The STAY Model

As we prepare to ring in the New Year, many things come to mind. Resolutions, a start of a new decade or maybe just the fact that we are in the middle of winter are common thoughts. Another all-too-common thought is the fact that you just threw your routine out the window during the holiday season.

We have discussed the importance of preparation for the holidays. In doing so, we have covered specific ways to keep your routine on track during the holidays despite all the challenges. One thing that we don’t hear as much about is recovering from the holidays. It is easy to say: “get back on track” or “set goals for this year and stick to them”. Those are great ideas, but it is more difficult to actually make those things happen.

The PLAY Model is a guide to holiday survival. Hopefully it helped you get through the season without feeling like you lost track of your goals. For those of you that successfully navigated the gatherings with your routine intact, the next step is to maintain your momentum. If the season wasn’t successful for you, now it’s time to go beyond the previously discussed ideas and put them into action.

The STAY Model is a guide for holiday recovery and long-term success. To review the PLAY Model:

P- Planning
Planning your events and obligations can make it more manageable. Many of us try to be everywhere and do everything. Before committing to going everywhere or doing everything, take a look at when and where things are taking place. Often, by making some decisions or even just minding the order of your events, you can make life much easier on yourself. Plus, once you know you plan on going to an event, you can make adjustments to the rest of your week or day to make sure that you aren’t overwhelmed.

L- Listing
Once you’ve decided which events you will attend, list them or put them on your calendar. Seeing them in an organized (planned) way can feel less overwhelming. Armed with the list of your obligations, you are better equipped to handle the season. Have you ever felt like you were never done? Or you always had another place to be? If you put together a schedule and stick with it, you won’t feel this way. In fact, just seeing the events can help you feel more in control. And when you are in control, everything is easier.

A- Attending
This seems odd, I know, but by attending is the next step. It sounds automatic to be there, but this is taking it to another level. By attending, I mean truly being present the events. When you are consciously and making an effort to enjoy yourself will remind you of why you are going in the first place. Some people like to list all of the positives of attending events before they go in order to focus on the positives. This can help you stick with diet goals by enjoying a conversation instead of going back for more pie.

Y- You
It’s all about you. This should probably be the first step, but that would ruin my acronym. YOU can decide what is realistic and what’s not. As you look at your goals, you can decide what you want to do. Making sure you stick to your plan through busy times will help you stay energetic and feeling good. If you are feeling good and taking the time for yourself, you will be able to prevent unnecessary stress from ruining your holiday season.

Now that we’ve reviewed the PLAY Model, let’s get into the STAY Model. This is your key to keeping things on track during and getting things back on track after the holiday season.

S - Set Goals
You have to set goals to get anywhere. The key to this season is making sure you know what you want to accomplish. That way, you can actually accomplish it. Think of your goal as the plan. Stick to the plan and you will be successful.

T- Take it to the next level
Once you have set your goal, you will run into challenges. That doesn’t mean that you should quit. It just means that you will have to go outside of your comfort zone in order to get what you want. Just doing the same old thing rarely leads to success.

A – Arm yourself
Don’t be afraid to take a look at where you are. If you are not exactly where you want to be, you don’t have to give up. You may just need a boost or change in plans to get you to the next level. By making it easy for yourself, you are arming yourself with the tools you need. Setting up your schedule and focusing on your goals

Y - You
It’s still about you! No matter how you look at it, there is no one else that can determine your health. You decide what you want to do and you can do it. But the only way you can succeed is if you are willing to set goals, take it to the next level, arm yourself and focus on what YOU want.

The better prepared you are to start the new year, the better the year will go for you.

Living Healthy vs. Just Living

We all know what health is. We’ve all heard from a young age that health is good. The older we get the more we start to see how important health really is. There is a clear progression that takes place with our health awareness as we move through life.

Think about it:

- When we are young, we don’t think about health, we just do what comes natural to us- Running, playing, moving around as much as our parents and teachers will tolerate. We eat what is put in front of us and when we are full, we usually stop because we can’t eat anymore. Then it is right back to running around again. This continues for most of our school-age and often into early adulthood. We don’t have to think about health, we just do healthy things by default.

- When we get out of school and join the workforce, things change. Health becomes more of a challenge. That exercise that we naturally took part in is now extra and doesn’t fit in as naturally. The food we eat is still the food in front of us, but now it’s no longer placed by a parent. The food we eat is now the quickest and easiest option to fit into our busy schedule. We move less and eat more as we cram as much as we can into each day. We are still young, so health doesn’t seem like something we need to worry about now. We won’t have to deal with any health issues for a long time, right? Wrong.

- Age 40 hits, or maybe age 30, some people even see a change at 25 or younger. Now those things that you didn’t have to worry about are becoming part of your life. Extra weight, poor energy and medication are now routine despite you feeling like you had years before you needed to think about these things. What happened? The years of declining movement and increasing calories caught up to you. On paper it is easy to see how it happens. In life, it is a challenge that very few see coming. But it always comes.

- Now the next 20, 30, 40 years are spent trying to figure out what we can do to keep things on track. “I want to get back to a certain weight.” Or “I want to keep my weight here.” Is what you’ll hear many say. Others may just say, “What the heck, it’s all just part of getting older. I guess this is the way it is.” If you believe that, you’re right, that is the way your life will go. It will be a slow decline until death.

The problem with this timeline is that we have decided to make it this way. Clearly the big problem is the whole decline and death part, but it’s the cause of those things are what have me concerned. The cause of our problems is us!

Again, if you believe that you get slower as you age and health declines no matter what you do, you will take that path. If you don’t believe that, you can live long and happy AND have the energy to do the things you want to do.

The solution is to focus on health from a young age. It’s that simple. Health is something we do. If we don’t do it, we don’t have health. If we don’t have health, we die. I don’t want to be an alarmist, but clearly the fear is not enough to motivate most people to take care of themselves.

As a society we are not making health a priority. Fear is a motivator for most of us. We fear that we will be late or that we don’t have enough time. We fear that the project isn’t good enough that we won’t make the sale. We fear that our family won’t be safe or that there will be disaster. We fear that the economy will collapse and our home will crumble underneath it.

Fear helps us stay in the rat race every day. Fear is what keeps you getting up on time. Fear is what keeps you cramming more and more into your day. Why doesn’t fear motivate us to ward of certain death. I know that everyone will eventually have their day when it ends, but why not enjoy the time we have?

There is a big difference between living and dying. It sounds crystal clear, but I don’t think it is as clear as you might think. Technically, we are all dying from the day we are born. The problem is that most of us have taken this quite literally. If you are just getting from task to task without any regard for your own goals, you are dying. If you are telling yourself that “someday I will focus on my health, but I don’t have time right now”, you are dying.

There is an even bigger difference between living and living healthy. Living doesn’t take much. In fact we all live for years without even trying. All you have to do is be here, breathe and you are living. Well, we discussed above, you may actually be dying if this is how you are living.

What does it take to live healthy? It only takes a single goal. If you have one thing you want to accomplish and you do it, you are on your way to living healthy. If you keep putting that goal off and finding other things to do in its place, you are just living.

I know there are a lot of important things to do out there. I know that we are all busy. But I also know that we all have the same 24 hours in each day. We also have the same life. No two lives are exactly the same, but they are all similar. Every life begins, ends and is impacted by the same things. Every life can all be cared for and enjoyed. At the same time, every life can be neglected and be miserable.

The choice is yours. That choice is as simple as living healthy or just living. What will it take for you to start living healthy? What will be the reason that you decide that just living or dying is not enough for you? It’s all in our hands. We decide how we want to live. What will make you take control and start living the life you want?

Healthy Holiday Eating

Happy Thanksgiving! Now that the holiday season is in full swing, let’s make sure that your health is still part of the equation. With all of the celebrations, gatherings and food that come into play, it can be a challenge. That doesn’t mean that health has to go out the window. The average person puts on weight over the holidays. Gaining 5 pounds between Thanksgiving and year’s end is not uncommon. It doesn’t have to be that way. You can celebrate guilt-free and still enjoy yourself if you have a plan.

Change the way you think about food

Most of us associate sweets and other holiday favorites with comfort and a carefree feeling before we eat them. After we eat them, we remember that they are not the going to help us get the health results we want.

Tip: Focus on the other aspects of the season like the family, friends and enjoyable conversation you can have. Food may be around, but you don’t have to eat it all. If you are talking more, you can eat less.

Eat well the rest of the day

If you keep yourself on track by eating healthy then avoiding the candy and desserts is easier because you will not be hungry.

Tip: Make sure that your meals and snacks are healthy on the day of parties. That way you know that there is room for some goodies as a reward for the good day you put together.

Only buy/bring the treats that you don’t like

What may be tough for someone to resist may not be too hard for you to resist.

Tip: You can control the menu if you host events and you can bring any items you want when there is a potluck or dish-passing event. Bring healthier versions or things you know you won’t eat

Decide what you want to eat ahead of time

Look at the options available to you. Do you have a favorite? If so, why eat all the other stuff just because it’s there?

