Author: Abyssinia Wellness

Make it Attractive

“You don’t “have” to. You “get” to…You transition from seeing these behaviors as burdens and turn them into opportunities.” (131)

Whatever your goal is, what can you do to make this task more desirable? For me, working out in the beginning was very rough. I didn’t enjoy it, because I didn’t know what I was doing and was so far from my goal that it seemed almost impossible. But I was determined to reach my goal of getting in shape, so I had to find ways to make it more enjoyable. So, I created a playlist of my favorite songs to listen to when working out or listen to my favorite podcast. Whatever the dreaded task is in your life, try to find something that you already enjoy that you can add to the unbearable task you want to complete

“join a culture where your desired behavior is the normal behavior.” (117)

Another practice that made my health journey a lot easier was finding a community or people that are on a similar journey as you. This for me was done more via social media (Youtube, podcasts, IG, Tiktok etc). I decided to be more intentional about the content that I was consuming on my health journey. And I knew that my mindset was the biggest thing that was holding me back from achieving my goals and wanted to do something about it. So, I started with filtering what I consumed on social media because it would have a big impact whether or not I would reach my goals. So, I listened or watched people that would help me grow in the areas of life that I wanted to improve in. So for me that was health/fitness, faith, and overall discipline. This change was probably one of the most transformative things that I have done because I was renewing my mind with things that were actually beneficial. Obviously, I wouldn’t say that there was an immediate or overnight change, but little by little I noticed a difference. And now having practiced this for over 1 year I can honestly say that the change is night and day. 

So, if you are just starting your wellness journey, I would start with making the changes you want to implement more enjoyable by pairing an undesirable task with a desirable one. And secondly, be more intentional about the people around you and the content you consume because it can have a big impact on whether your habits stick or don’t.

“You don’t “have” to. You “get” to…You transition from seeing these behaviors as burdens and turn them into opportunities.” (131)

Whatever goal you have, what can you do to make this task more desirable? For me, working out in the beginning was very rough. I didn’t enjoy it, because I didn’t know what I was doing and I was so far from my goal that it seemed almost impossible. But I was determined to reach my goal of getting in shape, so I had to find ways that I could make it more enjoyable. So, I created a playlist of my favorite songs to listen to when I workout or listen to a podcast that I was looking forward to. I don’t know what the dreaded task is in your life but is there something that you already enjoy that you can add to the unbearable task. 

“join a culture where your desired behavior is the normal behavior.” (117)

Another practice that made my health journey a lot easier was finding a community or people that are on a similar journey as you. This for me was done more via social media (Youtube, podcasts, IG, Tiktok etc). I decided that I wanted to be more intentional about the content that I was consuming on my health journey. And I knew that my mindset was the biggest thing that was holding me back from achieving my goals and I wanted to do something about it. So, I started with filtering what I consumed on social media because watching and listening to help me reach my goals. So, I listened or watched people that would help me grow in the areas of life that I wanted to improve in. So for me that was health/fitness, faith, and overall discipline. This change was probably one of the most transformative things that I have done because I was practicing renewing my mind with things that were actually beneficial. Obviously, I wouldn’t say that there was an immediate or overnight change, but little by little I noticed a difference. And now having practiced this for over 1 year I can honestly say that the change is night and day. 

So, if you are just starting your wellness journey, I would start with making the changes you want to implement more enjoyable by pairing an undesirable task with a desirable one. And secondly, be more intentional about the people around you and the content you consume because it can have a big impact on whether your habits stick or don’t. Join a community of people or consume content that have similar goals as you.

Step 1 of my nutrition journey was understanding the fundamentals of nutrition. I focused on eating a combination of these healthy foods in each of these categories. Finding quality carbs, fats, and proteins and figuring out simple combinations of these foods to eat for each meal of the day. Here is a brief rundown of everything you need to know about macros.

Carbs

Importance: an energy source that is used as glucose but can be stored as glycogen. YOU NEED CARBS THEY ARE NOT THE ENEMY!!!

Fats

Importance: needed for brain function, hormone production, and absorption of nutrient Unsaturated fats are the better fat

Proteins

Importance: necessary for metabolic functions, and is very important for building muscle

Application

I would start by making a list of the carbs, proteins, and fats that you have available to you and experimenting with different recipes and combinations of the food that you already have access to. 

Ideally, every meal should have food from all three of these macros (PFC combo)

Complete protein source

Fibrous grains or veggies

Some kind of healthy fat

Stay updated on our healthy and balanced recipes via IG and on our website!

