Please don’t just read this, pull out a notebook and pen, and follow the prompts.
What is your goal?
Why is that your goal?
How did you get so far from where you want to be!
Stop! Don’t continue reading until you have answered the above three questions.
Now, look back at your answers. If your what is strictly a number on the scale, you will not be long term successful. Before you reach your goal, you need to re-evaluate and find a health and happiness long term goal.
If your why is an event, change your mindset. You cannot only focus on being healthy until… Finding your purpose after the event is over becomes much harder when your motivation has passed. This is a lifestyle.
Now look at your how. Did your parents set a bad example? Was food your comfort when people let you down? Is life too busy, too stressful for you to keep up? Is your day full of running kids around?
STOP! Take ownership of your body. Your food choices are yours! The taste buds from when you lived with mom and dad have changed. You are not a dog, stop rewarding and punishing yourself with food. First there was you, then marriage, and then kids, make sure you make time for the first two.
No matter the root of why you are overweight, unhappy, or miserable, you won’t change that until you get you better.
It starts with coming to terms with the fact that change is hard. You will need new food, new activities, new habits, and to add some new friends.
You can read all the books, buy all the gadgets, and join all the groups, and still not get healthy. Check your all or nothing attitude and DO SOMETHING.
If your eating is out of control, start using a salad bowl or toddler plate. It you don’t have time to get to the gym, make time for 10 sit ups, 10 push ups, and 10 squats today. If your daily consumption of liquids is not just water and tea, add 1 glass of water today. If you find yourself to be stressed or depressed, take 5 minutes today and sit in silence, have a eon and paper handy, just dump any thoughts onto the paper.
Sometimes I feel like a broken record, and I decided maybe I was being too nice. Your goals can change, how you eat and train will evolve, and your way of handling stress will vary. That doesn’t mean you were wrong. No one has ever wasted their time making what they thought to be healthy choices, even if down the line, those choices no longer lead to the lifestyle they want to lead.
Grab your paper again and write down 5 things you love about yourself.
Don’t cheat yourself. Stop reading this until at least 5 things are written.
Follow it up with one accomplishment you are proud of completing.
Feels good to feel good! Keep the momentum going by writing down one commitment for the rest of today.
Healthy is a series of choices.
Pick your commitment for tomorrow as well. Write it somewhere you will see it all day.
All you need to do is master one commitment at a time. If you need help or accountability, you know I’m here.
