Make Health and Fitness the Empowering Lifestyle it Should Be

Make Health and Fitness the Empowering Lifestyle It Should Be
by NIA SHANKS

What was the last book (or article) you read that was extremely helpful? It struck a chord and you finished it feeling like you had a solid plan. You felt confident and, finally, knew exactly what to do going forward.

At first you felt unstoppable, armed with this new plan and information. Then not too long after, it’s like you forgot everything. All the value you initially attained from the book vanished. The momentum that started to accrue halted.

What the hell happened? you’re left wondering.

This isn’t uncommon, especially if you devoured a book that was crammed with information. It’s difficult to retain every valuable lesson, let alone remember to put them into practice every day.

In the two years since Lift Like a Girl (paid link) was released, I’ve received messages from women who say they loved the book, they made incredible progress, they felt better than ever. But then, they got off track. A real-life event derailed them, or they reverted to previous habits after a high-stress period. “How do I handle this?” or “What should I do when this happens?” or “How can I simplify that?” they asked me.

Many times I would respond with, “This is discussed on page X in Lift Like a Girl.” Commonly I’d receive a response that went something like, “I completely forgot that was in there!”

We forget things. We can’t absorb every tip or lesson we read.

Though we were armed with the information we needed to, for example, forge new habits and create a more resilient and robust mindset, it slips like sand through our fingers unless we study it and apply it, daily.

That is why it can be tremendously helpful to focus on one thing—one lesson—every day. This way your full attention can be devoted to the single task. Instead of skimming the surface on multiple lessons, and forgetting them as time goes on, you can go deeper on a single lesson and reap greater rewards, and likely retain them much easier.

One powerful lesson. One thing to focus on. One thing to accomplish.

This is simpler and less overwhelming than having a lengthy to-do list. Not only can this provide more meaningful results, but it’s a tremendous way to build momentum because, think about it, it’s one thing you must do for the day. You can do one thing, right? Of course you can.

This approach works beautifully with health and fitness, and the mindset we have about it.

You know the way you eat and work out should make you feel great about yourself.

You know health and fitness should be an enjoyable, sustainable, empowering lifestyle free from obsession, deprivation, frustration, guilt, and negative body image … but, thanks to the superfluous nonsense in the health and fitness world, you’ve gotten off track and struggle to make that happen.

You’re not alone.

Countless women have been made to feel “less than” because of the popular health and fitness information they’ve received. Many feel like health and fitness is too complicated, stressful, and is constantly draining their sanity.

But you can reclaim health and fitness. You can make it the empowering, enjoyable, sustainable lifestyle it is supposed to be.