Level Up Journal: Physical glow up
Physically leveling up seems easy: have a makeover or go under the knife but those results won't really work long term if you don't change other things too. Obviously confidence is one of these things but for some it doesn't come easy, so here are the three steps I swear by to start an immediate and lasting physical glow up
1. Journaling
This is THE most important step. Take a piece of paper and make three columns. The first one is for what needs to change about you, this is for medical or health related things like losing weight or excercising.
The second one is for what you want to change, this is for cosmetic things like a better skincare routine or gaining muscle for personal preferrence
The third column is for your 'wishlist', so things you want but can't yet due to money, time or other reasons.
Now you have your paper, get another and copy your needs column onto it. Time to make systems for success. Next to the goal write how you plan to achieve it and maybe organise everything by order of importance.
Now you have an action plan. Once your needs are all crossed off, repeat with the wants column and then the wishlist. Make sure that you redo all of this frequently as the seasons of life change to see what your needs, wants and wishlists are as you evolve in life.
2. Diet
I would say this the most important step for visible changes in yourself. A good diet can help work out results, your hair, your skin, weightloss and I find that for me, diet shows how I'm feeling mentally too.
To me having a good diet is comprised of three things: quantity, quality and content.
Quantity means portion control, calorie counting, or any other way you use to make sure you are having too much or too little.
Quality is obviously the quality of the food but to me, it also means whether the food is health and beneficial for my body. I.e A kinder surprise egg is not high quality food to me both because the sugar is bad for me but also because as I earn a nice salary, cheap chocolate can be upgraded to something better.
Content is the diet type, so vegan, plant based, carnivorz, pescetarian or even more spexific types like high fat low carb, high protein low fat, etc.
It is important that you research diets to help you tailor one to your needs and goals. If you can afford it, hire a professionnal, they will almost always do things better than you could yourself. Or as I say, don't DIY your health, especially when glowing up.
3. Working out
Now this is admittedly the step I hate most but therefore also the step I need most. If you can, outsource work out planning to professionnals as you might have to pay the expensive price of injuries if you try to make one yourself.
If you can't then keep it simple and stick to three things: work out for strength, work out for endurance and work out for fun. I add a fourth: work out for flexibility.
Strength is easy. Lift weights or do body weight exercices.
Endurance can be running, hiking or biking. Anything to get your heart going in a healthy way.
Fun can be a class or just dancing to yourself to your favourite song. Just get your body moving in a way that you like. If you don't like working out, make this 90% of your excercise and slowly reduce it over time.
Flexibility is yoga for me but it can be other things too. I choose yoga because I find it meditative and calming, which is a wonderful thing to end a workout on.
Working out, nutrition and goal setting are the best way to start but like I said before, they are not a stopping point. They are the baseline, the maintenance. They are a must to keep your body glowing and growing so find ways to make this enjoyable and sustainable.
