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Pandemic or not, January and the start of a new year is always a time where people are going to want to make positive changes in their life. From personal development goals, new habits, a healthier lifestyle and more. Although that’s bound to look a little different this year with the UK starting a new year in yet ANOTHER lockdown, it can still be a hugely motivating time for a lot of people. Me included.

Healthy Lifestyle

I know you’ve heard over and over again how to lead a healthy lifestyle. Exercise a bit more. Drink more water. Go out in nature. Eat your veggies. All of this is drilled into us since the second we’re born, I really don’t need to remind you. So today I wanted to shift your focus to ways which you can ENJOY a healthier lifestyle this year.

Because I don’t know about you but when I hear “HEALTHY LIFESTYLE”, I’m not jumping for joy, I gotta admit.

There is so much more that goes into enjoying and living a healthy lifestyle than vegetables and HIIT workouts. I’m not by any means saying that those things aren’t important but a healthy lifestyle just isn’t sustainable if you absolutely resent what you’re doing and it’s making you miserable.

So here are 5 ways you can enjoy embarking on a healthier lifestyle this year!

Try something new

This is where today’s incredible sponsor comes in because this brand are definitely something new for me this year. Exotic Fruits source and import some of tastiest and fresh exotic fruit of which are hard to get ahold of in your every day shops here in the UK. Did you know, there are over 3,000 fruits in the world with only 5% being available in the UK?

They sell selection boxes of varying sizes full of exotic fruit which is delivered straight to your door. Either on a one off basis or a subscription. You can find their full range of exotic fruits which are used within their boxes here and I was kindly sent a selection box, packed of exotic fruits to try for myself!

I was pretty impressed with the box when it showed up and there were plenty of different fruits in there to try! From what I could identify myself, in the box was:

  • 1x baby pineapple
  • 1x mango
  • 1x kiwano
  • 1x star fruit
  • 1x persimmon
  • A bag of lychee
  • 1x dragon fruit
  • 2x passion fruit
  • 3x prickly pear
  • 1x custard apple

There’s also something else which I couldn’t identify, despite using the Exotic Fruits Full Range page. But that’s okay! I don’t mind a surprise! Of all of the above, I’ve tried 3 of them; mango, lychee and passion fruit. And even then, the passion fruit I’ve tried has only ever been in a Martini, so not sure you can even count that one.

All the fruit arrived in good condition. Nothing was bruised or damaged in transit, which is great considering how delicate fruit can be. There’s a really good amount in here too which should last you a fairly long time (ripeness / weather / storage considered). I know this lot will last us a while!

I’m really excited to dig in and give these different fruits a go and introduce some new flavours into my diet!

Find what works for you (as opposed to following everyone else)

I spoke about this in my blog post around How To Be Mindful With Your Self Care and the same absolutely applies for health and well-being too. Finding what works for you is so important when it comes to living and ENJOYING a healthy lifestyle. For me, I don’t run because I HATE running. I just don’t enjoy it, it hurts my shins and I get annoyed at myself easily when I’m running. So I don’t do it.

Use this time to educate yourself

Although this lockdown is absolutely bloody crap and everyone is feeling the effects of it, it’s also a great time to educate ourselves as we have more time on our hands. If you’re serious about living a healthy lifestyle and you like learning, perhaps now could be a time to enroll in a nutrition course, start life coaching or research different exercises and their benefits.

Balance is KEY so don’t deprive yourself

Balance is such an important part of enjoying a healthy lifestyle. I love food. I love cake. I love afternoon naps and a martini and a takeaway at the weekends. I’m sure as heck not going to deprive myself of the things I love because the only thing that’s going to do is make me miserable and make me crave those things more. Some days are for 6am runs and a smoothie, others are for sleeping in until 10 and pizza for dinner.

Experiment and make it fun

This point kinda combines all of the above but I think one thing to consider here is the word “lifestyle”. Which contains the word “life”. YOUR life. And you don’t want to spend it doing a ton of things you hate for the sake of  a smaller number on the scales. Try something new, experiment in the kitchen, play around with different exercises like Yoga or HIIT workouts. Make it fun. And make it YOURS.

Healthier Lifestyle

How do you live a healthier lifestyle? What do you do to ensure it’s fun and enjoyable?

