3 Ways to Jumpstart a Healthy Lifestyle TODAY (Fitbit Giveaway!)

I haven’t done a giveaway here in a while, and am super excited to team up with Orchard Valley Harvest to give one of you a Fitbit Flex, $250 giftcard to Market Basket, yummy OVH snacks and a sleek water bottle. Score!

They’ve asked me to share some tips for jumpstarting a healthy lifestyle, so before we get to the giveaway, let’s talk about an oh-so-important topic.

Especially if you’re starting from square one, transitioning to a healthy lifestyle can seem overwhelming. The first thing you need to do is to stop looking at it as one big, huge task. Healthy living is made up of hundreds of little, easy—not overwhelming—decisions and habits throughout the course of the day. Start small and the pieces will quickly start to form something amazing. Here are three little things you can do today:

1. Start the day by complimenting yourself.

Call me a hippie, but I can’t say it enough: happiness and a positive attitude are just as important to a healthy lifestyle as diet and exercise. Self hate and being hard on ourselves just creates a downward spiral of emotional eating, dissatisfaction and unhealthy choices. Trust me, I’ve been there, sistah!

Starting your day with a positive attitude and in good spirits will have a snowball effect of goodness throughout the day. Even if it’s something silly or seemingly trivial, think of something you love about yourself or that you’re good at and spend the first couple minutes of your day focusing on it. Maybe you just nailed a presentation at work the other day, maybe you kick ass at yoga, maybe you have an amazing singing voice—maybe you’re just having a good hair day. Whatever you’ve got going for you that morning, celebrate it.

2. About to grab a handful of candy or other unhealthy snack? Wait 15 minutes and have a glass of water first.

Half the time I reach for something unhealthy, I’m not even hungry—just bored or trying to procrastinate. Next time you’re about to munch on something that makes that little voice in the back of your head shake its head, tell yourself you need to wait 15 minutes first. Go do something else while your 15 minutes ticks away, and 90% of the time, you will have forgot all about the snack and stopped craving it by time’s end.

Sometimes the line between thirsty and hungry can be blurry when listening to your body, so it also helps to have a glass of water during the 15 minutes. You might find that you weren’t really all that hungry anyway, just a little dehydrated.

3. Replace dessert with a snack that’s high in healthy fats.

Out with the sugar, in with the healthy fats. Instead of sweets, opt for a snack like nuts, trail mix, almond butter on a banana, or my personal favorite—half an avocado drizzled with a little honey (ok ok, there’s sugar in honey, leave me alone). Foods like these that are high in healthy fats will fill you up and leave you feeling satisfied, while also providing you with nutrients you wouldn’t get from a bowl of ice cream or slice of cake. Do, however, pay attention to portion size. A handful of almonds = perfect dessert. A two-pound bag of trail mix = not so much.

If you’re not a dessert eater, apply this swap to that mid-morning doughnut you eat at the office.

GIVEAWAY TIME!

What You’ll Win:

• A Fitbit Flex: It tracks steps, distance, activity, sleep—you’ll love it. I got one the other week and it’s been serving as such a great reminder to get up and move. I’ve been walking instead of taking the T, opting for the stairs and running errands by foot since strapping mine on.
• A Variety of Orchard Valley Harvest Minis: Free snacks? Yes, please. I got the cranberry almond cashew trail mix, dark chocolate almonds and cashews—all were delicious. And I really like the size of the minis—helps with portion control.
• $250 Market Basket Gift Card: Think of all the groceries you can buy with that! If you don’t have a Market Basket grocery store close to you, you should still enter—just pass it along to a friend or family member in the New England area or ask me to give it away to another reader.
• A Define Bottle: This sleek-looking water bottle has a filter in it so that you can add fruit to your water. I’ve been putting lemon slices in mine and am obsessed!

How to Enter:

Let’s all do my first suggestion and celebrate ourselves a little. Leave a comment saying something positive about yourself—it can be anything from the seemingly trivial and funny to the monumental and serious. I’ll pick a winner Monday night using a random number generator. I’ll get the positivity started:

Nicole, you are an amazing public speaker. Graduation speeches, wedding toasts, large presentations—I nail these. It’s funny because in one-on-one or small group situations, I’m a nervous, sweaty wreck, but when I stand in front of a large crowd, stage presence just comes out of nowhere and kicks into overdrive.

Ok, you’re awesome, I’m awesome, WE’RE ALL F***ING AWESOME! Let the best comments section in the history of this blog begin. Good luck!