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How to make a healthy lifestyle simple and sustainable
Five lessons on making lifestyle changes that stick
When I set out to improve my health in my mid-twenties, one of the hardest realizations was that I needed to change more than how I ate — I needed to change my entire life.
After all, I wasn’t just giving up alcohol, dairy, soy, sugar, and fried foods — I was giving up wine and cheese nights with girlfriends, chocolate bars to soothe myself on stressful days, and events with friends that revolved around drinking or staying out late.
I eventually came to the conclusion that in order to sustainably change my diet, I needed to re-define how I thought about pleasure, socializing, and even living. Five years later, I can happily say I no longer focus on the things I “gave up” — because I’m enjoying a new way of living that nurtures my body and brings me more joy than before.
Here are the steps I took that helped me get there:
1. Define pleasure and reward beyond food
For most of my life, pleasure and food were synonymous. Whether I was enjoying a frothy, thick milkshake on a Summer’s day, the truffle cheese my Mom brought home every Christmas, or rosewater chocolates a local shop offered every Valentine’s Day, food was…
