Revisiting - Why do YOU want to be healthy?

This is one of the most important things you will do during your health and wellness journey, so I wanted to revisit the topic.

Stop and think about WHY YOU want to be healthy. It gives you something to grab onto to help you stay the course and have a sense of motivation when you are having a bad moment or day. It gives you mental clarity and focus.

It is best to approach it from two angles: the positive and negative benefits of being unhealthy. Do you want to be a role model? Feel your best and have more energy? Not be tired all the time? What motivates YOU? It has to be something positive and something you can grab onto.

It helps me just to focus on being healthy rather than how I look or what the number is on the scale. This of course will follow, but I am looking at "non-scale victories." Non-scale victories are health improvements that result from small life changes; they include everything from clothes that fit better to quite simply feeling more energized. Non-scale victories are small, every day measures of wellness that are not tied to your weight. If I concentrate on that scale number, it is so limiting and is not a complete picture of what is going on. I want to be strong, and as you get stronger, you develop more muscle which weighs more.

Everyone is different!! When you have the motivation and know what it is, you are driven and more likely to create the life you want to live. This is a marathon, not a sprint. This is about living your life and being the BEST you can be!! Progress over perfection. Just keep moving forward.

Write it down and put it someplace you can see it. Be positive and picture what it would be like two years from now if you were eating well, exercising, sleeping well, and living your "best life." Picture it!!! When you are having a bad day and want to lay around on the couch all day and eat chips, it gives you something to look at.

Some great examples are:

• More energy to do your purpose, whatever that is in life

• Keeping up with your kids or grandchildren

• Living longer and having a more abundant, fulfilling life

• Age well and feel/look younger and more vital

• You have risk factors for cancer and/or heart disease and want to do all you can to mitigate them.

• You have had cancer and want to do everything you can to keep it from coming back.

Make it personal and something you want - not what someone wants for you.

YOU GOT THIS!

All material was gathered and researched through my amazing fellowship program, The Arizona Center for Integrative Medicine.

https://integrativemedicine.arizona.edu/