If you’ve been part of the CG community for a while, it’s no secret that my approach to health and fitness has changed a lot over the years (6 years to be exact lol). With that said, today I thought I would give a little recap of how I approached my health and fitness goals in the past and how I approach them now (which has given me a much better overall balance and made me happier)!

In the first few years of my “fitness journey” I was pretty much obsessed with eating healthy and working out 6x a week. At the time, I thought I was being “so healthy” but I ended up leading a lifestyle that revolved more around obsession than balance and actual health. Over time I became really anxious around anything that didn’t fit into me “reaching my goals.” And if we’re being honest, my goals being to look a certain way. It got to a point where I didn’t care about anything else. I told myself that I would workout that often and eat that “clean” because it was “healthy”, but in reality it was just because I became obsessed with achieving a certain aesthetic. I finally had an epiphany where I realized continuing that way of living wasn’t sustainable. I really had to reframe my mindset on how not to be as “health obsessed” (more on that in this blog).

As time passed, I moved into counting macros and became more comfortable with missing a workout here and there. I would say that I definitely did achieve an overall better balance and was in a much healthier headspace with this approach. Counting macros helped teach me what was actually in food and understand that food isn’t necessarily good or bad. It also educated me on how macronutrients work in response to your workouts and overall diet which was insightful!

I counted macros for about two years, but a year and a half ago I decided that I wanted to switch moreso to intuitive eating and really aim for just an overall more balanced lifestyle. We had spent a couple weeks in Italy over that summer and it made me realize that I wanted to focus more on actually living versus living for my diet and workouts (more details on that here). It was then that I really started to focus on what was actually healthy for me: a balanced diet without worrying about if I was eating “clean enough” or hitting certain macros, and picking workouts because I actually enjoyed them vs. solely what physical impact they would have on my body, etc.

With that being said, I can confidently say that I feel like health and fitness is now a focus of my life without being the only focus of my life. Everyone’s approach is so unique and I think everyone should do what works best for them. Here are some changes though I’ve made over the last couple years that have helped me achieve that balance!

-Eating intuitively. I know this means something different for everyone but when I say this I mean I eat what I want when I’m hungry lol. Sometimes this means a salad for lunch, sometimes it means a sandwich. Sometimes it means an egg white scramble for breakfast, and sometimes it means a bagel with cream cheese. I try to balance my food with what is going to make me feel good in that moment and what my body actual needs, versus worrying about the “physical implications.” You know, sometimes your body wants egg whites and other times it wants a bagel!

-Ritual Multivitamins For over a year now, I’ve been taking Ritual’s multivitamin and it’s become a seamless part of my daily routine. What originally drew me to Ritual is that their multivitamins are backed by science. TBH, I think that today it’s not uncommon for people to take a lot of supplements because it’s what is trendy or it’s what they think they “should” be doing. I personally want to take the things my body actually needs. Ritual also has clean, and transparently sourced ingredients, not to mention everything is conveniently packed into just 2 once-daily capsules. You can take them any time during the day, and they have a delayed-release capsule design so you can take them with or without food. They also have multivitamins for men, women 50+, prenatal, teens, and children age 4+. If a multivitamin isn’t part of your daily routine already, I highly recommend adding one (Ritual obviously 😉 ) CLICK HERE to add Ritual to your routine!

-Workouts That I Actually Like. Prior to COVID, I was doing a mix of weights at the gym, Pure Barre, and Barre 3, with the occasional spin class. I loved mixing it up and the variety always had me looking forward to working out. I now rarely feel like working out is something I have to do, but something that I want to do.

-Adopting a mindset of moderation & sustainability vs. all or nothing. Now, when I look at my fitness and health goals/habits, I ask myself are these realistic and sustainable with how I want to live my everyday life? So for example, we know I love my wine! It’s not realistic for me to say I’m never going to drink or I’m only going to drink on special occasions etc. Sure, I could do that and “expedite” my physical results but that’s just not the lifestyle I want to live and that’s not sustainable for me. But at the same time, I don’t need to have a glass of wine every night with dinner. So I allow myself to have it 2-3x a week. Moderation and sustainability is key as it allows you to form consistent habits. Consistency is better than having an all or nothing approach and then falling off the bandwagon 2 weeks in.

-Meditation. Meditation is something that I started incorporating and a couple years ago and I am definitely better for it! Whenever I just take a few minutes to collect my thoughts in the morning and take a breath, I feel like my day always runs more smoothly; I’m more clear headed and know what my intentions are for the day. I just use the headspace app on my phone.

-Water! Okay so besides my brief Diet Coke obsession over Thanksgiving LOL, water (and sparkling water) is really all I drink (besides coffee and wine haha). Basically, just drink your water people!!

Have your fitness and health goals changed over time? Would love to hear below! And a big thank you to Ritual for sponsoring this post. As always, all opinions are my own 🙂