Everyone says they want to live a healthy lifestyle. The fact of the matter, however, is that living a healthy lifestyle is a work in progress with varying degrees of commitment and success.
First comes the clarity that living a healthy lifestyle includes eating well, drinking lots of water, sleeping well on a regular schedule, managing stress in a pro-active and regular manner, engaging in fitness and aiming for 10,000 steps per day, practicing hobbies and engaging in interests with friends and family. Whew.... is there time for anything else? It's a tall order to keep it going.
It must be said that no matter how strong the desire, the best of intentions don't always lead to success. Life and its many distractions can be challenging and cause us to lose focus. Frustration can cause us to lose our drive. Negative self talk can make us feel like failures.
Second comes recommitment. We wake up and realize things are unraveling. Somehow, this healthy lifestyle that we'd like seems to be slipping away....which is when we have to remind ourselves that living healthfully can look a little different every day. All-in is not possible all the time. Perfection is not realistic or attainable. Instead, we need to work on accepting the fact that sometimes--whatever we have to offer--as little as it may be--will have to be "good enough." In our competitive world "good enough" might feel like a let down. NOT SO. "Good enough" on difficult days just might be a great achievement.
Taking the long view and knowing that we can always recommit and refocus as soon as we realize that things are slipping is key. We are all a work in progress. There is no end point when it comes to being a healthy, happy person. So my advice is to focus on the positive and celebrate the successes as they come along. Make an honest effort to be patient when things are not going well. And then, keep going.
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