A Lifestyle For a Lifetime

I have spent a great deal of time thinking about health and wellness for the last number of years; more acutely in the last six months. Considering my own adoption of a healthier way of life it has lead me to understand a few things about goal setting a lot more clearly. Due to my lifestyle changes, which include exercise, I have lost more than 45 pounds and apparently that is a lot. Really? I didn't notice. But why I didn't notice is the intriguing part of this whole thing. Let me explain.

For starters we don't have a scale at home so monitoring my weight isn't possible. Which leads right into the main point...why would watching my weight be my goal? Aren't goals supposed to be something that can be reset continuously to achieve long term success? Of course they are.

Improper goal setting is a huge oversight. Goals set incorrectly only set you up to fail. The goal should not be weight loss, it should be a healthy lifestyle, because the bonus side effect of a healthy lifestyle is your body's natural order of things reducing your weight. Essentially the side effect of your goal is weight loss, but it is not your goal. Without a healthy lifestyle our bodies are in constant defense mode, trying to figure out whether we are living or dying. With all the crap we stuff into it and in the excessive quantities we consume food; combined with the complete lack of any discernible exercise to speak of; the body does what it thinks is necessary to keep us alive. Unfortunately with so many poor signals from us on the outside the inside eventually ends up killing us anyway. By producing a healthy, ALIVE environment through proper eating habits and exercise your body will respond accordingly. Know this...exercise is simply achieved with the elevation of your heart rate for about 30 minutes cumulatively a day; three to four times a week. Not six, two hour sessions at the gym a week. We ALL have 30 minutes cumulatively in a day to dedicate to our health.

Being healthy is a lifestyle for a lifetime. Making your goal to lose weight is like putting a band-aid on a gun shot wound, it won't work. Becoming healthy will not only heal your ailing body it will also shed weight. It is about setting goals that create desired side effects not goals that are the side effects. Here is the kicker! A BONUS side effect of being a healthier person is losing some unwanted weight.

I think if the goal is to "lose weight" people are doomed to fail. Because all the work they do is designed to lose weight.

Consider this...If the goal is weight loss then once you achieve your goal what is the next step? The goal is now accomplished and how do you reset the goal of losing weight if you have already lost your goal weight? You can't continuously make losing weight your goal. Worse case; once the weight is off you stop doing the things you were doing to lose weight and gain all the weight back and then some! If the changes made to lose weight are not something you can consider a lifestyle change then you will not be able to sustain the diet indefinitely. That is why diets don't work. Your miracle diet has you jump through all the hoops, take all the pills, drink all the shakes and commit to doing everything EXCEPT taking the time to get in tune with your body and letting it manage itself. For what? You lose 80 pounds in two months and you are "cured"!! So you stop taking the pills, stop drinking the shakes and stop jumping through the hoops and surprise, surprise the weight comes back.

Weight loss can be fickle too. The natural plateaus of weight loss can be a killer to the motivation and cause disappointment. If the results aren't there each time your feet hit the scale it is tough. If the goal is a healthier lifestyle then that goal is ongoing and you are never truly finished. You can then continue to refocus your sites when you are feeling bored or unmotivated. Remembering your goal is health makes it easier to kick yourself back into to high gear.

Being healthy has benefits that can been seen everyday, all the time. So, if the goal is overall health, including weight loss/management, it creates a healthier body and allows the body to do it's miraculous work with more ease. Starting with exercise producing better blood flow, which benefits the body from head to toe. Increased blood flow from exercise aids in reducing the risks of a boat load of cancers; not to mention making you feel good. Your brain is healthier with increased blood flow causing you to be more alert and thinking more clearly. Happiness is much easier when we can think clearly.

I like the cartoon at the start of this blog. It speaks directly to all those out there who "don't have time" to exercise. The "inconvenience" of a commitment to exercise and your health is minor when compared to the time commitments of death. Your health HAS to be a priority. If not now, when? When you are retired? Hopefully you make it there without falling apart or worse dying.

Time to pencil in exercise and self awareness into that busy schedule of yours. Considering tomorrow never actually arrives putting your health off until then is not a good plan.

My Two Cents
Jamie