Health is a challengeHi Love Vitamins,

I hope you had / are having lovely, wonderful holidays with your family and friends. This is just a quick note to say that if you’re not, it’s okay.

I know that if you are trying to get healthy and eat better and exercise more and whatever else, holidays can really be a challenging time. Temptations are high, pressure is there, and stress can mount.

I hope this holiday season hasn’t been incredibly stressful for you in that regard. I do tend to think it’s better to just allow yourself to share merrily in the festivities and food and whatever else without guilt. I find that it makes you want it less if you know that you can have it if you choose.

Many people, especially when they’re clearing their skin think of health like this point system. If I eat this many good meals, I get this many points. If I eat one bad meal or skip my workout, I go back to zero points. So no kidding the holidays are going to be rough.

Health isn’t like that though. Health is a long term endeavour… it’s a majority accumulation of your efforts, and you don’t just go back to zero if you nosh some christmas cheesecake over the holidays. 

Either way, staying healthy over the long term is still really challenging and I totally struggle with it.

You might come to this blog and think that because I blog about health, that staying healthy comes really easy to me. And you might think that you are a failure if you don’t find that being and staying healthy is a total cinch.

Truthfully it’s hard and takes dedication. I don’t stress about stuff like the holidays anymore, but … you know. I’m just like you. I majorly struggle with deciding what’s for dinner. I slide into sitting too much and don’t always want to exercise. Regular meditation and stress reduction activities… now there’s a real challenge for me to keep up with.

I often go through periods of time where I am really great with this stuff, and I feel great, but then I slide into a period of less activity; not eating as well; stressing a lot. And then I feel it. I notice I don’t feel as good. And so I naturally feel like I need to step it up again.

So I do. And then it happens over again. It’s like a rolling wave.

And it’s always a challenge to get back on top of the wave. But that’s NORMAL. But to me the challenge of staying healthy over the long run is worthwhile. I want to have an able body, balanced hormones, and nice skin well into my old age. And I want to feel good now.

It doesn’t mean it’s easy though. So if you’re struggling with it, don’t feel like you are the only one. Seriously. I am so far from perfect, and I definitely don’t do everything “right”.

One thing I have noticed though is that ever since I’ve been more relaxed about my health; allowing myself to indulge if I want to; not stressing about the little things I can’t control; that ironically the challenge of staying healthy is somehow less of a challenge.

The bottom of the waves are less intense. There’s less guilt, less resistance to getting back on the wagon, and less intense cravings. I get back on because I want to, not so much because I’m beating up on myself like I used to do.

So anyway. Just wanted to say that. It can totally seem like health people on the internet are just SOOO good at being healthy and it comes naturally and easily and they never struggle with it.

So not true.

Love you guys,
Tracy xo