How I Created My Healthy Lifestyle

From fad diets to living my best life!

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I'm willing to bet you have memories of terrible diets you tried throughout your life...and inevitably failed. How about the beet diet? This was my first ever diet and I remember trying it with my mom one summer when I was about 14 years old. It lasted one day. Did you ever order NutriSystem? Somewhere around 2006 (in my early 20s and college days), I remember ordering all their meals and then this small box was delivered to my house with even smaller boxes of dried meals inside. Yeah, that one lasted about three days and the rest went in the dumpster. What about that cabbage soup one? I remember how bad it smellled yet I still forced myself to eat a few bowls before I gave up. You may have even tried Atkins? Yeahhh...even I don't like to admit to that one!

Photo: Hannah Nicole Photography

The thing is, I wanted 'healthy' to be convenient and fit into my lifestyle because I really didn't want to take the time to learn anything or change my behaviors. I also couldn't make it a priority when I had sooooo many other important things to do like hang out with my friends, watch TV, go out to bars, and work way too many hours. I wanted a square peg to fit in a round hole. And, honestly, I must've been crazy because I kept trying to make it fit for years until, finally, something just....clicked.

Hitting Rock Bottom

It was sometime around 2014 when I had to buy a pair of shorts another size bigger and my scale kept going up, and up, and up. And I started to realize if I didn't do something about this, and seriously do it - not just purchase the current weight loss craze on a wing and a prayer - it was going to spiral out of control. I could actually feel myself losing it.

I remember exactly how I felt and how I looked. I WAS MISERABLE. I'm not even exaggerating a little when I say that. I was tired all the time. Fatigue hit as soon as I got home from work, so much so that I fell asleep on the couch in my work clothes most evenings. My skin was bad! My face was round and my body was so swollen. My cycle was all over the place. I cried when I looked in the mirror. I was self conscious and uncomfortable.

You Don't Know What You Don't Know

So, I decided to change. I made a firm declaration that I would get healthy. That choice is the part that clicked. But, still, I just had no idea how to dig myself out of the rut I was in. I honestly didn't know how to be healthy because I had never lived a healthy way but I was willing to do whatever it would take.

Thankfully, I'm stubborn (and honestly that's a skill you need to have when you approach this) and I never quit when things got hard. I just didn't quit. I kept learning. I adopted new, healthy habits. I made little swaps and took baby steps. And, let me tell you, it took me a long time to sift through all the information out there on the internet. I never knew what was right for me.

The Process is Worth the Progress

But, despite all the hardships, I'm grateful for it because it lead me to where I am today. I'm healthy. I have a good relationship with food. I enjoy exercise because I understand how important it is for my body. I'm less stressed because I became more disciplined during the process and that's carried over into all other aspects of my life. And now I'm proud to say I get to help others start thinking about their own journey into a healthy lifestyle.

What I regret about all this is not making the choice to do it sooner. I regret the money and time I naively wasted trying to conveniently (and magically) land a fad diet that would work. I also regret not seeking help from someone who would hold me accountable, motivate me, and lead me through the process with information that was tailored to fit me and my needs. My almost three year trial-and-error journey guided by the insurmountable number of search results on the internet and fitness model influencers on social media could have been cut down to about 6 months.

The Bottom Line

While everyone's circumstances are different, one thing is 100% true for everybody: The lifestyle you want is one you have to put in the work to create. It won't ever come with a fast fix; it will take a lot of time and a lot of effort. It comes from fully committing to your decision and changing your behaviors until your new habits become part of who you are. And when that happens, you'll know it. You'll question why you ever lived any other way.

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