"How you look at a situation matters more than the situation, itself!  So, when you change your mindset, you begin to change your reality!!"

If you follow these baby steps seriously (And believe me, they’re not going to need a lot of your will-power!), you are very likely to not just start improving your health but feel “happy” in the journey!

I know how frustrated you must be trying it all and this probably is the article you think of as – okay, let me try one more article, who knows I may find something magical here?!

Sorry to break it to you – I don’t want to waste your time and make this a click-bait. I am not going to be giving you “THE” MAGICAL KEY to unlock your Hidden Good Health. However, I will give you steps! Actually, I will give you points on how you should THINK while you work towards unveiling the healthier YOU!

Ready? Let’s dive! (Read these with a curious, alert, and open mind.)

1: The Fresh Start Mindset:

We all look for days, dates or events that feel like a fresh start! Say, a Monday, the 1st of every month, the 1st day of the year or a new quarter or after X festival or after you come back from Y vacation and so on! But you know what? This is just us assuming, things will be new and suddenly be perfect just because of a calendar date. The hidden mindset though is that we are scared to start it immediately. We feel defining a date that is far away will give us time to prepare for the strict start. The reason we do so is almost all the time we pick plans that are difficult to follow. As a result, we dread starting it. So, change your attitude to not wait for fresh starts if you are actually serious about it. And change your mindset to pick a plan that is easy to follow no matter when and where you start. You can start walking for 10 minutes starting from the 26th of April instead of waiting for the 1st of May to hit the gym for a full 60 minutes session.

2: The 100 or Zero Attitude:

The “If it’s not perfect, it shouldn’t even exist” attitude! One meal goes wrong and let the whole day become an outside food day! One day, it rains and let’s stop going to the gym for the whole week. You skip your meditation on a Wednesday and now let’s start from the next Monday! You missed eating healthy for an evening snack today, so how does it matter even if the Dinner is unhealthy and heavy, now?
This attitude of All or Nothing is not cool.

Imagine, you are in a running contest and you fall on the ground in the middle, do you get up and start running forward or think that it makes no sense anyway and run back to the start line? You obviously let that single second of falling down “not” dictate your whole contest. Similarly, just because you couldn’t do one thing perfectly, that mustn’t dictate everything else. Just get up, dust your clothes and start running towards the finish line again.

The only difference between a Marathon race and the Health Journey is here you are not competing with anyone else but you AND there is no finish line. It is an on-going journey!

Just remember, to now on, be okay with a few things going wrong – with falling down, with having hurdles, roadblocks, and speed-breakers. Just keep moving ahead with whatever is available and at whatever speed suits you but KEEP MOVING!

3: The Counting Calories Mindset:

Firstly, food is WAY beyond this trending term #Calories.
It is Prasad, your source of energy, the reason why you’re able to live, the reason why your brain functions normally, it is what you prepare during festivals, it is how you will be able to continue to live. If you still think it is just Calories, Protein, and Fat, I encourage you to start thinking about the days you fast for a festival or are not able to eat on a specific day due to either not finding time or not finding food – how do you feel on those days? Hungry? Hangry? Mad? Irritated? EXACTLY. This is because Food provides you nourishment. Not just calories. So, eat the way your childhood and teenage version ate, eat like your family eats, eat in the way that feels “normal” to you. Don’t count calories. Just eat mindfully and properly so you neither over-eat nor under-eat.
P.S. One extra bite and few extra calories won’t make you fat. An unhealthy lifestyle followed over a period of time, will.

4: If it’s not Complex, it won’t work Mindset:

We love complicating things – it lets us overthink and panic and think of the worse situations! And the reality is – it also lets us run away from making progress in the name of it being too complicated. We also love overly complicating out health ideas. It HAS to be something super difficult to follow and you NEED to be among those few people who get things done with an Insane Will Power otherwise it’s not gonna work! Sorry to reveal this to you BUT it does not have to be complicated. From this point of time, get used to simple things. Basic things. Easy things. But I know your love for complexity and challenges – Don’t worry – I have it! Do all these simple, basic, and easy things – CONSISTENTLY to yield your desired results! Happy with the tinge of tough?