Tip: pick a treat and enjoy a reasonable amount of it. Sit down and eat it deliberately. When you are done, you can look back and remember you enjoyed it rather than the mindless eating that can go on all day.
Thanksgiving is underway, but there are many more gatherings to follow. You can use them as opportunities to gain weight or to solidify your game-plan. It’s up to you.

The Inner Battle: You know what you have to do

There is an inner battle that I have to win on a regular basis. Many people have a similar battle, but unfortunately, they don’t always win. I’m not saying that I’m great or better than anyone for being able to win the battle. I’m just bringing up the battle itself to show what we are all dealing with on a daily basis.

What is this battle that I’m talking about? The battle is the little voice in your head that says: “I don’t want to do that.” For many this voice is loud and wins most of the battles. For others, who have found a way to win, the voice is just a whisper. No matter how loud or soft the voice is, we all hear it. It is in our minds and we have to overcome it to reach any goal.

Normally I am talking about health, so that is the first area that comes to mind for me. This battle can happen in all areas of life. In fact, not only does it happen everywhere, but I believe that the inner mental battle is a big part of life in general.

The difference between success and failure often takes place before we even begin the action. Comparing it to a game, it is often won or lost before the opening whistle. How does this happen? Well, often, we decide what we can and can’t do before we ever try it.

When it comes to health, the easiest situation to understand is the battle to go workout…or not. We have all been there. Maybe it’s an early morning when the bed is just too comfortable to get out of. Maybe it’s an evening after a long day of work when all you want to do is go home to the couch. There are many places this battle takes place, but those are the ones that I see the most in my own routine and hear the most about with my clients’ routines.

The more you win this battle, the better off you are. When we try to do things that we want to do or need to do, it takes energy. It takes more than energy to win, but the energy to battle at all is often the first step we need to get going. The next step is preparation. We talk about this a lot and in the context of the battle, preparation is really just your argument. Why do you want to get up and go? What is the reason that you have to win this battle?

The best scenario is to skip the battle altogether. This concept sounds intriguing doesn’t it? Wouldn’t it be great if you could just go do what you wanted to do with no resistance? It is great and it can be done. It’s all about preparing for the battle and making sure you know what you want your outcome to be. Once you are sure of what you want and what you need to do to get it, the battle is winnable.

The more reasons we have, the easier the battle is. The more points we can make in our favor, the more likely we are to get through the battle. Getting through is often all we need because that means we are on our way. Once you are able to get past the initial argument, everything becomes easier.

Once you get to this point, you can stop worrying and start doing. We’ve dealt with this our whole lives. We’ve dealt with this in all areas of life too. When we were kids it was cleaning our rooms or eating our vegetables. In school it was studying or getting that homework assignment done. Now as adults, the list gets longer, but the same inner mental battle takes place. There are things we need to get done. We may not always want to do them, but they need to get done and we will do them eventually.

For that reason, not having the battle really is your best bet. Think about it in those terms. The consequences of not doing it are unthinkable. With the most extreme examples this is easy, so apply it to the rest of them and the battle will be won before you even get into it.

You know what you need to do. You know you are going to do it. Wouldn’t it be easier if you had a few reasons that it was easier to get it done sooner and with a better attitude? Wouldn’t that make the day go faster? What if instead of worrying and thinking about all the reasons you don’t want to be doing it, you just got it done?

If we did this, we would all be healthier, happier and more successful. It may not be easy, but it sure beats the alternative. Being healthy, happy and successful can mean many things to many people. Being unhealthy, grumpy and unsuccessful is enough for me to get things done. What do you need to motivate you?

Responsibility is the Best Medicine

There is a series in the Minneapolis Star Tribune called “Too Much Medicine?” that has caught my attention. The series focuses on the fact that in the U.S. we spend roughly twice as much on health care as our counterparts in Germany, Canada, Australia and Japan. We spend twice as much, but we don’t have better health. In fact, in many cases, our health is far worse.

I hope this series catches others’ attention too. I’m not sure many of your average Americans knows that we spend so much on health care. That is one of our biggest problems. I talk and write a lot about the habits that we need to change such as diet and exercise. Smoking and stress are killers too, but these habits are not the topic of this article.

This article is about part of the “Too Much Medicine” series that featured a particular category of drugs that has gained popularity in recent years. In my article titled “Medication: Worth the Risk”, I shared a statistic that the average 30-year-old is on three medications. This stat is alarming in itself, but this latest part of the series raised even more questions about medication.

One of the drug categories topping the list of those taken by 30-year-olds is heartburn medication. There are many brands and products to choose from, so I’m not going to attack any one in particular. I suppose I am going to attack them all.
The ‘’heartburn epidemic” has been taking its toll on many Americans. This has become one of the most common medical problems since more than 119 million prescriptions were written for heartburn medications last year. People are taking this to relieve heartburn and other symptoms such as acid reflux and indigestion.

That is a lot of prescriptions. No matter how many people you think need this drug, 119 million is a lot of people to be taking a medication. When you look at the side effects, you may be more alarmed. When you look at the costs (over $200 per month in some cases) you may be even more alarmed. What had me most alarmed are the causes of heartburn and indigestion, or the reasons that people are choosing to take these medications.

Most people that suffer from indigestion only suffer from it after eating a big meal. This big meal likely contained a high amount of fat, calories, sodium and other flavors that disagree with the person’s stomach. After they eat certain foods, or certain amounts of food, they continue to feel a burning in their stomach and esophagus as the acid in their stomachs reacts.

This doesn’t sound like a lot of fun. We’ve all been there. We’ve all eaten too much or eaten something that didn’t sit right. What alarms me is that people are eating things on a daily basis that make their stomachs hurt. They are eating so much that they have severe heartburn and indigestion on a daily basis.

When someone is watching television with a huge meal in front of them, they may see a commercial that is advertising a medication to prevent the very feeling they are so used to. The commercial shows them how easy it is to get rid of these feelings and all they have to do is call their doctor.

What the commercial doesn’t tell them is that they just caused the symptom by choosing to eat that food or the amount of food they just ate. It doesn’t tell them that they can prevent this feeling just by changing the way they eat. It doesn’t mention that the drug will cost them as much as their meals for the next 2 to 4 weeks either.

In other words, we are choosing to eat foods that give us problems and in quantities that harm our bodies on a daily basis. We are choosing to do this because it there is a pill we can take that makes these feelings go away. We can take a pill and eat whatever we want and feel the same.

Of course, we have yet to find a pill that prevents the other side effects of over eating. The weight gain and other disorders that come along with it are still increasing in numbers and don’t show signs of slowing down, which actually leads us to even more medications.

The fact is, we are putting many things into our bodies. Whatever you put in has an effect on the way your body works. Foods and drugs have to be processed. The body will react to all of them. I don’t have to go into detail about the side effects of some of the drugs as we know there are severe consequences to taking them. Yet, we still take them.

We keep taking drugs because they allow us to ignore the body and keep doing what is told us not to do. When you get a pain it is not because your body has a new disease that we need to treat with a medication. When you get a pain it is because your body doesn’t like something that is happening to it. It is trying to tell you what results the latest actions have caused.

If you ignore these messages, you will continue to do harm to your body. The medications we are taking are making it easier to ignore the messages that the body is sending us. The more we take the less we are aware of what is happening.

This sounds irresponsible doesn’t it? In any job or relationship, we have to take responsibility for our actions. Our health is no different. It may take years to realize the damage. It may cost millions of dollars to treat that damage. There may be medication to help you now and in the future, but that will always be the most painful and expensive option.

The rise in prescription drugs is due to the fact that it seems like the easiest way to get the results we want. It feels like we are able to eat our cake and have it too. Unfortunately, that is not the case. There is always a price to pay. Again, there may be a medicine that can help you down the road. But the best medicine is responsibility.

Today is the day

If you’ve ever made a change in your life, you’ve had to pick a day to get started with that change. If you are waiting for the perfect day to make that change, you are likely going to be waiting for a long time. No matter how well-planned your routine is, you will never have a perfect day to get started.

We’ve all heard (and maybe even said) “I’ll start on Monday.” Or “I’ll get started…someday.” Someday is not a great day to get started. In fact, someday rarely comes at all. As a Health Coach, I’ve worked with enough people and seen enough routines to know that Monday will be here every week. I also know that it probably won’t be the perfect day you’ve been waiting for.

As a nation, we have a problem. Many of us are sitting and waiting for the perfect day to get started. We need to start exercising. We need to watch what we eat. We need to quit smoking. We need to do many things, but we are not doing them.

There is something that we need to do first: get started. We need to do something, anything to get our health moving in the right direction. What is the best day to get started? Today is the best day to get started with any plan.

No matter what steps you are going to take, you need to take the first one. You have to take step one before you can take any other steps in the process. It is easy to say that you want to be healthy and think about all the things you would like to be doing. If you don’t get started, you can’t do any of it.

Let’s take a look at a former client that got off to a rough start on their routine:
Robin was excited to get in shape. She was going to join the gym and go every day. She had yet to join when we had our first conversation, but she sounded confident that it was going to happen. I asked her a few questions to get a better picture of when she was going to get started. Her answer was puzzling to me. “Someday very soon...in the next few weeks” she said. She had the whole plan mapped out, yet she didn’t have a realistic start-date.

