Becoming Your Own Healthier Version

I can’t possibly be the only one who is struggling with losing weight and living healthy all the time. And I am so freaking jealous of those that are going to the gym when they’re stressed. Why can’t I be like that? When I’m stressed, I eat sugar. Lots of it. And since the summer is approaching, I’m getting back into my health routine after a rough 6 months (and overeating in sugar). Let me tell you what I do in my health routine and how I’m working on becoming my own healthier version of myself.

Intermittent Fasting

First let me start by saying that I do intermittent fasting. What that means is that I basically don’t eat anything between 8PM and noon. 

So after dinner I only drink water. The next morning I only drink black coffee and water. And I try to throw in the occasional tea with fresh ginger and lemon. 

Then between 12-1PM I have lunch. Most of the time it’s yogurt with fruit and nuts. It requires some preparation, but I love it. I also take my supplements that consist of Magnesium, multi vitamins, curcuma and omega 3-6-9. After lunch I’m often times super full and don’t eat anything until I have my dinner around 6PM. I try to keep the carbs to a minimum and one of my favourite dishes is baked salmon with spinach and two eggs. Then my new period of intermittent fasting starts again.

The gym

My gym is not around the corner. I usually walk to the nearby train station and then take the subway to the other train station. So when I go to the gym and come back home I usually already have around 6.000 steps. 

At the gym I mostly do weights and I switch up my upper body with my lower body. I try to go at least 3 times a week, but am always aiming for 4 times. I usually go on Tuesday, Wednesday, Friday and Sunday in the morning. So that I can start my day knowing that I already did my workout, so there’s no room for errors there.

Morning walks

On the mornings that I don’t go to the gym, I try to take long walks of around 90 minutes to 2 hours. It’s a walk of around 10.000 – 11.000 steps and I go from my house to the city centre and walk around through the shopping streets. The shops are still closed at that time so I can’t do anymore than window shopping which is good for me, haha. 

Starting April 14th I have a new freelance assignment that requires me to go to the office on Mondays and Thursdays. I have to leave early because it’s at least a one hour drive. So no I’m not making up excuses, haha. I really just don’t have the time on those days. I once went for my morning walk around 5AM and let me tell you.. There are some scary people walking around in Amsterdam at that time. So I did it once, but never again, haha. It has to at least be 6AM before I’m going outside for my walk. But on those Mondays and Thursdays I have to leave home at 6:30AM. 

So that basically leaves Saturday for my morning walks. Which is not a lot, but it’s more than no days at all. Proud of myself for that!

No sugar and alcohol

Something I also do is cutting out added sugar, so I do eat the natural sugar since that’s also present in fruit, and also alcohol. But I do this from Sunday – Thursday. On Friday the weekend starts and definitely with this amazing weather that we’re seeing more and more of these days, I deserve enjoying that and being able to eat what I want and to drink what I want on Friday evenings and Saturdays.

And as always, I want to be fully honest with you. There are days that it’s not going like it’s supposed to go. Sometimes I drink a glass of wine on a weekday and sometimes (such as right now) I’m eating some mini-brownies. 

Conclusion

I’m trying so hard to eat all the right foods and keeping my life healthy as possible, but it doesn’t always work for me. I’m such an emotional eater and when I’m stressed (like I have been for these past 6 months) I don’t care about it, I let everything go and I eat so much sugar. It really is an addiction that I’m fighting. But I keep going back to this healthy routine, because I want to become my own healthier version so badly. But it’s life’s roller coaster. Everything is looking really good right now, so I’m not expecting those emotional eating habits to come back anytime soon. But it can always be a struggle and I’m proud of myself for keeping going. Talking about honesty, wow!

Know that it’s okay to struggle. You’re only human. What matters is that you keep standing up after you fall!

Xoxo Sylvahna