Have your goals or motivation started to fade since the beginning of the year?

March is National Nutrition Month, so obviously, it's also a great time to reset and recharge your health and wellness goals and get back on track.

The trick to achieving a healthy lifestyle is to hit it from all angles. You cannot outwork a bad diet, and if you are the type to exercise so you can eat anything you want, you might want to consider revamping your nutrition and adding some healthy habits. It's not a secret that nutrition is at the forefront of adopting a healthy lifestyle. However, balance is key, and adopting new habits can either be dreaded upon or looked forward to. Exercise is also key when looking to achieve long-term health, and one of the most forgotten piece of the puzzle is our mind.

Perspective is everything. While most diets encourage restriction, a healthy mindset and lifestyle encourages moderation and more positive and practical solutions. Real life often brings about situations where one may feel forced not to indulge or reward oneself, cutting entire food groups, which ultimately only fosters a feeling of discouragement. Sound familiar?

What if, conversely, you could find a way to focus on a more positive and balanced approach?

While there are many different paths to take while looking to create a 'perfect' diet, I'm pretty sure all would agree that it should be balanced, dense in nutrition, and moderate in calories. While most diets focus solely on restricting calories, and NOT adding dense, nutritious food, one of the culprit is that the body goes into catabolism, which means that if you are only cutting calories and not focusing on consuming nutrient dense foods, your body will end up not only burning fat, but also breaking down muscle. A balanced meal consists of essential macronutrients such as lean proteins, healthy fats, fiber, complex carbohydrates, as well as vitamins and minerals.

Here are 5 tips you can adopt for long-term success:

RESET YOUR MIND

Healthy habits start in our minds. Oftentimes, we only focus on the practical parts of change, which, for example, would include making food swaps, creating a schedule, being more active or just making overall better choices. The problem is, wanting and doing are two very different things, and it can often feel very overwhelming. As a trainer, part of my job is to help my clients identify the roadblocks that keeps them from succeeding, and then finding healthy solutions that can be adopted as daily rituals. Usually, it involves making small mindset shifts that, once adopted, create long lasting results.

SCHEDULE YOUR MEALS

Making weekly meal planning a habit is a sure way to create successful habits that, in the long-term, will serve you well. You know the quote, 'proper preparation prevents poor performance'. The bottom line is, when you are prepared and have a plan of action, you are much more likely to commit and being organized just makes your life easier. Win win.

MAKE IT A FAMILY AFFAIR

With so much going on in our day-to-day life and the temptation to stop at the local take-out joint, more and more families get less quality time together. This can often create feelings of anxiety and stress, which, in turn, creates inflammation in the body. Spending the time creating nutritious meals can be fun and tasty, and making a meal plan with the whole family is another healthy habit that will serve both parents and children in many ways, and get everyone excited to be on the same page.

MAKE HOME-COOKED MEALS A PRIORITY

Sometimes, cooking at home is not always possible. Busy schedules, extra-curricular activities and real life situations can wreak havoc on one's good intentions. With so much going on, it's easy to resort to take-out meals or even worse, the frozen microwavable kind. This puts us at risk for a lack of nutrients and calories, which ultimately lead to overeating and undernourishment. Talk about stress and a general feeling of discontentment. Having a system to fill one's gaps is an important step to rebalance our life and healthy habits. A simple rebalancing system offering nutritious, balanced and holistic meal replacement options is a good solution in those cases.

PAY ATTENTION TO HOW YOU FEEL

Achieving optimal health is not just about making changes in your nutrition. A healthy body is a body in motion. Oftentimes, stress can drag you down and make you feel lazy and de-motivated. Stop 'looking' for motivation and take action instead. Decide to go for a daily jog or walk, start taking classes, or invest in personal training. Motivation and confidence come with progress, and with progress comes happiness. If you're still 'waiting' for your schedule to slow down, good luck with that. Chances are you will still be waiting in a few months, and by then, you'll feel even worse. There's never a perfect time. The time is now, and taking action will empower you and create a sense of accomplishment and overall well-being.

If you are feeling consistent lows in your energy, excessive bloating or gas, caffeine addiction, struggling with excessive cravings, moments of binge eating or drinking, mood swings, irritability, anxiety, poor sleep, brain fog or difficulty concentrating, excessive fluid retention, getting consistent migraines or headaches, you might want to invest in a good cellular cleanse to bring back your body to homeostasis, or a balanced state. Resetting is a good practice to adopt as well to remove excessive toxins and impurities inhaled through air, water and processed foods. Assisting your body in the natural detoxification system will also help alleviate inflammation, gut issues, and increase your energy levels.

For more information, visit, www.risingphoenixfit.com, call 601.905.9598 or email flo@flozurkinden.com.

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