The most telling detail of this situation was how long she had this “plan” in place. Robin had been thinking about getting started for nearly a year. She knew she wanted to join the gym. She knew she wanted to go every day after work. She knew all of this, but she was waiting for a perfect day to get started. Guess what: almost a year later her perfect day had not yet arrived.

Robin is not alone. She is only one of many people that have told me they were going to get started, but didn’t know when. It is easy to set a goal. It is easy to pick something you want to do. The moral of the story: it doesn’t matter what you want to do if you don’t get started.

You can have the best intentions and even have the best plan. If you don’t execute that plan, you get nothing. When it comes to health, we all know what we need to do. We can talk about it day in and day out, but if we don’t do it, our health will suffer.

Often the talking point is when we will get started. Just like Robin, many of us have an idea of what we want to do, but we have yet to get started. Many are waiting for the right day to get started. There is no perfect day to get started. If you keep waiting for a perfect day, you will be waiting forever. The only day that is perfect is today.

If you are trying to get started with a new routine, you just need to take the first step. Don’t worry about all the other steps or trying to do it all at once. The first step is the most important step. You have to take that before anything else. If you don’t take the first step, you can’t take any others. The best strategy to get that first step is to pick a day and take it. Today is the day.

Break It Down

Health is not just one thing. Health is many things. It takes a series of habits to ensure that you get moving and more importantly keep moving in the right direction. The list of habits can get quite long when it comes to living healthy.
This can be good news or bad news depending on how you look at the situation. The bad news is pretty obvious: there are many steps to be taken. The good news is that we don’t have to take all of these steps at once.

That is the solution. You have to break it down. When you are looking at a list of things that will help you live healthy, it is easy to look at the whole thing and feel like it can’t be done. That is why many people continue to live unhealthy lifestyles. They don’t think that they can do it, so they choose not to.
This is a shame considering the fact that we all want to be healthy. No one wants to feel terrible on a daily basis. No one wants to look in the mirror and see a “before picture”. We all want health and all the things that come along with it. So, how do we get it? The solution is simple: Break it down.

Getting Started

Many people struggle to take the first step because they are too busy worrying about all the steps that will follow it. When you are looking at a list of things, it is important to tackle one thing at a time. The entire list can be overwhelming. The best way to get started is to pick one thing and focus on that.

Example: Getting Started

Dee is a health coaching client that was trying to lose weight. She had tried various things in the past, but couldn’t seem to get the results she wanted. When we started working together, she wasn’t doing anything to get her the results she wanted. Why? Because she didn’t think she could do ALL of the things she needed to do. Because ALL of the things she needed to change didn’t seem realistic, she simply gave up and did NONE of the things that she needed to do.
The first step Dee and I took was to step back and look at the big picture. She described all the things she needed to do in order to start losing weight.

The list looked something like this:
Get new shoes
Join the gym
Start setting aside time to go to gym
Start going to grocery store every week
Make a list of food items to buy
Pack lunch every day
Bring gym bag to work daily
Set reminders to go to gym each day
Get up by 6 to make sure she is at work on time
to name a few…

Looking at this list, I could see why she was overwhelmed. There is a lot to accomplish here. They are all important, but they don’t all have to be done at once.

I asked her how long she had to make the changes she wanted to make. Her answer was a lifetime. She had no deadline. Because there was no deadline, the pressure didn’t need to be on to complete everything as fast as possible.
Once we discussed the various things that Dee had on her list, we eventually decided what step could be taken first. She had a few ideas, so there was a decision that had to be made. How did she make this decision? She thought about what she could start doing right away. What could she start doing with the least amount of hassle?

The first step was to put buying new shoes on her calendar. This was a step that seemed simple when it stood along, yet was just another thing adding to the stressful list that she created. She set the appointment and went to buy new shoes within a week of our conversation. That was the goal and she accomplished it.
Why couldn’t she do this before? It wasn’t that simple before. She had to break the list down in order to make any of the steps happen.

Keep It Going

Dee needed to get started. That was her biggest obstacle. She was putting so much pressure on herself to do everything, that she couldn’t do anything. She just needed to break it down. Clearly she needed help to do that. She needed help getting started, but once she took that first step, the rest followed. They followed one at a time. It was that easy for her. We broke Dee’s list down into single steps and she completed them once step at a time.

That is the first step, but it clearly isn’t the only step. Or is it? When you break it down, you only need to worry about one step at a time. Once Dee had her shoes, she could check that off the list. It was done and no longer occupied any of her mental energy.

Now she was free to focus on the next step. And that is how she continued. Focusing on one step at a time, Dee was able to keep checking one thing off the list. She kept setting a single goal and she kept reaching a single goal.

That was her process until she was finally doing exactly what she wanted to be doing. She became successful by breaking it down. Dee was struggling and didn’t think she was able to live healthy. She overcame that and was able to start making progress. Not only did she get started, but she was able to keep going. She didn’t have some miracle product or an iron will. She didn’t need any of these things. She just needed to break it down.

3 things exercise has to do for you

Exercise is an important part of life. There are many things that exercise does for us. Unfortunately, it has also become one of the things we “wish we had more time for”. We know all of the things that exercise CAN do for us. It can only do these things if we do it.

I look at things a little differently because I know how difficult it can be to change. For that reason, I came up with the 3 things that exercise has to do for you. This is not a list of the benefits of exercise. You already know what those are. You already know what you are getting…or not getting.

These are the 3 things that exercise has to do for you. If your routine doesn’t do these things, you will not stick with it for very long. You may not even be able to get into it if these things aren’t on your mind and part of your goals.

1. Exercise has to fit into your schedule

If exercise doesn’t fit, you won’t do it. If anything doesn’t fit in our lives, we tend to let it fall off the calendar. Speaking of calendars, the best way to make sure you get your exercise is to make an appointment. After all, what do we do with other important events? We make appointments and put them on the calendar!

By taking this step, you are committing to yourself that you are going to make it happen. Remember: If exercise doesn’t fit, you won’t do it. Often the first step is not to go out and exercise. The first step is to plan WHEN and WHERE you are going to exercise to make sure it fits in your schedule.

2. Exercise has to be enjoyable

We’ve all heard the expression: “no pain, no gain.” While it has its place in a small segment of the exercise world, you probably don’t want to be in pain. You probably don’t want to put yourself through any unnecessary discomfort for or during exercise. That is why the first point is so important. Making it easy to schedule is step one, step two is really about what you are doing.

If you like doing something, you will keep doing it. If you do not like something, you will not likely keep doing it. This sounds like a simple concept, right? It’s no wonder the same people that say that they hate exercise because it is too hard, don’t do it at all. There are far too many options to say that exercise is hard or that you don’t like it. There is something that you can do that you will enjoy. If you do something and don’t enjoy it, simply try something else. That is the beauty of exercise. You don’t have to do the same thing. You can do whatever you want. Just do something!

3. Exercise has to be for you

This may sound funny, but I don’t benefit from your exercise. I don’t get anything out of it when you go to the gym or when you go running. I get nothing from your routine. The same goes for the people around you. They don’t benefit when you work out. (Or do they? Stay tuned.)

Who benefits from your routine? YOU! You are the one that gets to enjoy the increased energy, healthy weight, confidence and the long list of benefits. You are the one that feels better when you move. You are the one setting goals and reaching goals. At least if you are going to make it a habit, you have to be the one setting goals and reaching them. Motivation has to come from within. You have to be able to look inside and ask yourself: “What do I want to get out of this?” Once you do that, you can do what it takes to get what you want. As you do that, you can continue to draw on the reasons you want to keep going. As you continue, your goals are being reached and the benefits can be attributed to the steps that you have taken.

Exercise can do many things for us. Hopefully it is part of your day to day routine. If not, these are some easy things you can do to get started. If you can make the above steps part of your routine, you can also make and exercise part of it. That is the biggest misconception about exercise: it is hard to get started. I work day in and day out helping people get started without feeling like they have to alter their entire lives in the process. You simply have to make sure that…

1. Exercise fits into your schedule

2. Exercise is enjoyable

And

3. Exercise is for you

If you can think about a few simple things, you can get started and keep going without too much trouble.

I would love to hear what you get out of your exercise routine: share your comments or email me at coach@byrdwellnessconcepts.com

Make a Decision

There are many people trying to get healthy. There also many people struggling with this task. We’ve talked about the challenges and you can probably think of a whole list of challenges from your own routine. It is no mystery that getting and staying healthy is not easy. We know that, but why is it so difficult?

It’s not just the barriers that we run into that get in our way. We often get in our own way. I’m not just talking about the things we eat or the exercise we don’t get. I’m talking about something that has even more influence on our routine. I’m talking about decisions.

Every day we make decisions to do things that we need to do. We need to eat food in order to live. We need to do something in order to earn enough money to live. We need to do a lot in order to get through a day. These are just a few of the basics, but you get the idea.

