Are you a female leader wanting more energy?
Are you open to learning about how living a healthy lifestyle can help?
Are you sick and tired of the brain fog that comes around 2p? Do you feel like crap after eating too much sugar, fried foods and vending machine snacks? Have you had enough of the on again off again diets?
If you’re ready to say goodbye to feeling sluggish and lethargic, I’m sharing some tips to help you get started.
Learn from my mistakes.
I started on my healthy lifestyle journey over 30 years ago. I’ve made a lot of mistakes along the way and learned a ton.
Before I jump into some tips to help you get started, let’s talk about what it means to live a healthy lifestyle. When we think of healthy lifestyle, we often jump to exercise and eating healthy. These are definitely two critical pieces to the puzzle and probably the one’s I get asked about most often.
Healthy Lifestyle is more than food and exercise
Other aspects of a healthy lifestyle include limiting stress, getting enough sleep, taking care of your mental health, creating “me time”, and socializing with friends.
Here are my top tips for getting started on a healthy lifestyle journey, regardless of which piece of the puzzle you want to focus on.
Tip #1 - Female Leaders Wanting More Energy - Mentally prepare to stay committed to your goal of wanting more energy.
The first week is usually easy.
We are so pumped up from the excitement of what’s to come. Soon, the newness wears off and it starts to feel like work.
You start to have days you don’t feel like doing it.
Maybe you even may start to question why you started in the first place.
Those pesky excuses start creeping in.
Sound familiar? Well, you’re not alone. This is normal. It happens to all of us.
So, let’s get you prepared and ready to combat those excuses. What excuses can you expect? How will you mentally prepare to stay committed?
If you want something you’ve never had, you will need to do things you’ve never done. Or you may need to stop doing things you’ve always done.
You know changes are about to occur and change is rarely easy. Are you ready?
It's almost inevitable that you will have days you want to quit.
To set yourself up for success, you’ll want to be prepared and ready to fight the urge to quit.
How will you stay focused on why you started in the first place?
Tip #2 - Female Leaders Wanting More Energy -Take it slow. Focus on one healthy change at a time. You'll see more energy even with small changes.
You’ve made the commitment and you’re ready to get started.
You’re super excited and you’ve decided you’re going to exercise 5 times a week, meditate every morning, start journaling and following healthy nutrition.
Whoa! If that doesn't have you a bit overwhelmed, well it probably should.
Unless you are already doing 3 of the 4 of those, it is too much change at once. I commend you for wanting to go all in.
I recommend just changing one thing at a time. Give yourself time to make that change a habit. Then, move to the second thing you want to change. Trust me. I’ve been there. Every time I try to make multiple changes at once, I end up starting over.
When you make one change at a time, it isn’t as overwhelming. It’s also much easier to stay consistent. The goal is consistent progress.
Your chances of success are higher if you take it one step at a time.
Tip #3 - Female Leaders Wanting More Energy-Find an accountability partner. I bet they want more energy too!
Tell a friend, family member, or co-worker about your goal.
You are far more likely to reach a goal when you share it with others. They can help keep you accountable.
Don’t just tell them about it.
Ask them for their support.
Let them know how important it is for you to reach your goal and you’d like their help keeping you accountable.
Telling a friend you are wanting to lose 10 pounds only to have them keep inviting you to meet them at the bar and then insisting that you share the fries covered in cheese and bacon bits isn’t going to be super helpful.
You need to surround yourself with people that encourage you to stay committed to your goal. They aren’t the food police, they are your support network.
Even better yet, ask a friend to join you on the journey.
Tip #4 - Female Leaders Wanting More Energy - It's a journey not a destination
Enjoy the zigs and zags.
Give yourself some grace. It is highly unlikely that your journey will follow a perfectly straight line. You will likely take some zigs and zags.
Always show yourself some compassion. Learn from the zigs and zags and get back on track as quickly as you can.
This is life and you should be enjoying it. Let’s be honest, you’re going to have events you want to eat foods that you wouldn’t consider “healthy”. You’re going to have days you don’t exercise.
An event here and there. A missed exercise day. These are not going to hurt you. The goal is to not let these single events turn into weeks or months.
Stay consistent and you’ll continue to make progress. Have faith and enjoy the journey.
You are going for progress, not perfection.
Tip #5 - Female Leaders Wanting More Energy - It's never going to be a good time to make healthy lifestyle changes. Remember, your goal is to have more energy.
When you’re thinking about making some changes to be healthier, have more energy, lose weight, etc, I can almost promise….
At some point, you're going to have throughts that maybe this isn't the best time to start.
Maybe I should wait until Monday, maybe I should wait until after the big event at work, after the work trip, after the holidays, or after things calm down at work, school, home etc., after my business takes off. The list of reasons that may run through your head is endless.
You aren’t alone. We all go through this.
The fact is there is NEVER a great time to get started.
You just have to start. A life with more energy is just around the corner. It most likely won’t be perfect. That’s ok. Again, we aren’t going for perfection, just progress. AND you only make progress by getting started.