Start Small and Start Now – Make Simple Swaps in Your Eating to Change Your Life

Ok. Let’s just get right into it .. 🙂

First, please take the word ‘diet’ and throw it out the window!

Do you want to change your life? Don’t ‘diet’ and don’t take up a fitness routine. In order to succeed you have to change the way you look at it all.

Make a lifestyle change .. and not a lifestyle sacrifice.

Let me explain, as far as the eating part of it (I may dive into the fitness part in another post) …

Start small with ‘changing’ your eating. You want to change your relationship with food without it feeling like a sacrifice or punishment.

Today, eat better than you did tomorrow. Even if it’s just slightly better. Make simple swaps that you are ‘mentally’ ok with. Then, maybe add a little more activity to your day than what you did yesterday. In the end, we make a better eating decision and we are more active .. both things working in our favor.

Simple swaps?

Here is an example.. I have the WORST sweet tooth on the planet. No joke… it calls to me constantly. If I ignore it, one day I’ll buy one of those single ice cream containers at Kroger and probably eat the whole thing. In ten minutes. Seriously. Then be up all night with Alka-Seltzer in hand…

While having a sweet tooth can be miserable at times I won’t lie .. I LOVE sweets. I don’t want to give them up. Really … So, instead of “punishing my urges’ i have found things that are ‘better’ sweet options. A couple of examples are yogurt, fruit (I LOVE blueberries and grapes right now), or even frozen yogurt popsicles. They give me my sweet ‘fix,’ they taste *really* good, and are a healthier option than sugar and more sugar. So … it is a simple, healthy swap and in the end I don’t feel like I am sacrificing anything at all. Trust me, I am ALL ABOUT my key lime yogurt when I come home from the gym.

One of the keys to success is realizing that we are humans, we have the un-compromisables (I doubt that is a word but go with me!), and we need to find a realistic ‘new’ path in order to succeed.

Look at your eating and be realistic about it. If you want to change and can let things go, start slowly. Give yourself time to change. If you have un-compromisables that may make you rebound (like my sweets would be to me), try to instead find something that is a healthy option that you would enjoy.

Don’t punish yourself for being you, just find a way to enjoy things in moderation that were a little more healthy than they were yesterday.

 If you have questions, let me know! I would love to help or give advice. Thanks for reading!

Feel free to follow me on social media!

Follow @joschmoblo

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New Year’s Resolutions – Why I am not a Fan and How We Can Look at them Better

I will admit to not being a big fan of New Year’s resolutions. Maybe it’s because I look at them a bit unrealistically.

We start creating this long list of this huge goals that we want to accomplish because, this year, we are going to make 180 degree changes in our lives.

We start with the best of intentions. We are focused, unwaivering .. we are reaching HIGH and we are going to make it this time!

… Then, a few weeks later we stumble and fall. Sometimes we pick ourselves up and keep going, other times we tell ourselves that we will just take a few days and then we will start again and REALLY make it this time!

After so many falls, we get up, flick the dirt of our legs, and say forget it!  .. Mission failed .. oh well, maybe we’ll try again next year, eh?

… So, I’m not a fan of New Year’s resolutions. For similar reasons I am not a fan of Monday resolutions either … you may know what I mean by that too .. !   ((I’ll start being better on Monday))

I’m pretty sure that we want to succeed, otherwise we would not bother trying in the first place. So, let’s set goals but let’s start with low hanging fruit. I’d rather succeed in 15 little bitty goals than to fail at one huge goal. With every success we will feel more confident and realize that yea, we can keep going. Reaching goals is part dedication, part confidence, part being human, and a few other goodies mixed in.

Strive for 5 pounds instead of 40, aim to work out once a week, then maybe twice, then go from there. Work on improving things while keeping goals attainable and sustainable.

If you do that, you never know how things may look in 6 months!

Feel free to follow me on social media!

Follow @joschmoblo

Follow @_findingfitness – my blog’s twitter