Three Tips For Creating A Sustainable Wellness Routine That You Enjoy
Being well requires consistently implementing healthy habits, even small ones that add up over time. This includes regular exercise, healthy eating, adequate rest, quality time with family and friends, and enjoying good food. Once we switch mindsets and understand that wellness is a lifestyle, we can find joy in caring for our bodies. Today, I'd like to share with you how to create a sustainable wellness routine. These are all things I’ve seen work in my life, and I hope you will find them helpful as well.
Get Back To Basics
Information overload is one of the most significant challenges people face when creating a sustainable wellness routine. We want to set ourselves up for success, so we research and continue to research about wellness. We strive to find the perfect wellness routine, consume the ideal amount of calories, and exercise just the right amount to reach our goals as quickly as possible.
Researching isn’t bad, but the problem arises when we research so much that we become overwhelmed with information and never take action to start our wellness routine.
I suggest creating a realistic wellness routine that you can stick to and enjoy. Don’t get caught up in fad diets, quick-fix schemes, or magic wellness elixirs. Instead, return to basics and utilize proven science when creating your routine. Eat healthy food 80% of the time, exercise for 30-40 minutes a day 5-6 times a week, drink water, don’t smoke, limit alcohol and sugar, and get an annual check-up and dental visit.
These basic things we know to do have been proven to help people stay well, so let’s start with that.
Incorporate Foods and Exercise You Enjoy
Your wellness routine should include things you enjoy eating and exercises you enjoy doing; this is how it will become sustainable. If you don’t like green smoothies, don’t drink green smoothies; if you don’t like running, don’t run.
Just because these things are on the “billboard” of wellness doesn’t mean they’re the only things you should do for wellness. This is your wellness routine, so you should find healthy foods you enjoy and exercises you enjoy doing.
You can achieve this by trying healthy foods you haven’t tried before or by creating healthier versions of your existing favorites. Try new fitness classes to discover what activities you may enjoy. Barre, strength training, Zumba, boot camps, or classes like OrangeTheory, which combine cardio and strength, are all great options.
Once you discover healthy food and exercise you enjoy, make them a regular part of your life and continue to add and try new things along the way. This routine will be one you have for life, so it’s expected that it will change, and you will add and remove things as you learn, grow, and discover new interests in wellness.
Be Consistent With Your Routine
The most important aspect of creating a sustainable wellness routine is consistency in following the routine you've established. As I mentioned in the previous point, your wellness routine should be viewed as an integral part of your lifestyle, not something you do to lose weight for summer or get fit for a race or fitness event.
These things can be a great motivator when you start, but they won’t continue once the summer or events are over. As you create your wellness routine, it’s essential to consider your why, such as “I’m creating it so I will have a good, long-term quality of life.”
When you look at your wellness routine as a lifestyle, you probably won’t be as hard on yourself when you miss a workout or overeat a bit. This is bound to happen in a lifetime, and it won’t seem as significant as it would if you were just on a 3-week crash diet.
I hope you found this information helpful, and I hope you’ll have a better idea of creating a sustainable wellness routine.
“May you be strengthened with all power, according to his glorious might, for all endurance and patience with joy,” — Colossians 1:11
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