Starting your healthy new lifestyle

To start a new health journey,

you should be working on you, physical and mental health to include optimal nutrition and optimal wellbeing at the same time.

The first thing I have to tell you and there will be some who will not like this but

It has to start with you……

You are the one who should first ask for help by an expert especially a nutritional therapist like myself. (Got to self-promote)

You are the one that ultimately decides your results.

Many people may tell you there are some tricks and tips that you must know before you can start your health journey. There is not, well maybe there is three, one, get all clear from your doctor before starting any nutritional or fitness routines. Two as above speak to an expert like myself it is free to chat to me check out my website (link below) and book your free fifteen minutes consultation. The third one is simple but very import, what works for someone else may not work for someone else

Let us go over the stages of starting your fitness journey and ending it, only joking it is a lifestyle. One that you may not think you will want to or even have to keep to. But once your process is notice by yourself and others and once your first goal is surpassed you will want to keep up your new lifestyle for life.

Hey, I never liked running now I do 5k every morning.

As above the first place to start is talking to your health care provider and getting all clear from them They will give you the go ahead

After they typically check your heart rate, blood pressure etc. They will ensure that you are in proper health to start any type of exercise, health, or nutrition plan. You could, if you have your own plan talk to them about it, they should be able to answer a few if not all of your questions and give you informed advice, or maybe even point you into the right direction of the right person.

Once you have got the go ahead, I always recommend to my clients that they clean their home. And I do not just mean the cupboards to get rid of junk foods and I do not always recommend getting rid of everything that one may feel is bad or junk food.

Yes, having junk food may lead you to snack unhealthily. But that is still better then binge eating junk food when you crave it. It is mind over matter, and it is a weaning process. And chocolate, cake and other sweet stuff can be part of your healthy lifestyle.

I am not encouraging people to eat unhealthy foods. I am encouraging people to slow down, think about it and wean yourself off the highly processed sugar, fat, and salted items so you do not go out and binge eat as this is the first step people can fall back down on.

What you can do is work with a nutritional therapist like me who also have over fifteen years’ experience as a chef and start working on preparing your own healthy snacks that will soon be swapped over for the unhealthier snacks. Please take any food or drink items you do not want to your local food bank.

Clean your home top to bottom it is lovely, happy, and mentally healthy to come home to a clean house. So, my advice one big deep clean which counts as exercises and then your evening clean ups should be quick and easy. Meaning when you are coming home you know it is your time to exercise, cook a weeks’ worth of nutritious meals and freeze them or watch a bit of television.

Do not calorie count every single calorie. That is right DO NOT CALORIE COUNT EVERY CALORIE!

Look, after speaking to a nutritional therapist, you should be leaving them with the knowledge of healthy and unhealthy foods including healthy and unhealthy fats. With me you get to leave with that knowledge along with the nutritional knowledge to continue your plan, well educating your Self and passing that knowledge down to your family and loved ones, a workout routine, a hydration plan, and healthy nutritious recipes.

The other problem a big problem is many people get addicted, worried, they panic and stress over their daily calories. And this can lead to many problems they develop bad eating habits that can become dangerous. They stop socialising as they worried, they will eat too much. Then it can become an unhealthy mental disorder leading to many other health concerns.

But one should have a promising idea of what is in their foods, and this should be the knowledge you get from your nutritional therapist.

Reading and understand food labels, first of all you should be buying foods as single whole food items. This is not always possible as the price is high, and we cannot all afford to buy fresh organic products.

However not all foods need to be organic take coconut no need to buy organic any foods where you are not eating the hard outer shell is fine, buy frozen vegetables and berries, they are normally frozen within hours which normally means they hold more nutritional value than their fresh counterpart, and portion control is easier and there is less waste. But I always recommend if you cannot buy organic then buy locally sourced ingredients.

If you are under a nutritional therapist like me then you should be getting weekly nutritious recipes so you can cook more at home. This is not just healthier and cheaper and more beneficial to you your health, but you get to learn new things, you will feel like you have accomplished more and it’s a great talking point leading to newer better healthier conversation and maybe even new friendships can form. Better still get the family involved especially young children.

Get them to pick from a list of foods at home, get them to draw their plate of food, take them shopping, get them cooking and platting their foods like their pictures. Get them into a healthy lifestyle as early as possible. Get a pedometer and count your daily steps always aim for a minimum of 10,000 steps a day. Stay hydrated if you do not normally drink water or do not like the taste try adding some citrus and fresh herbs. I love lemon and orange wedge fresh coriander and garlic (not to everyone’s liking) but play around find out what you like and do not like to have some fun experiment. Aim for around 5-10 glasses. Around 1.5 litres. Remember juicing and blending keep to 150ml a day, blending is better as you get to keep more of the bulk (fibre) meaning unlike smoothies the sugar is not counted as free sugars.

The hardest part will be motivation however the above steps one by one are quite simple and easy to accomplish meaning nice you’ve done them the motivation will already be with you.

Exercising do not stop reading it is not as bad as you think.

How much exercise should you do?.do what you can to begin with. If you are not into exercising then there are many types you could start with, some of which you maybe already doing. Such as cleaning, gardening, maybe you have a demanding physical job.

Exercise should be fun and constant just like your diet. Yes, cooking is fun learning how to add different flavours and textures experimenting with new dishes is exciting making new snacks and desserts yes you read that right you can make snacks and desserts and still be eating a healthy balanced diet.

I do go to the gym, but many people do not want to and for reasons of their own accord and that is fine. First on my website I do have a gym-based exercises and nutrition book which has everything you need to kick start your journey.

If you want to start at home I have different home, office, park, beach, and hotel workouts. From sitting on your kitchen chair to running 10k on the beach I have got something for you. From a three-minute workout to over an hour and half workout all diverse levels depending on your ability. Remember to start slow and build up.

Start by walking, grab a loved one, a friend your dog and go for a walk, start slow and over time try and build up your pace to a brisk walk.

Last off all but equally as important do not listen to people pushing a liquid, a pill, a powder a special diet, it is rubbish, you did not cheat to get unhealthy you most certainly cannot cheat to get healthy.

Ok let us go over my steps to starting a new health journey.

1, Get checked over by your caregiver.
2, seek out a nutritional therapist like me. To gain the knowledge of healthy eating, along with an exercise routine and many other useful plans, such as food diary’s, goal setting and exercises sheets.
3, clean your home top to bottom, clean out some of the junk foods until you are comfortable, able, and willing to cook fresh ingredients. (This can be done in bulk to cyst costs).
4, Learn how to read food labels.
5, get your children involved.
6, make sure you have the basic understanding of calories within certain foods.
7, Learn portion control
8, walk more
9, stay hydrated
Easy right we can all get this done!
10, exercise
11, setting realistic goals
12, fad diets etc

These eleven steps are not tricks or tips.

These eleven steps are the basic requirements with the basic knowledge of how we should start our fitness journey. I cannot stress enough the important or step one, and step two.

The other steps will all fall into place. Remember it starts with you. Maybe step one should have said reading this blog maybe this is your first step, whatever step you are on remember start slow, build upon that, eat healthy 80% of the time, stay hydrated, most importantly have fun especially in the kitchen and build upon your exercises.

Enjoy yourself.

By Aaron Christopher Slade

ACS blogs are all about health, nutrition, fitness, and wellness. Checkout our website and come and subscribe for free to join our ever-growing health community where we can interact with each other and share our knowledge