"I know what I need to do, I just don't do it." Does that sound familiar? I hear that from close to nine out of ten people I talk to about leading a more Healthy Way of Life. I often give people the benefit of the doubt in assuming they do know someinformation about nutrition and exercise, although it is often a mixed amount of accurate and innaccurate information from news, friends and conflicting books or magazines. Some people really do know some good information about nutrition and exercise, but don't follow through with what they know. So, for some, it's knowing what to do. For others, it's just doing it. Over the next several months, we'll take a look at some of the basic habits of a Healthy Way of Life. To help those that want to know more about what do do, we'll discuss some topics for the purpose of education. For those that need to just do it, each week can be a challenge to start changing habits.
Willingness to Change
If you were to ask people within your social circle how willing they are to change their exercise & nutrition habits, you'd likely get a variety of reasons. Some of the reasons may include: I don't have time, it's not realistic, it's too restrictive, I can't eat what I want to eat, etc. The reasons often include assumptions about what proper nutrition is. Too many people equate good nutrition with being on a diet, which means needing to give up foods they like, OR it means they must change their daily habits to make a new way of eating fit in with their lifestyle. To live a more healthy way of life, we have to be willing to change. When the fear of continuing down the path we are on is greater than the comfort of staying in our normal routine, we are ready to do something different. Some of the triggers that help people take on a more healthy lifestyle include:
- seeing the impact poor choices are having on their children
- a friend or family member facing the destructive results of poor nutritional habits
- the scale hitting an all-time high
- needing to find a new store to shop for clothes
- a picture of themselves that opens their eyes
Many people reach the point of willingness to change and some make a very valiant effort to do it, but they just cannot stick with it.
Ability to Change
A very small percentage of people can dramatically change their lifestyle overnight. Many will attempt to do so, but if they try to change too much at once, they may hit a point of saying "this is just too inconvenient." Also, if they dramatically change their nutrition and exercise habits and don't see a dramatic change in their health and fitness, they may end up claiming "this doesn't work for me" or "I just can't lose weight." The truth is, changing the effects of a lifelong way of eating can take time. Every time you eat, you are affecting your entire body's biochemistry. Undoing years of poor choices can take time. To make the changes stick, I cannot stress enough the importance of making one to two small changes into habits and then focusing on the next small habit. When done the right way, it is amazing how different your lifestyle can be over the course of a year.
You may have heard the story of a frog in boiling water, but I want to put a different spin on this story. If you haven't heard it before, it goes something like this:
If you put a frog in boiling water, it will immediately jump out. If you put a frog in cold water and slowly turn up the heat, it will stay in the water until it boils to death.
This story is often told to explain how we can become more and more deconditioned or sick over time without knowing how far we are from health. Put another way, if someone attempts to change too much, too fast, even though he or she is making healthy choices, it can be such a drastic change that they throw up their hands an say "I can't do this." The point is, if you start from where you are today, and work on very small changes, you can drastically change who you are over time, without feeling like it's too much to take from week to week.
Getting Started
You don't have to wait for a New Year's Resolution to make a commitment. Start now. There is a reason this weekly article will be written on a Sunday. The week is just beginning. As the weeks go on and we get into food choices, you may be able to run to the store to prep for the week. Before taking on the challenge of change, you have to commit yourself to it. Willingness to change usually has to include a reason to do so. So, for this week, there are two challenges.
First, consider how much better your life will be if you commit to a lifestyle change. What would be different a year from now? How would you feel? How would it impact your life and the life of those around you?
Second, be willing to share with others. There are millions of people who feel just like you, have gone through similar experiences, and want to know they have someone like themselves to relate to.One of the most underutilized features of the new website is the ability to communicate through discussions and through comments in blog posts. My hope is that this weekly series will result in comments following the post, that lead to discussions with those who are actively trying to change their lifestyle. No one has arrived at an ideal lifestyle. We're all just at different points long the path. So, for this week (don't leave me hanging 
) please post a comment that describes how your life will be different by committing to making one new change ever week over the upcoming year. If you're reading this and are already along that path, please share your experience so far. I'm hoping you will continue to share your thoughts, successes and struggles as we look at one new habit each week.
In health,
Tom Nikkola
This article is not intended for the treatment or prevention of disease, noras a substitute for medical treatment, nor as an alternative to medicaladvice. Use of recommendations in this and other articles is at thechoice and risk of the reader.
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