BUILD CONSISTENCY FIRST
Success comes in many forms, and you can say that one person’s success is another’s failure. In other words, you choose what it is for you. However, regardless of your definition of success, there are thoughts, actions and feelings you have on a consistent basis, which are integral to your accomplishments.
Consistency is vital to long-term wellness. The thoughts you hold in mind on a regular basis lead to actions, which create (or frustrate) you on your path of optimal health. What you hold in mind also sparks feelings that can propel you into the gym early in the morning and may compel you to choose a salad over a cheeseburger.
Read on to discover more about the importance of consistency, from the book EMPOWERED.
However, initial thoughts and feelings of excitement about the positive changes you envision can lead you to try to do too much all at once. Everyone probably has a story about someone who, they think, simply quit smoking or gave up sugar, but most people are more successful taking one step at a time toward their goal. Studies confirm that when it comes to change, the most successful people make one change at a time. Those who try to make more than one change halve the rate of success.
Gene’s Success Story
Please note: the name has been changed to protect the privacy of this amazing person.
Gene was already an accomplished chef when he became my client, but he knew he had to take better care of himself. Between grinding upwards of 80 hours a week in his restaurant and enjoying himself a little too much when he wasn’t working, he was nearly 100 pounds over his ideal weight. We started slowly, but he quickly improved his level of fitness enough to where he would finish every workout. The extra weight was coming off and he was feeling great.
Food was more of a challenge. I mean, he worked in a restaurant! He reduced the amount of alcohol he drank each day, but he struggled to change his eating habits. Gene often went all day without stopping to eat a real meal. So, after cooking and taste-testing all day, he would be starving at the end of the workday. This led to overeating unhealthy foods late at night, fitful sleep and lethargy in the morning.
Clearly, he needed a strategy. If he was going to continue to lose weight, he could not starve himself all day and binge at night. Gene needed one strategy he could blend into his busy life.
He had established a consistent pattern of exercise over the first four months we worked together. He met me for 3 workouts a week and had added a walk into his days away from the gym. As is often the case early in an exercise program, his progress was meteoric, but it would stall if we didn’t shake up the routine. It was time make one change to his eating habits.
Gene understood that going all day without a plan for his eating was like throwing open the doors to his restaurant without a menu. So, we worked together and created a healthy, easy-to-prepare menu for him to choose from each day. He actually started getting up 15 minutes earlier in the morning to prep a simple, but nutritious lunch, which he ate in the late afternoon before his dinner rush at work. This one change made all the difference for Gene. He ate less after work, he felt better the next morning and was able to exercise with more intensity. He continued to lose weight.
A Lifetime of Optimal Health
Gene’s example (he eventually lost 80 pounds and has kept it off) is one of many in which making one change a consistent part of thoughts, feelings and actions is the key to success. The objective is lifelong, vibrant wellness. The one-change-at-a-time approach works because unexpected “stuff” is going to happen and maintaining one new and positive activity is more likely to stick.
Clearly, you are serious about building a lifetime of optimal health. This is the way to build a firm foundation which supports your intention to be healthy. You are also aware that when challenges arise, the instinct is to revert back to the habits of coping which always worked for you up to this point. If you try to be “perfect” and change everything at once without building a stable foundation under your intention…well, you’ve been there and have a dirty t-shirt to prove it.