Some people just glow with health and inspire you to work harder at becoming your highest self. They weren't just born that way though. Most people have to work hard at becoming and maintaining that ideal. It takes commitment... but you can totally learn that commitment by replicating some of their good habits. Here's a look at 5 habits of Healthy Successful People - or people that are successful at being or becoming their healthiest shiniest self.
1. Planning Ahead
If you're going to be a success at anything - you have to plan for it. If you want to be able to call yourself a yogi - you have to make the time to do it. You can't just go about your day and assume or hope that it'll all fall together in a way that works for you. Not planning a time to do yoga is a fast way to end up saying "Dammit, it's 9pm and I never did yoga! Where did my day go??" I know this because it's something I've done a lot of. The same goes for running, weight training, eating healthy meals, and even showering if you're really busy. This also means setting goals (short and long term goals).
2. Doing it Anyway
Some days you're looking at your mat (or running shoes, or the kitchen) and thinking "I'd rather eat my own hair than do that today". However, if you want to meet those goals you set you're gonna have to suck it up and make it happen. It helps to tell everyone you're going to do it - then you're held accountable (unless you're prone to telling lies, but that's another post). My personal rules: unless I'm menstruating, have an injury, or am really sick- I'm doing it. I might not go balls to the wall intense, but I'm going to do something. Often times once you show up and do a little bit of work you're glad you did.
3. Pushing Yourself
You're never going to make any progress if you underperform every time. I'm a big fan of finding your edge and living there. I breathe into my edge when I'm doing a forward bend or pushing my scorpion pose a tiny bit deeper... or running a little faster... running longer... lifting a little more weight. All that work you do makes you capable of doing more - but you have to maintain awareness of how much more you can or can't do. Find the line between working too hard and working too little. It's the Goldilocks dilemma of health and fitness.
4. Writing it Down
You are probably not an anal retentive organization freak. I am sometimes. Mostly about lists. I write To Do Lists...and grocery lists... and packing lists...and I write lists of what I did today. Whenever I do yoga I write down what I worked on and how long I did it. When I lift weights - same thing. When I run or hike - I write that down too. That way I can see if I'm starting to lose momentum or if I'm actually overdoing it. I can see if it's been a full week since I did anything. I can see how long I've had an injury (because I write that down too) and what I was doing when I got it. If you know where you are - you can plan how to best move forward. And sometimes it feels good just to see what you've accomplished.
5. Feeding Your Body Appropriately
Being an athlete, or just being active in general requires more food. If you're trying to lose weight this may seem counterintuitive, but you need to eat more if you work hard. Ideally, this means 5-7 small meals a day. All of them should include a good amount of protein, plenty of veggies, and some healthy fat. Active people need more of these healthy calories so the body can heal and build muscle from all that work. Lean muscle burns fat even at rest, so the more lean muscle the better. If you don't feed your muscles enough calories of the healthy food I mentioned (or to look at it another way: if you train too hard for how much you eat) - then your body will actually burn muscle instead of fat. Not helpful. This happens because muscle is a more efficient energy form than fat. The body has to break fat down to use it, but muscle is just there ready to use. So feed your muscles so they'll burn fat - not the other way around.
Other notes on eating: eating junk isn't serving your highest self, feeding your body enough supports the immune system, a strong healthy body is better than a frail weak body, eat enough - but not too much, drink plenty of water.
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