It is not easy. It is definitely not easy. What’s not easy I hear you ask ? Living a healthy life all of the time is not easy. It is well worth the effort, but it is not easy. It takes a lot of hard work and discipline to stay committed and on track when trying to lead a healthy lifestyle. If it were easy, everyone would be walking around with perfect, toned bodies, eyes, skin and hair sparkling, and a mighty big spring in step, bursting with energy and positivity. The reality is that those of us leading a healthy lifestyle, are just working on bettering ourselves all the time, doing the best we can, some days being easier than others. Life can be a struggle, everyone has problems and worries to deal with. Life is also very busy, we have to balance work, with families, with housework, with illnesses maybe, and a whole lot of other things thrown in the mix. So, isn’t it only fair that we go easy on ourselves?
Being healthy shouldn’t be such a huge chore in our lives, we have enough to worry about. There is so much in the media nowadays about being healthy and slim, and perfect. On every magazine cover there are different celebs flaunting their bodies (mostly airbrushed I might add!). If we are striving to look like those celebs, we do have a huge chore on our hands ! Every time we pick up a newspaper we are reading about the latest diet to try, and the latest book to buy that will promise to help fight the flab forever. No wonder we are so hard on ourselves and the strive for perfection. However, if we strive for perfection, I personally think we are setting ourselves up for unhappiness. What happens if our idea of perfection is never reached? What is the perfect body anyway, and even if we had one, would we be finally satisfied? That is a whole other blog…..
In the meantime, why don’t we go easier on ourselves and strive for progress, not perfection? I won’t deny that we should definitely be all as healthy and fit as possible, but we should praise ourselves for every small effort we take to leading a healthy life. Why not take pride in every healthy decision you make, no matter how small. Take pride in denying yourself that second helping, saying no to biscuits and cake, going for some exercise, swopping white for brown… it’s all progress… and we should slap ourselves on the back for those efforts we take. It would be easier sometimes to just sit on the couch and have cake, rather going out to an exercise class, or going for a run, even though we know the latter option is definitely the better…. It can be hard sometimes to motivate yourself, especially in the evening after a long day at work, or a long day at home minding the kids…. So go on, every time you do something healthy when really you’d rather take the easier unhealthy route, tell yourself well done, and you will feel much happier about your decision even before you go for some exercise, or say no to that cake !:)
It is actually the journey to health and fitness that is the best part, not the destination.
