Looking at these photos I feel guilty. As of right now I'm sat watching Dirty Dancing having just stuffed my face full of Whole Nut Dairy Milk chocolate (my favourite just FYI) and I feel a little hypocritical sitting here about to write a fitness post. However, in spite of that I thought it was just the post I needed to write, if not just to kick my bum back into gear a bit. One thing that I've really been struggling with recently is my eating habits and getting back out of the routine of just buying chocolate every time I happen to be in the shops. As of next week I'll be back on a new program with Results with Lucy and getting back into the swing of things with my healthy habits instead of the bad ones. I'll be writing up my first post next week with my initial body image photos and how I feel I've done in the first couple of days, but for this post I thought I'd share with you my 5 top tips for getting back into the mindset of a healthier lifestyle and to not pick up that bar of chocolate.
1 - You don't need the rubbish. Whenever I'm in a shop and I'm looking at the chocolate aisle it takes me everything I can to not pick up a bar and head to the counter. The thing is, you don't need the chocolate. You don't need to spend the money and you don't need to put the extra calories in your mouth. All of the hard work that you do to keep your body in shape will be completely ruined for two seconds of bliss.
2 - You'll feel better after eating healthy. In a toss up between how I feel after I eat an apple and some peanut butter and how I feel after I eat a bar of chocolate I 100% feel better after the healthier option of the two. Same goes for when I eat a healthy meal and when I do some exercise... After eating an unhealthy meal I feel sluggish and in the long run it just means I have to work harder again.
3 - Cooking healthy meals can actually be fun. I absolutely love cooking (in fact I have a couple of my fave healthy recipes coming up on the blog soon) and knowing what I'm putting into my meals is so much nicer than popping a chicken kiev in the oven (no matter how much I also like chicken kievs). Making a little more effort and cooking meals from scratch makes me feel better all around.
4 - You're going to have to work harder each time you cave in. It's all very well and good when you're working out and eating well, but you're not going to end up improving on your body and physique if you keep taking two steps back every time that slice of cake or bar of chocolate manages to persuade you. If you eat well and workout, you'll get the results you're wanting much quicker.
5 - Eating well doesn't mean a zero tolerance on everything bad. Okay, so as much as I'm preaching that you'll have to work harder every time you eat something bad, you can't completely stop yourself from having the things you like. I strongly believe in the 80/20 diet and not restricting yourself all of the time, the more you stop yourself from eating something you love, the more you'll start to crave it. Craving certain foods isn't good for you because it means you're more likely to cave in completely (like I have at the moment) and take 1,000,000 steps back. Everyone goes banging on about moderation, but it really is the way to a successful healthy lifestyle; just don't take moderation to mean one bar of chocolate a day, maybe more like one or two 'cheat' items a week.
What are your points for helping yourself eating better? Let me know in the comments about ways you try and kick the bad eating habits.
What I'm wearing:
Nike Leggings (similar here)
Adidas Trainers (similar here)
BekyLou, Beauty, Fashion, Fitness and Lifestyle Blog based in Manchester
*Some of the items in this post were gifted to me for PR purposes*
