Swapping out your current lifestyle for a healthier one is a difficult feat. It’s entirely too easy to become discouraged and lose the motivation that first convinced you to commit to living better; for example, you’re not seeing or feeling results as quickly as you would like. And after acquiring the habits that you have over time, it feels almost impossible to change them now—but it’s not. Here are a few pieces of motivation and reminders for those who need a boost in confidence:
1. Nothing happens overnight.
You can’t expect to look different and feel great immediately following the initiation of your changes. Progress takes time. Try your best not to get impatient; stick with the healthy changes you decided to make—you made them for a reason and soon enough, you’ll be feeling and seeing progress.
2. The journey to getting healthy is riddled with good intentions and epic fails. Do it anyways.
Changing your lifestyle is not a piece of cake. You will probably cave somewhere along the way, resort back to some old habits, and feel guilty afterward. But don’t beat yourself up. Every journey comes with some roadblocks and bumps along the way to the destination. You have to accept that and when you do fail, pick yourself up and persist.
3. Strive for progress, not perfection.
You cannot go into this seeking a perfect new you. Nothing and nobody is perfect. Instead, strive for progress. Progress can serve as a great source of motivation; every time you notice your muscles are more defined, or wake up feeling good from your workout the day before, you’ll get a little boost of confidence and motivation to keep it up.
4. Nothing looks as good as healthy feels.
Healthy might look good, but it feels even better. When you get a solid night’s sleep (a recommended 7-8 hours), pack in all of the nutrients you need throughout the day, and get a good workout in, you’re going to feel great. And you’ll feel even better when this becomes routine. Trust me, your body will thank you.
5. Don’t look back, you’re not going that way.
The wrong approach is to hang on to the mistakes you make/made. As we covered earlier, you are going to make mistakes. But you have to keep looking forward with your head held high, focusing on the end goal.
6. There is no one giant step that does it, it’s a lot of little steps.
This reiterates the importance of progress. One long, good workout is not going to completely change you. It’s about reaching little checkpoints and realizing that you’re working your way to a much bigger goal: successfully adapting a healthier lifestyle.
7. We become what we want to be by consistently being what we want to become each day.
Consistency is super important. You cannot decide you’ll live the healthier lifestyle one day and then slack off the next. That is not making a lifestyle change. You have to commit to the changes that you decided on in order to see improvement.
8. The only bad workout is the one that didn’t happen.
Sometimes our days are too busy or we’re too tired to get a long workout in—that’s okay. What matters is that you fit exercise into some part of your day. The American Heart Association recommends you get at least 10,000 steps per day. If you do so, you should feel proud of yourself, not defeated for stopping short of those 3 miles or missing your ab workout.
9. Sore today, strong tomorrow.
Soreness is loved by some and despised by others. But being sore proves that you're working hard, and your muscles are working to recover—that is something to be proud of. It also won’t last forever, usually only a couple days. Embrace the soreness and let it serve as a sign of progress.
10. Tired of starting over? Stop giving up.
The easy thing to do is give up. But I guarantee in a few days or a few weeks you’ll regret giving up, because you’ll remember why you started in the first place. Stop giving up so you can stop starting over. As discussed earlier, you will fail at times. That doesn’t mean it’s time to throw in the towel. It means to get up and keep moving. Your goal is still there to be reached. And reach it, you will.
