I went to a local event this week called Food Yeah! put on by Indulge, which hosts wellness events in KC. They had a panel of 5 experts in their own realm of the food world. This included a dietitian, 2 health coaches, a doctor and an organic farmer. They had wine! and we tried The Unbakery and Juicery's juice and protein balls. It was a lot of fun and I even won a giveaway.

This event was a great way to bring together like-minded people to discuss food. Topics included food priorities, diets, fats, where we get our food and why it's ok to not be perfect. The overall messages were great and definitely topics to build conversations on. They agreed that dieting doesn't work. High fives on that! Nutrition is very individual and it's important to find what works best for you when it comes to feeling your best. They agreed that we should be eating fat, in different varieties. They agreed that we should enjoy our food and enjoy the experience that food brings. Yes, yes and yes!

I think the event rekindled my love for food, nutrition and wellness a bit, even though I didn't agree with everything that was discussed. It showed me that there are a lot of people who do care about food and nutrition and a lot of people who still need help finding answers. I've considered numerous times giving up my career in nutrition (because apparently everyone is a nutrition expert) but I keep hanging on. I love wellness and really helping people to be and feel their best and I know I am capable of doing that in some form.

I started this blog back in April after I stopped my part-time gig as a way to continue trying to help and/or motivate others with nutrition and wellness. I also just needed to do something while I figuring out my next move. I named the blog 4ever healthy lifestyle because that's what I feel we all need in our lives - a healthy lifestyle that we can continue forever. It isn't named let me help you yo-yo diet and feel really bad about yourself or just eat veggies all damn day or exercise until you die because that is life. Maybe those names would get me more blog traffic but not the vibe I'm going for.

What is a healthy lifestyle? By definition, a lifestyle is a way in which you live. So a way in which you live healthy, right? It is a way in which you live and treat your body and mind to where you feel your best in all aspects of your life so you can live a long and fulfilling life. Your healthy lifestyle will not look like anyone else's. This may include food/nutrition, activity, stress management, sleep habits, relationships, and/or spiritual health. It should probably contain a good number if not all of these =)

What a healthy lifestyle can provide for you:

• Consistency - when you adopt healthy habits and make them a priority, consistency is so much easier. You start to crave those healthy habits.

• Ability to get away from the diet mentality because you have great, doable habits in place that keep you well and happy, which can offer better weight management.

• More energy, more happiness and more overall enjoyment in life!

What a healthy lifestyle should not provide for you:

• Strict rules! You do what feels best to you on any particular day. For instance I try to go to the gym 5-6 days a week but there are weeks I go less because my body needs more time off and weeks I go everyday because it feels good.

• Guilt! It's ok to not be perfect, not follow a diet, miss days of exercise, and not do what everyone else is doing.

• An all or nothing mentality, especially when it comes to food. This can lead to disordered eating, which can cause a lot more problems.

How do I create my 4ever healthy lifestyle?

This would require more than a blog post to really answer for you individually. The idea is to find some key priorities and make small changes that are sustainable longterm. If you make a lot of big changes all at once, it's harder to stick to it. They need to be your priorities and not someone else's or you won't buy in and work toward your goals. Here are some questions you might ask yourself:

• What are my ultimate goals? Is it more sleep? Eat more vegetables? Drink more water? Increase the # of push-ups on toes instead of knees? Decrease cholesterol?

• What are a few small, doable changes I can make to accomplish a goal?

• What might be holding me back from making those small changes and ultimately keeping me from my goals?

• Do I need a support person for some motivation? Maybe a dietitian? 

If you are reading this, thank you for coming on this journey with me. My hope is that I am helping you find your 4ever healthy lifestyle with ideas, recipes, information and motivation but not with rules and guilt. I would love to hear from you if you have topics or information you'd like me to post about or if you have made any changes toward a healthy lifestyle. Feel free to comment below.

Have a great week!

Lin