I don’t know about you, but I’m really tired of having to learn the same lessons over and over and over.

I even have to re-learn the stuff I teach you.

But these brains of ours are like the pets we can never re-home—we deal with their incessant ability to wander off, forget, get addicted, distracted, and fall asleep on the job.

“Oh yeah, I remember now that eating many healthy things and not snacking at night stops my sugar cravings and keeps my body and brain light.” ~ Me, about a thousand times so far in this life.

So, for the sake of whatever repetition you may need, I made a quickie list of things I’ve said before, but are worth saying again. Because no matter how much we squirm, the mainstay of our functioning depends on us maintaining our mental and physical strength and flexibility.

So here are my top five things to help that help me sustain my healthy resolutions:

1.Eating healthy:

Instead of trying to subsist on salad alone, try adding a handful of greens to what you’re already eating. The addition, rather than subtraction, keeps you out of the starvation mentality that can steamroll your best dieting efforts. The boost of nutrition will naturally start giving you more energy (motivation!) while crowding out unhealthier cravings.

2. Working out:

If you’re too tired to commit to working out, commit to just putting on your exercise clothes. Once you’re wearing the right pants and shoes, getting out the door, or onto the floor, is just a single step. Promise. The “pants of optimism” are everything.

3. Self care.

Recognize your role as caretaker (sometimes zookeeper) of your body and its infinite wisdom. It is your tool to give and receive love, it is the vehicle that carries you around the planet, digester of grief, and fount of art and ideas. Ask yourself if your motivation to keep it strong, flexible, and clear is respect for it as your ally, or something more adversarial. Choose ally. Always choose ally.

4. Drink well.

If you drink coffee, whiskey, or wine, drink the best you can afford. Always drink more water than coffee, whiskey, or wine.

5. Keep expectations realistic.

There is no outcome that will eliminate the, often relentless, discomfort of being human. However, there absolutely is a version of you that is a stronger, more discerning, and more expansive container, able to carry your responsibilities around with more grace. Go for that.

Really, you are already doing an amazing job at life. Please remember that all the “health stuff” doesn’t have to be an act of “trying to become a person who is finally enough”—it is actually a celebration of how great you are and what is available to you as people who have (and are) more than enough. 

Go. Celebrate. You are a f*cking phenom—deal with it.

 

 

 

 

Author: Meg Worden

Editor: Renee Picard

Image: speculummundi at Flickr