Tag: healthy eating

How to stay 100% motivated

How to stay 100% motivated

Well it’s been a good May bank holiday weekend for me with plenty of exercise, sauna and eating well. But that’s also been easy to do because I feel ‘on it’ at the moment and have a goal of a week in the sun (whilst doing some study!) in Spain to look forward to that is spurning me to get some marginal gains on the fitness and physique as well as prepare me for some slack in the healthy eating too (and some prosecco and sangria that I am really looking forward to!)

 It’s hard work!

However let’s be honest it’s REALLY hard being always 100% motivated and I’m the first to admit that this year I’ve probably only felt this driven about half of the time. Why? Because life gets in the way- things and events happen that mean you don’t always have the energy to stay on track with the nutrition. And for me whilst I can stay pretty consistent with the fitness and workouts it is the healthy eating that is the hardest to maintain. Especially so when it does require a lot of food prepping and forward thinking, declining of beige buffets at events and the continuous having to explain to people why you don’t eat certain things.

 

So acknowledging that continuous motivation isn’t always possible (unless you are superhuman) how have I found it best to stay as motivated as possible?

Here are some tips from what I’ve learnt along the way:

1 Build a community of like-minded individuals around you

This could be fellow gym goers or others that you work or interact with who share similar  values when it comes to having a positive mindset and understand what you are trying to achieve from a healthy lifestyle, mainly because they too are trying to do the same. Choose to spend more time with them than others who may be unable (or unwilling!) to comprehend why you don’t want to share a bottle of wine and why you’d find being in the gym a great way to spend a bank holiday. Often I find that these people are unhappy with themselves but aren’t willing to make changes to their own lives so would rather try to cajole you into indulging with them so they feel less guilty about it as a result.

 

  1. Try to always have a goal

By setting up goals to achieve that are personal and meaningful to you then you have a focus and I’ve found this much easier to keep the motivation going. Whether it’s a number of reps of an exercise, a target size of a part of my body, a set period of super cleaning eating when you have short term goals that feed into your long term aim of living a healthy lifestyle then it becomes much easier.

 

  1. If you slip, get back on it asap

This will happen. Whether it’s some overindulgence, too much booze or a couple of weeks out of the gym then there will be times when you feel disappointed in your actions (or lack of action!) what is important here is not to just then give in and then have some of the bad stuff, booze or stay away from the exercise but to recognise that you’ve slipped but it’s not the end of the world and there is tomorrow to start again. But make sure you do- if it’s a Saturday then don’t think well I’ll start over on Monday- do it on Sunday! The sooner you can get on track (whatever that means for you) the better you will feel and can get closer to your goals that you’ve set.

 

So how do you stay motivated with your healthy lifestyle?

 

Any additional tips or advice then please comment and share!

 

Have a great shorter week ahead,

 

Victoria x

The Grapefruit Test

The Grapefruit Test

A strange title for a blog post I must admit but it was tucking into a half pink grapefruit this morning that made me realise how far I have come in re-adjusting my palate over the past few years.

Childhood memories

Grapefruit for me is the fruit of my grandparents. When my sister and I used to stay at their house in York or stay at their caravan during the summer holidays in Skegness we would often be presented with half a grapefruit for breakfast. And it would taste so sour that we would have to beg Nanna to sprinkle it with sugar on top, just to make it bearable to eat.

And yet today this half grapefruit didn’t taste sour at all. In fact I would say that it almost tasted sweet! Without any added sugar or sweetener.

Sugar strikes!

Over the past couple of years as I have become more and more hooked on exercising and eating well then I came to understand and evaluate just how much sugar I was eating on a daily basis. Not just the obvious sugar related stuff like chocolate, sweetened and milky coffees and sweets but also in other products where the sugar is either hidden or you are told the product is ‘no added sugar’ but is instead laden with artificial sweeteners such as aspartame or maltitol. These ingredients, particularly in processed foods are everywhere and we as consumers are by and large unaware, particularly when the clever marketing messages are making us think we are making healthier choices.

It was nearly three years ago after I had lost over a stone in weight through exercising and doing the 5:2 diet for a couple of months that I realised nutrition was so important and that it wasn’t enough just restricting my calorie intake, I needed to overhaul my eating plans and cut out all forms of sugar from my diet as far as possible.

Making Changes

On the whole this has been successful and I feel great for doing so! Don’t get me wrong – I am still human do occasionally indulge in the odd piece of cake/biscuit/chocolate. However what I have found is that often the things I used to eat and enjoy now just taste far too sweet and artificial.  Last Christmas I left the chocolates to one side and instead was craving mince pies and Christmas pudding as my indulgence – more natural fruit based products.

Also I enjoy and can appreciate much more the taste of many other foods and genuinely believe that my palate has adapted for the better. I savour food much more than I did in the past.

So take the grapefruit test – how does it taste to you?

And if you want to make it taste sweet over time then it’s never too late to start making changes to your diet for the better with gradually reducing your sugar intake Believe me your body and your mind will thank you for it!