Who else is going to take care of it if you don’t? You only have one set of organs and joints, one brain, one cardiovascular system. If you chose not to prioritize your health, no one else is going to prioritize it for you. You can make all the excuses in the world, but when you realize that you are in control of the changes you want to see, it is empowering. Be kind to yourself, and start where you need to start, but understand that this is not your practice life, it’s the only one there is.
Make it part of your schedule!
Finding time to exercise, eat healthy and get more sleep doesn’t just happen. It becomes a part of your life because you create time for it.
Organize your schedule to fit in workouts, meal planning, meditation (or another form of mental focusing) and sleep.
You’ll soon find that a little forward planning goes a long way to help ensure you have the time you need to get and stay healthy, along with all your other commitments.
Create new habits.
It’s easy to change your diet or your gym, or to take the stairs instead of the elevator one day.
It’s making those changes stick, turning them into long term habits, that’s hard.
If you really want to make your health a priority, you need to choose things you like doing, over and over again.
Do you hate running?
Find a form of exercise you do like.
Does kale make you gag?
Choose healthy foods you like to eat and make them part of your normal diet, not one-offs.
Set attainable goals.
If you truly want to create habits, not changes, you need to take it slowly and deliberately, step by step.
Start with going to the gym one day a week, then work up to two, then maybe three, not five days all at once.
The important thing is to realize that even small changes are changes, and that these small changes over time create big habits. To make your health a priority, and make it last, focus on small sustainable changes you can actually maintain for the long-term.