How to actually start your health journey as a teenager!

{Guest Post by Ana De Sousa}

Hello angels! My name is Ana and I’m so fortunate today to have the opportunity to guest-blog over here on Meghan’s incredible blog (I’m sure you can agree with me)! To let you know a little about me and what I do, I am a 15 year old teen influencer that makes content on Instagram and Youtube all surrounding fitness and health advice for us teenagers! 

I love spreading positivity and helping people of our age to achieve their health and fitness goals. I actually started my own fitness journey at 12 years old! That’s why today I’m going to be sharing with you the most IMPORTANT steps on how you can actually start your health journey as a teenager!

Mindset

The first thing you must do is to make sure that YOU are ready. The only person who is going to make you eat healthy and workout is yourself so make sure you start with the right mindset. I believe that motivation is key to reaching your goals, you need to have the willpower to achieve your goals and to be motivated you need to have the right intentions.

Check with yourself; why do I want to start this journey? Am I doing this for myself? How will this benefit me? Will this make me happier? If your answers are all positive responses; that you’re doing this for you and for you only, and it’s going to make you happier. Then you’re on the right path!

Parents

As teenagers, we live at home with our parents and we don’t have full control over our lives. Our parents usually buy and cook food for us, they drive us places and they impact our way of life. This can make it hard to carry a healthy lifestyle as a teenager, perhaps your family may not generally eat the healthiest and usually don’t go out a lot to exercise, this can make the possibility of becoming healthy almost impossible, but it’s not!

Communication is key and when I started eating healthy it was something I also had to discuss with my parents. Our parents want what’s best for us and therefore will most likely support you when you tell them that you want to adventure and be healthier!

The most important thing you must do is not just tell them you want to be healthy but EXPLAIN. Make sure they understand your point of view and remind them of your positive intentions. If you don’t explain why you want to have a healthier lifestyle this could possibly make them worry. Once you have discussed your decision, you can then start working with your parents on helping you, going grocery shopping with them, cooking with them, suggesting going on hikes or runs.

Exercise

Yes, exercise is a crucial part of your health journey! Being teenagers, gyms aren’t always open to us. I know many gyms in my area require you to be 16 to enter, and with the current global pandemic, most gyms are closed. So Ana, can you please explain how am I supposed to workout? I would be more than happy to! 

Nobody said that you can only workout in the gym. What If I told you that you can workout in the comfort of your home? This is what I do and it’s the best thing ever! Go over to an empty space in your house that is exercise friendly, grab your phone and search up follow along workouts on Youtube! There are so many!! I have a couple on my own Youtube channel, specifically for teens, click here to see them!

What if you hate working out but still want to achieve your health goals? That’s all right! I actually used to hate working out when I started my journey 3 years ago ( I eventually started learning to love working out ) but instead I turned to sports for exercise. You may perhaps find this to be a more fun way to exercise and at home you can do sports such as dance, football and athletics!

Healthy Food

It’s no surprise that to be healthy you must eat healthier! I believe that nutrition is the major key element when it comes to genuinely be fit and healthy. As mentioned before, eating healthy food can be obtained much easier once you have communicated your new health journey decision to your parents! I think that there are so many misconceptions on what “eating healthy” is. 

 I advise you to do some of your own research regarding this topic. Giving you a rough guideline, healthy food can be defined as organic and natural foods, such as vegetables and meats. When I buy food, I like to sometimes look at the ingredients to determine how healthy it truly is, for example if I want natural yogurt, I will look for yogurt that is only made with milk.

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 !ATTENTION! Please know that advertisements you see on the Internet for slimming teas, supplements and diets can damage your body a lot and I strongly advise you to never go down those paths! As well as this, eating healthy does not mean that you can’t eat chocolate or ice cream once in a while, treat yourself when you’re craving these, you deserve it!

Another important point is eating healthy doesn’t have to be boring, you can eat more than just grilled chicken and salad, there is a whole world of healthy foods that may surprise you. A great example of fun healthy foods can be found in my very own HEALTHY BREAKFAST eBook that is launching on the 29th of March!

It’s perfect for us indecisive and clueless teenagers who are trying to reach our fitness goals, but struggle finding what to eat for breakfast ( the most important meal of the day ) Breakfasts that we actually have time to make and there even is a special chapter in my eBook for when we are late for school and have 5 mins to make a healthy breakfast! In my eBook you can find healthy ice creams, pancakes, waffles and so much more! I told you healthy food has so many fun possibilities!!

For the launch of my eBook, I’m going to be doing a free mini course on how you can actually get fitness results as a teenager that you can join! I will be doing 3 days of livestreams on Instagram and Youtube and I will go into even more detail than found in this blog, as well as the possibility of  answering your questions directly! These 3 days will be on March Saturday the 27th, Sunday the 28th and the launch date, Monday the 29th. Follow me on my Instagram and Youtube to be informed of the free mini course I will be giving so you can actually achieve your dream fitness goals as a teenager!!

I hope this blog post helped you and opened your eyes in a new way! Come and follow me over on Instagram and Youtube so you can continue your health journey and educate yourself even more! YOU GOT THIS!! I believe in you 😉

Written by,

Ana De Sousa

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