Top 5 Tips to Living a life you love

Are you lost when it comes to starting your health journey? Overwhelmed by all the fad diets and wondering if any of them are for you? Learn about my top 5 tips for health and wellness.

I often find myself looking back to the beginning of my health journey and I think about how drastically my lifestyle has changed. Man let me tell you, I know how hard it is to know where to start. Today we are bombarded with so many diets, exercise plans, pills, and supplements that makes it impossible to do what is right for you and your body. Here are my top 5 tips to living a healthy lifestyle.

1) Listen to your body:

This is my number one tip because once you learn to do so, everything else comes much easier. Our bodies are so complex and so intelligent. They give us signs on a daily basis of what it needs. These signs could be hunger, acne, bloating, headaches, cravings, soreness, mood swings, and so many more. We often ignore these signs with a sigh of irritation because they pose as an inconvenience to us. But I urge you to always pay close attention to what your body is saying. Only your body knows what's best for you and your well being, if you ignore it, it often won't feel balanced and healthy.

2) Ditch the fad diets:

Just ditch them. They are a waste of your time and any diet that has you consuming powders as a replacement of your daily greens or nutrients has you going about it all wrong. I'm not saying Paleo, Keto, Vegan, IIFYM, Vegetarianism, Intermittent Fasting, or whatever dietary theory cannot be useful. Each have their pros and cons but you will find the most success eating real whole foods that don't limit what you can and can't eat. What I'm saying is that you shouldn't be compromising essential nutrients to fit inside the guidelines of said diet.

4) Exercise daily:

Exercise is one of my favorite parts of the day. It leaves me feeling happy, accomplished, and confident. It is part of my every day routine and if it isn't part of yours, I suggest you change that. Find a style of exercise that you love and not one that you dread. I found my love with weight lifting and functional movements at the gym. But exercising to live a healthy life doesn't have to be complicated or intimidating. Walking, hiking, yoga, weight lifting, swimming, and team sports are all great ways to keep your body healthy and happy.

5) Start your day with a large glass of water

Each morning I like to start my day with a glass of lemon water. This is a great way to get into the habit of drinking lots of water throughout the day and making healthier habits. Water first thing in the morning also carries lots of benefits. It gets your digestive system going while hydrating you. I recommend doing this before food and coffee!

6) Eat REAL food

If you really want to go all the way with a healthy lifestyle, you should be crowding out ultra processed foods. Learning to read ingredient lists will really help with this. When grocery shopping, read EVERY ingredient list. Look for chemicals and additives and remember that the smaller the list, usually means a better product. Non-packaged whole foods should be the bulk of your haul but if you must, packaged foods should be low in sugar, contain good oils and healthy non processed grains. Avoid chemicals, preservatives, or additives. Avoid toxic oils like soybean, canola, safflower, as well as refined sugars such as, high fructose corn syrup, dextrose, sucralose, and other alternative sweeteners.

I hope these tips give you guidance in your health journey. It is truly amazing to be able to not worry about your health because you know you are doing what you can to nourish and take care of it. If you would like to learn more or are seeking further guidance I encourage you to check out my 6-month program. Health coaching is such an amazing tool for those who want to learn more and are sick of feeling like nothing works. I would love to work with you!