Living Healthier And Happier Without Restrictions

Most of the time people tend to think that if you are going to live a healthy and happy life then you are going to restrict yourself on certain things and this just simply isn’t the case. You can be healthy and still enjoy some of your favorite foods, you can be fit and do exercise but still spend a day relaxing on the sofa doing nothing if you want to. It is all about balance and giving yourself what you enjoy and what you need. If you constantly deprive yourself of certain things or things you enjoy like cutting out chocolate or carbs then you are much more likely to break and overindulge making it a bad cycle that you replay over and over again. If you just limit what you have and make healthier choices then you can incorporate it into your lifestyle and will be a lot happier as well.

Photo by Trang Doan from Pexels

Photo by Trang Doan from Pexels

Eating

With so many crazy and fad diets about, most doing more harm than good try looking to slowly change how and what you are eating without cutting out certain things or food groups completely. If you enjoy pizza, try limiting it or simply making a healthy pizza so that you aren’t feeling restricted. Another good way to reduce how much you have is to only buy smaller bars and packets so that there isn’t a whole cupboard of junk readily available. People also eat out of boredom and tend to go for the more unhealthy choice when they do this, a good way to think if you are hungry is would an apple satisfy me right now, if it's not but because you want chocolate you are probably just eating out of boredom, so try doing something else, keep yourself busy. 

Exercise

Sometimes the thought of where we want to be in our physical and fitness goals compared to where we are can put us off completely and we give up before we even try. Exercise isn’t always about being at the gym for 1 hour a day and lifting weights or signing up for a marathon and expecting to be able to do it in a couple of months. There are all different forms of exercise, some more gentle and some fun where you don’t even realize you have worked up a sweat because you’ve had so much fun. Try different things and trying to motivate yourself until you find what you enjoy, you will slowly see progress and find yourself getting more fit over time. Celebrate the small victories and wins over time.

Mental Health
Another important aspect to focus on is how we are feeling. It is important to regularly check in with ourselves, talk kindly to ourselves just as we would our friends, and practice meditation and mindfulness. It doesn’t always have to be expensive counseling but simply looking after yourself better and letting yourself understand why you feel the way you do.


Remember that self care is the best care, and it is important to bring in small habits over time that will help in the long run.