Where does your health fit in your list of decisions?
Your health is nothing more than the results of your decisions. What does it mean when you say: “I’d like to be healthier”? To me it means that you are going to do what your body needs in order to function at its best. That is the connection I make when it comes to health.

This connection means a lot to me. I live it every day and I actually help others live it every day too. It’s not enough to know what the connection is. We talk about that all the time. It is more important to know what the connection means.

What does the connection between wanting something and acting on it mean to me? It means that when I say I want to do something it is my decision to get it done. When you think about doing something, it may get done…some day. When you say you will do something, it may get done…you hope.

These levels of commitment are not enough. That is why so many of us are “trying” or “saying” we are going to get healthy. The only way to be successful in any area is to decide to do it. When you decide to do something, you are not just saying or trying to do it. You are taking action and doing it.

When you make a decision, you are truly committing. I’ve seen this with clients, friends and family. I’ve even seen it with myself. My connection was made and reinforced in my own life. That is why I can confidently say that if you were unable to reach a goal, you didn’t fully decide that you would reach it.
If you want to change something, decide to change it. Make a decision and stick with it. That is what it takes to get what you want. You clearly want to do it.

If you didn’t want it, you wouldn’t be thinking about it all the time. If you didn’t want to do it, you wouldn’t have tried to do it in the first place.
When you trying to make a change, it is important to remember whose decision it is.

It is yours. You decide what you want to do and what you don’t want to do. No one else makes decisions for you. When you try to do something, only you can make the effort. When when you say you are going to do something, only you can hold yourself accountable to make sure that it gets done. When you think about doing something, it’s still only in your head. Trying, saying you will try or just thinking about what you will do doesn’t get you through the challenges because you are not fully committing yet.

Only when you decide to do something, will you actually do it. And only you can decide. It is actually pretty simple. You don’t have to have a magic formula for success. If you really want something, you have to make a decision.

Risk vs. Reward

When you try to do something different, there is always going to be a challenge. Some may consider this challenge to be a risk. When you accomplish something different, there is always going to a reward. After all, you have decided to do something different. You took a risk. For one reason or another, there must be some sort of reward for you to take this risk.

Whenever you set a goal or take a risk, you have to have this reward in mind in order to get started. Once you get going, you also have to keep this reward in mind in order to keep going. When the risk becomes clear, the reward can keep you going. The reward gets us on track and the reward keeps us on track.

What is the reward that will get you on track? There has to be something that will make you get up and go after your goals. We all have something that we want. We also have risks that we need to take in order to reach these rewards.

When you look at our health, I see many rewards that should be motivation to reach goals. Feeling good, looking good, the list goes on and on. These things are what we all want. What are the risks of seeking these rewards? Giving your time, effort or maybe a little money can be risks?

How much are you willing to risk for the rewards you want? Maybe this is a better question. This question brings us to the real issue. The rewards are clearly very significant. Feeling good and having energy to get through my day are very significant. Looking in the mirror and liking what I see is very significant. These are just two of the rewards.

What are the risks? Giving up a few minutes of sleep in the morning is one risk. Taking time to schedule my exercise is another risk. When I compare the risks to the rewards there is a very large gap. The risk seem very small to me compared to the rewards. This turns my routine into a no-brainer. Low risk and high reward are ideal.

Maybe my view has changed due to the length of time that I’ve been at it. When I take a closer look at my routine and the routines of my clients, I realize that the risk is larger than I first thought. It seems that my routine has been in place so long and I’ve had to take the risk so often that it seems smaller than it is.

When I work with someone that is just getting started, I see that the risk is more significant when it is new. When you are risking something for the first time, it seems like it will be more difficult. When you have something in place for a long time, it seems like more of a risk to change it and less of a risk to keep going with it.

This can work both ways. It can be a positive, as it has been in my routine. I have been making exercise part of my routine for so long that it doesn’t seem that it is a big risk. The longer I do it, the less of a risk I am taking.

In fact, the opposite is true for not exercising. I feel like it is a bigger risk for me to not do it in a given day or week. The risks of not taking care of my health are certainly greater than the risks of me taking action in my routine.

It can also work negatively for someone that is just getting started. When you are trying to do something you have never done, it feels like a big risk. When you are trying to do something that you have not done for a long time, it can feel like a big risk.

Even if I have to adjust, which I recently have done, the risks of not adjusting were far greater to me than the risk of adjusting. Now that I have adjusted, everything is smooth and there is nothing but reward on day to day basis.

It comes down to the thought of risk vs. reward. If you are truly thinking of the risks and rewards of making changes that you want to make, it feels like a no-brainer. When YOU decide that you want to be healthy and take action toward that goal, it makes perfect sense. You see the reward of you being healthy, you see the risk of you making time in your day and see that one far outweighs the other. The reward is much greater than the risk.

I can understand the concept of risk. I can see, because changing anything is difficult, why people associate risk with this process. Despite the reward far outweighing the risk, it is still there and we have to overcome it in order to reach our reward.

Just like everything in life, this is easier said than done. That doesn’t mean that it impossible. It just means that we have to be deliberate in order to get where we want to go. Think about your risk and acknowledge it. Make a list of the things that you are going to have to give up. Once you see them in writing you can see that this really isn’t risk as much as it is an adjustment.

The same goes for your reward. Once you have written them down and decided that they are things you want and will go after, they will not only feel more achievable, but you will start to look at them as necessity not just ideal. Once you are underway, keep focusing on the reward and reminding yourself why you are taking the risk in the first place.

After all, the only reason you are taking the risk is to get the reward. What is your reward? What are you doing to get it? Knowing the risks of not taking care of your health, I have to ask, what is the reward for that?

Medication: Worth the risk?

I recently read an article about the latest medication to hit the market. This medication sounded like it was going to help a lot of people. The disease that it treated was horrible, many people were dealing with it and this drug seemed to offer a good solution.

A solution in a pill sounds too good to be true. As I learned from later articles about the very same drug, the “too good to be true” label was correct. The latest articles contained studies that showed side-effects that included heart trouble and even death. You may say to yourself that the risk is low and they wouldn’t put something out that could harm people. Well, that is a big risk to take. The latest study on this drug showed these side-effects occurring in as much as 30 percent of those that it.

I’m not citing specific names of medications, but I do want to shed a little light on a problem in our society. This article is about the risk of medication in general. This article is not to condemn those that are taking medications as I see a need for many. I simply want to make sure that before we take a medication, we ask two questions:

1. Can I prevent or reverse this condition on my own?
2. What are the risks to taking this medication?

By asking these questions, you can be sure that you are looking out for yourself. It is important to do that. It sounds like common sense, but no one else is looking out for you. If a product that is on the market and being prescribed to people right now is causing such serious problems, how can you leave it in anyone else’s hands?

After reading the article that I mentioned above, I was alarmed. I’ve actually been alarmed for a while now due to the increased frequency of use. This just made me think about it again. In today’s world it is very easy to get started down the road of medication. The average 30 year-old American is on 3 medications. The most common prescriptions in this age group are depression, acid reflux and blood pressure medications.

As a 30-year-old myself, I am shocked by this statistic. Why does someone so young need any medication, let alone 3 medications? Well, the type of medication is an indicator of our problems. Many people have legitimate medical needs, but think about the structure of our medical model:

You go to the doctor with a symptom. The doctor has been given a list of options to treat symptoms. When the doctor sees your symptom on the list, the easiest thing to do is give you the drug that matches up. It is quick, it is easy and everyone wins, right?

Not so fast. What if we looked at the cause rather than just the symptom? What if the doctor treated the cause of your problem so that it actually went away? These seem like logical questions, but this is not something you can expect in our current system.

In our current system, you get the drug that matches the list of symptoms. You get a quick visit from your doctor, maybe a referral to a specialist (where you’ll get another quick visit…and another bill) and then the medication is given.

Our role in this process is the scariest part for me. I can see how a doctor would find a medication that treated a symptom and allowed them to ease pain and discomfort with little to no effort. I can even see why that seems good to most people. Who doesn’t want to feel good?

We all want to feel good. What we don’t want to do is take the time to consider our options. What will this medication do to me? How will it affect my body and mind? These are two very important questions that often go without asking.

After seeing the studies and laundry lists of side-effects, it is shocking to me that more people don’t ask about their options. It shocks me to hear that we are taking more and more medications and spending even less time thinking about what they are doing to us.

I think it goes back to the model we are in. It’s not just how the doctor is trained. It is about the symptoms. What we are dealing with is nothing but a list of symptoms. From the diabetes to depression, we are dealing with the symptoms. These conditions are merely symptoms of our lifestyles. When we eat too much and gain weight, the body can’t process blood sugar properly and we end up with diabetes.

3 most common symptoms treated by medications in today’s 30 year-old:
When we don’t move enough and continue to do things that aren’t in line with what we want, we feel down and depressed. When we eat foods high in sodium and don’t get enough exercise, our blood pressure will be elevated. When we eat processed foods high in fat, salt and sugar and drink acidic sodas, the body will react and show digestive problems such as acid reflux.

