Now What? Time to get real!
Week 1
By Lisa Schilling RN
Well, congratulations on taking the first step to a healthier you. The right frame of mind is the first battle you face when it comes to making changes. You must be READY to do it. This is the same for quitting smoking or any other habit we want to change. Wanting to, is not enough. Someone telling us we “should do it” is not enough. We have to be ready to make the change. It requires something of us. We must get to the point where we decide “I have had enough! I am going to do something about this “issue of choice” that I don’t like.” And beyond that there must be a real commitment to do what it will take to change your current outcome. I always tell the students “If you do not like what you are getting you will have to change what you are doing.”
Behavior determines outcome. Ouch! That means we got ourselves into this situation through a pattern of routine behaviors. The only way will get a new outcome is to alter the routine and develop a NEW pattern. We are a peculiar people! We truly want to continue to do what we have always done but get different results. That sounds nuts, but most of us-if we were honest-would admit that is what we would like. That is why the diet and fitness industry is lucrative. They make millions of dollars off those of us who want some product, pill or plan to make us change an undesirable situation. This product, pill or plan is usually purchased in the hope that we can live just like we always have but suddenly get the “desired result.” This is true for ALL unhealthy habits. It is so easy to do what we have always done. No matter how busy we are we all have a general routine or set of personal habits we abide by. Often this is unconscious. How do we spend our free time, how do we structure our time after work or when kids get home from school? What do we do when we get stressed or bored? We follow a pattern many times. These set of behaviors become habits. Most often we continue the habits that are comfortable and discontinue the ones that are push us beyond our conscious or unconscious boundaries. This is why most New Years Resolutions are often a distant memory by February. We realize that the outcome we desire is only obtained -in the time frame we desire-as a result of behaviors or patterns that are too hard to maintain on a daily basis. Note that I said “in a time frame we desire.” That really is the key. We want what we want, now-not later. We want to “have it now and pay later” and good health or weight loss is a “pay first and get it later” deal. Not to mention you must keep paying to keep it. That is not a comfortable proposition for most of us. We want to lose the weight or get our health status better fast so we can go back to our comfortable patterns faster. This is the main reasons yo-yo dieters end up failing and gaining more weight. When we lose fast, we will lose some muscle mass. Bad idea, remember, the more muscle mass we have the more efficiently our bodies will burn calories. We lose muscle and our metabolism will slow. Then when we quickly reach our goal through those restrictive and unrealistic methods we feel empowered to start back into our old habits. Even worse idea, now you face the same issues you had before and to make it worse your metabolism is slower than it was before. Most will gradually put all of the lost pounds back on and them some more due to the slower metabolism. It is very harmful to alter our bodies’ natural cues. Been there, done that. I am someone who has struggled with weight all my life. I have never been what most would consider overweight, but I was seldom near my goal weight and I constantly had to exercise or change my diet to maintain or lose some extra pounds. I went through years of up and down and have real empathy for people who enjoy food and are forced to alter eating patterns to adjust body weight. Even though I have a great deal of knowledge about fitness and nutrition it does not guarantee I will do what I know works. It still is a choice, “Do what is comfortable and have a less than desirable outcome” or “Do what I know works and have the outcome I desire.” You face this CHOICE too.
I am here to help you figure out how to make this time different! If you lose a large amount of weight only to gain it all back within the year, what good has this challenge done? I want to facilitate people who are ready to make a change. Give them real life strategies that work long term.
The first tip is: Ditch All or Nothing thinking. Most of us are either trying to work a restrictive and unpleasant plan or we chuck it all and make no attempts to live healthier. We must embrace MODERATION! Have you ever suffered from the affliction “All or Nothing Syndrome”? I know I have. I am the queen of sporadic events. Gung-ho for a while and then when things change a little, I drop completely off the radar. This is true of healthy eating, exercise, and personal de-stress time. I am hit or miss. Either going great guns or not at all, does that sound familiar to anyone or am I alone in this saga? You may not be as extreme as me, but I think most people suffer from some form of this. This lack of consistent good habits causes no real progress to be made. We stay on that up and down roller coaster. Do well for a while when things are good, then chuck it all when it is no longer new or convenient anymore. I believe this is the heart of unhealthy living Being overweight or having health problems is just a symptom of a bigger problem. That problem seems to be a lack of consistent good habits. We want all or nothing. Either we a making a big effort to do it all right or we are just on coast mode. The mind is willing but the flesh is weak. So what can we do about this? I think we need to admit that it is ok to have moderation. Do a little bit all the time and not, surpassing goals one day and then not even meeting them another. We must make a conscious effort to add some of these healthy habits back into our life. We will not always be able to just pick up where we left off on our routine. Often we will have to start much smaller so we can build back up to a more regular pattern. Slow and steady wins the race. We have all heard that but it is so true. We get “hare syndrome.” We run fast for a while, then we take a little nap and in the end, the turtle wins the race. We need to become more like turtles, slow and steady. We need to add in little healthy habits. And become content with that. On purpose, we must add in small episodes of exercise, make a few better food choices, or doing a few minutes of quality reading for