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INSPIRE. MOTIVATE. SHARE.

To increase your chance of success, I would like to suggest to plan for a little bit of imperfection. This will 1)Allow for flexibility when life happens, 2)Reduce 'giving up' when things don't go exactly to plan, 3)Help you head in the direction of a goal, rather than never starting. For example, if my goal is to drink 2 litres of water per day, should I give up because I have had a few days of only drinking 1 litre, or *gasp* had a soft drink? NO! If 2 litres of water seems like too much, should I never start? NO! It's the overall improvement that you are aiming for, not perfection.

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There is more to nourishment than eating well. It is about everything that is good for YOUR body, mind and soul. How do you nourish yourself?

Create daily habits that come from love instead of hate. Choose to love your body NOW. Think about all that it can do, and does for you each day. It's pretty amazing, right?

Scales were never intended to be a daily measure of self worth. Those numbers do not represent how awesome you are, what a great friend, sibling, child, parent, employee, or employer you are. They can not measure how great you feel when you take care of yourself, how fit or fast you are becoming, how strong you are, or how beautiful you are. By all means, use them to measure progress if you want to, but remember that they can not measure everything about you.

Slow down. One of the simplest and most effective habits you can do, is to slow down. Set a great example at dinner time by allowing time to eat. Remove distractions (TV, Facebook, internet surfing, reading). Cut food into smaller portions and chew thoroughly. Breathe between mouthfuls (no, I am not joking, people forget to breathe). And stop telling the kids to hurry so that they benefit too.

It is easy to tell ourselves stories that prevent us from taking steps towards improving our health and wellbeing. I am too tired. I am too busy. I don't have time. Eating healthy food is boring. Ultimately it's a choice. Do you let the excuses win? It's your choice.

Think about this...if a food brings a moment or two of pleasure, followed by feeling awful (physically or mentally), is it really a treat? If it provides some moments of fun, followed by hurting your health, is it really a treat? Re-define what your treats are - they need to 1)Be pleasurable and 2)Great for you and make you feel great for more than a moment or two. A treat could be food, or it could be something else. What are your treats?

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By all means be awesome, fabulous and wonderful you, but perfection is neither necessary nor realistic. And it can be really stressful. The thing is, each of us is unique, and most us of are doing our very best. Which, in my eyes, is perfect.

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Take the time to tune in to your thoughts throughout a day. Are they helpful and kind? Or are they harsh, punishing and demanding? You see, the way that we talk to ourselves has a massive impact on how we treat our bodies. Practise speaking to yourself as you would speak to a best friend. Be kind, and nurturing habits are more likely to follow.

Those things that are most important to you will always get done. So, is it really a lack of time, or lack of priority that stops you from looking after yourself?

We all experience little setbacks in anything we do. The key is to keep going anyway.

STOP! Just for one minute. Stop scrolling, multitasking, eating, whatever you are doing. In this minute, think about where you are in your life right now. Reflect on how far you have come. YOU are amazing. Smile, be thankful, then carry on.

No matter where we are at, we can all do a little bit better, right? Next time you set a health goal, it doesn't need to be fancy or complicated. Instead, aim for just a little bit better than right now. Over time, this will add up to a whole heap of improvement.

Seeking knowledge is certainly important, but it makes its most powerful impact when it is acted upon. Whatever your goal, take action now- turn those recipe blogs into food preparation, a gym timetable into turning up to a class, a meal plan into shopping for ingredients, dream holiday research into opening a dedicated savings account. Get it done.

If you need to get back on track, DON'T WAIT! Do it at your very next opportunity....next moment, next meal, next morning.

At the end of the day, the best way to eat, is the best way for YOU. Scientific research serves as a useful starting point for nutrition recommendations, however if eating dairy makes you break out in a rash, then it may not be the best food for you. The only thing the experts seem to agree on is that real food is always better.

What is one thing you can do right now that your future self will thank you for? It could be completing something you have been procrastinating about, folding a pile of washing or choosing a nourishing meal (and a thousand other ideas). Ask yourself this question at least once a day to see your habits improve.

Try one new food or recipe every now and then. We often eat the same foods repeatedly and risk missing out on foods that are amazing. Give it a try....you might just find something new that you love to eat.

What are the actions that will lead you to improved health and wellbeing? Having breakfast? Eating lunch outside? Going to sleep at the same time each night? Eating a vegetable with each meal? Do them. Over and over again. Then you will have your new habits.

Time after time, it has been shown that habit change is the key to healthy eating over the long term. I know that this has worked really well for me and my family....however, I didn't wake up one day and drastically change our lifestyle. It has gradually transformed over the past 10 years. Try changing one habit per month.

Sometimes it can feel like you are all alone when you start to make changes to your health and wellbeing. But you are creating change, far beyond yourself. With each small action you take to do something better, tiny ripples are created as people observe you at first, question you, then start to copy you. It won't be immediately obvious, but it's happening. And as those people around you start making tiny changes, it gets easier for you. You are inspirational...keep going.

Whatever your goal, great results come from persistence. I can guarantee that you will face challenges. Keep going anyway. I can guarantee you will meet opposition. Do it anyway. Just keep going.

The truth is that all food is guilt-free. Guilt has no place when it comes to food and feeling guilty after eating a food is a recipe for danger. The problem is that feeling guilty is more likely to lead to behaviours that are punishing and restrictive (eg overexercising, skipping meals, binge-eating) or the "what the hell" effect, setting up both a poor relationship with food and impacting your health. It is better to accept that no-one is ever perfect and get back to eating well at the very next opportunity.

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