You can go to the doctor and get treatments for these symptoms. As we’ve discussed, that is easy. The doctor will give you what you want without much question. You don’t have to ask yourself why these symptoms are occurring. You don’t have to try to find a way to improve on your own. You don’t even have to know why you are suffering from this symptom. You can live this way and everything will be fine.

At least we hope everything will be fine. What happens when it’s not fine? What do you do when a medication causes a side-effect. What if that side-effect is worse than the symptom or more difficult than simply changing your habits to avoid it all together?

This is often the case as many medications are taken to fight symptoms of lifestyle habits. In other words, we are doing harm to ourselves and taking medication to mask the symptoms of that harm.

It doesn’t have to be this way. You can ask the doctor any and all of the questions above. You can ask your doctor about the causes of the symptoms you are having. You may not even need to take medication. You may be able to make a simple change.

A simple change is what I see as the best solution to our medication problems. Unfortunately, it’s not that simple. I understand why people take medications before considering a change of lifestyle. It is easier to take a pill than it is to take care of ourselves.

This is a very risky strategy. We are putting our lives in the hands of the drug companies, hoping (often just assuming) that they have our best interests in mind. I’m not here to bash the drug companies, but I am here to remind you that there are many drugs like the one I read the article about. There are many medications that cause many problems that far out-weigh the symptoms they are taken to treat.

Before you start taking any medication, stop and ask yourself if you can find a solution on your own. Ask yourself if you are the problem causing the symptom. It may not be fun to ask a question like this, but it can literally save your life. Speaking of saving your life- Before taking anything, ask yourself if it is worth the risk.

Wants and Needs

What do you want? What do you need? What are you doing to ensure these things are in your life? I ask these questions because I know how important having what you need and what you want really is. If we don’t have what we want, we are sad, upset and unfulfilled. When we don’t have what we need, we see more serious problems like illness or even death.

You can make or break your life by doing what you need or not. On the most basic level, we need things like air, food and water. These are the big ones. If we don’t have them, we can’t live. But what we want is very important, especially when we want what we need.

Do you want what you need? I know that this question sounds rather silly, but if you think about it for a minute, you’ll see the significance. First think about what you need (make a list…ok, just the top 5 things you need) and then think about how much time and effort you devote to these things.

Do you need what you want? Now make a list of the top 5 things you want. You may have these things already. You may be doing them on a regular basis. That’s ok. In fact, it’s a very good thing if you have what you want. But the first question is: Do you need it? The next question: How do these lists match up? How do your wants and needs compare?

I asked these questions because I’ve been thinking a lot about priorities. Most of my Health Coaching clients have a challenge on their hands. Their challenge is something that you are likely experiencing as well. I know I experience the same challenge. The main challenge is not time, work or being too busy. The main challenge is aligning our wants and needs.

When we put our needs first, we succeed. It works in all areas. Here are some examples of how needs become the end-all when it comes to success or failure:

Health: “I need my health”- by devoting time to care for yourself you are allowing your body and mind to function at full capacity. If you don’t devote any time or put in any effort for your health, you will not have it for very long.

Business: “We need customers”- by investing time and energy into drawing customers to your business, sales and profit can be made. If your business doesn’t put in the effort to get customers, you won’t be in business very long.

Let’s go back to the above statement: “I need my health” to get more clarity around it. This is a broad and general statement, but by making it more specific we can see how this works (or doesn’t work) in real life:
“I need to exercise in order to…”
…avoid heart problems
…have enough energy to play with my kids in the evening
…feel good during my day
…get in shape for my high school reunion

No matter what your need is, it fits within a statement like this. These statements are being uttered all over the world as we speak. In various languages people are telling themselves what they need. They are thinking about what they need and what they need to do in order to get it.

Since this is happening everywhere, people must be successful, right? If everyone knows what they need, they are achieving it, aren’t they? Well, they might be. Unfortunately, many are not. They are not doing what they need despite the fact that they need it.

Why does this happen? It happens because we don’t always want what we need. We need to live healthy in order to feel like we want to feel and look like we want to look. We need to do certain things in order to reach those goals. (Setting goals is one of them in itself.) The problem is, we don’t want to do those things.

It’s easy to say that you want something. It is another thing to actually do what it takes to get it. If you don’t want to do something, you won’t do it. It’s that simple. The fact is, no matter how much you need something, you won’t adjust your life to get it if you don’t really want it.

So, what do we do? How do we get what we need? Well, for starters, you have to want it. The next step is something I’ve spend years working on and helping others do. It is something that I’ve written countless articles about.

The next step has been called many things: goal setting, planning, routine, systems, etc. If you really want something you need to be willing to take this step. No matter what area you are talking about, the same rules apply. Doing these things is the difference between success and failure in any part of life. Doing these things is the difference between getting what you want or not. More importantly, these things are the difference between getting what you need or not.

Question: Do you need to be healthy?
Better question: Do you want to be healthy?
Best question: Are you willing to do what it takes to be healthy?

What would you do with an extra hour?

I recently saw a show where they asked Americans what they would do with an extra hour in their day. It was a nice experiment to fill some time on a morning talk show, but I thought about it more and more as the day went on. It turns out that there was more to this question.

When I heard the answers to the question, I knew that it was a very important question. The answers included many things like reading, exercising sleeping and spending time with family. These things are clearly important to most people. What makes this so significant is the fact that we feel we need an extra hour in the day to do what’s most important.

Why does TV fit into the regular day when playing with kids doesn’t? Why does the extra work fit in when exercise doesn’t? Why do the miscellaneous errands fit into a regular day when value-adding activities don’t? I don’t understand how that works. I understand how we get into that situation, but I can’t understand not changing it.

The question for me is: Why do we need the extra hour to do things we know we want to do? Many of the things like sleep and exercise are actually needs. They are more than just wants. If we don’t get enough sleep, there are many studies showing that we decrease life expectancy by years. So not only are we not taking advantage of the hours we have, but we are actually eliminating hours from our lives.

That is a scary thought. What is even scarier is that we can sit down and make a list of the things we would do if we had an extra hour and still not be doing them. We can think of a list off the top of our heads and yet, we can’t take that list and make it part of our lives. That is the scariest thought of all.

You’ve heard about the importance of goals and planning. You’ve heard about priorities. You’ve also heard about the state of American health, family structure and many other areas that are in dismal condition.

So what’s the excuse? I’ve heard a laundry list of excuses. I’ve heard everything from work to spouse to pets. You name it and it’s been used as an excuse. Some things are more common than others and actually make this whole concept clearer.

Is it work? “I can’t spend time with my family or take time for my health because I am too busy.” “I am spending more time at work, so I can’t do anything else.”
It is easy to get into the cycle of working too much. You need to provide for your family and pay your bills. I understand that. What I don’t understand is how we can continue to put emphasis on something and still not get anything out of it.

This brings me back to the state of the union and many aspects of it. I can start to understand it when I think about it this way:

Work is just an excuse. We are hiding behind the busy schedule and overtime because we know that no one will question it. It’s ok to be too busy with work to take care of yourself. It’s ok to spend only a few minutes a week with your kids because it’s the busy season. It’s ok to avoid important things as long as you have urgent things to do instead.

I’d like to see that change. I’d like to see it be ok to do important things. It should not be ok to let our needs and our families needs fall by the wayside while we continue to do things that perpetuate this trend.

It IS ok to put your priorities in order. It is ok to fit the activities that you need into your day. It is ok to take that list of things that you would fit in if you had an extra hour and make it part of your day. It may not be easy and the change may not take place in one day, but you can do it. You need to do it and you know it. That is why you said: “if I had an extra hour, I’d do it.”

This is why the question of what I would do with an extra hour in my day raised so much thought. Having spent the past decade talking to people and helping them get their priorities IN their day rather than simply wishing they were there, it was upsetting to hear that so many of us still can’t do it.

Allow me to clarify: It’s not that Americans can’t do it. It’s that Americans are choosing not to do it.

The question: What would you do if you had an EXTRA hour in your day?

The answer: Things that are important that I know I need to do be doing anyway.
When I hear this question and answer, there is only one conclusion that can be drawn. We all know what to do and we are deciding that it’s not important enough.

Why else would we have a list of things that are important and only do those things if we had an extra hour? The moral of the story is: if you really want something to be part of your day…you need to make it part of your day.

That brings us to the most important question: Are you doing what you want to be doing now or are you waiting for that fictional extra hour to get it in?

Summer Eating Strategies

You’ve heard about the importance of nutrition. Every day, we hear about the best things for you and the worst things for you. At the end of the day, do you know what is going to be the best thing for you? The thing that you are going to stick with is going to be the best thing for you. It’s that simple. You can worry about what is “right” or what you are “supposed to do”, but if you don’t do them consistently, they aren’t going to bring you the results you are looking for.

In other words, you need a strategy. A strategy brings the results you have in mind and helps you put them into action. This is a challenge because we all need to have our own strategy in order to stick with it. This is just a quick look at some ways that you can use your strategy to get the results you are looking for this summer.

