Are you considering any health changes this year? Maybe you’re looking at your health with fresh eyes, ready to finally make some improvements. Or maybe you’re someone who once felt amazing, who knew exactly how good it feels to take care of yourself, but somewhere along the way life got busy and those habits slipped away. If you’re wondering how to prioritize your health without feeling overwhelmed, you’re in the right place. And the fact that you’re here matters.
I want to talk to you about health in a way that might feel different from what you’re used to hearing, especially at the start of a new year when everyone seems to be shouting about transformations and demanding you overhaul your entire life. Because here’s what I’ve learned, both personally and from watching countless people navigate their own health journeys: the loudest approaches aren’t always the ones that last.
Why Making Yourself a Priority Changes Everything
Let me tell you about Sarah, a client I worked with a few years ago. She came to me exhausted, carrying an extra forty pounds, her energy completely depleted. When I asked her why she wanted to make changes, she immediately launched into a list: “I need to fit into my clothes. I need to have more energy for my kids. I need to lower my cholesterol because my doctor said I have to.” Notice all those “need to” statements? Every single reason was external, something she felt obligated to do for someone else or to meet some standard.
So I asked her a different question: “What if you matter enough, just as you are right now, to deserve to feel well?” She actually teared up. It had never occurred to her that taking care of herself could be an act of self-worth rather than self-punishment or obligation.
Of course Sarah isn’t alone. The way our life is today, so full and fast-paced, more of us than not are either experiencing overwhelm or have at some point.
Real change can begin when you’re learning how to make yourself a priority. Not with a should or a have to, but with a quiet recognition that you are valuable enough to invest in. Your body isn’t a project that needs fixing. It’s not something you’re supposed to whip into shape because society says so. It’s the one vessel you’ve been given for this entire life, and choosing to care for it is simply choosing to honor your own worth.
When you shift from “I have to lose weight” to “I matter enough to feel my best,” everything changes. The motivation is sustainable because it’s rooted in something true and unshakeable. This is how you prioritize yourself without feeling selfish—you recognize that you can’t pour from an empty cup.
It’s kind of a ‘reframe’ of your health mindset that we’re introducing here and going to be talking about more in depth in one of our next articles because we are learning so much about reframing thoughts; and how that one action can help in a very positive way with so many things in your life!
Health as Quiet Peace
I think we’ve been sold a lie about what health looks like. We see the Instagram posts, the dramatic before-and-afters, the intense workout videos, the elaborate meal prep sessions. Health has been marketed as this loud, all-consuming thing that demands you think about it constantly, post about it, make it your identity.
But here’s what health actually feels like when you find it: it’s quiet. It’s waking up and realizing you have energy to spare. It’s moving through your day without that 3 PM crash. It’s your jeans fitting comfortably, not because you’re obsessing over the number on the scale, but because your body has found its natural balance. It’s the absence of that nagging guilt about what you ate or didn’t do. When you’re making health a priority in a busy life, it doesn’t have to take over everything—it just becomes a peaceful part of your days.
This is exactly what I was searching for over 43 years ago when I started on my natural health journey. I was 21 years old and have gone through multiple seasons of life since. The constant was discovering this very idea of how health feels quiet and so very good! I’m far from perfect in my health choices but I make enough good choices consistently every day, that are quiet and just part of the routine, that I have enjoyed great health, energy and a healthy weight without having to make any of it a big deal.
Your health journey doesn’t need to take over your life or become your whole personality. It just needs to become a quiet, consistent part of how you move through your days. These are the sustainable health habits that actually last.
I think about multiple people I’ve known who spent years doing extreme fitness challenges, constant workouts, making their whole identity about being fit and then burned out completely. Some even gained a lot of weight after. In more cases than not, when they finally came back to health, they did it differently.
What worked were things like walking every morning, not because it was impressive, but because it can clear your mind and is good to move your body, and cooking simple meals at home with healthy ingredients because you may sleep better when you eat better. These things can work because they are sustainable and can bring you peace.
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Investing in Your Health and Wellness
Here’s something I notice all the time, and maybe you’ll recognize it in yourself: We’ll drop $1,200 on a new phone without blinking. We’ll finance a $35,000 car. We’ll book a $3,000 vacation. We’ll buy the designer bag, the concert tickets, the latest gadgets. And listen, I’m not saying those things are wrong or that you shouldn’t enjoy your life.
But then when it comes to investing in your health and wellness, whether that’s buying quality food, joining a gym, working with a nutritionist, getting that physical therapy we’ve needed, or buying supplements that actually work, suddenly we hesitate. We tell ourselves it’s too expensive. We look for the cheapest option or we skip it altogether.
Think about that for a moment. We’ll spend substantial money on things that will eventually break, go out of style, or become obsolete. But the one thing we absolutely cannot replace—our body, our health—that’s where we draw the line?
I have seen more than one person with a health scare at a fairly young age who felt it was a wakeup call about why they refused to spend $200 a month on quality groceries or $100 a month on a gym membership, but chose an expensive watch or car instead. It can be a hard lesson to discover the fact that expensive possessions don’t matter when your life is threatened. You shouldn’t have to experience a serious health situation to realize that you would trade every material thing you own to have taken better care of myself.
