Far too often, the need to live a healthy lifestyle is conflated with unhealthy ideas about losing weight fast and conforming to body types that are not always achievable. Improving your health is an admirable goal, whatever your motivation. Some people may want to lose weight, others might wish they had more energy throughout the day, and some people may simply want to feel stronger and fitter. However, with all the negative messages about body image filtering through the media, it can be hard to stick to your aims without feeling pressured into changing your body for the wrong reasons. Here are some ways to improve your health while staying in love with the uniqueness of your body.

Find Exercise You Enjoy

We all know we should exercise, right? We are encouraged to go for early morning runs, go to the gym, or complete Youtube videos at home. However, all of this is pointless if you don’t enjoy the activity at the moment. If you’re slogging through a run while hating every second of it, that’s no longer about improving your health. It’s about punishing your body into submission – and that’s not what you want at all! If you’re trying to exercise more, find a way to do it that you enjoy. Whether that’s swimming, dancing, cycling, or team sports, it will help you to stay feeling positive about your body while you improve your health.

No Fad Diets!

This should go without saying, but fad diets can be very tempting as they offer such quick results. However, it’s important to remember that these results are often not about improving your health, but about achieving very superficial goals of weight loss, which are almost never longlasting. To improve your health while still loving your body, treat your nutrition as a long-term project, making slow changes, and learning new recipes at a steady pace to start putting goodness into your body. If you’re struggling for ideas, find a nutrition coach to help you know where to start and how to take care of yourself in the best way possible.

Allow for Setbacks

This is real life, and nothing ever goes entirely to plan. If you are going to beat yourself up every time you take a step backward, miss a day’s exercise, or get takeout, you’ll only be putting unfair pressure on yourself. Instead, come to terms with the idea that improving your health will be a long road with pitfalls and bumps along the way. These are all part of the journey, and if you can embrace that and stay grateful to your body for everything it’s attempting, you will be able to overcome them that much easier.

Focus on the Rest

Your desire to improve your health should never take over your life. Even while you exercise a little bit more, and prepare healthy food, don’t neglect the other areas in your life. Make sure you’re seeing your friends and pursuing your hobbies that aren’t connected to bodily health. If you’re writing a book, keep going! If you love playing music or watching TV shows, set aside time for these activities alongside your other routines. If you’re a guitar fan and have always wanted to learn how to play, perhaps browse a free to get yourself started. The important part is that you continue learning and enjoying your time. This way, you will keep your life healthy and balanced in every way.

All the best,
Suzie Carr