Strategy 1: Buy fresh

The summer months offer the best in produce. You can find the ripest fruits and the tastiest vegetables. You can go to farmer’s markets, small produce stands and right to the farm if you want to. But that’s not the only place to find good produce. Your regular supermarket is going to have more choices and they are even going to have deals on fresh items that they can only keep around for so long before they go bad. They are dying for you to buy more fresh fruits and veggies, so they are often on sale and always tasty. This is also a great time to try something new.

Strategy 2: Grill out

The summer barbeque has gotten a bit of a bad name because of some of our traditional foods. Most grills that I’ve seen can cook more than just burgers and brats. Lean meats like chicken, fish and even steaks can be a great way to fill that need for hearty protein. Also, veggies can be cooked in a variety of ways either right on the grill, in a grill basket or on a skewer. Try some new
marinades and seasonings on your meat. Each meal can feel like something fun instead of “just another boring dinner.”

Strategy 3: Eat like you’re wearing a bathing suit

This sounds funny, but it actually works for many people. In fact, I've written an entire article on this strategy. I was talking to someone about their eating routines when they said: “I don’t want to eat too much when I’m wearing my bathing suit”. It makes sense doesn’t it? When we are at the lake, pool or even a backyard function, the less clothing we are wearing, the less we want to eat. You don’t have to starve yourself and it’s not just about how you look in that suit. It is about how you feel. It is easy to put on a baggy sweater and eat a lot. It is also easier to eat a smaller amount when we are wearing a bathing suit. Give it a try this summer. (See archive for complete article: http://bwchealthcoach.blogspot.com/2009/12/act-like-youre-in-bathing-suit.html)

Do you strategies that have worked for you? Share your strategies and help others reach their goals: coach@byrdwellnessconecpts.com

No Substitute for Success

There is no substitute for your goals. The biggest problems I’ve seen come from a difference between goals and actions. If your actions match your goals, you are successful and everything is great. When your actions do not match your goals, you have a problem. Actually, you’ll likely have many problems.

Problems occur when you don’t do what supports what you want. It’s not complicated, yet it is difficult to stick with. For many, a goal is something that they may never reach. For others, a goal is almost a promise that something will get done.

For those that refuse to find substitutes for their goals, success is the result.
Why do some people have problems reaching goals while others are continually reaching goals? They seem to do it effortlessly. Why don’t we all do it that way? We don’t all reach goals because we don’t all set goals properly. Setting goals properly is a skill that I talk about a lot. As a skill or habit, goal setting can be improved over time and become much easier.

Easy is the key word. It is the word easy that gets us in trouble when we are trying to reach goals. As we move toward the goal, many opportunities present themselves. We have the option to keep going, try an alternative action or two (or ten) and we have to decide which one to go with. Often we take the easiest one. When we do that, we feel better because things are easy, but there is one major flaw here.

The flaw is not that it is easy. Success is not easy, but it doesn’t have to be as difficult as we make it out to be. The real flaw with taking the easy option is the fact that we don’t weigh the options for what results they will bring. We simply look at the difficulty and choose based on that alone. We accept a substitute for our goals. This works if your goal is to be the one that makes the smallest effort.

I don’t know too many people that have put in the least and gotten the most out of anything. The truth is, the more you put in, the more you get out. That doesn’t mean that everything has to be difficult just for the sake of being difficult. It means that you have to think about what you put in and make a deliberate effort to do so.

One of the aspects of our actions that gets overlooked the most happens to be the most important. That aspect is how it aligns with your goal. Before taking a step in any direction, the most important question to ask is “Is this leading me toward my goal?” The question of “Is this the easiest route” may have a place, but if it is the first question asked, you are likely to head off in the wrong direction. If it is the only question you ask, well, I hope your goal wasn’t that important to you.

If an action matches your goal, it is the right thing to do. For you, the best step you can take is the step that takes you toward your goal. If a step takes you away from your goal, you are spending time and effort working against yourself. This is ironic considering the steps were taken because they are easy. It’s a good thing they are easy, because you will be taking many of them just to get back to where you started.

That being said, I guess it is easier to stay true to yourself and your goals. It is easier to walk a straight line toward your goal without veering off the path. It is more difficult to wander away from your goal or try short cuts that take you the wrong way and cause you to start over again and again.

Since it is easier to take action toward your goals, it must be easier to be successful than it is to fail. It must be easier to only do things that are in line with your goals and therefore only lead you to move in the right direction.

Too often, I hear the same people that complain about how challenging it is to stay on track are the ones that are continually taking short cuts and trying new routes. They are looking for the easiest route and they are ending up back where they started…again and again.

So is it more difficult to be successful? I don’t think so. I still think it is easier to do what will lead you to your goals. I think it is easier to look back and know that you did what you said you would do. I think it is easier to look ahead and know that you plan to do what you say you will do.

It all comes back to your own credibility. I’m not just talking about how you can commit to appointments or tasks. It is even simpler than that. It is more about committing to your goals. That’s all it takes. When you set a goal, take actions that will help you reach them. Does that sound more difficult than trying all sorts of things that lead you in the wrong direction and cause you to start over and over again? No! To me it sounds much easier to just set a goal and do things that help you reach it.

The key is to commit to yourself. Don’t even think about it as your goals. Just think about what you want. Until you can commit to you, there is a substitution going on. You are substituting ease for success. You are substituting your comfort for your goal. In other words, you are substituting something that may be easier for something you know you want.

When you commit to yourself you will be successful. When you commit to doing what is easy, you will not be. That’s not completely true, as you will be successful at taking the easy route. That may lead you somewhere, but it is not likely to be the destination you had in mind when you set your goal.

By committing to yourself and your goals you are saying that there is no substitute for your goals. When you refuse to find a substitute for your goals, you are also saying that there is no substitute for your success.

Preparation is easier than being unprepared

As a Health Coach, I hear a lot about what makes it difficult to reach goals. I work with my clients to overcome these difficulties, but they always seem to come up. If there is a challenge, I’ve likely heard about it.

Sometimes there are challenges that are more challenging…for me to hear. One of the most challenging things for me to hear about is how difficult it is to prepare for things. I obviously hear it with health goals, but it has been something that we’ve all dealt with.

Preparation is important in many areas. You need to be ready for school, work, family events and even social gatherings. Clearly, the more serious the occasion the more preparation is required. Also the more responsibility you have for the occasion, the more preparation is required.

If responsibility and preparation are directly related, than preparation should be easy. Why should it be easy to prepare? It should be easy because the success of whatever you are doing depends on it. When you look at your list of priorities, what puts things at the top? Is it things that are easy? Do we place things that are simple and have no meaning at the top of your priorities list? No, we don’t.

Our priorities are decided by importance and impact on our lives. You get up and go to work every morning, not because it’s fun. Even if you have a great career or run your own business, you take care of the important details because it is making a difference in the lives of your clients, yourself and your family. Whether you took the job or started the business, your company depends on you to make an impact. Now your preparation and action plan make that impact.

The greater the impact, the greater the importance of preparation becomes. It doesn’t take much preparation to watch television. It doesn’t take much preparation to hit the drive thru.

This is where the concept of preparation meets health. I hear how difficult it is to prepare. I hear how much easier it is to watch television or go to the drive thru. The reason I don’t understand the difficulty is the amount of impact these areas have on our lives.

What we eat and how much activity we get has a very significant impact on our lives. The impact can be seen in many areas including the very basic area of how we feel. The better we eat and the more we move, the better we feel. I ask everyone what they want from a coaching perspective. The answer that I hear the most is: “I want to feel good.”

We all want to feel good. But by not preparing in the area of health, we are not acting as if we want to feel good. We know what we need to do in order to feel good and yet, we are not doing it.

In fact, by not preparing, we are actually making things more difficult. When we enter a meeting unprepared, is a nerve-racking experience. When we throw a party without preparing for it, it is a frustrating experience. Showing up for a test in school without preparing is nothing short of a nightmare that many of us have had. When we suffer the consequences of not preparing with our health it is much more serious.

Our health is our life. We’ve talked about it over and over and I will continue to stress how important health really is. I don’t understand the idea of looking at something that is as terrible as having heart issues, gaining weight, feeling tired all day (the list goes on) and deciding that those are all easier than setting a few goals.

Even if your only goal is to feel good, you can make it easier than all the health issues you face by letting your health go. Feeling good may be the most commonly desired result, but it’s not the only one. There are countless benefits to living healthy. Avoiding many problems is one of them.

Just as the meeting or party or test is more difficult without preparation, health is too. I have seen over and over again that without preparing we simply cannot live the lives we want to live. The key is to realize that while it may be easier to put it off, it is not easier to deal with the consequences.

Being unprepared is much more difficult than preparing. Preparation is a habit, so the more you do it the easier it gets. Remember, easy isn’t bad. In fact, that is what preparation does for you in your routine. You get better at it and it becomes automatic. Eventually, preparation is easier than being unprepared.

Holiday Weekend Strategy

1. Start the day off right

Eat a good breakfast in the morning. No matter what time a big meal is, making sure that you start the day off with a solid breakfast will help you stay in control when it is time to eat again.

*If you are eating closer to dinner time, your breakfast and lunch can be great chances to offset the over-the-top tendencies of the events.

