Tag: goals

Goal

Two simple ways to meet your goals!

 

This post gave me a good giggle this morning. Which is awesome because laughing is the best!

So many people are struggling right now to see their New Year’s resolutions through to the end of the month, let alone the end of the year. According to the U.S. News and World Report, 80% of people will drop their resolution by the time February rolls around.

There are two main reasons I find that people, myself included, fail to meet the goals they set.

Reason #1

First, they don’t make a plan. So you have decided that you are going to cook every night so you can get out of the takeout rollercoaster. This is a great, clearly defined goal, but…but you haven’t done anything to shift your schedule. If you don’t make the space for this new habit (like meal planning and prepping on the weekend), you are going to find yourself squeezing in these homemade dishes until you are all squeezed out and revert to your old ways.

Tip 1

Create a plan. Decide what ya need to do to make this new activity happen and when you are going to do those things. Decide what day(s) and what time(s) of the day you are going to focus on those activities, and then write them down! Setting a time for the work you need to meet your goal will increase your success rate 2 to 3 times.

Reason #2

Secondly, people who fail to meet their goals throw the baby out with the bathwater. I find that many people think that if they can’t make their activity happen exactly the way they envisioned it, then they just won’t do it. For example, they set the goal of going to the gym for an hour every day, but something happens (because life!) and they only have 30 minutes. Instead of taking advantage of that 30 minutes, they hold on to their vision and do nothing. As this happens more and more (life happens), they find themselves doing less and less of what they wanted to do —  until it’s February and they have joined the 80% of people that have fallen off the resolution wagon.

Tip 2

Be imperfect. At the end of the day, our goals are about improving the quality of our lives, not about being the perfect cook or be the best gym goer. Even though we worship perfectionism in our culture, it is the killer of success and joy. So just do it! Do it imperfectly. Eventually, it will become just what you do, and you will find yourself where you want to be.

You got this!

healing journey

I’m not perfect and thats ok

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perfec

Since dedicating myself to the mission of helping others live the life they are meant to live, I’ve gotten pretty concerned with how I appear to people. What will people think if they see my kid eating sugar? What will people think if they see me eating sugar, being stressed out or one of the many other things that people could use to judge me? Then I had an epiphany: I’m not perfect and you don’t have to be either  to have the health you want. You just have to make health your priority.

This epiphany came to me one night when my husband was held up in traffic after getting off late and I was standing in my small kitchen making dinner trying to keep things light while “helping” my oldest do homework  when my naked two-year-old informed me that there was poo-poo in her room. Fantastic!

My life is not perfect. My kids aren’t perfect, my house isn’t perfect, and sometimes my refrigerator smells like my daughter room did that night. BUT, I make my health a priority and I put into place those things that support my health.

Like meal planning so those crazy nights don’t end with expensive take-out. Or stress management so I can more easily handle the chaos. But most importantly, I know that my health is a reflection of what I prioritize. When I “mess up,” instead of punishing myself or going down some hedonistic hole of binge eating, I just remind myself of what I really want and get back to doing those things that will get me there.

Make your health a priority by contacting me today for a free consultation.

healing journey, Health, self-care

Self-care, dang it!

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self-care

I’m taking a break from my gut health series to write about something that has been on my mind: self-care.  Self-care is vital to our health and, in many ways, is the linchpin of creating and sustaining a healthy lifestyle. And while it’s one of those things that is talked about ad nauseam in health blogs and in health-focused magazines, it’s really hard to get people to actually do it.

In fact, self-care might be the most challenging aspect of health for my clients.  I preach it because I know how important it is, but even I can have a hard time incorporating it into my life. In fact, over the last month I’ve not tended to myself at all. And I have excuses. There’s my business and volunteer commitments, unexpected travel, illness, and now a toddler that can scale just about anything.  In the face of all that, I just let self-care fall off the list. And you know what? It did not serve me. Here I was trying to serve everyone else, but I had nothing to give.  I did it; I took care of those diverse needs, but I wasn’t eating as well as I should or exercising enough. I felt overwhelmed; I had very little patience for those around me and  started to seriously feel resentful. I don’t know about you, but this is not how I want to live my life.

