Making Lifestyle Change Stick
Do you ever notice that your energy and focus are different in each season of the year? Winter, usually, I want to huddle up and be comforted with hot cocoa, a blanket and a book. In Spring, I feel renewed and ready to get OUT!!!!! In the summer heat with kids being home, our schedules loosen up and we tend to go with the flow a bit more. And then there is Fall and back to school! Ahh! My excitement rises, my need to organize and plan sets in, and I become focused on accomplishing goals.
I am a firm believer that we live life in seasons, ups and downs, or waves. Whatever you want to call it, we can’t be GO-GO-GO all the time just as we can’t be sit and do nothing all the time. So when that season of productivity hits, how do we make the most of it? Do we completely flip our lifestyle on its head and change EVERYTHING? Have you tried that? What usually happens? From my experience, I would make it make about 3 days before I couldn’t handle any more food restriction (because we are supposed to diet), mass consumption of water (because we need to drink a gallon a day), over exercising (because it must be INTENSE), over cleaning, list making, and so on… crazy expectations I had set for myself based on what I THOUGHT I was supposed to do. All that motivation I had on day 1… now completely gone by day 3… feeling defeated, guilty, and now bloated (because my “willpower” was gone)!
Simply put, action towards a goal creates momentum, momentum becomes a habit, and once we have a habit, we have success! Success, no matter how small, builds on success. The more we feel success (and instant gratification), the more likely we are to continue down the path. And eventually…. The success in implementing the new habits leads to weight loss, more energy, or whatever you goal may be.
This wasn’t a lesson I learned over night. It wasn’t within a week, month, or even year. This lesson came from years of working with men and women who were going through it and coming to me for help. How could I help them if I was secretly struggling? Something had to change. First, I got more training as I needed help before I could help others. Then, I pulled back and started to make things simpler for myself and my clients. At first, clients weren’t sold on small changes, but once they started to feel the vibe of success over SOMETHING, it drove them to move to the next thing – a slightly bigger thing, and so on! This new mentality shifted the focus from “beat yourself up until you get there” to “love yourself and enjoy the journey”.
Fit Mama Can Change – Making Lifestyle changes Stick
1. Look at the overall picture – where are you and where do you want to go? Write all the changes you want to make. Now, pick one. For example, you want to be healthier so, changing eating habits, exercising more, sleeping more, etc.
2. Do you know what you need to do to get there? Yes – make a plan - write it down! Specific actions toward the area of change – changing eating habits, for example – your steps might include: eliminating coffee, eating breakfast, or cooking more meals at home. If you don’t have a clue where to begin, find a specialist - dietitian, exercise physiologist, life coach, or mentor and write out a plan together.
3. Now, look at your plan and pick 1 thing – 1 action step – the EASIEST ONE! That is it! Morning Coffee might be a great place to start. Maybe you currently drink 3 cups with cream and extra sugar before you leave the house, for the first week, cut it down to 2 cups and use ¼ less sugar. Then the next week – 1 cup and ¼ less sugar. Now, if you would like (but don’t have to), you can start to reduce what you put IN the coffee a bit more.
4. Once you successfully achieved your first step, celebrate the success, then, move on to the next one.
You may be thinking, wow, what kind of boring approach is this? Well, this is reality of human behavior change. But here is a cool fact. Healthy behaviors are often coupled together. Meaning, if you eat healthy, you are more likely to exercise, be a non- smoker, and sleep well. If you focus on the cutting back of coffee, you may see the increase in water consumption, as well as feel better and start to move more, plus with the reduction in caffeine, you might feel less stress overall and more energy to tackle other areas of your lifestyle goals.
So go and make that first small step. Find joy in the success if creating the habit and then tackle the next one. Over time, it all adds up and when you look back on the journey, you will be amazed at all you accomplished.
In Love and Health
Ashley