healthy living

Three Tips for Maintaining Your Health Goals this Summer

For many of us, the arrival of warmer weather causes an array of emotions and thoughts to occur. We love the summer—the long days, the warm weather, the outdoor barbeques, and the toes in the water. No doubt, there’s a lot to love about this season.

And, as summer starts to find us with full force, many of us turn our minds to getting healthy, losing weight, feeling confident in our short shorts, and eating fresh summer fruits. There’s just something about this season that inspires a healthy attitude and body. However, oftentimes we find ourselves in a rush to reach our summertime health goals in just the three short months the season gives us.

Rather than throwing together a weight loss plan and health regimen, use these tips to create health goals that you can maintain and make work year round.

Think Lifestyle Change, Not Diet Change

The biggest mistake that dieters make is thinking that they can simply change the things they eat and how they eat and become instantly healthy and “thin”. Becoming healthy is about more than just losing weight and in this way it is more about changing your lifestyle than changing your diet. Sure, a diet every now and again can get you to lose weight. There’s no doubt there.

However, in order to make permanent changes you’ll have to embrace a lifestyle change. It’s not just about weight loss; it’s about becoming a happier and healthier person. Make a commitment to your health. You can choose a diet that you think will work for you, but you should also look into your activities levels, your mindset, what types of foods you eat, and where your weaknesses are. A health mindset that focuses on your lifestyle will set you up for permanent changes for the better.

Be Reasonable with Goal Setting

Setting goals is an essential aspect of becoming healthy—we all know this.

However, most of us struggle with setting the right goals and sticking to them. You want to reach for goals that are challenging, but attainable. Setting yourself up for failure is the easiest way to feel lousy about yourself and lost track of your health plan. You should absolutely set short term goals that get you through each week.

But, like anything in life, you must also set long term goals that give those short term goals purpose. You want to become a more confident and healthy individual. Set specific goals for yourself that define what it is you want out of your health regimen and that communicate what you want that. Motives are important when it comes to getting healthy.

Track Your Progress

Staying carefully organized with your goals and your progress is a very important step within your health plan.

Create a food journal where you keep track of the foods you eat, when you eat, and how much you eat. In that journal you should weigh yourself regularly and measure inches lost and gained. Just knowing what your body does, what you appetite is, and how your body responds to your appetite will be as valuable as a diet.

Seeing your progress throughout your health campaign can be a great way to stay motivated and educated about your body. Try to keep a log of your exercise routines. All of this information helps you determine what types of activity and diets work best for you and give you a clear picture of your status.

This guest post is contributed by Katheryn Rivas, who writes on the topics of online universities advice.

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