Mental Moment-How is Your New Year

We are 19 days into 2013. How’s it going? Did you resolve to eat better and start an exercise program? What changes have you made in your life to reach those goals?

Huge goals

Eating better and starting an exercise program are 2 huge goals. If you think about these two things in this broad of a sense you probably will never ‘get there’. Why? Looking at these goals in this way is too overwhelming. What does it mean to eat right? How do you start an exercise program. These goals need to be broken down into smaller, realistic, achievable goals. Please seem my blogs on goal setting: https://drmichellecleere.com/2012/mental-moment-long-short-term/ & https://drmichellecleere.com/2012/mental-moment-take-action/

Real Simple

I am not saying that eating better and starting an exercise program is real simple. I was a contributor for an article in the February issue of Real Simple magazine. If you get a chance pick one up. It’s called: The Workout Whisperer on page 116. The article talks about the major obstacles around exercise (time, boredom, support, weather, lack of ‘results’), how to overcome them and concrete ways to get there. For example, I talk about how ‘not having time’ as a barrier toward exercise is usually more of a perception than reality. When I work with people who are struggling to exercise I have them keep a time dairy for a few days to give them a more realistic view of how they spend their time. People think they have a good sense of how they spend their time but are usually surprised at  how they really spend their time. We talk about adding small amounts of exercise: starting off with 5-10 minutes once or twice a day.

Fitness professionals

One of my passions is to help fitness professionals understand people who are new to exercise and help them come up with innovative ways to work with new exercisers on the emotional blocks and barriers that all people new to exercise deal with. It’s scary to start a new exercise program. Fear of the unknown tends to lead to perceived barriers around lack of time. People don’t want to talk about their fear so they displace that by telling themselves and other people around them that they don’t have time. Bottom line, if you want to exercise, it’s important to talk about that fear and others. Personal trainers need to be equipped to have these conversations but performance coaches such as myself can really drill down and help you move past the emotional blocks getting in the way of you reaching your goal(s).

Health coaches

When it comes to eating better I always advocate that clients work with a health coach. I help with the emotional blocks around changing eating habits but a health coach can help you understand how to eat right. My friend Amy Griffith is a great example of what I think a health coach should be. Amy can provide you with recipes, comprehensive menu plans, personalized educational handouts, pantry lists, not to mention support and an active ear, throughout your time together. Let’s uncover the favorite foods you never knew you had! This isn’t about taking away or eating less, but about adding in more nutrient-rich calories. Amy works with you to transform your relationship with food by providing customized, fun, educational, and delicious health programs, supporting you as you make incremental steps towards new habits, resulting in lasting changes (http://embracehn.com/).

You might think you know what it means to ‘eat better’ but I guarantee if you did you would already be doing it.

30 days in

I used to run a fitness facility. January 1 we would have a huge influx of new members. Sad that at that time my fitness staff didn’t have a good clue about how to work with this influx of people because 31 days after January 1 60% or more of those people left because they weren’t getting the mental or physical support they needed to start and adhere to an exercise program. You need the right village: at the very least you need the right personal trainer and the right health coach if not a performance coach to get you moving in the right direction.

It’s almost 30 days in, what do you need to change about what you are doing to be successful?

Let me know how I can help. I have free 30 minute phone consults.

Dr. Michelle

Photo credit: illustrationsource.com