Part of the challenge of incorporating self-care into our lives is that we don’t really know how to do it.  When pushed to say what we think it is, we tend to think about eating right and exercising. While there is truth in that, it goes a little deeper.  It’s really about the why and how. Self-care requires a shift in our thinking. We prepare good food or exercise not because we are beating ourselves into submission but because we know that when we eat well and move our bodies we feel better and we can handle our lives with more grace. It’s about turning off the T.V. and the phone at the end of a long day and curling up with a good book so that we can get deeper, more restful sleep. It’s meditating, spending time with friends that lift us up, and paying attention to and managing our stress.  It’s about making those things that build us up and nourish our body and mind a priority.

Here are a few tips for incorporating self-care into your life.

  1. Pick your self-care. Decide on one or two self-care practices you want to work into your life. Maybe it’s just using all that fancy face washing things you got for Christmas or maybe it’s practicing yoga daily. Pick something that will nourish you.
  2. Schedule it. Once you have an idea of what you want to do, put it on your calendar each day and treat it like you would a meeting with your boss.
  3. DO IT! Seriously, you will always have too many things on your list and not enough time. What does it hurt to take half and hour or less to focus on your health? Nothing. It hurts nothing.

If you need help figuring out how to get self-care into your life or are ready to transform your health, contact me for a free consultation. 

Health, Health Coaching

Welcome to the new year!

cholleyhurt
Image courtesy of Karen Watson at thegraphicsfairy.com
Image courtesy of Karen Watson at thegraphicsfairy.com

It’s that time of the year to get  caught up in the “self improvement through resolutions” fever.  Unfortunately, statistics show us that most of these best laid plans fizzle out by the time February comes around. If or when that happens, we tend to feel like failures and wait until next year to do it all again. Well, I have some thoughts that might help you avoid the plan-big/fail-hard trap.

1. Don’t get carried away. It’s so great to feel motivated to make positive changes, but 365 days are a lot of days. If you resolve on January 1st to wake up at 5 am and work out for an hour every day, you’re probably going to have a hard time making that happen all the way to December 31st.  First, your body probably isn’t fit enough to keep that schedule because it’s going to need some extra rest. Secondly, where is the joy in waking up early to try to beat your body into submission?

When setting resolutions (i.e. goals) think big. What physical activities do you want to do when you are 60? Figure out the actions you need to take to get there, looking at little actions that build on themselves. Before you start a new activity, figure out what your motivation is and ask yourself some questions, like does this activity help achieve my long-term goal. Which leads me to my next point.

2.  Reevaluate!  I encourage you to set a date with yourself, maybe once a month or once every week, and look at your actions over that time. See if the changes you are making really work with your life and if they are really moving you toward your goal. For example, if you want to cook at home every night, are you preparing the menu you need ahead of time and does that menu reflect the actual time and energy you have each evening to cook? If not, how can you make it easier on yourself to meet your goal?  Maybe plan for an easy three ingredient stir fry instead of a three course meal on those hectic nights.

3. Be nice! No matter how motivated you are to feel better and meet your goals, you are probably going to have some setbacks. Don’t let this topple you. You are human, and you will make mistakes. Its not a big deal. If you fall off that horse by going a week without doing those actions you planned, show yourself some love and resolve to get back on that horse the next day. Your health is determined by what you prioritize and what you do most of the time; it’s not determined by the slip ups.

4. Tell everybody. Accountability is one of the most important components of making changes, so tell a friend, or a few friends, what you are up to. And if this is your year to make those big, life-altering changes, then shoot me an email and we can set up a free initial health consultation.

Its been a few days since we celebrated the earth making its trip around the sun, but  I can already tell I’m going to have a good year. And I know it’s going to be a good year for you, if you let it.

P.S. I’m currently working on posts to help you meet your health goals without breaking the bank. So tell me in the comments what you would like to read about.