With message after message in the media implying that the secret to happiness is losing weight, it can be easy to conflate healthy living with being skinny. But, the truth is, you can be skinny and still not be living the healthiest lifestyle. The key to healthy living isn’t losing weight (although that generally doesn’t hurt, if you do it the right way); the key is creating a lifestyle that makes you feel your happiest, most energized, and most capable.
Healthy Living Should Make You Happier
When you step into a healthier lifestyle, one that includes regular exercise, you naturally increase your endorphin production. Endorphins are responsible for that happy, elated feeling you get when you go for a long run or finally conquer the mountain you’ve been climbing.
In essence, endorphins are the reason that regular exercise makes you a happier person all around. That alone should be enough to encourage you to lace up those old running shoes and hit the pavement. It isn’t about looking your best in your bathing suit this summer; it’s about feeling your best all year long.
Healthy Living Should Energize You
A healthy lifestyle shouldn’t just be about exercising more regularly. You should also make it a point to pay attention to the nourishing food you put in your body.
Whether it’s a protein-packed breakfast smoothie or a nice fillet of fresh-caught salmon for dinner, what you choose to put into your body does just as much for healthy living as does working out.
One of the most destructive notions about dieting is that food is the enemy, that calories are to be feared and restricted. But, if you pick energizing foods that nourish your body, you should start to feel more energized and healthy—and you’ll never feel deprived.
Healthy Living Should Help You Feel More Capable
Not living up to your potential health-wise can be detrimental in so many ways. When you look at yourself in the mirror and you don’t like your reflection, it can frankly be pretty upsetting. But what’s worse is feeling like you can’t quite keep up with life. You miss out on living life to the fullest when you lead an unhealthy lifestyle.
Healthy living should help you feel more capable and better able to get out there and do all of the things you’ve been wanting to try. It should also enable you to keep up with your kids. What greater joy is there than being able to play with your kids?
In short, when you stick with a healthy lifestyle, you allow yourself to be an active participant in life’s greatest joys.
