Take the time to commit to yourself and your health
Guest Commentary:
As I grow into my adult life I like to reflect on all the things that I have learned throughout my life. Some of these things are very important and significant to my day to day routine and some behaviors are less, but reflecting on these behaviors allows me to continue to learn, grow, and become the best version of myself. Sometimes this means putting other areas of my life on hold in order to take care of me and that is OK. If I do not take the time to learn and adapt then no one else is going to do it for me. This commitment can be difficult at times, but when I come out of this special time for self care I am a stronger and healthier person for myself and those people around me.
One of the areas I love to commit to is my nutrition. Food is wonderful. We are what we eat/ingest. Literally! At times when I am not feeling great about my body and how I feel physically, I take a moment in my day to think back to the past week, thinking of what I ate and then writing it down on paper. This way I can get out of my head and visually analyze my eating behaviors and life. Sometimes this leads to a huge epiphany and sometimes I have to do more thinking. Think beyond the food intake. I then begin thinking about where I went that week, who I was surrounding myself with and how all that has now made me feel not the best.
This analysis sometimes happens every week or maybe once a month and varies based on how I am feeling in my own skin. What I love about this process is my ability to learn more about me. Yes, reflecting on my past, analyzing my behavior and making new changes along the way. I have been flowing through this process since I could start making my own decisions, but I especially think it began when I left the nest (leaving home for college). This phase in my life I had to learn total self-care. My family was not there to feed me, wash my clothes, make my bed and clean up after me. I had to do it all. What I learned was how hard all of those things are and how much I appreciate all that my parents have done for me. Of course, there were ups and downs with some of them being much steeper than others, but through all of this I have become the person I am today.
As I moved through life, and continue to do so, one of my biggest challenges has been figuring out what foods to eat, how to prepare healthy, whole foods and make them taste good with spices and plan my food in advance so that I do not make unhealthy choices. I am not perfect. I eat chocolate chip cookies, burgers and fries. I think they are delicious, but I have learned over time to eat them in moderation. I have learned to eat clean, whole, minimally processed foods the majority of the time and splurge every now and again. This is what works for me. At times I am more strict with the foods I eat and other times I am more relaxed about it.
Through all my years, even though their might not be a lot compared to my parents, I have learned one extremely important rule that I am consistent with everyday. I eat a big, wholesome breakfast every morning, sometimes eating two smaller breakfasts a few hours apart. If this does not happen the rest of the day I will be struggling with choosing healthful foods throughout the day. I feel slow, exhausted, and tired. My workouts suffer, my moods swing more dramatically and I am not as aware as I would like to be. I hate feeling like this. I can’t think of the exact moment in my life that I realized that breakfast was one thing that I needed to make a top priority. So I did. It is my life goal to eat a wholesome breakfast everyday and now that I have been doing this for quite some time it feels like a normal part of my day. It is not a struggle to get up a few minutes earlier and cook a delicious omelet with veggies and brew a cup of coffee because I feel good after I eat and head out into the world to take on the day.
Take a moment for yourself. Think about how you are feeling now. Now ask yourself a few questions. Is this how I want to feel? What behaviors make me feel this way? What can I do/change that might make me feel better? This process takes time, but I truly think you will learn and grow even a little bit if you commit.
Liz Whalen is a personal trainer and health fitness specialist who lives and works in Libby. She blogs at lizwhalenhfs.com.