by Lisa Cybaniak
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Is it time to transform your health? Are you like many of us who have gained the COVID 15? Have you noticed you’ve developed some habits over this lockdown period that are just plain unhealthy?
Today we’re talking about how you can transform your health, with simple strategies that won’t break the bank, your back, your schedule, or your mood.
Arlene Santiago is a Health Transformation Coach and mom of three who helps busy moms lose 10-20 pounds, increase their energy and confidence, and keep the weight off after 90 days. And that was before COVID19!
Meet Arlene Santiago
Seeing loved ones suffer through disease is heart breaking. Hospital visits, falling, several medications, weakness, fainting. Although we all have predispositions to disease, it’s very possible certain diseases could have been prevented. Arlene made a conscious choice to change her life, deciding that she doesn’t want a life of hospitals and medications. She wants to be active to keep up with her kids and possible grandchildren in the future. And she’s helping other moms do the same.
Arlene noticed her clients were struggling to eat better. I mean, let’s face it, we all know what we’re supposed to do to get more fit, right? But it’s difficult with all the temptations out there! Although both nutrition and exercise are both important to transform your health, Arlene has chosen to help moms eat better through concentrating on their mindset. And you know how much I like to talk about the power of our mindset.
So, let’s dive right in!
Transform your health with baby steps
Arlene’s first tip is to just get started. You don’t need to change every bad habit and transform your health in one move. In fact, you’re less likely to succeed that way.
Instead of throwing every bit of processed and unhealthy food in the bin, vowing to eat only vegetables, exercise at 3am every day and leap small buildings with a single bound, let’s take a slightly smaller step, shall we?
Arlene is suggesting you simply aim to do better today than you did yesterday.
Stacking your new habits
Following suit, once you take a baby step and, say, switch out your processed snack foods for a healthier option, and you’re confident this is now becoming a habit you’re enjoying, stack something else onto it.
Is now a good time to spend half of your lunch break taking a walk outside? Or, perhaps you’d like to stick with building healthy eating habits? If so, why not move to a healthy breakfast, stacked on top of your healthy snacks?
Cut out the processed foods
This is nothing new. We’ve heard the dangers of processed foods, literally for years now. So it’s no surprise that this is a top tip of Arlene’s.
In fact, this would be a great stackable move. That healthy breakfast and those healthy snacks I mentioned early could simply be non-processed foods.
Trust us. The amount of sugar and salt in your average processed food – that’s pretty much anything in a box – is staggering. Eliminating them from your snacks, and then from each of your meals, in baby steps, is a great way to transform your health.
Getting enough water
Arlene says the amount of water each of us needs to be drinking is half our body weight in ounces. Yes, that’s a lot! I’m willing to bet it’s a lot more than you’re used to drinking.
Keeping with the baby steps theme here, don’t try to suddenly add all this water to your day. It’s a sure-fire way to set yourself up for failure.
Instead, if you drink 4 cans of soda or juice right now, switch one of them out for a glass of water. When that becomes a more comfortable habit, then up your game.
Arlene suggests adding frozen strawberries to sweeten it up – yum!
Consistency is the key
Like everything else in life, consistency is really the key when you’re trying to transform your health. It takes, on average, 21-66 days to form a new habit. That’s one of the many reasons diets don’t work.
It’s also why we’re not talking about being on a diet, but rather encouraging you, and ourselves, to make lifestyle changes. That’s why baby steps and stacking are so important. And it’s definitely why consistency is required.
More from this episode
Arlene and I talk in a lot more detail about how she became a Health Transformation Coach. She also shares what it was like for her to become a mother – how she felt she lost herself and what she needed to do to find herself again. Arlene also shares some pretty incredible stories the results her clients are seeing from her Motor Control Restoration work, and how she needed to pivot her business to continue to do her incredible work during the lockdown.
Press play on the episode above to get all the details!
Follow Arlene Santiago
Check out Arlene’s work through her website. You can also follow Arlene on Facebook, and join her Facebook group “Health and Fit Moms 4 Life”. Take Arlene’s quiz to determine what lifestyle changes are best suited for you!
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Voice over credit: Shari Vandermolen. Shari is offering a free download of one of her songs to the fans of the Life Like You Mean It podcast! Just visit www.GiftFromShari.com and tell her where to send it. Shari’s debut album is available for streaming on all the major platforms including Spotify and iTunes.
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