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7 Tips to Kick-start Your Comeback to Starting a Healthy Lifestyle

Whether you have been out of the gym for the past several years because of pregnancy or you haven’t made it to the gym because of life, we all find ourselves in a space where we are starting a healthy lifestyle again!

I know I have yoyo’d on all of the diets for years, and am just now starting to find the space to be honest about the unhealthy way I have been living. In an effort to help out other mama’s like myself who have struggled in getting started with a fitness plan and taking care of their physical health, I have invited a fellow blogger, Marje Martinez to share her success story and a few tips!

Check out Marje’s post below!

starting a healthy lifestyle

This post may contain affiliate links. You can read my entire affiliate disclaimer here.

Your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit. Part of taking care of that temple is making sure that we live a healthy lifestyle.

We’ve all had moments (emphasis on the plural) in our lives when we haven’t fully committed to doing what’s best for our spiritual, mental or physical health. How many times have we put in our new years resolution of starting a healthy lifestyle. We say that we’ll try to eat better, exercise more and lose weight? For myself, I haven’t got enough fingers and toes to count it all.

Exactly 10 years ago, I weighed 90kgs and at 165cm tall, I was overweight and my self esteem was low. It took a car accident for me to realise I have not been living the life God has purposed me to be. After 6 months of mind-set and lifestyle changes, I gained my confidence back and lost 20kgs.

It doesn’t matter whether you’ve just had a baby or put on some weight after WFH for months, you don’t have to wait until the New Year to kick-start your journey to a healthy lifestyle. Remember the power of NOW!

Here are 7 tips to help set you up for your ultimate health comeback. You must remember, this is not a quick fix. For it to last, change your mind-set into making it a lifestyle. I won’t promise it will be easy, but I do know it is worth it.

starting a healthy lifestyle

1. Set your health journey goals

Whatever you want to achieve in life, it is important you take time and set a meeting with yourself to write down your goals. Don’t underestimate the power of writing down those concrete goals AND creating a plan on how you want to achieve them.

To help you with “getting healthy” goalsetting, here is a simple but thorough #goalgetter planner that you can use. Being honest and knowing your WHY will always motivate you when the going gets tough.

Make an appointment in your calendar and block out a time for you to dig deep into your WHY. Then, write your action plan on how to make your dreams into a reality.

If you fail to plan, you plan to fail.

2. Find your FIT

Don’t fall for the myth that, in order for you to lose weight, you have to go to the gym and exercise for 1 hour, 5 times a week. Yes, it will help you lose weight, but will it help you keep the weight off?

Don’t get me wrong, I love working out at the gym and it is actually my ‘me time’. What I’m trying to say is that everyone is YOUnique. What works for me or your neighbour or your friend and helps us maintain a healthy lifestyle, may not work for you.

Find the exercise that you love doing, and will also keep your heart pumping. It can be dancing, walking, steps class, pump class, boxing , Pilates, cycling, running, kickboxing, etc. The more you love the activity, the better chances you have of sticking to a workout regimen. Look for beginner friendly exercises. Try it out several times and see if you like that workout.

Do more of what you love.

3. Be mindful of what you fuel your body with

It’s no secret that the key to weight loss is through a calorie deficit. So why are people finding it hard to lose weight?

When we expend more energy (when exercising, through daily activity, digestion and resting) than we absorb from food and drinks we consume, it creates an energy gap called a calorie deficit. WHEN your body is in a caloric deficit, it is forced to meet this energy shortfall using stored energy from body fat (stored fat), muscle protein (stored protein) or glycogen (stored carbs). This results in weight loss.

Although it sounds easy, there’s two major problems

  • Energy needs vary enormously between people (from gender, age, genetic make-up, etc)
  • Over time, energy needs adapt and change in response to your diet.

After your initial weight loss, your body adapts by actively trying to defend your fat mass. Once you lose weight, you need less energy for moving a lighter body, AND your body is triggered to become more efficient in maintaining vital organs, a healthy metabolism and tries to conserve energy. Ain’t your body a beauty? But BEWARE, this is when you can easily regain weight!!

