Make Workout and Healthy Eating A Choice, Not a Punishment
This particular topic was suggested by a listener and friend. So, thank you my friend for asking me to do this. 

I Shall start by spelling out exactly what I am not:
I am not a certified fitness professional.
Nor am I a certified dietician or nutritionist.
And, I am not recommending any particular fitness or diet regimes here.
What I share here is what I learned in the two decades of my fitness journey. I want to share the shift in my thought process and outlook that has helped me in achieving my goals. 

In the past:
I have attended structured fitness classes, taken gym memberships (trying my hands on those beastly machines), and walked miles hoping to shed some fat en route. 
Like so many others, I have had times of strict workout routines and those of long intervals of absolutely no time for any routine. 
I have followed some very strict diet regimes and then undone all the good of that regime by eating everything that I could lay my hands on. 
I have had my high points when I felt so good about the way I looked and my low points when I would have nightmares about standing on that weighing scale.

But today, I am in a space where I am happy with the effort that I put in and the result that I get in return.  In this podcast, I share three important points that help me in my journey 

1. Getting the fitness goals right:
   It is so important to get the goals right. Personally, for me, it has shifted from just maintaining a healthy weight to fitness being a lifelong commitment. Something that I invest in every single day. 
   Earlier, I made the mistake of considering exercise as just a means to get to the goal of an “ideal weight” or “perfect health”. Though these are the final outcomes of a daily exercise regime, when we overemphasize the outcomes, we tend to get demotivated when we don’t see a reduction in weight or when our health is still not at a level that we would like it to be at.
   Instead, if we make exercise itself a goal, that is something that we can achieve on a daily basis. The other outcomes will definitely follow in due course.
   This shift in my thought process has immensely helped me to keep going.
   Having a mixed bag of workouts to choose from also helps me. My bag has running, brisk walking, biking, yoga, and some online workouts like aerobics and High-Intensity Interval Trainings to choose from. I have some personal favorite online trainers and Kelly and Daniel from Fitness Blender sit top on that list. They have some awesome home workout videos for all levels of intensity. Do visit www.fitnessblender.com if you are considering home workouts. 
2. Making a Choice:
   Choice- it is such a strong and powerful word isn’t it? Isn’t choice a privilege? When we have the privilege of choosing something that we know will benefit us, why not choose it? This thought brought about a world of difference to my outlook on working out and healthy eating.
   I exercise 5-6 times a week because I choose to do it.
   Picking up a fruit or some nuts when I want to snack on something is my choice.
   See the power in those statements. I love having that power. The power of choice!
   If you had to make that choice for your children or our parents, you would do it without batting an eye. Then why not for yourself?
   I sometimes trick my mind by asking it to choose between a Pilates workout or a brisk walk, or a bike ride. It is a win-win situation for my body and my mind. My mind is happy to have had a choice and my body benefits from any of the choices made.
   So I would say, choose to make it a choice! 
3. Not a Punishment
   For how long do we have to exercise and keep eating healthy? Well, for as long as we live and are able to do it, right! When I found the answer to that question I got rid of the negative connotation that I associated with healthy food and exercise.
   It is not a punishment for being of a certain weight or body structure or for having a particular health condition.
   It is however unfortunate that a lot of times people are pushed into a healthy lifestyle for these reasons and hence a negative connotation and a feeling of not having a choice in these matters.
   Just like how saving some money for tomorrow is not a punishment, healthy living is not a punishment. It is a wise lifestyle to choose.
   When it comes to healthy eating, a lot of people consider it a deprivation. For most of us, it  is so much more difficult than maintaining a workout regime. But a healthy body is achieved only by eating healthy. “You are what you eat” is a well-known phrase and it is a fact.
   That said, cravings are real and I personally handle them by occasionally giving in to the craving and mostly by replacing it with a healthier or a home-cooked variant of the food that I am craving.  In my case, it is a particular taste that I usually crave. So I can replace candy with dates or chips with salted nuts.  Find out what works for you and replace unhealthy food with tasty and healthy options whenever you can.
   Well, if there is a will, there is a way. So it is all about having that will. 

Getting the goals right and making workout and healthy eating a choice and not a punishment has made my fitness journey so much easier.

Like I mentioned earlier, these are my personal experiences and thoughts about Workout and Healthy Eating. If it helps you in any way, I am more than happy. If there is something in particular that you want me to talk about, leave a comment. I will definitely pick them up if I have the bandwidth to talk about it. 

You can listen to the podcast version of this episode on Anchor, Spotify, or Google Podcast. 

Remember-  Workout and Healthy Eating Is A Choice. It Is  Not a Punishment.

If workout procrastination is your problem, read this article on 10 ways to avoid workout procrastination.

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