Don’t chase the only salads or 2 hours of gym trends once in a while, chase the healthy meals and easy exercising for 20 minutes – every day! (And you know the drill, if you miss a day or two, you forget it and keep going!!)

5: Changing it ALL at Once Attitude:

When wanting to improve your health, there are several aspects of your lifestyle that demand changes and it is, without a doubt, going to be overwhelming to make them all at once. But we’re wired to create a perfect life. And this becomes the very reason why we fail miserably. It is not possible for you to change all aspects at one go. It is practically not doable to change your eating habits, sleep cycle, exercise regimen and de-stressing routine all in a matter of a few days – when you try to do this, you’re stuck in a cycle, you feel confused, choked, trapped, and eventually let go of the whole process which also means zeroing all the progress that you had achieved until then!
So, remember to start with any one thing. It can be just the Nutrition part of the whole lifestyle for the first 2 months. And let me make it further easy-peasy! Go even easier even in the Nutrition part – don’t try to change everything at one go – start by just including one fruit every day then move to having an extra 500-1000 ml of water every day, maybe after 15-30 days and then so on. Sure, this process of micro-steps and additions may take you several months to correct your whole lifestyle but at least it will be easy to follow in both the short-term and the long-run and guess, what? With repetition, this will become your natural lifestyle and will require little to no effort in the future. Let’s say this entire process even takes one whole year! But what will you lose? Right now, you’re probably at zero or even negative and you’ve been craving for a change since forever. So, why not take ample amount of time for your body and mind and slowly & happily create a smooth and healthy lifestyle?
Sounds relaxing? Change your attitude once and for all, this time.

6: Wanting Big Results in a Short Time Mindset:

Imagine you go out to a bakery today and eat pastries, cookies, etc. Are you going to gain 5 kgs tomorrow? Imagine you go out to this bakery and eat the same items for a week. Will you gain 5 kgs? Maybe not. But you will definitely start gaining weight.
Imagine this behaviour gets repeated for a month? This time, you’re sure to gain a good amount of weight. As this became your daily habit, it is sure to begin to show you results. You get the point now? Nothing happens immediately but when made a habit, begins to show results. So, look at the weight-loss, muscle-gain or improving-health journey in the same way. For the changes you make, it is going to take time for your body to accept and adapt and begin to change. The duration varies for everyone. However, you can measure the changes in what you experience, how energetic you’ve become, how peaceful and confident you feel etc. before you start seeing some numerical improvements, too. But give up on the idea that you want BIG results in a short time.

Your body is your biggest asset and creating the best version of it is surely going to take time but my question is what’s the rush? Let it.

7: The Attitude of Comparing every little thing:

Both my neighbour and I started going on a walk a month ago. She lost 3.5 kgs and I lost 1.5. My cousin and I, both started drinking more water. Her acne is almost gone while I see very minimal change. My brother and I, both started lifting weights 2 months ago. He lifts 10 kgs. While I can do only 2.

A lot of such comparisons keep happening when we hop on our Health Journey. Remember that all our starting points are different (our circumstances and environments are different, too!) and every individual body is unique. The only thing that you should focus on is the sincerity of your efforts. And if you wish to compare, kindly compare your current status with your own previous status rather than comparing every little thing with someone else. That X person is not your body! Please respect your uniqueness and individuality and focus on your personal progress.  

You might not always make progress at someone else’s pace but my question is why do you even want to? God has created everyone differently and you should celebrate that instead of wanting to be like someone else diluting your own authenticity.

This Health Journey belongs EXCLUSIVELY to you. You have the power to sculpt your body, create your lifestyle, design your happiness, and you’ve got every right to celebrate your wins on the way – no matter how small they may seem! Even if you feel, your progress means nothing when compared to XYZ, I encourage you to go wrong by putting “your achievements” on a pedestal. At least, it is going to make you feel better about yourself.
You’ve heard “Fake it until you Make it”, right? So, do that if required but feel your very best as that is the very sauce behind being your very best!

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