Why taking control of your health doesn’t have to be so strict

It’s important to care for your health and make good decisions about what you put in your body. However, the narrative that perfection is possible or even worth pursuing might lead you astray and demotivate you before it even starts. To help you out, below are tips for taking control of your health without lording over yourself as a tyrant, and to think of new ways to become healthier, trimmer, and happier with yourself. All without having to pay for it every second of every day.

With this in mind, I hope the points below provide a new and refreshing look at what fitness means, particularly in the sputtering last months of an international health emergency. Let’s start now!

Supplements can help you

It’s very easy for people to think too much about their diet, even though it’s absolutely essential for good health. With all the supplements, dietary aids, and replacements available, you’d think that it’s necessary to spend thousands of dollars a month to be healthy.

That’s simply not true. Your unique body only needs certain things.

A good multivitamin, cod liver oil with Omega 3 and Vitamin D tablet could be enough for you, for example. Also, consider worthwhile additions to help you hit your macros and make healthy eating easier to manage, such as using meal replacement shakes.

There’s something you have to remember, though. Supplements exist to help you, but you shouldn’t feel like a slave to them. This mentality can help you feel more empowered by your approach to food and how you track it.

Taking control of your health by focusing on fundamentals

Putting your focus on the basics of good health can be tremendously helpful. For instance, you might find that getting your sleep routine together before you go out and work hard at lifting weights all the time improves your performance.

Generally, it’s a good idea to go to sleep at the same time each night and wake up at the same time every day. This habit can help restore your energy levels, and it will enable you to improve your sleep hygiene over time, giving you more energy and enthusiasm going forward.

This is more than just an old wives’ tale as sleep is the fundamental restoration that helps improve daily motivation. If you didn’t sleep well the night before, a morning run can be grueling.

So, try to put your attention on the fundamentals, and use them as steps to build you up. This strategy can help you avoid taking on the world at once. That’s important for taking control of your health over the long term.

Use helpful programs

It can be beneficial to use programs that help you avoid having to figure out health and fitness all by yourself. Some people may think this is “cheating,” but that logic couldn’t be further from the truth.

For instance, you’ll no doubt find it useful to recognize that intermittent fasting, while it sounds hard, can help you stick to a disciplinary approach to prevent you from snacking in the evening and outdoing your calorie limits.

Using this example, fasting for sixteen hours each day and eating within an eight-hour window can be tremendously helpful. This not only helps you give yourself gut rest, but it can help you lose weight more readily and easily. In fact, using apps like Zero, more than 500,000 people fast each day and track their rhythm when doing so.

Don’t be afraid to use resources from time to time. They’re there to help you.

And don’t take fasting to the extreme. It’s not worth it for your physical or mental health. Reaching weight-related goals, as well as any others, requires patience and time, at least if you want to see results you can maintain well over time.

Accountability and taking control of your health

Promising accountability can sometimes seem like writing a check you may not be able to cash. But, rather than limit you, having someone close by who you trust can help keep you together.

It can be very useful and uplifting, and you can provide them with the same help they give you. Be there for one another!

Perhaps you both want to lose five pounds by the end of the summer, for example. To achieve a realistic goal, share with one another what meals you eat, recipes, and exchange health-related tips on a walk each week.

Perhaps you can go to the gym together when the world opens up. People often think of getting healthy as some grim solo duty that must happen alone, but that doesn’t have to be the case.

Having a little humility and enjoying a laugh with a friend can make the fitness lifestyle seem more appealing, rather than falling victim to the imagery of chiseled physiques and idealized people promoted by many fitness companies. Two friends attending the gym, having a laugh, and then coming out feeling much better would make for much more accurate and worthwhile marketing material.

Here’s one more tip for taking control of your health:

Don’t deny yourself cheats

Even professional athletes who are cutting fat often allow themselves a cheat day from time to time. If you’re on a diet, it can’t hurt to have one of these days each week or every other week, provided you don’t eat over your caloric maintenance each day.

A calorie calculator makes it easy to keep track of what you’re eating and how many calories your body needs to function at its best. Just don’t get to the point where you’re obsessing about intake. Remember, it’s good to eat healthily but even better to be practical, which involves being less strict with yourself.

Not only do the occasional cheats leave you feeling less restricted in your food plan, but it also helps satisfy the cravings you may have had before. Learning to indulge now and then can help you avoid binging back into your old habits if you fail.

Of course, this approach doesn’t apply to all things that you hope to rid your life of. But, if you’ve been eating properly for two weeks, well, a cheeseburger with a friend can’t hurt you, in most cases.

A few last words on taking control of your health

Living healthily is all about learning to manage realistic expectations and work towards your best habits to replace the bad ones, rather than restricting yourself. After all, living in a balanced way is a pleasure in itself.

With this advice, I hope you can take the reins when it comes to your wellness without feeling so strict about it all. That self-defeating mindset can otherwise make people who care for their health seem “other” than you when in reality you could get there too.