2. Keep the exercise going

Your routine has helped you burn extra calories each day. This weekend is just as important and it can help you feel more energized to chat with friends guests and share laughs with family. If you burn more calories, you can feel more confident that what you eat will make a smaller impact on your weight.

*If you are not into the routine that you want, this is a good time to insert a healthy activity into the tradition. Walks or trips to the park with kids or a family game can create great memories!

3. Remember: It’s just one weekend

Just because there is more food than normal available to you over a holiday weekend doesn’t mean that it has to throw the rest of your routine off. There is no need to beat yourself up. By cutting yourself a little slack, you can actually expect to be MORE successful because your goals are realistic for the day.

*After a holiday weekend is a great time to start your new plan (if you haven’t already), since you know that you likely won’t have a bigger challenge than you’ve already encountered.

Is Your Routine Working For You or Against You?

Everyone has a routine. When I’m coaching someone, I often hear, “I don’t really have a routine” or “I haven’t had a routine for a while”. These are common statements from people that have come to the conclusion that because they weren’t doing something often, they were out of the routine of doing it.

They are partially right. They may not be in the routine of doing it often, but they are in a routine. The routine is NOT doing it. The routine is doing other things instead of what they want to be doing. That puts them right in the middle of a routine. It may not be the routine they want, but it is still a routine.

Everyone has a routine. Everyone has habits and a schedule of things that make up a typical day. Control over these things varies and of course, no two people have the same schedule. The routine is there, no matter how much or how little you plan each day.

In the business world, this s is why some people are succeeding and others are failing. In the academic world, this is why some are acing courses and others are flunking out. And with health, It is why some are living a healthy lifestyle while others are not.

Those that are not living healthy can say, “I’m just not in a routine”, but we know that they are simply in a routine that is not working for them. It may be working for someone else, but it is clearly not working for the person. If it was working for them, they would be reaching the goals that they have for themselves.

It sounds harsh, but it is the truth. Your routine is there. The only question to ask your self is:

Is my routine working for me or is it working against me?

If it is working for you, you must have put some time into setting goals, planning
your actions so you could reach those goals. If it is working against you, you have two choices:

Choice 1: keep telling yourself you don’t “have a routine” and pretend that your health will magically improve without you making any changes

Choice 2: take a look at your routine and change it so your actions match your desired result

It doesn’t matter what area of life we talk about. The results that you see are completely dependent on the actions you take. We know that a business gets more customers with advertising and customer services strategies. We know that a student performs better on tests if they study the material beforehand. We also know that you will have a healthier life if you do healthier things.

So, take a quick look at your routine…you have one, you are in one and it is bringing you the results that you are getting right now. In fact, the routine you are in has likely been bringing your results for a long time. If you are in a routine that is working for you, you know the results have been good. If your routine is working against you, well, maybe you should change something if you want your results to change.

Pay Attention (Part 3 of 3)

When you were a kid sitting in class, what was the instruction you heard most? Well, maybe you didn’t hear it quite as often as I did, but during my elementary school years, I was told to pay attention many times a day. Although I had to be told more times than I can even remember, I did eventually learn the importance of paying attention.

Attention is important in all areas of life. It started in school when we needed to pay attention to learn the lesson of the day. Once we knew the lesson, we could complete assignments and take the quiz or exam. Eventually this would all cumulate and we’d get a grade for the class. If you didn’t pay attention, what kind of grade did you get?

When I see the state of health in America, I can’t help but wonder what would happen if everyone started paying attention. I’m not sure where we went wrong. I have a few theories and can walk through a few steps to show what has occurred, but that is a whole new article.

Without getting into the entire history of US health, I just want to discuss the power of attention. If nothing else changed, what would we gain by paying more attention to our health? That question has been stuck in my head for a while, so I had to share a few ideas of what I think we would gain from paying a little more attention.

In Part 3, I'd like to look at health care. We've talked about two areas of health in parts 1 and 2. I'm sure you've heard about this little thing called "Health care reform." For some reason health keeps getting left out of the conversation on reform. Let's take a look at how we can actually fix health care.

Healthcare

I saw a billboard the other day that made me think about all of this. A healthcare provider in the area has a series of billboards that say: “Health should be simple.” On each of these billboards is a picture of someone eating an apple, lifting a weight or doing some other healthy activity. I like the message here. Health should be simple. Unfortunately it has become very complicated and difficult for people to manage.

This is one of the reasons that we are dealing with the healthcare crisis now. Yes, there many factors, but I think the biggest factor is the fact that are no longer paying attention to our own health. In fact, we don’t even look at it as our own anymore. Health is now something that your doctor worries about or what was passed on by your parents.

That is a good way to lose control of health. It has happened to many people and will continue to happen until we take ownership again. What do we need to do first? You guessed it. We need to pay attention. We need to pay attention to our health BEFORE the doctor tells us we need surgery or before we have been diagnosed with a chronic condition. We need to take control of our health.

Question: Do you know your blood pressure? Do you know your cholesterol numbers?

The advances we’ve made in the medical field are amazing. We are constantly finding new ways to do things and to make what was previously a death sentence into a manageable situation. This can be a double-edged sword though. The one drawback to this is that we no longer try to avoid the medical care. I appreciate this and I see great value in all of it. I’m not suggesting that we pear back medical technology to make healthcare cheaper. I’m just suggesting that we start managing our own health rather than waiting until we need to be saved.

What am I talking about? Well, I’ve heard many people say that they aren’t concerned about their health because they are young and don’t need to. I’ve heard, “Why do I need to worry about health now?” Well, you actually don’t have to worry about it if you pay attention. If you don’t, that is when you need to start worrying.

I’ve also heard, “My parents are overweight, so why should I even try to lose weight?” This is an excuse that has become very widespread. People think that everything is genetic. This is an easy way to avoid ownership. If you are not in control it’s not your fault. Well, you are in control and so are your parents.

If you are overweight, it is not because your parents passed on the “overweight gene”. You are overweight because of your habits. Your parents are also overweight because of their habits. Oddly enough, those habits seem to be similar. How did that happen? It looks like they passed those habits along.

Question: What habits are you passing along to your children?

Too often we are ending up in the doctor’s office with something we could have avoided. We have let medicine become something that only the doctor can deal with. We take the mentality explained above and say that our health is just happening to us and we all we can do is what the doctor tells us to do.

I find this especially hard to understand, considering the medical community has been telling us to exercise and eat right for years. I guess we don’t hear that. We do hear the doctor when we have to start taking another medication though. At least we can make the decision between taking that medication or changing the way we live so we don’t need it.

Again, medicine has come a long way. There are many great medications out there. For people who need them, they have worked wonders. For people that do not need them, they have helped them continue to live an unhealthy lifestyle without the consequences. At least the consequences haven’t shown up just yet.

Last Questions: How did your actions today affect your tomorrow? Is today going to have a positive or negative impact on tomorrow?

Maybe that’s the problem. We are aware of the consequences of our actions, but we are still unwilling to change our behavior. Maybe we just don’t see it because it’s so long term. Actually, this brings me right back to the same place: Paying attention.

If you pay attention to how you feel today, you can alter what you do in order to feel better tomorrow. If you keep doing this you will keep feeling better and enjoy life much more. If you choose not pay attention, you can easily end up in the cycle where you are not in control.

The best advice I can give: Don’t give up your control. If you have given it up, take it back. It only takes one step to get started. The best way to take control of your health: Pay attention.

This concludes the 3-part series on paying attention. Hopefully this was a helpful read for you. We all have more power than we think. If we use that power, there is no telling what our lives, the insurance and the medical industries will look like moving forward. If we keep leaving it up to someone else...

Pay Attention (Part 2 of 3)

When you were a kid sitting in class, what was the instruction you heard most? Well, maybe you didn’t hear it quite as often as I did, but during my elementary school years, I was told to pay attention many times a day. Although I had to be told more times than I can even remember, I did eventually learn the importance of paying attention.

Attention is important in all areas of life. It started in school when we needed to pay attention to learn the lesson of the day. Once we knew the lesson, we could complete assignments and take the quiz or exam. Eventually this would all cumulate and we’d get a grade for the class. If you didn’t pay attention, what kind of grade did you get?

When I see the state of health in America, I can’t help but wonder what would happen if everyone started paying attention. I’m not sure where we went wrong. I have a few theories and can walk through a few steps to show what has occurred, but that is a whole new article.

Without getting into the entire history of US health, I just want to discuss the power of attention. If nothing else changed, what would we gain by paying more attention to our health? That question has been stuck in my head for a while, so I had to share a few ideas of what I think we would gain from paying a little more attention.

Exercise

It is so simple, yet we could go on and on with the reasons we need to pay attention. It’s a shame, but exercise is something we have to watch now too. We used to be active by nature, but now we have to try and “fit it in” or “find time” to get the exercise we need. Guess what? We are not finding the time for the exercise we need. The average American is now only even active for a few minutes per day and is not exercising at all.

