Bikini Bodies & Health Plans for a New Generation

Would you like a health & fitness plan that’s worked for past generations? Do you find when you aren’t taking care of yourself you become more aggressive or just physically fall apart?  

I'm telling ya, you’re not alone.

I’ve experienced the gamut when it comes to neglecting my health and fitness, and it’s been a repeat cycle for me. What you might not be aware of, is that this cycle isn’t you but also how your generation has been influenced to view a health and fitness lifestyle.  Yes, I believe that many of the issues we experience in creating a healthy lifestyle are part of generational differences affecting our ability to find something that sticks. Over the past two weeks, I’ve creatively researched how each generation is motivated to view healthy eating, fitness, and overall healthy lifestyles and I’m convinced there is a better way for us to co-create a healthy lifestyle as a culture.  

Your first memory of fitness might be remembering your mother laughing at herself in front of jazzercise or oldies sweat VHS tape in the 90s?  Or maybe a healthy lifestyle wasn’t anything that became of importance until you approached the dreaded 40s? Or you are a firm believer that everything can be made better and find yourself aiming for perfection in this area with detoxes, fasts, and kick butt 10 week challenges more than blending it into your life?

What I hope you’ll be inspired to do from this post is create a health & fitness lifestyle that is your own from the lesson we can learn from how each generation has viewed it, implemented and thrived within their health and fitness goals!  I want you to know you’re not alone and to look at each generations motivators and decide for yourself which are the things that influence and motivate you. Building a Seasonal Millennial lifestyle isn’t about perfection or a balancing act, it’s about blending what has worked in the past and looking to what is available now to make a lifestyle that works within all our seasons.

A healthy lifestyle lesson I learned from my grandparents; The Greatest Generation. (1945 or Earlier)

• Eating Traditionally (it’s good for you both financially and mentally) We all need comfort foods once in a while that reminds us of growing up and being cared for by loved ones.
• Consider diving into your DNA. (I recently did FamilyTree DNA test because of my mother’s indigenous roots. It was amazing to find that the foods that make me feel better are all from my indigenous past like South Pacific cuisine.  I’m no geneticist but there are studies now to show that eating for your DNA truly is important especially indigenous cultures.)
• Eat what you can grow yourself. (start small, fresh herbs or even a tomato plant that’s grown naturally by the sun can completely change your mood)

I joke that I”m a 60-year-old in an almost 40-year-old body, being raised by my grandparents, many times my Baby Boomer can start showing. (1946-1964)

• Set Some Goals. (Baby Boomers love to be motivated by achievement and status)  I feel this life-lesson from the Boomers can sometimes be the stereotype Millennials give them but having a goal gives us something to work towards.  We just don’t need to take it to the extreme.
• Enjoy the perks of having a Health & Fitness Social Circle. (To all my introverts reading this, hear me out.) Some of you may not have enjoyed team sports as a kid but that doesn’t mean you can’t find social enjoyment from a group that shares a similar interest in getting healthy.  Boomers don’t only love the networking piece but that competitive spirit above loves having a “social status” with their fitness social circle.
• Stay Motivated with Health & Fitness “Bling” (Who doesn’t like getting rewarded?!) This was an eye-opener for me as a Baby Boomer from my Oasis Seeker’s free group where we discuss these topics said how much she loves her “running bling”, and it’s true; being rewarded with “bling” works for some of us and it’s a key trait for Boomers to want something tangible for a reward so to all the Millennials who feel like they’ve been judged here for “participation trophies”, FYI it started with the Baby Boomers.

This is where my cynical GenXer comes out and says, “Gosh you two generations exhaust me!” (1965-1976)

• Mix it Up! (Having a healthy blend of the motivators of the Greatest Generation and the Baby Boomers is key for the GenXer) For you, there is a point it can feel a lot like you are trying to live up to someone else’s expectations for your health and fitness and not your own.  It can put the GenXer in a space where you become over-bearing and extreme, so having a part of your healthy lifestyle be your own here is key.
• No problem Getting Started but Definitely need Accountability to Keep Going. (GenXers do great with group meetups.) The social circle being less entrenched in everyday life will be an important part of making it a lifestyle and not another time you started but didn’t follow through.
• Points Systems that are Flexible. (GenXers don’t like to be told what to do even more than Millennials) Finding a way to make your fitness and food choices flexible.

Now for us Xenials, the generation between GenX and Millennials, (1977-1984), this is where I remind you to have a softened view of Millennials.  

• Let’s #Bminus it like my life & business coach, Coach Jennie tells me. (We need to pull back our perfectionism on our Millennial end of wanting to make it better.)  Focusing on how to have the perfect diet and also mental well-being takes time; you can’t master it because your body keeps on changing its needs.
• Detoxing might not be for you. (Why does your body need or not need what you are deciding to call a toxin and rid from your body?) Forgoing chocolate or sugar for a while may be a good thing, but completely going back to eating baby food probably isn’t something that’s very healthy.

What I’ve created from doing this creative research is a health & fitness plan all my own. Maybe you could too? I’m not sure if it will make us have a bikini body and I’m no certified fitness instructor, I hired one of those, Jenn V with Purple Penguin Fitness for that!  So if you’re looking for a way to build your health and fitness plan that will make you care for yourself well, build social accountability that feels good, is flexible without needing to stick to it perfectly, consider doing this too!  Maybe take note of how each of our generations is influenced and motivated by the health and fitness culture of our time and build a lifestyle that is fit for the seasonal millennial you are today!