Dear Meli, 

About six years ago, I had a health crisis. In response, I cleaned up my diet. I started exercising. I stopped drinking and smoking weed. Last year, I made it to the five-year remission marker. Ever since then, I’ve been letting things slip. I don’t eat as well. I’ve mostly stopped exercising. Now that I’m out of the woods with my health crisis, I don’t have the same kind of motivation to keep going with healthy habits. What’s your take on this?

Slippin’ and Slidin’

Dear Slippin’,

Thank you so much for writing. And congratulations on the choices you made for your health – and for making it through the five years of remission! Wonderful choices led to wonderful outcomes. Well done!

I think, in making that milestone goal, you may have lost your “Why.” I mean, if you were eating well and exercising in order to make it through the five years, you accomplished that. Job well done. But then what?

It’s time to find your new “Why”!

Why do you want this? I imagine it was a clear goal and strong motivation for you to make it through the big five years. What would you like to see for yourself in another five or ten years? What can you picture for yourself that might help inspire you to get back on track?

I say that, of course, assuming you want to get “back on track.”

Maybe you feel like you don’t need to be quite as strict in your health routines for what you are wanting in your future? Maybe you feel that since you are no longer “combatting” ill health, you can cruise a little more and be fine…or good enough. I think that would be a very normal response!

The thing is, the better our lifestyle choices each day, the greater the likelihood of a healthy life ahead. One in which we continue to be free of health challenges! Able to do all the things we do now for as long as we want to do them.

You didn’t mention your age. But as we age, it is all the more important to continue (or get back to, or begin) making the best choices we can for our health. It can mean the difference between thriving all the way through life, or slowing down and getting more and more achy and sluggish. Those slow-moving, slow-minded old people? That’s stereotype is not nature’s image of aging! It’s a stereotype that is not the norm in other countries, where the elderly are celebrated! It is more natural to remain spunky, capable, and able until our final days. And this is much more often the case in places where better food and exercise choices are the norm.

So find your “Why” and take extra sweet care of your wonderful self! You will never regret it!

How can I promise that? I mean, I can’t promise that you’ll live a long and healthy life ’til the end if you make better choices. However, I can promise you that making healthy choices will make you feel better about yourself each day that you make those choices! There are studies and statistics about this. The great news about this is that you can make your day better, every day, with lots of small choices and gestures.

Make your bed – Have better self-discipline all the day.

Exercise in the morning – Feel better about yourself all day.

And on and on.

Our inner beings respond to the choices we make, as we make them. They either celebrate or feel disappointed in us with every little choice we make.

So if you want to please your inner being, in terms of maintaining long-term stamina, find your new “Why.”

Studies have shown that some people naturally have a tendency to look to the future for their inspiration. They are prone to imagine the way they want to be the future, and this supports them in making a better choice today. We can cultivate this in ourselves. Because those who choose in the present, based on an image of the desirable future they’re headed for? They make better choices. So create the dream you want to head toward, and keep that in mind with each consideration.

It’s absolutely fabulous that you’ve already done this! And for years, too! So you know you can. And you have that drive and compelling desire and commitment to fall back on, or call up again. You have it in you and you know it! This is awesome! Use it.

I’m assuming you’d rather get back to more healthy choices. I admit, some people seem to honestly not care. But I’m assuming, since you took the time to write to me, that you do care. Why do you care? In answering that question, you may find your “Why,” a “Why” that can lead you to making more fulfilling and uplifting choices.

Enjoy the choices all along the way, and enjoy your thriving vitality for the days to come! I wish you all and only the best,

In Health,

Melissa

What is your experience with maintaining healthy habits? Share your comments below!

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