Let’s Get Healthy: Step 1…Getting started!!!
Let’s say it together…”I’m going to make the rest of my life…the best of my life!” In the first step of our series “Let’s Get Healthy,” (I don’t know what else to call it yet…) I want start out with something that’s truly the hardest part of starting to live a healthier lifestyle is…GETTING STARTED! Most people, including myself just don’t know where to begin. If you’re overweight; the obvious thing to do is to stop eating so much; however, it’s not always that simple and also may not be the sole cause of your issues. If you’re like me and barely ate anything, but still gained weight due to other medical issues (that you may not be aware of)…you become lost. And when you become lost, you become frustrated and when you become frustrated it’s easier to simply give up. What if you aren’t overweight, or you’re at a weight that you’re comfortable with and you just want to get in shape and/or change your eating habits? What if you feel depressed, tired, angry and other unexplainable emotions a good amount of the time? Where do you start? The first thing for me was to identify the problem. Obviously it was my weight. Then I had to identify the cause of my problem. Why was I gaining so much weight and gaining it uncontrollably?
Once I got to the cause of what I considered to be the issue, then I had to get to the bottom of it. I went out to seek help immediately. I got physical medical help. Next I got mental medical help. Once all of that was identified; I went out and educated myself on each of these conditions. I then set goals for myself on how to work on getting healthier. What did I need to do myself that would help? At this point it was much bigger and deeper than just my outward appearance. That’s the first thing people saw, but that wasn’t what was important to me anymore. When you’re working on becoming a better person in any facet; you have to start from the inside. Once you get the inside together; it becomes that much easier to work on everything else. We see it everyday where so many people put on this facade that everything is great in their world, but on the inside they are struggling with themselves. They’re unhappy and miserable. On can only hold that in for so long before they explode and that ugliness is exposed.
The most important advice that I can give; out of everything we’re going to talk about is that you have to want to do this for yourself. You have to want something better for yourself. And this comes in every part of your life. For me…when wanted to do this for me, myself and I; and stopped worrying about how everyone perceived me. Once that happened, everything started falling into place. Changing my lifestyle became so much easier at that point. Becoming disciplined was second nature to me. Before starting I thought that I would become like a programmed robot. Everything was going to be structured and if I ever fell off of my programmed path that I created then my life would fall apart. PLEASE DON’T THINK LIKE THAT! If this new lifestyle that you’re taking on becomes just a part of your life, then like me; it will become second nature. You won’t even give it a second thought.
In step 2 I will try to help with another hard part which is: “Finding out what works for you.” These two steps definitely go hand in hand. So far we’ve identified the problem and/or issues that you have and possibly the cause of these problems. Next, goals should be set with what you want to accomplish; along with the journey that you plan on taking. So what’s next? Just keep doing you and do this for yourself! I can’t stress this enough. Yes…I know you want to be a better person for your children. Yes…I know you want to be a better person for your spouse…for your other family and friends. But in the end…you need to do this all for yourself. It’s more encouraging. And let me also say this…once you start seeing the results of your actions, I can guarantee that you will want to continue on this journey. Until next time…keep working on it.
