Mind, body, and spirit are key aspects to the success of long-term healthy living. Health living supersedes our everyday proverbial and parochial fitness goals (e.g., I need to lose five points, or I need to fit in a dress or bathing suit). Our fitness goals may serve as the initial impetus that incites us to get our lazy behinds off of our sofas or our love seats, but something greater will be needed to help us maintain a high-level of fitness excitement. Many of us start and stop training when we reach a plateau or fail to witness the results that we expected to reach. This lifestyle demands consistency and someone who can handle constant failure. The typical gym rat knows there will be a myriad of cumbersome days in the gym, in the kitchen, and on our weight scales.

I had to side step my fitness goals and to devote my workout to something much greater than my finite thinking. I dedicated my mind, body, and spirit to an infinite source of goodness and perfection that extends beyond my minuscule human way of thinking; and many refer to this source as the alpha and omega, or the almighty God. Healthy living is an all-encompassing act, so it requires an all-encompassing power to sustain our will to be fit and to be amazing. A lot of us can relate to the start and stop gym odyssey. There are readers right now, having flashbacks of their New Year’s resolution to shake the weight and to look great for 2017; but they are no longer venturing to the gym after those long work days or early quiet mornings. Why does this happen? It is simple…we lack the motivation to dedicate our lives to embrace a new paradigm shift, a shift that demands an excellence towards eating and an excellence towards physical fitness. A new productive fitness attitude will be produced when we welcome a positive healthy living paradigm shift. An attitude that allows us to develop a fitness apparatus that is tailored to our specific fitness needs.
The key words in the previous statement are, “our specific fitness needs.” This is a strong indication that we need to focus on ourselves and to stop formulating goals based on the body types of other individuals and fitness models that pose for advertisement magazines. This will also challenge us to abort this notion of expectations and to produce a desire to live and to be in the moment. Expectations and goals can be the antithesis of healthy living because a failure to reach our set objectives could result in frustration and workout abandonment. However, when we live free and without expectations, we can focus on the enjoyment of healthy eating and working out, to fabricate a healthy lifestyle.
For example, I suspended and eliminated future weight loss goals and body goals after I reached some set fitness objectives because I found minimal pleasure from those body accomplishments. In hindsight, it only inspired me to set additional targets that provided temporary pleasures. A paradigm shift forced me to pray and to seek an inner guidance that began to drive my workouts to heightened intensity, and this mentality has enabled me to seek joy from painful workouts and to seek ways to compete against myself for long-term joy. Providing me with novel ways to delight in my workouts and in healthy meals. Healthy living challenges us to mentality plan meals prior to conception, motivating us to research the caloric intake or to track the carbohydrates, fats, and proteins in proposed snacks and meals. I started perusing online menus before venturing to restaurants, so I no longer drove aimless in search of food. Seeking food with no direction can be disastrous to our plight to healthy food options and ultimately, healthy living.
Many of us can attest to driving in our vehicles on an empty stomach, lusting after cakes, chips, sodas, and everything and anything possibly bad under the scorching sun or calming moonlight. Both times, searching for food, day and night on an empty stomach, will incite us to delve into delicious and unhealthy delicacies with no regard to the number of calories, to weight reduction, or to healthy living. Food has a tendency to arouse us from the depths of our minds and the depths of our souls, begging us to partake in a little bite or a little drink of something bad to our bodily temples. This strong addiction serves as a soul tie, so it is easy for us to be diverted from our healthy paths at times. I know this to be true because I have spent many hours daydreaming about specific foods. There have been countless times I was on my way home from work when a thought rerouted me to Nothing Bundt Cakes or Duck Donuts.
Sweets may not be your vice, just as it is mines; or it could be quick service establishments, such as, Burger King or McDonald’s. Healthy living led me to give up food expectations and to welcome the idea that I can eat whatever I desire, so I would tell myself I could eat a cake bundlet everyday, rather than mentally depriving and starving myself of the idea to eat cake. This approach gave my mind and palate a choice because I no longer convinced myself of never eating sweets; on the contrary, I knew I could indulge in sweets whenever I decided to. Prompting me to say things like, “I will not eat cake today,” enabling me to reject bad food options by one moment at a time. Healthy living is a being in the moment type of psychology, quelling the pressure and fear of never being able to eat particular poor food options or enjoyable food choices. The spinoff is that individuals tend to commit themselves to healthy food choices.
Healthy living creates an attitude and a lifestyle that makes healthy food a concomitant to weight training and cardio. Remember, it is paramount for us to change our minds and to become a champion of healthy living if we desire to live free, to eat properly, and to train appropriately.