You don’t need to exercise for hours a day or eat perfect to be healthy

For health enthusiasts, it’s easy to choose the right foods, exercise for prolonged periods of time and choose to do the things that improve our health at every point because they make us feel good – both in the now and in the long term.

Unfortunately, those who are just starting out with improving their health feel like everything is new and exhausting. They don’t have the natural energy production of someone who has already been exercising regularly for the past few months or years.

It is impossible to campare someone who is starting out with others who have been improving their physical lives for a long time. Your body needs to get used to a new routine and your gut needs to get used to new foods. The same goes for your tastebuds and perception of exercise. Additionally, your brain will take time to build up a positive association between healthy habits and how they make you feel. Many people started exercising such a long time ago that they can’t remember how difficult it was for them to start too.

For those reasons, learn to be gentle on yourself in the beginning as you embrace these new life changes. There will be times where you will feel overwhelmed with too much change at once. This okay and completely normal. Accept it and expect it. On some days it will feel impossible to stick to your plans: and the truth is that that is ok too. If you can’t get yourself to run a mile today, walk it instead. If you messed up your eating plan and fell off the bandwagon, do better in the next meal.

Drastic, long lasting changes take time to implement. Slip-ups are basically guaranteed. If you got it half-right today, well done for still doing more than what you usually do. Keep on trying for long enough, and it will start getting easy. Embrace the journey, not the destination.

Thank you for reading. As always, feel free to reblog, like, comment or share.