I’m not suggesting you need to spend a fortune on health. But I am suggesting that when you do the math on what you spend on things versus what you’re willing to invest in the only body you’ll ever have, the equation might need rebalancing. Your health deserves a line item in your budget that reflects its actual value to your life. This is part of how to make health a priority, treating it as worthy of real investment.
How to Build Healthy Habits That Stick
Maybe the most encouraging truth about health is this: you don’t need to do everything perfectly. You don’t need to transform overnight. If you’re trying to figure out how to start healthy habits when overwhelmed, here’s the secret: you just need to do a few things consistently and be willing to reframe some habits that aren’t serving you anymore.
Maybe you feel completely overwhelmed by all the health advice out there. Things like intense meal prep, working out an hour a day, meditating, journaling, drinking a gallon of water, and sleeping eight perfect hours can be so much that you might do nothing. And then you beat yourself up asking, “Why can’t I stick to health goals?”
It does not have to be this way. It’s can work so much better for you if you simplify. Focused on small steps to better health. As a simple way to start a better health routine, choose three things to prioritize. Here are three examples: drink water first thing in the morning instead of immediately reaching for coffee (your body will feel so much better if you hydrate first), take a 15-minute walk wherever you can fit it in your day (moving your body is one of the best things you can do for it), and add vegetables to whatever dinner you are already making (what you feed your body has a huge part in your health). That’s it. Three simple health changes.
What kind of results can you expect? You might lose weight even though you aren’t on a weighlt loss program. Your energy may improve. Your sleep can get better. And here’s the beautiful part: because these changes feel manageable, you might just stick with them. Then, naturally, other improvements can follow.
You might start to notice what foods make you feel good and which ones don’t. You might increase your movement because your walks make you feel so much better. These little changes compound not because you force them, but because you give yourself space to build slowly.
That’s how lasting change happens. Not through dramatic overhauls that you abandon by February, but through reframing old patterns and replacing them with better choices that actually fit your life. These are healthy habits for busy people that are realistic, sustainable, and effective. Maybe you realize that scrolling your phone for an hour before bed is stealing your sleep quality, so you start reading instead.
Maybe you notice that skipping breakfast leaves you starving and making poor choices by noon, so you start keeping some simple options on hand. Maybe you recognize that sitting all day makes your back hurt, so you set a timer to stand and stretch every hour.
These aren’t sexy changes. They won’t make dramatic before-and-after posts. But they’re the simple health changes that work. They’re the ones that five years from now will have completely transformed how you feel without you ever having to white-knuckle your way through a restrictive program.
If you’re starting over with health goals after setbacks, this approach is especially powerful because it’s built on self-compassion, not punishment.
Your Next Right Step
So where do you start? Right here, right now, with a single decision: you’re going to choose yourself. Not because you have to, not because you’re broken and need fixing, but because you matter. Because you deserve the quiet peace of feeling well. Because your health is worth investing in. And because small, consistent steps actually work.
You don’t need to figure out everything today. You just need to take one step. Maybe that’s scheduling the physical you’ve been putting off. Maybe it’s throwing out the junk food that’s become a mindless habit. Maybe it’s going to bed thirty minutes earlier tonight. Maybe it’s just deciding, really deciding, that this year will be different because you’re finally worth it in your own eyes.
I have actually found benefits from these very suggestions, so I know it can work. One thing that was big for me was choosing at least 20 minutes of movement each day. Exercise was something that I would regularly push when the day was busy. The problem was that I would push it for weeks or even months, telling myself I’m active during part of my day every day. But being active playing with a grandchild or doing errands is not the same as consistent cardio, stretching or light weight training that I do for short periods daily and feel better for it.
For as long as I can remember I drink pure, filtered water or water with electrolytes (most days) as soon as I wake up in the morning and at least 30 minutes before any caffeine. Hydrating my body after a long period without food or drink makes the biggest difference in getting your body off to a good start for the day. I can’t recommend this strongly enough, especially because I see people thinking they need multiple cups of coffee when a lot of times they are not hydrated sufficiently or even dehydrated (think low energy or headache – first thing to ask yourself is if you are hydrated).
The last think I want to discuss today are natural, food-based supplements. This is another way I prioritize my health and have for over 43 years. I never (never!) miss supplements because they bridge the gap of nutrients that my body doesn’t get from food. I learned that we don’t get all the nutrition we need in our meals 4 decades ago when it was a new topic, but pretty much everyone knows it now.
Not all supplements are the same and some may give you no benefit or even interfere with your best health. That’s why you have to find a brand with the clinical proof and the quality products that will guarantee your body will not only absorb the ingredients, but are proven to help create better health. If you want to know more about the brand I chose back in 1982, and still take because it gives me the health results, check out this article: natural health journey.
Whatever your first step is, take it. And then tomorrow, take another one. That’s how you build a life where health isn’t a burden or an obsession, but simply a natural part of how you care for yourself. That’s how to prioritize your health without it taking over your entire life.
You’ve got this. And you’re worth it.
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The natural nutrition brand we recommend here on the blog are products we have personally used for the past 43+ years. We are not medical professionals. We are on a personal health journey to live younger, energized and healthy longer.
*These statements have not been evaluated by the Food and Drug Administration. These products are not intended to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent any disease.