The Road to Healthy Living Starts With One Step

Last week I shared my goals for this next year, and focusing on health and wellness is always on my list. Every day we find new and exciting ways to exercise or eat healthier. For the most part, I’m happy with my diet. I don’t particularly like bread or pasta and I really enjoy fruits, veggies, fish, and some meats. I eat very little processed foods and have switched out 90% of my sugar use with stevia. But I still have a few areas that I need to work on. Fitness is where I need to make the most improvements.

This past November I turned 38, and realized that I was so close to 40! I’ve never thought of myself as old but 40 does seem like a milestone to getting older. Thinking about my life and where I am right now with my health and wellness, I realized that I have a lot of areas that I want to work on. When I had my first child 10 years ago, a lot changed for me. Not only with my daily life, but with my self-care. Everything that I needed to do for myself was put on hold and my kids were put first. Over the years I’ve come to realize that there are some areas in life where I need to put myself first.  If I’m not happy and healthy, what good will I be for my kids? What kind of example would I be? This was not an easy realization to come to because let’s face it, mom guilt is very real!

Now that my kids are all in school I am able to focus more attention on my own needs. I have time to take a walk in the morning or make a big salad for lunch. I’m sure all of the moms out there can appreciate how precious a quiet meal is. I have time for yoga and stretching, without kids crawling all over me, and all of the other things I used to love doing before kids. To reach my achievement of being Fit Before 40 I’ve made a few goals.

Being fit can mean different things to everyone, for me my number 1 goal is to feel comfortable in my clothes. I don’t have a certain number goal for weight loss. I just want to pick out any of my clothes to get dressed in the morning and not feel like I can’t wear half of them because I hate how they look on me. I want my jeans to fit without being so tight around my waist. I want to wear any top, not just the long tops that over my butt. Whatever amount of pounds I need to lose to make that happen is how many I will lose.

My second goal is to find healthy snacks that I love. I’ve often mentioned on this blog how my kids are major snackers. What I didn’t mention is that they learned it from me! All of my meals are pretty healthy, but my snacks are a different story. During the early part of the day, I usually keep to fruits and veggies for my snacks, but after lunch is where it all goes downhill. I love salty and sweet, and I love to bake. When I need a late afternoon or evening snack, I usually grab whatever is easiest and that’s not always a healthy treat. So my goal will be to have more healthy, salty and sweet snacks on hand to grab when I need them. And also to find more of these types of snacks!

My last goal is to stretch every day and work out at least 3 times a week. Stretching has always been a huge stress reliever for me. If I start my day with full body stretching my day is always better. I always feel more energized and focused. I have a pilates reformer and I need to use it every single day. As for working out, I have to do something outside of my house. I always think it will be so much easier to just workout at home but I never do. I think “I’ll workout right after I do the dishes, or the laundry, or ….” There are too many distractions at home. So I am going to try and make Tuesday and Thursday my workout days. After I drop the kids off at school I am going to drive to a park and walk. I’ll start with 30 minutes and increase this as the walks get easier. Then Saturday will be my third day and I’ll take the kids for a hike. It will be a slow start since I haven’t been working out for a while but I have to start somewhere, right?

Those are my goals in black and white. I’ve written them down and now they are very real! I will try and keep a journal of my progress and post it here so that I can be accountable and hopefully inspire someone out there to get started on their fitness journey!