If you have scanned health articles in the news recently, you may have noticed a rash of reports revealing the negative health effects of a sedentary lifestyle.
Headlines read: “Desk jobs are a silent killer,” and “Sitting disease is the next smoking.” The stats are frightening and the risks are legitimate, yet it’s hard to find real resources to actually help people make the changes necessary to become healthier and increase longevity.
When I say real resources, I mean REAL. There are endless tips out there advising you to take the stairs instead of the elevator, or park at the far end of the lot to get those extra steps in. But let’s be serious – as a society, we are just not doing those things – we will often try a healthier routine for a few weeks, but then fade back into our old habits. If anything, we’ve become more sedentary. We’re not parking farther from the grocery store – instead, we’re now picking up our groceries at the drive-through.
It takes more than a few cursory tips to make long-term changes. A true improvement in your health needs to start with your mindset.
Regular exercise and a healthy diet can help fight many of the most prevalent chronic diseases, but that knowledge on its own isn’t usually enough to motivate people to change their lifestyle on an ongoing basis. What’s critical about improving your health is to form manageable healthy habits that will change your lifestyle – permanently.
But how do you do that? With the demands of a busy life – kids, errands, work – how do you find the time and energy to truly overhaul your lifestyle? After years of experience, research and work with over 1600 members at LIVE WELL Exercise Clinic, I’ve learned the recipe for implementing lifestyle changes that stick, with realistic, tangible steps that you can blend into your daily life.
Physical health starts with a mindset. Here’s 3 ‘real-talk’ tips for shifting to a healthy lifestyle
Tip 1: Figure out your why
The first thing I recommend to anyone who wants to improve their health, stay on track and get motivated is to take some time to yourself – sit in a quiet place where you can have a moment of vulnerability – and really think about your reasoning for wanting to do this.
Most of us know what we need to do to be healthy. We know that we shouldn’t eat fast food, and should eat lots of vegetables, that we shouldn’t sit on the couch all day and we should move our bodies. But not many people know how to do it, and very few actually know why they are doing it.
When you can connect with your ‘why,’ you will start achieving your goals and desired outcomes. When I sit down with new members at LIVE WELL, we talk about what we call their ‘The Health Vision.’ We get members to ask themselves what their goals are and why they want to make healthy changes. Initially, we often hear answers like: “I want to lose weight,” or “I want to feel more confident.”
But that usually isn’t the true why.
The why is found by digging deeper. Probe into why you want to feel more confident; why you want to lose weight, etc. Boil it down to a meaningful reason – a reason that strikes an emotional chord within you. What would life look like when you lose the weight? When you feel more confident? What would you do differently in life, what would you think about yourself, how would your relationships change? Imagine yourself one year down the road.
The true ‘whys’ often sound like: “Because I want to be the best example for my children,” and “I will get the most satisfaction in life from being able to walk my granddaughter down the aisle.”
Your personal ‘why’ is what’s going to get you moving, and will consistently give you motivation, day in and day out.
Tip 2: Look at your daily habits and see where you can make some changes
Our success is determined by the things that we do every day, especially in terms of improving our health. This is my core mantra when I work with clients who are facing an uphill climb from obesity or chronic disease, to get to a point where they are healthy, active and happy. In my business, I help people move from a place of chronic disease, to a healthy place they never dreamed was possible.
When I work with people who are truly sedentary I focus on the little areas where they can absolutely make a change – such as taking a 15-minute walk on their lunch-break.
I don’t recommend you tell yourself that you’ll take a 15-minute walk at lunch every day, because that’s unsustainable. Take a look at the areas where you can make these changes on a day-to-day basis to add in activity here and there.
Pick one to three things you can do in a week that will make a healthy change to your routine and hold yourself accountable to them. For example, packing your lunch instead of eating out makes a huge difference. If you are someone who usually buys lunch on a daily basis, it’s not realistic to tell yourself that from here on out you’re going to bring lunch from home every day.
What is more doable is to pick a day or two in the coming week when you will bring a homemade lunch. Then the following week, up the ante: make a promise to yourself that you’ll bring your lunch two to three days. Make sure that you select the exact days too. So decide that on Tuesday and Thursday you will bring your lunch. If you don’t determine the exact days ahead of time, you’ll likely put it off until it’s Wednesday evening and you don’t have time to go to the grocery store and prep your lunch.
If every week you try to add one or two small healthy changes, soon each will become a habit and easier to carry out. Small changes can add up over time to a much healthier, more active lifestyle. It is in the small things in our everyday life where we can truly make lasting changes and find success.
Tip 3 – Find a support system and build a community
The way I see it, like attracts like. Immersing yourself in a community of like-minded people, who look like you and have similar goals will help you build a functional and productive support group.
Often we look to our spouse for support, but for many this can cause relationship friction. I always recommend our LIVE WELL members look for people who can hold them accountable: someone who can check in with you to see if you made it to your fitness class and remind you why it’s important to you that you do. For most people, that’s not a conversation you want to have with your significant other!
At LIVE WELL, our members who keep up long-term weight loss report that the number one thing that keeps them on track is community. At our clinics, members meet each other in class and build relationships and support one another, but if you don’t have that opportunity, reach out to your social network.
Create a Facebook group for you and your friends to help hold each other accountable. Every Sunday night check in with each other to share the three healthy habits that you plan on making part of your week. Be a cheerleader to your friends, and make sure that you feel safe being vulnerable with them. This way, your spouse won’t feel the pressure to push you to work out, and you will be more likely to make your workouts or fitness classes if you know your friends are going to check in with you, or be there alongside you!
In my practice at LIVE WELL, these three lifestyle changes have never failed to help members improve their health. Look at these tips as small strategic steps that you can slowly merge into your life to get you to your end goal – whatever that means to you in terms of your health. Try not to look at the process at once and get overwhelmed. Keep it simple: everyday make some small changes and you’ll be amazed by your results!
About the Author: Sara Hodson
Sara Hodson, BHK, ACSM CEP, is the spirit and passion behind LIVE WELL Exercise Clinic – which is launching its first franchise locations later this year. After years working in cardiac rehab in the public health sector, Sara cashed in her pension in 2011 to launch LIVE WELL with just an idea. LIVE WELL now has four locations and growing!
LIVE WELL is a medical fitness clinic specializing in supervised exercise and healthy lifestyle coaching for people who have chronic health conditions such as diabetes, heart disease, obesity, and for prevention. The rapidly expanding health franchise lives by the motto that exercise is the best medicine.
The mix of inspirational coaching, clinical oversight, customized programs and individualized attention at LIVE WELL produces life-changing results. LIVE WELL is Canada’s first and only chronic disease-focused fitness clinic that makes working out fun and social while obtaining real health results.
For more information on LIVE WELL’s programs visit http://ift.tt/1j9GX3G. For information on franchising, please visit http://ift.tt/2d5BFYf.
from Dai Manuel: The Moose is Loose http://ift.tt/2csYBB9
