Over the past few years I’ve been gravitating toward subjects related to health and wellness.  I particularly had an interest in holistic medicine, meditation, yoga, raw food diets, healthy living, self healing, and consciousness; just to name a few.  Around the time of my quarter life crisis, I realized that I was quickly approaching my 30s.  So, I went on a frenzy to gather any and all information that would help me age gracefully.  Living in a society where women are constantly judged on their appearance and pressured to stay looking young by any means, made my paranoia, with aging, grow exponentially.  I wanted to target specific areas that I was having trouble with.

For the past 5 years I’ve been trying to live healthy, but failed to maintain that lifestyle.  Today, I have made a conscious decision.  I am going to live a healthier life by consciously changing my habits and lifestyle.  This is a bold statement considering I have a lot of bad habits that, some would say, are hypocritical of living a healthy lifestyle.  I binge eat and prefer junk over healthy food, I drink and smoke, and finally I don’t get proper sleep or exercise.  But, if I aspire to accomplish this conscious choice, I have to declare my intention and follow through with the appropriate actions.

The first step to consciously living healthier is to acknowledge the flaws.  I know personally, I lack a proper diet and don’t exercise regularly.  I have wrinkles, grey hair, hair and bone density loss because of stress and my constant binge eating, drinking and smoking and lack of sleep and proper exercise.

Becoming aware of the problem will force you to do something about it.  The very fact that you are consciously aware of your problem creates a moral obligation to change yourself.  Once you’ve acknowledged the flaws honestly, you then have to choose what to do and how you can change those flaws.  I personally gathered information on raw food diets in an attempt to eat healthier.  I researched specific at home workout routines targeting my weak areas to avoid paying costly membership fees at the gym.  I then researched holistic and natural remedies  to help improve my overall wellness without it costing an arm and a leg and resulting in evasive surgery.

The next thing is to stay true to yourself and try what works for you.  We’re constantly surrounded by people on Facebook or Instagram taking millions of pictures of their weight loss or success.  It’s easy to get mixed up in the hype of doing what every body else does.  So, you have to consciously choose who to follow as your role model.  Choose someone with similar features or body type as you, or someone who dealt with similar bad habits as you and overcame them.  Follow those who are striving for similar goals as you.  By doing this you can learn their techniques and apply it to yourself the best way that suits and helps you achieve results.  Remember, you were born original don’t die a copy.  Don’t copy others, make up your own rules by learning from others while making it work for you.  By applying these techniques you finally get to address the problem, face it, come up with a plan to fix it and then follow through with actions that ultimately help change it.

Here is a list of things I am consciously choosing to work on in my life:

• Eating healthier – focus on raw food diets, avoid foods that contain GMO’s, avoid junk food and consciously choose a healthier option by making my own smoothies and meals
• Exercising regularly – work out 3 times a week and incorporate one activity such as yoga, pilates, kick boxing, or etc. in addition to working out
• Cutting out my bad habits – stop drinking alcohol, only on rare occasions, cut out smoking, only on weekends never during the week, eat smaller portions more times throughout the day to avoid binge eating at night
• Using natural remedies to improve my health – use red palm oil for hair loss and reducing greys, ginger to improve blood flow and increase hair growth, add silica, cinnamon, lemon and honey in tea and other foods to help build my immune system, use almond and castor oil for my dry skin and to naturally reduce wrinkles, do facial yoga and try acupuncture to improve blood flow to the face for a natural facelift, incorporate meditation in my daily life to naturally reduce stress without resorting to western medicine (ie. pills)

Time to reflect:

Have you consciously chosen to do something?  Maybe you too are trying to live a healthier life.  Are you on a budget and looking to not spend a ton of money to change?  Are you looking to cut out some of your bad habits or maybe incorporate new good habits?  Whatever you wish to achieve, once you’ve chosen to consciously do something, take the time to reflect on what that something is.  Be honest with yourself and stay true to who you are.  Focus on the areas you are concerned with and research your options.  Look for role models with similar goals as you so you don’t get caught up in the hype of achieving results not intended for you.  Once you’ve consciously chosen to do what you want, following through with the appropriate actions to achieve your results becomes very easy.  Do you have any tips for living a healthier lifestyle?  If you do, please share!

“To keep the body in good health is a duty, otherwise we shall not be able to keep our mind strong and clear”. ~ Buddha