What does healthy look like?

I feel like there's such a misconception of what healthy means in our society today.  There's this distortion of what we as women (and men) should look like, should do, eat and wear.  Social media certainly paints a picture of perfection and shows off everyone's highlight reel but when it comes down to it healthy is going to look different for everyone!!  Every persons starts their journey in a different spot.  No two journey's are going to be the same.  The girl that posts green smoothies every day and washboard abs may be in a different place in her journey than you.  Your journey might begin with squats and start with cutting out diet cokes and candy.

Healthy doesn't have to be flashy or picture perfect.  In my mind healthy is seeing a new mom start taking care of herself again.  Its seeing a girl with no confidence press play on her dvd and JUST TRY!  Healthy doesn't have to mean you NEVER have chocolate (that's impossible for me) and it doesn't mean you have to give up the foods that you love.  You don't have to eat spinach at every meal and you don't have to workout 2 hours a day.

I encourage you to STOP trying to be perfect and start making progress.  So many women are held up by their own fears and insecurities, "well I can't be healthy because there's NO WAY I can eat vegetables at every meal."  or "I can't be healthy because I don't have more than 3 days a week to workout."  Lets flip the switch and look at this a different way.  How about saying..."I can be healthy and start eating vegetables at least one time a day.  Or I CAN get in 20 minutes of exercise 3 days a week, I'm going to be healthy."

Its not about taking leaps and bounds.  Its about taking small steps every single day toward your goal that matter.  No one woke up from never working out before and eating a diet consisting of fast food to suddenly eating PERFECT - it takes years and years of implementing small changes every single day, every week, every month that compound into BIG CHANGES!

When I started my own journey I had NO IDEA what good nutrition looked like.  My diet literally was centered around brownies, mac n' cheese, cereal and Sonic Burger.  Its taken me 8 years to get to where I am today.  I slowly cut out the processed junk and over time I saw change truly from the inside out.  And even still I will never be perfect!  I still love my chocolate, I love brownies and I love mac n' cheese - just in moderation!

Focus on exercising consistently, focus on eating whole foods as much as possible.  Cutting out the processed foods slowly! You will get there!  But most importantly focus on getting healthy from the INSIDE OUT!! Your mindset is by far the most important.  After that everything else will follow. And remember - your journey is further along than someone else's and you're inspiring somebody along the way so be the example :)

I hope you find what works for you. I hope you take it upon yourself to commit to change. I hope you go out and inspire someone else.  And I hope you love YOUR journey no matter where you are- it all starts with YOU!

xoxo

Jackie

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