“I have come to believe that caring for myself is not self indulgent. Caring for myself is an act of survival.” – Audre Lorde

Living a healthy lifestyle is not exactly at the top of everyone’s list. From homework to hanging out with friends to trying that new Sushi place downtown, it can be hard to stay motivated and focused on living a healthy lifestyle, especially for young women. We are so busy sometimes we can’t think strait. However, if our minds and bodies aren’t healthy then the rest of our lives may follow along with it. Here are a few tips to help us stay motivated and encouraged in our very busy lives.

1. Attitude – How you take care of yourself is based on how you feel. If you love yourself and think positively, you will want to take care of yourself. If you don’t love who you are then you are not as likely to value yourself and what an awesome mind, body and soul you have! Every woman gets insecure and thinks negatively about herself at one point or another. It is time to throw all those negative thoughts away and replace them with positive and motivational thoughts. We can’t always control what creeps into our mind, but we can control what thoughts we entertain. The next time you have a negative thought, spot it and replace it with a thought about something you love like animals, your kind heart or even those new shoes you got on sale.
2. Make a Goal – Making a goal for yourself, whether it be to exercise three times a week or meditate for an hour a day will help you be consistent with your new healthy lifestyle. A great way to remember your goal is to post it somewhere where you will see it every day. Post your goal with motivational words or photos showing why you want to achieve it. Keep them up for a long time so you will always be reminded of what inspires you.
3. Find Support – Support, both physical and emotional, is very important. If you can find a friend who will meditate or work out with you it will help you both stay more consistent and keep each other accountable. It will also make working out a lot more fun. If you are far from home or do not have or want that type of support, you can always motivate yourself by using inspirational quotes or by rewarding yourself at the end of each week for staying consistent with your goals. Support can even come from a pen pal or a new friend you make. People are always looking to be supported and inspired. Why not meet someone new while pursuing the same goal?

Put your Plan into Action

This may be the most difficult part of your new lifestyle because it is just that — difficult. Of course we’d rather stay home and watch every episode of FRIENDS instead of stepping out of our comfort zone. But we follow the above steps, it will become much easier to be motivated, put our plan into action and remain focused on the goal in front of us. If there is even a moment when you want to give up, get up and try your hardest anyway. Your future self will thank you for it!

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