5 Lifestyle Changes We Didn’t Realize We Made

I was talking with a friend the other day (she has also been on a fitness journey) about the typical food and exercise challenges we have.  That conversation morphed into one about the people I am helping to start their journey to more healthy eating and exercising habits and how many questions they often have: can I eat this?  what about that? what do you do about ____?

I love helping folks as they begin down this path and every once in a while it shows me just how far me and my family have come in terms of treating our bodies well.  It wasn’t until I was reflecting on some of the questions and concerns I receive about making lifestyle eating changes that I realized there are some “choices” that aren’t even choices for us anymore.  They are NON ISSUES because they have just become part of our healthy lifestyle.  In fact, I can’t pinpoint for you when these habits changed, because it was a case of small daily choices adding up to huge lifestyle changes over time.
And here we are.  Not really missing anything too badly either!

Here are the most significant changes we have made to our lifestyle:

Exercise is part of our daily conversation.  That doesn’t mean that we workout every day, it just means that exercise is something that is planned for each day.  It is at the forefront of our minds and we schedule time for it, plan for rest days and workouts around daily logistics.  Sure, we do get up and workout first thing most mornings, but some days our schedules don’t allow for it and we make a plan to work out in the evening or we make that day our rest day.  The point being, exercise doesn’t happen by chance anymore.  We don’t think “oh, I’ll fit it in sometime today”, it has just become one of the to-do’s on our daily list.

Our dairy intake is more limited.  I don’t know about you, but I loooove cheese.  Our cheese/meat drawer in the fridge used to be filled with bags of shredded cheese: mozzarella, cheddar, Mexican mix, parmesan.  We just freely threw it in everything.  We also almost always had a collection of cheeses for our nightly ‘cheese and cracker fest’.  Now the drawer usually holds a block of cheddar cheese and maybe a block of mozzarella.  If I’m making a meal, I will shred the cheese myself.  By shredding it myself, I tend to use less because shredding is tiring, and it has to be worth the effort!  We’ve also moved our cheese fests to Thursday In-House Date Night.  By planning to have cheese and crackers only once a week, we tend to invest in smaller amounts of higher quality cheeses that seem a bit more like a treat.  Same goes for that pint(s?) of ice cream that used to live in our freezer. Now I just sing “Walk on By” every time I pass them in the market. And if we want ice cream, we have to go out for it and, let’s be honest, that doesn’t happen that often.

In keeping with the ‘less is more’ idea with cheese, baked goods are only in the house if I make the effort to make them myself.  I can’t tell you the last time I bought anything from the bakery section of the grocery store that wasn’t our weekly loaf of sandwich bread or mini whole wheat bagels (for Stella!).  It is kind of freeing to just be able to breeze through all that temptation.  Okay, maybe I visit with the goodies now and again but they rarely come home with me.  I love to bake and occasionally I will make something, but with the effort it takes it is usually something to share with a group or for a special occasion.  Basically, if it is in the house, I will eat it so I try to limit my exposure.  And worse come to worse, freezing the goodies at least makes them a bit less convenient!

We don’t have an alcoholic beverage every night anymore.  I just cringed as I wrote that because I can’t believe we changed that habit.  We used to be the folks who came home after a long work day (or me, waiting until my hubby came home from a long work day) and grabbed a glass of wine or beer to start to wind down.  Then sometimes that one drink turned into just one more after the kids went to bed.  We switched our nightcap for hot brewed tea most nights of the week and gosh do we feel better when we wake up the next day!  Sometimes breaking a habit just requires replacing it with a more healthy one.  For us, tea provides that nightly signal to slow down before bed and we can still bond over a shared beverage.

I barely shop the middle aisles of the grocery store.  Most weeks, I can stick to the perimeter of the grocery store, where the more fresh and nutritious foods are located.  Sure, sometimes I need to dive into a middle aisle for coffee or oats or whole wheat pasta, but generally my selections from the “pantry” aisles are very specific.  Since I do some meal planning every week, we tend to have generally the same grocery list each week/month and I supplement with our meat CSA and vegetable CSA.

Adopting these habits has led to a lifestyle that provides us with stronger bodies, more energy, better sleep and better moods overall.  It’s not easy, but making those small choices every day can eventually change your habits in the long run.

Have you been able to make lifestyle changes lately?  What was the hardest part?  I’d love to hear from you and help if I can.

Health and Happiness,

Cerissa