It is common knowledge that America’s obesity rates have increased dramatically over the years, and people are tending to the issue by turning to diet pills, diet books, and other unhealthy dieting routines. Diet is the key word here, and it will not solve the issue of obesity. One must make a change not through the use of dieting quick fixes, but through lifestyle changes that will not only improve the individual’s life, but his or her child’s life as well.
Your probably asking yourself, how do I make this a lifestyle change? Start by putting down the diet books, pills, or even shots for that matter and begin by evaluating your current lifestyle routine. Ask yourself, what does my current day to day routine consist of? What am I eating throughout the day? What am I doing to increase my physical appearance? Where do I spend too much of my time, where I would benefit more by squeezing in a two mile bike ride or run? All of these question are essential in determining where you are physically and mentally in your current day to day routine. To even think about changing your lifestyle habits, you must first evaluate where you are at to get where you desire to be.
Now that you know where you are at, its time to figure out where you want to be. Don’t determine where you want to be by calculating how much weight you want to lose or by the size jeans you want to fit into. The worst mistake a person can make when starting on this new, healthy lifestyle journey, is setting goals based on weight and clothing size. Once a person reaches the weight loss goals, he or she usually tends to forget about the lifestyle change and either goes back to his or her old ways, or starts to get out of control with dieting and not eating. Instead, start looking at the whole picture. Begin with your eating habits by asking yourself; What am I eating for breakfast? If it isn’t a healthy choice, make goals on how you can replace that meal for a healthier one. Now do the same for your snack in-take, lunch, and dinner in-take. Look at what foods you are putting into your body and start making goals on how you can make better choices that will lead to a healthier lifestyle.
Now that you have made goals for healthier eating routines, its time to talk about goals for your exercising habits. Start by taking the word workout out of your vocabulary and replace it with the word hobby. In order to make exercising something fun and enjoyable, you need to find something that you can consider a hobby. Face it, anyone can motivate themselves to work out if they find an activity that they like to do. To find an exercising hobby, try out as many exercising activities as possible to find the perfect fit for you. It may be running, cycling, swimming, or taking fun fitness classes like Zumba, but there is something for everyone you just have to explore all options until you find the right one. Once you find the right hobby for you, start making some goals.
The last step to dropping the dieting routines and making it a lifestyle change, is implementation. Anyone can make goals, but they don’t do anyone any good until he or she puts them into action. To stay on track, make weekly goals for yourself. When people realize that the diet pills, books, shots, and other dieting routines are not permanent and start taking on lifestyle changes, obesity will be defeated one person at a time. The last word of advice for a new you, healthy lifestyle change, is to stick with it. Whatever you do, don’t give up. So begin a new you by leaving your old habits in the past and making goals to implement in order to make a new, healthy lifestyle change.