7 Things I'm Doing to be Healthier

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Over the last year or so, I've been really trying to focus on my health as a whole, instead of just pigeon holing myself and trying to be perfect at just one aspect. There have been times in my life where I've exercised for hours a day, everyday, but nutritionally, I was eating like a college frat boy. There have been other times where I've had a mostly vegan diet (in college where I mostly lived off of peanut butter and jelly burritos and the entire canned vegetable isle), and then there have been times where my mental health has been perfect (as a result of doing yoga for 12 hours a week and being at complete zen with the universe), but then physically and nutritionally, I wasn't perfect either. I've realized over the years that you can either be perfect in one area, and lack in another, or you can just strive for balance in all three areas and be content with whatever that looks like for you and your life. These are seven things that I've been working on to improve my physical, mental, and nutritional health.

Getting a Gym Membership: I talked about this a little bit in my morning routine post, but getting a gym membership a month or so ago has been amazing for my mental, and physical health. I started to realize that over the last year or so, I've lost a lot of muscle mass, and haven't been able to physically do things that use to be easy for me. I'm slowly working to build strength, and having an hour break from social media, parenting, and other life responsibilities, and having time to focus on just me, has been really rewarding so far.

Working Out at Home: A blogger I follow, Leanne, recently started sharing her daily workouts on her Instagram stories each night and they've been a good reminder that working out doesn't have to be super complex. She shares how she usually does 1.5-2 miles on the treadmill, and then some squats, push ups, and abs, and then calls it good. We got a treadmill for free from someone in our neighborhood over the summer, and seeing her workouts was a reminder that if I can't make it to the gym, I can still get an easy workout in when my kids are sleeping.

Making Veggies Part of My Routine: I'm a creature of habit. I love making small new habits that can impact my life over a long period of time. I really struggle to eat all my servings of fruits and vegetables in a day, but I've recently made the habit of having a salad with my lunch everyday, and it's been a great way to eat all of my veggie servings in one sitting. I just throw some romaine lettuce, spinach, cucumbers, tomatoes, a little cheese, and some diced lunch meat into a bowl, and I have two-three servings of veggies down for the day in one sitting.

Drinking V8® Veggie Blends: I've been a huge fan of V8® for years now. My son loves their V-Fusion line that has one complete serving of fruit, and one complete serving of vegetables per 8oz glass, and it's been an easy way to get some good added nutrition into him when he's had a picky eating day. V8® recently just added two new flavors to their Veggie Blends line: Berry Bliss, and Caribbean Greens. Each 8oz serving has one 1/2 cup serving of vegetables, and they're an excellent source of vitamins A, C, and E. I love that these juices are an easy way to make up some nutrition for the day if you're a little behind on your five servings recommendation. I also love that I can just pick them up at Walmart when I'm getting the rest of my groceries for the week. It's good for my mental health to not have to go to more than one store, and Walmart always has it all.

Unplugging More Often: As a blogger it's easy to get caught up on your phone checking e-mail, and social media all the time, or logging onto your computer to complete a random task real quick, but I've really been trying to make a big effort to unplug in the mornings before nap time, or in the late afternoons before Derek gets home. Instead, if I find myself reaching for my phone, I try to think of a chore around the house that I can do with that time instead, and try to get that done first. 

Reading More Books: In January of this year, I made a goal to read 50 books. I honestly did want to read more, but part of the motivation behind the goal was so that I would have more content to blog about. Come April it felt like just another thing I "had to do", and was feeling a huge burnout, and then when I quit blogging, I quit reading for a large portion of that time too. I recently started reading again, mostly chapter books to Jay as part of his homeschooling, but then I started wanting to read for myself again, and have really enjoyed filling up my time before bed with a book instead of my phone each night. 

Accepting Where I'm at in Life, and not Comparing: Social media has a way of showing you all the pretty pieces of life, and kind of filtering out the bad. I try to be as transparent as possible, but even on Instagram I curate my feed to be a collection of only the prettiest pictures. I often get so caught up in who is working with what brands, and getting what sponsored opportunities, or who is doing what remodel in their homes, and it starts to make me feel like my life, and the things I'm doing aren't enough. I've been trying hard lately to remember that everyone is at different stages in their careers, lives, families, and I have to just be confident in what I'm doing, and not worry about what that looks like for other people.

What are you doing in your life to be healthier? Have you tried the new V8® Veggie Blends flavors available at Walmart? Let me know in the comments below!