About a month ago, I had my first surgical procedure and while there’s nothing I could have done to avoid that outcome, it’s still made me seriously consider how I need to improve my health. Improving my overall health has been a goal for a long time, but the last three months have given me extra motivation. This summer took a huge toll on my emotional and physical health so I’ve been brainstorming ideas to rebuild my overall health and I’ve created my own 4 steps to a healthier life.
When you’re trying to overhaul how you live your life, everything can feel overwhelming. To make everything more manageable without losing motivation, I’ve condensed my goals into 4 areas I would like to improve on for overall health.
My 4 Steps to a Healthier Life
- Minimize harmful chemicals in personal care and home cleaning.
- Eat Healthy Portions of Wholesome Home Cooked Food.
- Improve Physical Fitness.
- Declutter and Organize.
Minimize harmful chemicals in personal care and home cleaning.
Reducing harmful chemicals in my home has been on my mind for a long time and I have already begun making adjustments. I’m very concerned with the amount of chemicals I’m putting on my body and using to clean my home with on a daily basis. The problem is that even “natural products” are full of unhealthy chemicals so it won’t be a quick transition and I know that it will probably take more time to accomplish than anything else on this list.
I’ve already transitioned to a homemade body wash, body lotion, and I’m working on developing a personalized DIY deodorant. As far as home cleaning goes, I’ve been doing research into cleaning products that I can buy or make at home to try out when my current items run out. I do a lot of my research on what’s safe by searching databases created by the Environmental Working Group (EWG).
- EWG’s Guide to Healthy Cleaning [Products]
- EWG’s Skin Deep Cosmetics Database
- EWG’s Guide to Sunscreen
Eat healthy portions of wholesome home cooked food.
I love eating great tasting food and often the best tasting food is made at home. There’s a large convenience that comes with eating out but that often comes along with less nutrition and an enormous calorie count. Lately, I’ve spent a lot of time meal planning and putting more effort into eating at home every day. This includes bringing less junk food, snacks, and pre-made food into our home. Food tastes better and usually has more nutrition when you make as much of it as you can from scratch.
I’ve messed up a lot so far and I still have a weak spot for treats but I’m improving and I’m happy with progress.
Improve physical fitness.
I started off the summer in a good health and the right mentality for staying in shape and preparing for the Iron Girl and the Chicago Half Marathon – my two big races I had planned for the year. By the end of June, I knew my plans weren’t going to work out and it was hard to let go of what I’d been looking forward to. It’s been hard getting back into fitness yet again especially since I weigh more now than ever before.
I know it’s going to take time to lose weight, but it’s really hard work mentally. Even though I know it’s unreasonable, it can be discouraging to not see results right away. I’m trying to focus on and celebrate the successes and not be too hard on myself for any setbacks.
Over the last few weeks I’ve begun doing strength training routines at home using fitness DVDs from the library and YouTube videos and I’ve started running again – if you can call it that. I’m in my 3rd week of the same Couch to 5k program I used to get ready for my first triathlon. It’s been hard to start running again but I’m enjoying the process of improving even though I’m not training for a specific race. I feel like I have a harder time getting into running shape than other people but I still envision myself eventually being “a runner”.
Sunset as seen on my run.
Right now my biggest battle is that for every healthy act, there is an equally opposite unhealthy reaction. I’m exercising, but I’m regularly eating more than I should. It’s hard to feel like I’m not failing but it’s a process and I’m trying not to give up.
Declutter and Organize.
A clean and organized home makes for a more relaxing home environment and I’m a more efficient person when I don’t feel like I’m hiding a mountain of unorganized things behind my closet doors.
When my husband and I got married, our home was filled with wedding presents and collections of stuff from our dorm rooms. Then, my dad sold my childhood home a year ago and I had to take a pile of stuff I wanted to keep including things from when I was a baby/kid to use when Brady and I start a family…
We’re going to be packing up and moving out of our current place in about 2 months and we have a ton of stuff that we don’t need or use anymore. I’d like to have a neat and tidy move where everything makes an easy transition over to our new place with little clutter. I want our new space to feel organized and not overcrowded with things we rarely use.
So there it is; My 4 Steps to a Healthier Life. What are some of your tips and tricks for an overall healthy life? Stick around and we can help motivate each other to success!
If you had 4 health goals, what would they be?
Do you meal plan? How well are you able to stick to your meal plan?
What’s your favorite way to get your workouts in?
For you to feel like you had a successful day, you have to accomplish _____?_____.
Linking with Amanda from Running with Spoons for this post.
1 Comment
I try to meal plan, especially since my daughter, son-in-law, and granddaughter are living with me. Before that, after my husband transferred, it was just me and my “planning” was a little looser. I actually do pretty well with it but I do find myself making a lot of the same things over and over. That’s probably not actual planning, is it? haha
And I totally need to declutter. In fact, my whole plan for today was to clean and declutter our closet. I even wrote it down in my planner as PRIORITY. Have I done a thing? NOPE. But, I went for a run, mowed the grass, gave the dog a bath, did laundry, wrote a blog post, answered some emails, etc. Do I feel like I’ve had a successful day? meh. Maybe I’d say yes if I’d cleaned the darned closet.