you must know my opinion already. YES. Obviously.
Hopefully, it’s an upgrade to cleaner, more real and more authentic food that is actually useful for your body, instead of some calculated, mathematical diet plan that you’ll stick to for all of 4 days before deciding it’s sucking the life out of you. But as we are talking about health, the next good thing to do will be flossing (read some tips for flossing at https://wahroongadentalgroup.com.au/2019/03/01/tips-for-flossing/).
But, there’s another component too, which may be just as obvious to some of you. We’ll call it #2, physically using your body. Exercising and being active – something like San Diego muay thai training etc. Pushing yourself to your physical limits to get stronger, leaner, more flexible and to detoxify your system.
And most people bounce between these two things—some with a focus more on one than the other. And that’s great.
Focusing on those things will get you much further ahead in your pursuit of a healthy life.
But, what if you get excited and inspired in various ways, but can never seem to make it stick?
If “healthy” is often an occasional roundtrip ticket, but you can’t seem to make it a oneway destination?
Something is missing.
A third element. It’s a hidden one, and definately not as obvious to most. But, it’s free and it’s something that anyone can tap into—to either take them to the next level or give them a huge lift to get things moving in the right and a much healthier direction.
It’s something that not only ties eating good food and loving the physical challenge of working out, together, but actually makes the whole experience of doing so more enjoyable.
The secret, is this:
The concept of healthy thoughts.
Healthy food, healthy + highly active bod, and healthy thoughts.
Now, I know I may lose some of you on this one. And before you stop reading immediately, I can’t say I wouldn’t have reacted the same way—a year ago even. But bear with me here for a minute.
Let me clarify. By healthy thoughts, I don’t mean spending hours in mediation, chanting to yourself 5 times a day about wanting a better bod, needing to lose 10 lbs or trying to be falsely happy all of the time, and that magically those things will appear. No judgment, of course, if that works for you. But personally, I don’t have that kind of time these days, and I’m guessing some of you are in the same boat.
What I mean more so, is the perspective of how you think about being healthy, within the walls of your own brain. Most of us think of being healthy as a good thing—as a bigger general concept. We all want to be healthy. But something keeps us from getting there.
We do.
Well, maybe not us, as a whole person, but the little voices inside our head.
The self talk and inner language that happens throughout the day—especially surrounding the little daily actions and choices of being healthy.
So much of what we do everyday is controlled by our own thoughts, and the stories or justifications we tell ourselves. And everyone has it. But not everyone is tuned in enough to listen to what it’s saying on a daily basis.
Think about it.
For most, making the healthy daily choices are a big time drag, the boring choice, or the things that people do because they know they should.
The morning smoothie instead of the pastry. The veggie tray instead of the crackers at a party.
It means a focus on a certain number on the scale, feeling guilty when you don’t eat well, skip workouts, drink too much, and an overall feeling of deprivation, unsatisfaction and frustration at not able to participate in life fully and happily.
Newsflash: that is all negative. Negative thoughts, negative emotions. And negativity is toxic stuff.
And excuse me for being blunt, but when your self talk contains such negativity, it ain’t gonna make you want to continue your efforts to maintain a healthy lifestyle. I’m just saying.
Let me ask you something: why can’t the behaviors around being healthy be embraced in a way that makes it more exciting and fun—not a drag?
Why is it that we can’t see being healthy, and all the actions to get there, as an awesome thing? A sexy thing? A positive thing, in our heads?
That ordering a salad and green juice at lunch instead of a sandwich and a diet coke was way more enticing because of the afternoon energy it would give you, instead of thinking how you’re “being good” and missing out.
The next time you catch yourself doing something healthy for yourself, I have a challenge for you:
Catch yourself. What are you really thinking in your head as you make those daily healthy decisions?
If it’s negative, flip it.
Instead, think about how lucky you are to be able to feed your body good stuff, how awesome it feels to do so, and how much you love how you feel afterwards.
Or, how great it is to be able to move, to feel your muscles working and moving all together (so cool), to sweat and feel alive during a workout, instead of negatively repeating to yourself how miserable you feel, how tired you are, and repeatedly asking yourself -when is this torture going to be over?! Negative.
It’s easy to see why healthy daily actions and choices don’t stick around very long. All we give them is negative attention.
But, the best part is that we have 100% vote and say in what we tell ourselves and why. But first you have to be aware that those conversations are even happening. That’s why it’s a little secret. Our thoughts are pretty powerful little things– in the best way if used right, and not so great if left to our own devices.
But since you’re going to have thoughts either way, so you might as well make them ones that will actually help make it more exciting and fun to change your behaviors for the better instead of always fighting a uphill battle.
The more you can become inspired, excited and love on your health, the easier and more joyful all those daily choices become. Which means we’re more likely to turn them into habits, as parts of our day that we look forward to, and therefore, as things that we’ll try to make happen more often than not.
And suddenly, a healthy lifestyle seems much more in reach. Real. And ready for you to come and get it, anytime you’re ready.