Staying Happy and Healthy

As I get older, I realize just how fast the days, weeks, months, and years are passing. I know this is what it is like to grow up, because when you’re a kid the day no longer takes forever to end, and Christmas is here before I have time to prepare for it. I no longer get super duper excited for things, it just doesn’t have the same affect as it did before. I guess you could say that it stinks, but they react different with me. I don’t get excited for Christmas in the same way as when I was a child, instead I’m excited to give the gifts and see the joy it brings to others. I get excited for family time and a break from the busy rush of life. It’s more of a relaxing, yet stressful, type of anticipation. Not an excitement that “Santa” is coming, and I get a break from school. With all this changing comes other things that are put on the back burner, and for some reason yourself is put on one of those burners. You forget to take care of yourself and that can affect a lot of other aspects of your life.

Being too busy leads to not eating right, and then to not working out, and then it can affect work life, social life, and self concept. It’s important to make little steps to better yourself. Take five to ten minutes a day to take care of you. Whether that be five to ten minutes of complete and utter quite, a face mask (guys can totally do this too), reading, social media surfing, basically anything that makes you happy and calm. This helps to relax and destress from the day or anything that bothers you. A healthy minds equals a healthy mindset. Being stressed and tired shows, and it shows more than one would think. Taking just even ten minutes will help drastically and can put a pep in your step. Don’t knock it till you try it.

Another really big help is eating right, this cannot be stressed enough. This above all is probably the biggest thing you can do. Eating right is so hard, believe me I know. It takes self discipline, determination, and a want to attitude. If you see doing this as punishment, then of course it’s not going to be plausible. It takes thirty days to create a new habit, and thirty days to break one. You can start with small steps, jumping in feet first is overwhelming, and your body will go into shock. You start with having a glass more of water each day, and maybe replacing a not healthy drink with water for each meal. Then eating fruit when you want something sweet. Drinking water first when you get hungry instead of indulging in that snack. Maybe when you’re craving something, tell yourself you’ll get it later, keep saying that and you’ll eventually forget about it. Once you start making small steps and switching things, you’ll see how easy it is. Plus you’ll notice how much better you feel eating healthy and reap all the benefits as well. You will lose weight, your complexion will improve and glow, you’ll have more energy, you’ll feel full, and with all these fall into place you will feel happy.

The last thing is working out. Now I know this is a touchy subject, and it is hard to do after working all day; I am a victim of this. However, the good news is, if you eat healthy this does not have to be so awful. The workouts don’t have to be as long and intense, if you’re already putting good nutrients, protein, and hydrants into your body. Workouts shouldn’t be long and exhausting. Most people eat bad and work out very hard to balance it (counterproductive), but if you eat right then you won’t have to workout as hard. It’s not rocket science… Plus isn’t your overall health and wellbeing more important than indulging in something that is temporary? Doing a three to four circuit workout each time with cardio once or twice a week is all you need. Or if you’re a weight lifting person, then a lifting circuit will do as well. You just have to try workout styles to get one that suits you. Switching things up is important to. This ensures your muscles will stay active during the workout, instead of having muscle memory where they already know the workout, and then are not strained or used differently. You will also not get bored of continuously doing the same thing each time.

All of these things seem impossible to do right now, but just think of something that you really don’t need to be doing or that can wait five to ten minutes to do something for yourself. It just takes baby steps. Even if you can’t do all of these, just one will make a huge impact and show more positivity than harm. Life is a beautiful gift, but we are often distracted and weighed down by stressors, sometimes so weighed down that we become chained to them. Enjoy life before you miss out on something really good; a picture can’t always capture everything or last forever.