At some points during your life and health journey, you may find yourself too busy, overspent, maybe even overthinking your choices when it comes to optimizing your lifestyle.
Maybe you’re always looking for the next great thing on the horizon that you can add to your program—food, supplement, workout, or other modality. Weighing and measuring your choices (especially food!) can invoke anxiety, and chronically browsing supplement options may bring on analysis paralysis. You may feel yourself backing into a corner when you self-impose only the ‘right’ choice. In the case of food choices, the extreme form of this is called Orthorexia. Indeed, this quagmire will bring on resentment and even some fear, if it continues. Or you may come to the conclusion that this sucks and abandon your health journey altogether.
None of this is good for your health.
It’s time to cull, simplify, and implement the most important tenets and concepts to reclaim your time and keep your locus of control. It’s time to get back to basics.
When it comes to food choices, don’t overthink it. Eat satiating and satisfying whole foods the way Nature designed them. And feel nourished, not deprived. This is good wholesome feel good self-care, not obsession. Feel really good about that!
Are you overthinking your workout? Making sure you hit all muscle groups the right way, with the proper form, at the right intervals, on the right days? Consider simplifying with functional exercises only, like squats, lunges, pushups, and plank pose. These four exercises include all muscle groups without having to think which dumbbell to choose for that bicep curl… or targeting your biceps at all.
Consider taking up a sport. An added bonus is socializing with teammates on a regular basis rather than relying on social media—which can be isolating. Talk about a soul nourishing activity!
When it comes to taking supplements, once a week, fill up your pill boxes for each day of the week so you’re not fumbling around with so many bottles every day.
When you’re feeling overwhelmed, stepping back for a moment while getting back to basics for a while can help you regroup while continuing forward in your journey.
To your health!
Leyla Muedin, MS, RD, CDN
