I’m going to go against the grain a bit on “Motivation Monday”. Motivation Monday, a common motivational approach to getting people to get into a habit of working out, eating healthier, or in general to break bad trends. Like a New Years resolution, I feel with many people, Motivation Monday is almost like a fad start to something, which is why you hear about so many people falling off their resolution band wagons. If you focus on a start of a week approach, you’ve compartmentalized your focus to a week, and may find yourself fighting to stay on track for the rest of the week. It can become cyclical, every Monday picking yourself up for the previous week where you slid a bit.

Try looking at your overall health and nutritional goals as a life experience, not bound by a calendar, or a scale, or any other mental restriction. Being healthy is something you should strive for everyday, for life (thus the term Healthy Lifestyle). Dedicating yourself to anything, whether it be your health, or your work, or anything else, requires some tough mental work to be successful. The key is to continue to train yourself mentally with your approach, until that magical moment in time when whatever you are working at flips from being a chore to being a regular part of your daily routine. It took me over 5 years of continually working at this approach with regards to my health, but it’s been now 20 years where exercising (and more recently smart nutrition) has become something I barely have to think about anymore. It’s almost as if I’m on auto pilot, and that’s because I understood that the healthy lifestyle has no end point (well, until the ultimate end point of my life). I will sound repetitive, but my mantra is if you live the healthy lifestyle, your body will follow.

If you’re looking for motivation and inspiration to get yourself out of a rut, or to lose some weight, or just to generally feel better, try to look at the bigger picture. Sit back and take a more patient approach, and begin to piece together your healthy lifestyle one day at a time. Don’t be discouraged if a date on a calendar passes and you didn’t reach a weight you set for yourself (that’s just a number). The key is to be able to look in the rear view mirror and see that you continue to push yourself each day to exercise and eat healthy. There will be blips. Your chart of progress will probably look like the stock market (ups and downs), but over a length of time as long as the trend is up, that’s all that really matters.

I made a short video on the topic:

OK, there are some caveats to the whole “chocolate is healthy” comment, but in fact it’s true.

We’re talking dark chocolate here (not milk or white), and from what I’ve read the chocolate should have a minimum of 70% cacao content, and in several readings I’ve seen this number be even higher.

Back in 2003, WebMD had an article relating to the health benefits of dark chocolate: http://www.webmd.com/diet/news/20030827/dark-chocolate-is-healthy-chocolate. Here’s just another example of an article highlighting dark chocolate’s benefits: http://dralexrinehart.com/nutrition-benefits/health-benefits-of-dark-chocolate/. Daily calorie intake needs to be considered, and also it’s not a license to “pig out”. Moderation is the key with any food, more so with sweets/chocolate. If you eat too much, you won’t leave room for more healthier and nutritious snacks such as fruits and vegetables.

Some of the benefits of dark chocolate I’ve run across as mentioned in these and other articles: controls blood sugar, full of antioxidants, high in vitamins & minerals (such as iron, potassium, copper, magnesium) which can help prevent cardiovascular ailments such as a stroke, helps stop food cravings, been shown to reduce stress, good for the brain….the list goes on. The key element in dark chocolate is flavonoids, but because it’s bitter, what you find on store shelves is usually processed to reduce the bitterness. For my daily snack/meal replacement shake (Shakeology), I add one tablespoon of natural unsweetened cacao powder to further accent the chocolate shake a little more. The higher the % of cacao content, the lower the amount of sugar.

Here’s a story about chocolate:http://www.thestoryofchocolate.com/index.cfm .

So this is why I always keep dark chocolate in the house. Sure I sometimes I have to fight the urge to over-indulge, but I have a small amount almost everyday to satisfy my sweet tooth, and reap the benefits dark chocolate has to offer. It’s a win-win in my book.

My personal journey officially started when I was 27 years old. The journey included many pieces of fitness equipment over the years, constantly changing how and what I ate. Changes I made after I reached the age of 50 made me the fittest I’ve ever been. For me, it was the combination of at home workout programs from Beachbody, and truly learning what clean eating meant.

Here’s a 4-minute look into my journey:

The choice to lead a healthy lifestyle is yours and yours alone. The news/media consistently puts out information on the risks associated with being overweight or eating very unhealthy. It’s well publicized that incorporating some form of exercise into your daily routine has numerous health benefits (obviously needing to weigh the risk of injury depending on what you choose to do).

Now that I’ve stated what to me is the obvious, I write this to those individuals who are struggling to find their path. I will omit anyone suffering from illnesses or injury, for those people must reach out to the medical profession first for advice. But for people who struggle because of those infamous “voices” in their head, or have difficulty making changes in their lives, or find motivation difficult – you may be missing an ingredient that is preventing you from pushing forward.

Reach out to someone, family, friend , or otherwise. Find a person who may be ahead of the curve and is living healthy – ask them for advice. Or maybe team up with somebody else struggling like you, and make the journey together. Sometimes you may feel that you’re on an island all alone. Not everyone can dig down deep on their own and make changes. There’s nothing to be ashamed of when reaching out. It’s about YOUR health, YOUR well being. You should be striving every day to be healthy. And someday you’ll be motivating others without even knowing it at first. Really, just find a way, and if you can’t do it solo, find somebody that can help you.