See, I’m of the opinion that a healthy lifestyle doesn’t have to be so damn complicated. For the most part, I think we can all agree that eating fast food every day isn’t what our bodies need to be at our best. On the flip side, mainstream media has us thinking we have to have 6 pack abs and look like models to be healthy. 

No, no, no, my friend! They’ve got it all wrong! Can’t there be a happy medium? Afterall, the whole point of living a healthy lifestyle is to feel good and to be healthy… and because we’re human, we added in looking good (damn you, vanity). But “looking good” means something different to different people. And “looking good” has meant different things across mankind’s existence (more on that in a later post). 

So I’ve boiled it down to five things that, conveniently enough, fit quite nicely into an acronym for, you guessed it, BACON! Below are the five tenets I think encompass the good kind of healthy lifestyle – the one I strive for each day, and the one I hope you’ll find suits your goals as well. 

Also a note before you get reading about the bacon framework – these aren’t in order of importance or in any order for that matter, they’re only in the order that spells the word of one of my favorite foods. 

B – Beliefs

The first up is beliefs, and by beliefs I don’t mean what you believe about crossfit or what you believe about the latest fad diet. What I mean is your beliefs about what it means to be healthy; your beliefs about whether you CAN be healthy (psst… you can!); your beliefs around whether you have what it takes to get to your version of healthy (psst… you do!).

Beliefs encompass your entire mindset, your mentality around healthy living. And it may mean adjusting or trading out some beliefs; and it may be hard work believing that you are worthy of a good looking, healthy body and that you can achieve it!

A – Activity

Activity is one of the more common themes of Running with Bacon… you may even get tired (or dare I say annoyed?) of hearing me talk about getting in your daily 30 minutes. But that’s because it’s THAT big of a deal. 

At Running with Bacon, we transfer the stress of eating to the stress of being active every single day. I know it’s not the whole picture, but if you’re like me, you’ve already spent most of your life worrying about what you’re eating. I’m sure you’ve heard the definition of insanity – doing the same thing over and over while expecting different results. Well, I’ve found that stopping the stress of eating (over and over, with the same result) and transferring that energy to activity can have a huge impact.

C – Consistency

Consistency is your promise of commitment to your future self. Promises to ourselves are, hands down, the most important promises we make. And if we can promise ourselves consistency in our healthy efforts, we’re already miles ahead of the game. The 30 minutes of activity every single day may seem like a big ask at first, but when you do the math, it’s only 2% of your time. And you’re worth 2% of your own time.

Notice I didn’t say we’re promising ourselves perfection though. Just as I do, you’ll mess up; you’ll have circumstances that keep you from getting in your 30 minutes. But if you know you’re right back at it the next opportunity you get, you’re on the right track. 

O – Ownership

Nobody on this whole planet will care about your health and well being more than you do. If that’s a painful statement to read, it’s not meant to be. It’s just the reality of it – we’re all wired to look out for ourselves first. So you’re the one who worries most about your health, how you feel, and how you look. 

While we may have significant others or family members who we know have our best interest in mind, they just can’t know our bodies and minds like we do. So it’s on us – taking ownership of ourselves – to be at our best. 

N – Nutrition

I’d be remiss if I didn’t mention nutrition, it’s a huge component of our health. But it’s not everything. And the plethora of misinformation out there has made it difficult to discern what’s nutrition fact or fiction. Odds are you’ve spent most of your life worrying about what to… or what not to eat. 

So I will have nutrition tidbits and articles and let you know what I think. But as I said before, I’m taking all the anxious, nervous, and stressful energy surrounding nutrition and putting it toward being physically active. We all have a little crazy in us, but I’m not the type to do the definition of insanity thing.

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