Healthy habits

ginabina84808

How do I stay on track or get back on the good track of healthy habits especially when I don't want to?

Alatariel75

If you don't "want" to, you at least resign yourself to the fact that you "have" to.

What do you do when you don't want to go to work? Don't want to clean the toilet? Don't want to do the laundry? Either you do it anyway, because you have to, or you deal with the repercussions - having no money, risking your job performance, living in less than pleasant surroundings. Except with your health, it means having less energy and stamina, risking your long term health, and the unpleasant surroundings is your body.

So yeah. You do it anyway, because no one said it has to be fun, it just has to be done. Either that, or stay feeling the way you do now, or worse.

Lietchi

Perhaps think about this: is 'not wanting to' a symptom of having a definition of healthy and good habits that is too strict and therefore unpleasant?

Too strict could be: the foods you allow yourself to eat, a type of exercise you don't enjoy, frequency of exercise that doesn't leave time for other hobbies,…

AnnPT77

Maybe it's not true for you, but I've concluded that when I say I want to accomplish some goal (such as reaching a healthy weight, or getting more physically fit), and I know the steps that would be necessary to move toward that goal, but I don't do those things . . . I didn't really mean it when I claimed to want that goal. Gotta be real with myself.

Does that sometimes mean doing some things that aren't maximum fun? Sure.

But piggybacking on what Lietchi said, I'm generally going to pick a plan that requires the minimum of unpleasantness, while still taking me gradually toward my goal.

Waay too many people get here with a plan to cut calories to the barest minimum or beyond for aggressively fast weight loss, give up desired foods that they're capable of eating in moderation, eat only superfoods and never so-called junk/fast/bad foods . . . and then a lot of them stack some punitively intense, miserable daily exercise program they hate on top of that.

Those aren't "healthy habits".

Healthy habits?

Food we like eating that keeps us mostly full and happy at appropriate calories, adds up to reasonable overall nutrition on average, plus is affordable and practical.

Fun ways of moving more - at least tolerable and practical ways - whether daily life stuff like a home improvement project, gardening, etc., or exercise of any sort. There are dozens of types of exercise: Playing frisbee with the kids, active VR or video games, walking in the park, swimming, cycling, learning a martial art, lots of types of dancing, you name it. It only needs to be gym-y stuff if you like gym-y stuff. Just move more.

Tolerable. Practical. Repeatable. Pretty easy. Good life balance.

Strive toward that. The right solutions are individual, because we all have different preferences, strengths, challenges and lifestyles.

No need to revolutionize your life in one extreme leap. Test-drive some positive change. Like it? Keep it. Don't like it? Cross it off the list, try something different. Keep chipping away like that, moving in a positive direction, keeping it manageable. It can work.

The quality of life improvement is worth the effort, besides.

Best wishes!

LiveOnceBeHappy

Emotions are fleeting. Make it a decision or a commitment. If we stopped doing everything we didn't feel like doing, we'd not go to work or do a lot of things. Commit to your goal.