*****LONG POST WARNING***** You may need to consider your New Years Resolution Goals if: *1. Your Healthy Lifestyle is isolating. Find yourself canceling plans to hit the gym or avoiding dinner parties because you know there will be wine and carbs? Social connection is one of the most research-supported elements of mental and physical health. So it might actually be worth it to skip that workout for the dinner party. Everyone has different needs when it comes to social support and connection, so try to look inside, be honest with yourself and ask what might serve you better (e.g. the gym or the connection). If you find yourself at that dinner party wishing you were on a treadmill, you will know better for next time. And vice versa. *2. Your Healthy Lifestyle is compromising your sleep. Getting up at 5am to hit bootcamp before work is healthy, right? Not if youre going to bed at midnight, its not. If youre regularly getting less hours than your body needs of sleep so that you can exercise, youre letting a very important aspect of a healthy lifestyle slip in favor of something else. Another way you might be affecting your quality of sleep is by over-training. Delayed Onset Muscle Soreness (DOMS) and energy deficits can lead to pain, low blood sugar, hunger pangs, and night sweats--all of which will disrupt your slumber. That being said, adding exercise to your day generally helps with sleep. Just make sure youre not overdoing it. *3. Your Healthy Lifestyle is causing you to beat up on yourself. If having pizza or chocolate just ruined the rest of your day, you might be holding yourself too high of a standard. For those of us who are self-punishing when we dont meet our expectations around diet and exercise, we can develop an emotionally abusive relationship with ourselves. If youre constantly berating yourself for not maintaining a perfect diet and exercise program, you could be contributing to feelings of worthlessness, inadequacy, underconfidence, and negativity. Instead, try being self-compassionate--having realistic, flexible expectation and being supportive on your journey toward meeting them. *4. Youre Healthy Lifestyle is creating anxiety (and therefore increasing cortisol). In the back of your mind, are you constantly planning your next meal or trying to avoid the lunchroom because you know there is cake in there? Does finding out you cant make it to the gym for a couple of days send you into a state of panic? Anxiety pumps cortisol through our system, which has a ton of negative effects. If anxiety is an every-present feeling, it could be a sign that you ought to give yourself a little more permission to be a human being. *5. If youre a woman, your Healthy Lifestyle has affected your menstrual cycle. Restrictive dieting and overexercising leads to a severe change in hormones. This can cause amenorrhea, hypothyroid, oligomenorrhea, Insulin-resistance, PCOS, adrenal fatigue, and any other troublesome results. Your goals and lifestyle could be doing more harm than good. Is the thigh gap really worth it? That being said, I NEVER promote a thigh gap in general. Unless youre anatomically set up that way, of course.
Posted on: Tue, 06 Jan 2015 02:29:47 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015