Maintaining a healthy caloric deficit doesn’t necessarily mean counting calories.

My fit tips for physical health are:

  • Eat a consistent amount of food. If you’re choosing to continue eating the food you are enjoying now, be mindful of how calorie dense it is and adjust your portions.
  • Track what your food does to your body after a week or fortnight
  • Gradually adjust what you eat to keep progressing. That means planning your meals for the week!

4. Don’t be afraid of starting small

As you begin your health journey, or restart your journey, don’t go jumping before you can walk.

Many people make the mistake of doing too much on their first week of working out. They get drained and have no energy to do another week of intense workouts. Start small and see if it is manageable. Once you get used to being more active, you can add in more intensity or do workouts for a longer duration.

The same goes for food. People may go on crash diets that can help you lose the weight quickly at first. The problem with that is it’s a quick fix and once your old habits return, so will the weight. This is why it’s important to make healthy living a lifestyle, rather than a quick fix.

Slow and steady wins the race.

5. Be consistent in living a healthy lifestyle

With everything, whether it’s a financial goal, relationship goal or health goals, one of the most important steps to see any progress is to stay consistent. If you consistently eat rubbish food, you will put on weight. If you consistently exercise or workout, you’ll gain strength and improve your cardiovascular endurance.

Staying consistent involves:

  • Scheduling time for yourself to meal plan, cook and workout. Be realistic and write down how many times a week you can workout.
  • Stick to your plans as much as you can. There are unavoidable circumstances and emergencies that may stop you from sticking to your plans, because let’s face it, life happens. If this happened in one week, make sure you prepare for it the next week. In short, minimise the risk of your plans going awry.

Hold the vision. Trust the process.

6. Stay accountable after starting a healthy lifestyle

One of the ways you can stay consistent is to have someone keep you accountable. Some people have the self-discipline to keep themselves accountable, while others rely on an app.  One of the best ways to stay accountable is to have an accountabili-buddy. This could be your gym buddy, your partner, your friend, or family.

Ask a person that you know will truly give you the feedback you need and check on your progress. Not only will they remind you to get back on it when you’ve fallen off the wagon, you can share your small wins and big victories /milestones with them, too.

My community of champion Fitzplorers have been my accountabili-buddies since the start of Fitzploration. Each and every one of us have progressed in our goals because we empowered and encouraged each other, wherever we are in our fitness journey.

Iron sharpens iron, so one person sharpens another.

Proverbs 27:17

7. Stay motivated

Last but definitely not the least, you must find ways to stay motivated throughout your journey. You may be motivated once you see initial results but what will motivate you when you’ve hit a plateau or when you don’t see any progress?

Some ideas to help you stay motivated:

  • Create a vision board of what that healthy lifestyle would look like for you. Hang or display it somewhere you can see it everyday.
  • Write affirmations and place it around you to encourage you.
  • Pray daily for the courage to be disciplined and to find strength to do what is right.
  • Take before and after pictures so you can see your current transformation while continuing to work on your goals.
  • Go back and read your WHY or reason you started this journey in the first place.

Believe you can and you’re halfway there.

-Theodore Roosevelt

It is never too late to start working on your dream body and a healthy lifestyle. These 7 tips will help you get to your fitness goals. Prepare yourself for the challenge. It will bring on change for the better.

Hi, I’m Marje Martinez. I’m a primary school teacher by trade and a fitness FUNatic 24/7. I am the owner of Fitzploration.com. I am embracing the fact that I am YOUnique, flawesome and marvelously made. I am on my journey of building habits to create a healthy lifestyle. My goal is to inspire YOU to realize your value and dreams, to empower YOU to act on your goals, to put the fun back in fitness, and to help YOU find your perfect FIT.

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1 thought on “7 Tips to Kick-start Your Comeback to Starting a Healthy Lifestyle”

  1. Thank you so much, Ashley, for inviting me to share these tips that I know has been helpful in my health journey. I hope it will help others kick-start their health journey. If in need of help, I’ll be here to offer a hand.

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