Multiple Approaches: Diet and Exercise (Health Blog Series, Post #4)

There are two ways to work at your physical health, and you've probably heard of them both - many times. Diet, and exercise.

To some people, those are dirty words. Diet and exercise are how you lose weight, get healthier, and a whole bunch of other things besides. But who actually likes those things? Not many people. And those who do probably get all sorts of funny looks.

But in order for you to get healthier, you'll need to utilize both.

Yes, both. We're taking multiple approaches to get you healthier; one will help, but both will help more.

Take a good look at your motivation for doing this. If your motivation is good, then this shouldn't seem so bad. If your motivation isn't good, then go back and find another. There's no point in you doing this unless it's something you really want. You don't have to stick with this, but in order for it to work, you kinda need to.

Now let's take a look at these two dirty words.

Diet

Yup, I put that in bold, underlined it, and made it bigger. You need to understand something about diets. First of all, you have one already. It's what you eat every morning for breakfast, lunch, dinner, and all the times between. I'm not talking about one of those 'starve yourself until you lose weight' diets. Not even one that involves cutting out all the things you love. Yeah, I'm going to make (some of) them not seem so wonderful by describing what they can do to you or how they're made and what's in them, but you don't have to cut them out. You'll just be messing up your body and realizing you're doing it instead of being ignorant about it.

(Okay, even I have to admit it; some of the things you love are probably quite good for you; if you like strawberries for instance. I'm referring specifically to junk food. You know, the stuff you get addicted to and hide in your house to splurge on later.)

Exercise

Whoo! Another dirty word! I can't sugarcoat this one, though. You will get hot, you will get sweaty, and you will experience muscle pain. You will get tired, you will complain, you will make excuses. And when you do, pull out your motivation and ask if it's still worth it. If it is, deal with it and keep going. If it's not, find another motivation that's good enough and keep going anyway.

These are your tools. Diet and exercise can help you change your life. Put them in your mental toolbox with your motivations and list of priorities. We'll use them later. ;)