- Do you have trouble sticking to ahealthy lifestyle? You know what you need to do and have a plan but you can't seem tostick to it? It's a rather common problem. In this video, I'm going to talk about fivethings that you could do to set yourself up for success, so you can finally livethat healthy lifestyle that you envision. If you're interested keep watching. Hellohello! Welcome back to The Whole Happy Life. I blog . It really means a lotto me and I really, really mean it. Anyway let's get started and talk abouttoday's video. So as a holistic nutritionist I see a lot of clients andsome of them struggle with sticking to the plan and some do really well. Andover the years I've realized that there are some things that people can doto set themselves up for success and in this video I want to share those thingsso that when you start your healthy living plan or your healthy lifestyleyou can actually stick.
 to it. So let's begin! Okay the first thing and I thinkthis is the most important. If you don't do any of the other tips in this video justdo this one. I think will make a huge difference! That is to find out whattruly motivates you because if you don't have a strong motivating factor, you'renot going to stick to your healthy plan for very long. Now let me explain.So by motivating factor I'm not talking about something that's going to motivateyou short term. For example, weight loss is a motivator for sure, but it's ashort-term motivator. So people are motivated until they lose the weight andthen they go back to their old ways and then they regain the weight in somecases. So what I'm talking about is figuring out things that willmotivate you long term so that you can make those lifestyle changes and reallystick to them for the long haul and not just for a couple months. I canillustrate this better
 with an example so I had a client who did everything toat T and it was amazing because most people can't follow plans to T and Idon't expect them to either but she was really really motivated, so I asked herwhat's motivating you what's keeping you going because you're doing an amazingjob. So she had a really interesting thing to say - her main motivating factorwas not to lose weight it was something she was trying to do she was trying tolose weight but that was on her main motivation. Her main motiation was toset a good example for her daughter. She wanted to become a role model for herdaughter. So her daughter could learn healthy habits as well and I think thatwas amazing because it's such a strong motivating factor and something that'sgonna motivate her every single day. So even if she falls off the wagon for acouple days she'll get back on it because she has that strong motivatingfactor. Now obviously that motivating factor may not work for you. What worksfor you may not work for me - we're all different. But I wanted to give you thatas an example. Now an example of what motivates me is my mother passed awaywhen I was 28. She was only 51 
-  she had a heart attack and it was a result ofdiabetes and diabetes is a lifestyle disease. Obviously it has a geneticcomponent but it's mainly lifestyle - you can prevent diabetes if you take care ofyourself. So for me - my main motivating factor forbecoming a holistic nutritionist and taking care of myself is to preventdiabetes. Now what I suggest you do is sit down, get a piece of paper and get apen - brainstorm!
 Figure out what it is and motivates you write everything down.Whatever pops up in your head- there's no wrong motivating factor. Once you'vewritten down a couple factors , figure out which one really means the most to youand which one is a long term motivating factor. And you know what write that down on apost-it note stick it up on your fridge or a mirror that you look at every day.It's a constant reminder as to why you're actually on this healthy plan andwhy you're trying to live a healthier lifestyle.So number two is time management. So a lot of people who come to me as clientsthey know that they need to eat healthy it's gonna require some cooking , but theycan't seem to find the time. Now I know we live very busy lives today it's notlike it used to be but we all have 24 hours in the day and some people canmanage to do a lot more than others and I think it comes down to time management,efficiency and you know asking for help when you need it. My suggestion is tofigure out where you spend your time
-  So for three days write down a timejournal - every single hour of yours account it . This is going to be a littlebit tedious but it's gonna give you a really good picture. When I did this Ifigured out how much time I was spending on social media and on my phone justaimlessly scrolling and you know what that is time that you could use forother things for cooking for meal prep for exercise for meditation for all thethings that you think you don't have time for. Number three - make cooking moreenjoyable.

- So when it comes to healthy eating, cooking is usually part of theprocess because I believe that it's much better to have home-cooked meals. Because no matter how well you try to eat when you're out you really don't know theingredients that they're using and you don't have control over what they've putin their food but when you're cooking at home you have a lot more control. But Ido understand that not everybody likes cooking. I didn't like cooking when Ifirst started,but you have to realize when it comes to long-term healthenjoying cooking and making it less of a chore goes a really long way. So I have avideo on how to make cooking more enjoyable. I'm going to link it in thedescription box below so watch the video but the one tip I wanted to share hereis to embrace experimentation because the more you experiment in the kitchenthe more you figure out what you enjoy the more you're going to enjoy cooking Number four - let go of perfection! So Ican't count how many times I've had clients come to me and they start theplan really well and two weeks in something happens life happens orthey've got something going on or they're busy they've gone on vacationand they fall off the wagon completely and never get back on it because intheir mind they need to do the plan perfectly. But I don't agree with thatway of looking at health. Health is not about being perfect all the time.It's about doing what you can and doing the best. So let's say you know it'sFriday and you feel like you really need a piece of cake enjoy it don't beatyourself up for it don't feel like you need to punish yourself with an extraworkout the next day. You don't need to do that and don't use that cake onFriday as an excuse to eat poorly on Saturday and Sunday so you can start onMonday. Don't do that. That's not the way to go because that is the perfectionistattitude 

 oh I didn't have a perfect weekend so you know what I'm just gonnabe bad all weekend and then I'm gonna do well on Monday. It doesn't need to belike that. Do your best everyday and when you want indulge don't beat yourself upfor it because you are in this for the long haul. Not for the short term -for thelong haul. So strive for progress not perfection! Number five - find a buddy now this personis someone who's gonna help you stay accountable. It doesn't need to besomeone who's doing the healthy eating and living plan with you, it just needsto be someone who you're comfortable with and someone who can push you. Talkto your buddy once a week or once in two weeks whatever works for you and tellthem what your progress is and what your setbacks are and see if theycan give you some sort of advice or you know their opinions on the matter andthey can help push you in the right direction.I find that when we have someone to talk to and someone who will keep usaccountable we are more likely to stick to a plan as opposed to doing it on ourown .
 So those are the five things! I hope you enjoyed the video and learned something new. If you did, give it a thumbs up and don't forget to subscribe.I create videos like this every week and before you go and let me know in thecomment box below what are some of your main struggles when it comes to eatinghealthy and living a healthy lifestyle? I'd love to hear from you and you knowmaybe some of your ideas could become topics for videos. Anyway I will see youin the next Article . Bye!