All of you folks must have come up with new year’s resolutions by now. In fact, a few of them might have dwindled a little too. No worries, Yoda’s here to help. Yoda is a big fan of health and wellbeing and encourages achieving it through a personalized clean diet. In this blog, we’ll discuss how effective health goals are set, pursued, and achieved. Follow through!
Where to start?
Start with the things you want to change. A goal isn’t a task, but a solution to your current lifestyle problems. If your problem is you not being in the shape you want, then your goal is the solution to that problem. Getting enough physical work out every day might be a goal. Eating healthy and avoiding over-processed food is a goal.
Be whatever, start with understanding and receiving signals your body’s giving you. If you are feeling exhausted all the time, if your gut is giving you troubles frequently or if you’re experiencing sleeplessness often, then it means that something’s off and you need to correct the course of your physical fitness.
That is where you start!
What should you keep in mind while arriving at a goal?
The objective of setting a goal isn’t just to set it, obviously. Achieving it and pursuing it consistently is. Realistic goals are usually easy to follow. A dream physique is achievable. However, giving yourself enough time is important. If you set unrealistic, unattainable goals, despite your best efforts you’re getting demoralized. So, set goals you can practically achieve.
That being said, not being to follow a goal mostly has to do with our lifestyle. There are a lot of triggers like past habits and peer pressure that stop us from following the course. If a late-night movie encourages binge eating, it is a trigger. Eating impulsively, eating junk, or skipping gym are all things that you can avoid if you simply figure out what triggers these responses. So, not only is it important to know what a goal must be but also to know what possible factors can stop you from achieving them.
Discipline – A route paralleled by no other shortcuts.
Any new habit that aids your goal needs some ‘fitting in’ in your current lifestyle. Only then is sustainability possible. You’d need to put in time and effort in pursuing your goal. If you’ve decided to eat healthily, then putting effort into measuring portions, counting macros, and monitoring your everyday meal patterns are all things you must do. This takes an ounce of discipline and a lot of patience.
Document your progress.
This brings us to measuring progress. The most important part of pursuing a goal is keeping track of how far you’ve come. Yoda believes self-monitoring is the biggest form of self-love. As far as health goes, self-monitoring starts with keeping track of your biomarkers that indicate risks like diabetes, hypertension, hyper cholesterol, and other conditions. Keep monitoring them, and if the diet plan that you’re following isn’t helping you improve these markers, then it’s time to revisit your goals and realign yourself to a healthier behavioral alternative. Keeping up with your goal is a great achievement, and every time you make progress you deserve a reward! What’s the reward, you ask? A healthier life and a fitter physique.
Yoda’s challenge – Mindful eating
This new year, as your friendly neighborhood owl that knows a lot about food and soul, Yoda’s giving you a challenge. Mindful eating! Mindful eating is exactly what it sounds like. Be mindful of what you eat, whenever you eat. The whole experience of mindful eating is centered around hunger, satiation, and how you perceive food.
What to do?
- Approach the food with no judgment at all. Every time you’re served a plate of food, dig into it like you’re eating it for the first time, and have an open mind towards the dish.
- Be patient. Take it one spoon at a time. Be in the moment, and be fully aware of the fact that you’re eating.
- Experience everything about the food like you’re a beginner. The consistency, the taste, the smell.
- Trust the process, and understand how differently your body reacts to different food.
- Do not expect something to happen. If you’re eating a salad or a special meal plan, do not focus on what results from you’d get from it. Be in the moment and experience food in the present.
- Accept the food that you’re eating for what it is and be thankful for all that has happened for it to land on your plate. Let go of your past experiences, expectations, and everything else, and simply enjoy the meal.
Avoid binge eating, and if you catch yourself reaching for a chip instinctively, stop for a moment and ask if you’re actually hungry enough. If hunger isn’t why you’re eating, avoid it. Try practicing this, and let Yoda know if it helped.