How Slow & Steady Helped Me Win the Race | Diet and Exercise | Real Life Fitness | PhitZone

Take inventory to discover your “why”

With an infant's innocence, reflect on the "why" of change.

Guest Post By Ginger Vieira.

We humans are a funny bunch. Even when we’re unsatisfied with something in our life, the idea of proactively changing is overwhelmingly terrifying. We’d rather continue living the life we know, even if it makes us unhappy, even if it means we’ll never reach the goals we’ve always wanted to reach.

On the flip-side though, another way we to tend to sabotage ourselves is by trying to suddenly, instantly, magically become a whole new person with completely new habits and a totally new lifestyle from one day to the next. POOF! Just like that. It’s like we’re just sticking new habits on top of ourselves with duct tape, hoping it’ll stick for good.

That road is all too familiar for most of us: within two weeks you’re back to your same routine. The duct tape wears off.

As a cognitive health coach, I believe that if the changes don’t start from the inside, from the way you think and feel and view yourself and your challenges, those changes will expire within a matter of weeks. Days, even.

As a client of mine recently said about his coaching experience so far, “This time is different, because I’m taking a slow and cautious approach…by planting a seed on the inside and letting it grow, as opposed to adopting a whole lifestyle of new behaviors in one giant swoop.”

Change is scary. Sure. Building habits from the inside out takes time and patience. Sure. But it’s worth it, and it’s actually a much more enjoyable process than continuing to live your life the way you always have, in a way that’s never really led you to the happiness or goal you’re after.

For challenges in your health, we often say things like, “I want to lose weight. I want to go to the gym every day,” but in the first week of your cognitive coaching program, I’m going to ask you, “Why?”

Why is losing that weight really important? More likely than not, it has nothing to do with the scale or looking sexy. Sure, everyone wants to be sexy and fit, but being fit isn’t defined by a certain size or shape, your opinion of fit is different than anyone else’s. At the very core of that goal, what are you after?

When you become a person who treats their body well, makes time to cook healthy food, makes time for the gym every day, and a person who takes the time to take care of themselves…what does that give you?

Sometimes it’s about self-respect. Self-esteem. Being proud of the decisions you are making for yourself. Knowing that you are choosing good things for yourself because you believe you deserve good things. Knowing that you deserve to be healthy. And happy.

When you’re really clear on why those goals are important to you, that may or may not make it less terrifying (because, hey, being happy is terrifying, I suppose), but at the very least, you’re starting with a clear vision of what you really want for your life.

In my own life, I actually have used this coaching method of breaking down an overwhelming goal to help me write my upcoming book, “Your Diabetes Science Experiment.” I had been talking about writing this book for more than a year before I made any progress. I was fed up with my own procrastination and nonsense, and mostly, I was just overwhelmed. I didn’t know where to start.

By starting at the beginning, and determining why this book was so important to me, on the inside, is what truly propelled my progress. It wasn’t about writing a book so I could say, “Hey! Look at this, I’m published!”

That’s not motivating! That still makes the book feel like a lot of work.

Instead, I realized that writing and completing this book meant so much to me. I really, truly wanted to help people have more control over their diabetes and more control over how diabetes impacts their day-to-day happiness. I wanted to change lives.

That inspired me.

Before you set out with your New Year’s resolutions or your latest weight-loss scheme, ask yourself why this is important to you. Dig a little deeper. Ask yourself if you really want to change your life?

About the author – Ginger Vieira is a cognitive health coach, personal trainer and diabetes advocate at www.Living-in-Progress.com. She’s lived with Type 1 diabetes and Celiac disease for over 12 years. As a drug-tested competitive powerlifter, Ginger has set numerous records in the sport with her best lifts of a 308 lb. deadlift, 190 lb. bench press, and a 265 lb. squat.

Photo: Daniel Wildman