73 Comments

  1. I’ve been eating healthy for the past year and learned how to balance the food that I take. It’s also not bad to have a pastry or two once in a while 😉 Thanks for these lovely reminders, Jenny. I strongly agree with you when you talked about finding what works for you. That really matters because it will help you become more consistent and dedicated.

    Take care always!

    Cheers,
    Hanna / Heydays With Hanna

  2. Fruit boxes are great. We used to get them in my old workplace and every week there was a surprise fruit. So I can imagine that this exotic one must be great. I have never heard of prickly pear or custard apple before.

  3. Love this post! I definitely agree that balance is key, there’s no way I could stay away from chocolate and those types of food all the time. The exotic fruit sound fab too, I’ve had dragon fruit before, the first time I tried it I was in Cambodia and I absolutely loved it. I would love to be able to buy it in my weekly shop! xx

  4. I really love your take on this! I totally agree, it’s all about experimenting. It took me so long to enjoy exercise/healthy eating and lots of giving up because I felt like I was forcing myself to do it. Now that I’ve found something I love, it’s effortless! Thanks for sharing x

    http://www.lynnmumbingmejia.com

  5. We always keep a stash of fruit in 2 fruit bowls throughout the year, and refrigerate some of the fruit as well. Right now, tropical fruits aren’t in season so it’s just boring apples, oranges, bananas, and Asian pears for me. Throughout the year, we get some interesting ones from the Asian market to include dragon fruits, kiwis, lychees, pomelos, and watermelons. The lychees are my favourite!

    P.S. fruit has natural beauty and doesn’t need a filter imo 🍒🍊🍐🍎🍑🥥

      1. What I’m trying to say is that your photos don’t need a filter at all, because fruit is beautiful just the way it is 😇

        I get the aesthetic appeal of using a filter for photos. I would go to a market but #pandemic.

  6. The fruit box looks amazing, thanks for sharing. It’s such a great way to try new things as well. I have definitely never had some of these fruits 🙂

  7. Getting healthier has always been one of my goal at the beginning of the year, but then always went down the drain as the year went by! This year though I started exercising more frequently and trying to eat better. The idea of exotic fruits sounds absolutely exciting! I haven’t tried most of them in the box so it sounds like a great experience! Also educating yourself and do what works best for you are great tips! Thanks for sharing, Jenny x

  8. My husband and I are making our health (physical, emotional, mental) a focus this year and are definitely feeling better overall this month. I like your tips/suggestions and think that finding what works for us as individuals has been key to it working better than before. I like the idea of the exotic fruits too as that my encourage my husband to actually try some fruit (still working on this goal, haha)!

  9. I love this – it’s definitely a focus for me this year as well. We’ve just tried Oddbox, so it’s the fruit that isn’t quite perfect enough for supermarkets but is fine for consumption to stop it from going to waste and through that I’ve just tried my first passion fruit too and loved it! This sounds like a really great option too.

  10. Wonderful advice Jenny. I’ve taken to do at home work outs – I usually follow work out videos on fitnessblender.com. They have loads of different workouts ranging from 10 mins to 1 hour. Most are around 30 mins and give you a really good work out. You can choose to do strength based or cardio. Pilates or yoga. Loads of options. All you need is a yoga mat and a spare half an hour. Great if you’re stuck at home during a pandemic! Wishing you well 🙏

  11. I love this post, Jenny! Especially how you point out that healthy lifestyles have to centre what works for you rather than forcing yourself to do things that don’t work for you but are “healthy”. 🙂

    Thanks for sharing!

  12. I think you timed this post perfectly for me Jenny! In 2021 gaining a healthier lifestyle and trying new things has been my number one goal. I’ve mainly been focusing on trying more vegetarian meals but this fruit box looks so delicious! Thank you for sharing!

  13. I love the idea of having a fruit box. I’m also looking into having milk delivered by a milkman. I’d like to be more healthy but it’s harder now that I can’t just pop out to get bits!

    Rosie

  14. This looks so good. One of the local stores a few km from me, have a pretty good selection of fruit. And I totally agree that to be healthy you have to enjoy what you are doing or you wont stick with it. That said, sometimes you just have to kick your ass out of that couch to get that pulse up a bit.

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