Involving your family in healthy living is such an important thing to do. Whether you are thinking of competing or just want to start living a bit healthier, you need to understand that what you do does not only effect you but also those around you. I have talked about how it is important to find your reason behind healthy living, or your “why.” When I think of why I want to be healthy, there are many things that come to my mind. I want to live a long life and be with the ones I love. I want to be able to live life to its fullest and seize all the opportunities I can. I want healthy living habits like exercising and eating healthy to be something that seems normal to my future children. I want to feel strong and capable. I want to know that I can set a goal, make a plan, follow it through and see results. I want to lead by example and help others reach their own fitness and health goals.
When I started competing I was fortunate to have my husband standing behind me 100% of the way. Little did we know how much my training was going to affect our entire family. When I first started eating clean it was a struggle for me. I didn’t really like the taste of the food and I was never satisfied. There is a big difference between being full and satisfied. Full is when your body has physically had enough to eat and satisfied is when your mind is okay with what and how much was eaten. It took a tremendous amount of will power and reminding myself what my goal was and why I was doing it. I fell into the hands of temptation now and again but would always move on and learn from my mistakes. I started to prepare myself better. I noticed that it was much easier for me to slip into bad habits when I was hungry. I started becoming prepared and making sure that I was eating when I should and always had a back up plan or something healthy with me to help get me by.
When I started competing I was fortunate to have my husband standing behind me 100% of the way. Little did we know how much my training was going to affect our entire family. When I first started eating clean it was a struggle for me. I didn’t really like the taste of the food and I was never satisfied. There is a big difference between being full and satisfied. Full is when your body has physically had enough to eat and satisfied is when your mind is okay with what and how much was eaten. It took a tremendous amount of will power and reminding myself what my goal was and why I was doing it. I fell into the hands of temptation now and again but would always move on and learn from my mistakes. I started to prepare myself better. I noticed that it was much easier for me to slip into bad habits when I was hungry. I started becoming prepared and making sure that I was eating when I should and always had a back up plan or something healthy with me to help get me by.
Steven, my husband, was such a trooper. He had even told me that in order to help me out at the beginning he was going to eat clean with me. I looked at him and thought, “Why would you do this if you didn’t have to?” As we went through the weeks we grew closer and had a lot of fun getting healthy together. We would designate Sunday and Wednesday nights for food prep nights. I would cook and he would portion things out correctly with our food scale, then the next food prep night we would switch. It was actually a great time for us to do something together other than watching a movie or sitting around. We would spend a few hours chatting while we cooked and cleaned in the kitchen. Clean eating and contest prep was something that I started to really fall in love with. Things got easier and my mindset changed. It wasn’t all about my end goal anymore. It had become about all the things that I didn’t know would be so important. I started to feel so much better physically, mentally and emotionally. As the weeks turned into months I found that my desire for unhealthy food had diminished. I was really enjoying the flavorful healthy foods that I was preparing and amazed with the way I felt. I could say, in a way, my taste buds changed and I started to prefer clean eating rather than my cheat meals. I would still enjoy cheat meals, but they became more of an actual meal rather than an excuse to binge.
Make sure you are referring back to you, “why,” often. These same reasons you want to be healthy will be the reasons that will drive you to help your family be healthy. Healthy living is also about positivity and encouragement. Helping people is done by encouraging them and helping to educate and motivate. It is not about harassing or making them feel bad about what they eat or what they do. As easily as you can encourage someone to be healthy and make changes, you can discourage them if it is done in a way that makes them feel under attack. It is important to always remember to lift people up and help them reach new heights! Find new ways to help involve your family in healthy activities. Lead the way to healthy living for others through your own example. It is okay for people to see that you are human and still enjoy cheat treats. The journey to being healthy is not about being perfect; it’s about slowly making better changes to you daily routine. These small changes can make a difference in your life and the lives of those around you!
Make sure you are referring back to you, “why,” often. These same reasons you want to be healthy will be the reasons that will drive you to help your family be healthy. Healthy living is also about positivity and encouragement. Helping people is done by encouraging them and helping to educate and motivate. It is not about harassing or making them feel bad about what they eat or what they do. As easily as you can encourage someone to be healthy and make changes, you can discourage them if it is done in a way that makes them feel under attack. It is important to always remember to lift people up and help them reach new heights! Find new ways to help involve your family in healthy activities. Lead the way to healthy living for others through your own example. It is okay for people to see that you are human and still enjoy cheat treats. The journey to being healthy is not about being perfect; it’s about slowly making better changes to you daily routine. These small changes can make a difference in your life and the lives of those around you!