Why don’t we exercise? Again, I think it is because we stopped paying attention. We’ve talked about what happens when we don’t pay attention to our food. Well, it’s not any better when we stop paying attention to our exercise. In fact, I would think it was easier to be in tune with the exercise we need. After all, we know how we feel at all times (if we pay attention) so shouldn’t we know when we need something? Shouldn’t we be able to feel that our energy level is not where it should be so it is time to take a quick walk? I wish it were that simple for everyone. Unfortunately, we don’t tune into that and we assume we just need more caffeine to get through the day.

Question: How many days per week do you feel good?

With exercise, just like with nutrition, the best advice is to pay attention. We are build to move. Our bodies have evolved over the years to function better with movement. Our current health issues are testament to the affects of the sedentary lifestyle. It’s a shame that we have come so far in some areas and gone the other direction in something so important.

Maybe that’s the problem. Maybe the average American doesn’t find feeling good important. Maybe the average American doesn’t want to live a long life. Maybe they want to die young and feel like crap every day. I don’t think that is true at all. I don’t believe for a second that anyone wants to deal with any of the health issues that are now plaguing this country.

I think we all want to feel good and live healthy. We just don’t know what to do. I see commercials on TV, ads in the newspaper and links on the web promising weight loss and good health. This can’t be a coincidence. I also see that Americans spend billions of dollars on home fitness equipment every year. Not to mention what we spend on gym memberships and diet plans.

The numbers are incredible. But what is more incredible is the fact that we are still chasing our health. We spend all of this money yet we have not found the results. Why is this? I think it’s because we are trying to find the quick fix. We see something that looks like it will work (It promises to work much better than it does.) but we don’t stick with it.

Another Question: How many times have you tried the “next big fad” and been disappointed?

It all comes back to that first step. You won’t use a piece of equipment that you don’t like. You won’t go to a place that you are uncomfortable with. There are many components to a routine. If you want yours to work you have to have a plan that takes these into consideration. How do you know what you want to do or what you will stick with? Start by paying attention.

What does your body need? How do you feel when you do this or that? These questions are where we need to start. Without asking these questions we are just going to keep going along with whatever is in front of us. That is clearly not working. For the average American, the food that is in front of you and the exercise that “you have time for” are what is killing you.

I know that no one lives forever, but the current trends show us that life is not only getting shorter, but it is getting more difficult. Just like when we didn’t pay attention in class. Those exams were difficult too.

This was part 2 of 3. Next time, we will discuss another area that paying attention will bring positive results in part 3.

Pay Attention (Part 1 of 3)

When you were a kid sitting in class, what was the instruction you heard most? Well, maybe you didn’t hear it quite as often as I did, but during my elementary school years, I was told to pay attention many times a day. Although I had to be told more times than I can even remember, I did eventually learn the importance of paying attention.

Attention is important in all areas of life. It started in school when we needed to pay attention to learn the lesson of the day. Once we knew the lesson, we could complete assignments and take the quiz or exam. Eventually this would all cumulate and we’d get a grade for the class. If you didn’t pay attention, what kind of grade did you get?

When I see the state of health in America, I can’t help but wonder what would happen if everyone started paying attention. I’m not sure where we went wrong. I have a few theories and can walk through a few steps to show what has occurred, but that is a whole new article.

Without getting into the entire history of US health, I just want to discuss the power of attention. If nothing else changed, what would we gain by paying more attention to our health? That question has been stuck in my head for a while, so I had to share a few ideas of what I think we would gain from paying a little more attention.

Part 1: Nutrition

The food we eat today is barely food. We eat more chemical preservatives than we do actual food these days. Everything we eat comes from a box, can or a bag handed to us from a drive-thru window. This “food” is literally destroying us from the inside out. Look at the health statistics. Our children (born this decade) are the first generation to have a shorter life expectancy than we do. (5 years shorter!) With all the technology we have, it took us many years to add 5 years to our life expectancy. Now we are going the wrong direction.

Why are we continuing to eat foods that only do us harm? We eat this way because we stopped paying attention. We let food manufacturers and restaurants choose our foods now. We leave the decisions up to the big companies and assume that the government agencies would only allow safe and healthy options to be sent our way.

We are wrong. There is a wide range of food options ranging from the processed crap (technical term) to the fresh produce grown on a farm only miles from your home. Just because it is in your favorite store in a happy container doesn’t mean that a food item is good for you. Just because it is on sale, doesn’t mean that food can’t be bad for you.

Question: Do you have any idea what is in the food you eat?

You can choose to eat a vegetarian diet of only fruits and vegetables, an Atkins diet heavy on meats and dairy, or anything in between. But in order to know what you are eating, you have to pay attention. If not, you have no idea what you are putting into your body. If you are trying to lose weight or simply maintain a healthy weight, the math says that you need to take in less calories. Most people have no idea how many calories they take in on a typical day.
Another question: Do you know how many calories you take in each day?

The fact is, you can start on a healthier path simply by taking a minute to think. Take a minute to think about what you are eating and you will be taking a big step. You don’t have to make a drastic change right away. You don’t have to try to eat completely different food starting tomorrow in order to be healthy. Just like every other goal we’ve discussed, it all starts with a baseline. Where are you now?

Where do you want to go? In this case it’s more like: What are you eating? What do you want to be eating? If you don’t know what you are eating now…I can think of a great place to start.

This is part 1 of 3. Later I will discuss the areas of exercise and healthcare. We can greatly improve our lives in all of these areas just by paying attention.

Deciding Your Own Future

I have a hard time seeing people quit. This is due to advice from a childhood coach. He said: “When you quit you are deciding the outcome.” He was talking about a game and the outcome you are deciding is that you will lose the game if you quit before it’s over.

This applies in many areas, which we will touch on as we go. This saying came back to me when I saw a post from my friend who runs a sports-performance facility. The post was “Choose your own future”. It may be a little different than deciding your own future, but it really means the same thing. It means that you are in charge. If you choose to go for it, you can get it. If you choose not to go for it, you can’t get it.

My career in the health industry has been very enjoyable. I love what I do on a daily basis. Working with people has been a fun experience for me and is why I started my business. As a health coach, I get to help people set goals and improve specific areas of their lives.

While this is very rewarding, it can also be frustrating for me. The most frustrating part is when I see people give up. I often hear people tell me that they are stuck. They tell me that they are unable to reach a goal and they don’t see themselves moving past where they are. This gets very difficult because all I want to do is help.

Luckily when it’s a client in this situation, I can actually help them. We can work together to get them through the rough patch and make the goal more realistic again. I still get frustrated when I see people quit.

Why is it frustrating? The toughest part is hearing someone decide to quit because they don’t think they can do something. They are not quitting because something is impossible. They are not quitting because they don’t have the ability to do it. Why are they quitting? They are quitting because they see a goal and don’t think they can reach it. When this happens, they are giving up not just on their goal, but they are giving up on themselves.

When it comes to life, you are in charge. We can talk about a business or career. We can talk about your finances, family or any other area. No matter what we talk about, you are in charge of the future of these areas. No one else decides how many meetings you set up or projects you complete at work. No one else decides whether you spend or save money to determine your financial future. You are in control of all of this. It is your life and your routine.

Health is an area that seems to be left out of this conversation. When I ask people about their goals, I hear them say many things that would suggest they don’t have a choice. I hear people say things like, “I can’t do that” or “I’m just not ever going to get there”. I even hear “I’m just an unhealthy person”. When someone says this, I can’t help but hear that they are forgetting they are in control. They forget that they can decide what their future looks like. Or maybe they just didn’t know that they are in control.

Why do we think we are not in control? I think we have actually given it up. In our day to day lives it has become the norm to do what we have on the to-do list. Often our list consists of things that others want us to do. It is important to consider others. Family, friends, employers and clients are all important and should be considered.

We’ve given up our control, but why? I think we have given it up because than it’s not our fault that we aren’t where we want to be. It is easier to say, “Oh well, I guess I’m not supposed to be healthy.”, than it is to take responsibility and work toward your goals.

Not everyone has willingly given up control. Many people want to gain it and improve their lives, so how do they get it back? It’s not as difficult as you may think. In fact it starts with one choice. Choosing to be in control is the first step. Once you’ve done this, you are in charge of your goals and your future. I’m not suggesting we put everything on hold and focus strictly on health. In fact, I’m suggesting we use the same tools that help us accomplish tasks in these other areas to help in the health routine.

Take a minute to think about what your goals are? What do you need to do in order to accomplish them? Planning is the key. Setting up your schedule and reminders can help you execute. There must be a balance between only focusing on health and the other extreme of never focusing on it. Success is found in the balance between the extremes. Having a plan can help you make that balance sustainable.

Many people are struggling because they are strictly focused on work or something else. When they try to set goals in another area they often fail because they don’t take control to reach them. In fact, it is easier for them to say they don’t have control and choose not to reach their goals. “I’m too busy” or “I just don’t have time” are perfect examples of this.

You may be reaching your goals. Or you may be making excuses like “I’m too busy”. If you are reaching your goals it is because you have taken control and decided on your own outcome. You have decided what you want your life to look like (in any area) and you have taken the steps necessary to make it that way. In other words, you are deciding your own future. The moral of the story is that if you are not reaching your goals and blaming outside circumstances you are simply making excuses. You too are deciding your own future.