your mental health. *We need to put to rest the big diet, the big exercise routine, and the big special day for myself-plan. e need to become happy with life in moderation and accept the joy it can bring. We are supposed to enjoy life, not dread it or feel bad about not doing certain things. I am hoping to make some small changes in my life, accept not being perfect and actually see some long-term results. I am ready to get off my roller coaster. Turtle Power! Good luck to you in your journey! Another huge problem is abruptly trying to stop our bad habits without replacing them with another pleasant alternative. Replacing sitting on the couch, eating Doritos with 20 minuets of exercise is not what most would consider and equal trade off on the pleasure scale! We have to add in pleasurable replacements as well as the more challenging ones we need. Think of what you would consider looking forward to. It will be different for each person. We have different schedules, likes and dislikes. The point is to make some special time to look forward to-rewards for the new healthy habits you are adding. If the replacement behavior is not pleasurable you will not stick to it long term. Usually a regular healthy habit must replace an unproductive one. That means we must give up an old behavior to embrace a new one. We do not give up old habits without a fight. There are only so many hours in the day and trying to add without taking something away becomes a burn out problem. It is good to look at how we spend our time. Just like when we organize a closet, we see that there is only so much space. You can only fill it with so many items before it is too full to find anything. You also need some room left to move things around. This is called MARGIN. So it is with our time. We need to visually see where all of our time goes. Making a daily calendar can help. By doing this it is very easy to see where bad habits are hiding and where you can schedule some new healthier habits. Most of us do not plan time for ourselves; we take what is left over. Often that time is squeezed out by not being realistic about how much time other activities will take. We plan out time as we would like things to go and not how they will most likely go. This is a big problem for most people. We must schedule time in our day for personal improvement. Activities to recharge the batteries such as, walking, exercising, reading, hobbies, relaxation time, and other things that help us to be happier and more fulfilled. When we plan accurate time for these things we give ourselves a gift of time. By visually graphing your time you can see what is stealing your precious energy. No time for you? Then you need to plan ways to prune some “non-fruit bearing” activities from your life. Having time for yourself is essential to your mental and physical health. If you neglect that, you will pay for it in stress, burn out, and dissatisfaction. Most doctor visits are a direct result of stress related illness. So either pay now or pay later! *This week try keeping a time journal. Use one color for planning and one for what really happened. This should be a visual reminder and evaluation of how we can better use time. Believe in small changes and step out! You CAN do it!
Helpful tools:
The internet is full of information! Almost too much, it is easy to become overwhelmed and not utilize the tools it provides. Some worthwhile sites:
www.mypyramid.gov
This site will help you analyze your current food choices and guide you to make better ones.
http://health.discovery.com
Click on National Body Challenge and enter the sign up information. If you like to have specific information on what to do, that is tailored to your specific needs; this is the site for you. It will give you a daily meal plan with recipes and daily exercise instruction with detailed info and video example if you need it. They put this together based on the information you enter. It is free. The site also has other related information and useful links.
• I will answer heath & fitness questions at email: [email protected].
Great Local Opportunity!
There is a class available for people who would like to lose weight or need an incentive to start an exercise program. Also for people worried about having a heart attack or stroke. Enroll today in this fun and informative class taught by Jason Nold, assistant baseball coach and Ellsworth Hall Director. You will learn about cardio health, weight management, nutrition, physical activity, as well as, how to set up your own workout routine. This class will have a lecture and workout component. Non-KCC members will receive membership to the KCC for the duration of the class. The first class will meet in Geyer Hall and some will be in KKC.
Cost of the class: $35, if a KCC member; $55 if not a KCC member. To enroll, call the NCMC Continuing Education Department at 660-359-3948, ext. 1352 or 1278. Times are Mondays and Wednesdays, Jan. 14-Feb. 20, 6:30 to 7:30 p.m.
We are fortunate to have many resources available for those who want to learn more about how to make healthy food choices or how to design an exercise program. If you do not have a lot of money or access to the Internet, don’t forget the Library. They have free Internet access for those who understand how to navigate around on it. And if you are not computer savvy they have a large supply or books on the subject. Many show examples and give sample plans. There is a style and format to fit everyone’s needs. While you are there find a book for pleasure as well. While you feed your mind with info you can feed your spirit with some relaxing activity. Take a look at the audio books and videos. Audio books are great for getting out and walking. They help the time to fly and keep you going to find out what will happen next. The laps fly by when you get hooked into a story. They even have exercise videos you can check out and regular ones to just enjoy as well. If you have not been to the library in a while, check-it-out, pun intended!
I hear people say “I just can’t lose weight” all the time. To that I say, you just have not unlocked a lifestyle that will support the change your body will respond to. But if you really want to change, there is a way. Our mission is to give you the resources and motivation to make this an enjoyable and rewarding experience that brings about real lifestyle change. Restrictive and unrealistic plans will only bring about temporary results that cause frustration. Enjoy your life by making small choices to re-shape the big picture. Best wishes to you all.
This website brought to you in part by the following sponsor:
