It’s so frustrating, right?  Feeling like “This is it!  This is the time I actually get healthy/get fit/lose weight” and you start making changes and seeing bits of progress and then…you go back to your old habits.  Back to the usual way of doing things.  And you begin to wonder, “What’s wrong with me?  Why can’t I just be disciplined enough to do this?”

Let us offer you a bit of hope:  Perhaps it’s not about your discipline, or lack thereof.

Perhaps it’s that you never fully decided to make these changes.

You might believe these changes are good, important even.

You might think your loved one or doctor is right when they say your health concerns them and they want more for you.

You might agree that you should exercise more and eat healthier.

But it’s not enough to make the changes real and lasting.

So, what is?  What do you need to do to reach your health goals?

You need to DECIDE you want this. 

Whenever you decide to change anything in your life, there are predictable steps you’ll move through in the process of making that change.  These steps are called the Stages of Change and range from being fully against making a change (the classic “I don’t have a problem!”), to the point where you’ve made that change a permanent part of your life.

To find success with your health goals, you need to move through these Stages of Change in order.  Trying to short circuit the process leads to the frustrating goal failure cycle.

And as wellness coaches, there is one very crucial stage we see a lot of people skipping.  It’s called the contemplation phase, and this is the part where you DECIDE to make a change. 

You do this by weighing the pros and cons of changing AND of staying the same.  That last part is very important, because for you to decide to make a change, you need to know both what you feel like you’re giving up AND the better future you’re moving toward. 

For example:  let’s say you want to stop late-night snacking.  But it’s hard to do and you’ve had trouble sticking with this goal in the past. 

It’s easy to imagine the good that would come to your life if you were successful making this change (i.e., sleeping better, feeling more energetic, losing weight). 

Most people just picture this good outcome and set a goal of not snacking past a certain time of night. However, it’s also vital to ask yourself what good you’re getting from having those late-night snacks. 

Does it bring comfort after a long day?  Is it the only time you get to be by yourself or with your spouse and you want to celebrate that?  Does it feel like you’ve been giving and sacrificing all day, so this helps you fill back up?   

Once you find out the good you’re getting from this habit, you can acknowledge that to live a healthier life, it feels like you have to let go of something that is meeting a need.

But the great thing is, knowing what need your current habit meets enables you to find other ways to meet that need AND still make the changes necessary to live your healthiest life.

Back to our example:  if we find that late-night snacking is meeting your need to fill back up after a long day of giving and sacrificing (we see you moms out there!), then we can figure out other methods that help you replenish your energy stores.  Once those are in place, it will be a lot easier to give up the late-night snacking and see success with your goal!

Working through these scenarios with you is what we wellness coaches do best.  If this resonated with you and you’re tired of not making progress on your health goals, let this be the day that changes!  Sign up here for a free 30-minute wellness coaching session and try out the coaching process for yourself!

Photo Credits:
Photo by Wesley Tingey on Unsplash
Photo by Elena Mozhvilo on Unsplash
Photo by Edward Howell on Unsplash
Photo by Brooke Cagle on Unsplash