Are you in place right now where you know you don’t want to be, but don’t necessarily know how to move forward to reach your goals? Or maybe, you do know the steps you need to take, but where you want to be compared to where you are seems so far away, that you want to give up before you even start?
I’ve been there too. Like you, I have been in a place of constant searching and striving to reach my goals, but never seemed to obtain them. I have grasped at anything and everything, especially when I feel out of control or fearful of what may happen if I don’t achieve what I’ve set out to.
When it comes to our health, we tend to focus on one side of the equation; food and exercise. And while both of those areas are crucial in the “health equation”, they aren’t the only things that contribute. Sleep, stress management, contentment, focus-all of these things are needed to make you a happy, healthy, productive person. But let’s look at food and fitness first, because let’s face it, what we eat and how we move our body are the building blocks of our physical health.
If you want to make big changes, you have to start with little steps-not try to change everything all at once. When we become fearful, our first inclination is to change everything. When we do this, we set ourselves up for failure. We fail when we try to change everything because we enter into an unrealistic expectation of what ourselves and our lives should look like. You may need to make many changes, but start slowly, start with one thing at a time. When you look at your health this way-and build up healthy practices-eventually they become like second nature. We shy away from change because it’s hard. Why make change harder than it needs to be by piling on multiple demands?
Through my own health transformation and a 50lb weight loss that I didn’t even try to obtain, I started with small steps that resulted in big changes. I kept doing those small steps every single day-even when I didn’t feel like it. Those small steps resulted in big changes over the course of 5 years and still continue on today. Not only do you have to start slowly, but you also have to be patient and realistic in your expectations. Let go of quick fixes or one-week plans. Think of your health as a marathon that never ends.
If there’s one overall factor in achieving your goals (in any area) it’s consistency. Keep working out, keep eating healthy, keep going to bed at a decent time, keep doing the small things every single day and I promise you’ll see results eventually. Eventually is realistic, but eventually does come. You didn’t get out of shape or unhealthy overnight, don’t expect for your body to change with a couple weeks of going to the gym and eating healthy meals. This takes time, a lifetime actually. There are no quick fixes when it comes to your health, it’s all about consistency and staying steadfast in the small steps.