Welcome to Part 2 of this How to Make Healthy Eating Habits That Last Series! It’s incredibly important that we don’t underestimate what drives our eating and health behaviors. A lot of that drive comes from our thoughts, feelings and emotions. So making changes to eating and health behaviors without addressing what drives our decisions and actions is about as effective as building a castle over quicksand. One way to start building a foundation where healthy eating habits can thrive is to explore life values. Values are one of the guiding cornerstones of who we are and how we live our lives. It’s through exploring values that you can create intentional and life-long healthy eating habits in a personal and meaningful way!
Part 2: Making the Pursuit of Healthy Eating Habits Meaningful
Health is often approached with a goal-oriented mindset where a final destination is either completed or not completed. What if instead, health was recognized as a value and healthy eating habits were explored through values?
Why values?
Values are something we recognize as internally important. They give direction for how we live our lives and for how we spend our time on this planet. And they give meaning to the personal qualities and characteristics we wish to embody.
Because values have meaning and give direction in our lives, they serve as guiding principles for the decisions and choices we make. So when there is meaning behind our actions, it becomes less about what the action is, and more about the intention behind the process. This often elicits continuous behaviors that are desired when faced with life decisions and behaviors.
For example:
Let’s say you value honesty. It wouldn’t make sense that you’d only tell the truth for a period of time and be done with it. Instead, when faced with decisions throughout life on whether to tell the truth or to tell a lie, you’re more likely going to be honest because you value being an honest person. Values are always there because there’s no final destination, which means we are never done working on them.
Health as a Value
When health is internalized as a value, it becomes something to nurture and take care of continually over time. Decisions on how we take care of physical, mental and emotional health and well-being are swayed in a direction that’s in alignment with that value. So, instead of reactionary and impulsive actions, behaviors around food choices and self-care become more intentional in the present without losing sight of the long-term big picture. It’s a major mental shifting game changer when you go from focusing on goal-oriented actions and desired short term outcomes to consistently nurturing and tending to health where the only time-frame is the amount of time you spend on this planet.
Exploring Healthy Eating Habits Through Values
There is no one picture of health and there’s no one right way to pursue health. One of the many reasons why this holds true is because we all have different personal values and live in alignment with our values differently. Identifying values that elicit desired positive feelings can help guide your health promoting behaviors and decisions throughout your life.
Let’s say you belong to a gym but find it challenging to make it through the doors on a consistent basis. After exploring your core values, you realize variety and having fun are important in your life. If you consider your variety and fun values, joining a cookie cutter gym may not elicit the desired behavior of consistently exercising. Instead, movement that you find fun and that you can change up for variety will more likely have you engaging in those behaviors. Instead of making attempts at going to the same gym where you do the same dreaded boring exercise machine, maybe you try different workout dance classes that you find fun or try different activities with a fun friend like bike riding, tennis or sand volleyball.
Another example:
Let’s say you value the importance of flexibility and simplicity. Highly structured meal planning with full meals mapped out for every day is an approach that likely won’t last long-term. Instead, meal planning that has flexibility built into it and involves simple meal ideas that include pre-prepped ingredients, leftovers, meal-kit delivery, frozen meals, etc, will more likely allow you to incorporate beneficial nutrition without the stress. And because the expectations of cooking full meals at every meal is off the table, cooking may even become more enjoyable.
Get Curious About Health as a Value
- Write down your core values: Think about the values that most resonate in your life. You can google “values list” if you need help identifying them. If you had to prioritize, what are the top 5 to 10?
- Define these values: What do they mean to you and why are they important in your life? Where do they come from?
- How do your core values show up in your life? Values play a role in many ways throughout life. Think about some examples of when you felt aligned with your values. Did you offer them to others? Do you offer them to yourself?
- How does living in alignment with your values make you feel? Think about the times you’ve lived in tune with your values. What feelings came up for you?
- Imagine you prioritized health as a value. How would that influence your decisions and actions when it comes to eating and movement? What does health as a value in your life look like?
- Do any of your values align with how you take care of your health? How can you inject your core values into your decisions about self-care and health related behaviors, like eating more fruits and veggies, getting enough sleep, meal-planning, cooking and movement? And think about how you want to feel when you’re living in alignment with those values. Calm? Empowered? Strong? Joyful? Confident? Whatever that feeling is, make sure it’s something that feels good to you. Knowing what you want to feel from living your values will help you notice when you’re living (or not living) your values. And it’s these self-aware positive feelings that help build momentum to continue behaviors around food choices and self-care because you want to keep those good feelings going.
It’s one thing to identify values in your life. But when you truly live in alignment with your values, intentions to live a desired more healthful life become more meaningful and powerful.
Values are always there to serve you and they can help you find a much more positive and meaningful approach to health. And they can be a powerful driving force in creating lasting healthy eating habits in a way that feels good to you!
Stay tuned for Part 3 of this How to Make Healthy Eating Habits That Last Series!
(And if you haven’t read Part One of this series, I highly recommend you check it out!)
If you want more, I created a self-care guide on How To Create Healthy Eating Habits to Improve Health & Your Relationship with Food. And it’s FREE! Just click here and it’ll be delivered straight to your inbox!
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