“If you are having trouble changing your habits the problem isn’t you. The problem is your system.” (p. 27)

Oftentimes when we are in the process of working on ourselves and trying to better our habits we get stuck because we believe that we are the root of the problem. And if you are like me, you have told yourself at least 1 million times that you are going to eat healthier, workout 6x/ week, and read 1 chapter of the Bible everyday. But the reality is when I made those goals, I never created a system or a gameplan of how I would implement these habits. And even if I did, they would be extreme goals like waking up at 4am everyday and working out for 1hr which was never successful. If you are having a hard time changing your habits, evaluate the way that you decided you would change those habits. Evaluate your system. Was it too extreme, unrealistic, or just not necessary? 

For me personally, I started with first figuring out who I wanted to be and why. Once, I had a solid grasp of my trajectory and where I knew I wanted to go. I could then figure out what my future self would be like, the type of person she was, the habits she had, how she treated others, and what her relationship with God was like. At this point, I had been sooooo burnt out of the endless cycle of starting and stopping diets, workout routines, and bible study plans that I told myself this time would be different. I didn’t care how long it took but I will take a small and realistic step in the direction that I want to go. And once I had this shift in mindset, everything changed.

I don’t know what that looks like for you, because I don’t know what your routines are or what your life looks like. But an example and something that I practiced was, waking up 30 minutes before I typically would. Once I got a solid hold of that (usually 2 weeks in), I would add another 30 minutes. I slowly built the habit of waking up early to have the ideal morning routine, and honestly it took months. AND THAT IS OK!!! During the extra time I had, I just began to experiment with different morning routines to see what worked for me. Then slowly but surely I genuinely began to be obsessed with the morning routine that I had, to the point where I get excited to go to bed because I know that I am going to have a great, productive, and fulfilling morning routine. 

The point of all of this is to share how important it is when working on changing your habits, to know what the goal is, taking small realistic steps to that goal, making the process enjoyable, and also having grace for yourself when you mess up. We are all human!! We will fall short in so many ways, so it’s important to not get into the toxic spiral of guilt and shame. Again I am saying this from experience. I know that it is hard, especially if you are a perfectionist, but failure is a part of life and an integral part of growth. I wouldn’t have the habits that I have now if I let shame and guilt get the best of me.

I have struggled with my weight since I was 13 years old and now I can finally say that I am at a place where I am genuinely content with my health. I’ve been on both sides of the scale. I’ve been as low as 80 lbs and I’ve gone all the way up to 190 lbs, keep in mind I am 5’3. Now, I don’t want to go into every little detail of my health journey because that would mean that my first entry would be 100 pages long. But I will be sharing bits and pieces of my journey on this blog and how I got myself out of that toxic cycle of extreme fad diets and binge eating. Now obviously, this change didn’t happen overnight. It required patience and discipline to see results but it was so worth it. 

My journey truly began when I got burnt out of the toxic cycle of binge eating and extreme dieting for almost 9 years. I was just tired of feeling sick and depressed. Growing up, I had a very active lifestyle and I remember being able to workout with no issues, having so much energy, not breaking out, or having trouble sleeping. Once I started to experience these symptoms I really didn’t put much thought into it because a lot of people were going through the same thing that I was. But as time went on, I started to do more research into the symptoms that I was experiencing. I realized that the issue was my eating habits but unfortunately I chose to focus on finding quick fixes online. I would look up “how to lose weight fast” and come across a lot of information that teaches you how to lose weight but not in a sustainable manner. And I was stuck in this cycle of extreme behavior because one I was so obsessed with the end goal I was willing to do anything to achieve it and two I genuinely believed it was the only way to lose weight. Which was obviously a lie. Right before I began this journey, I knew that I wanted to find a real long term solution. I just wanted to be healthy again and I didn’t care how long it took. So, over the next 10 months I lost over 50 lbs and now being on the other side of this journey I genuinely can’t believe how simple the solution was. I spent years struggling with my health and the solution was genuinely so simple that I can’t believe it took this long for me to find it. 

Now, my goal is to share everything that I learned with you all and the things I am continuously learning because my health journey isn’t over. I will be sharing the adjustments that I made in my eating habits, fitness, but also the mindset shift that NEEDED to occur in order for me to get where I am. This includes: books that I have read, recipes of the meals I ate, hacks I learned, workouts I did, and affordable products that I used. This website is dedicated to helping women that struggle with their health whether they have had or currently have an eating disorder, have done the extreme dieting and exercise, or just desire to be more informed so that they can improve their health. I hope and pray that we can help educate women to learn that health isn’t as difficult as it seems and that we will inspire women to begin their health journey and become the best version of themselves.