How To Stay Consistent With Your Health And Avoid Falling Off Track
How do we maintain
the motivation, discipline, and obedience we need when it comes to living a
healthy life? As a society and
especially as women within the chasing freedom community, our biggest struggle
is that we have this desire to get healthy, but we can't seem to make it happen
and sustain any changes.
First things first:
you aren't alone in your feelings of not being able to stay on track with a
healthy lifestyle. We all have old
habits and environmental stressors that show up that take over what's really a
priority. It takes time and effort -
it's a commitment to live a healthy lifestyle.
So yeah, it's hard!
This is something I want to work on too...with you - health is SO
important. And when I talk about health,
I talk about it in a holistic sense. I
believe that health isn't just about the physical form; movement and the food
that we eat. Yes, as a whole, these
might be some of the biggest struggles that we have when it comes to our
health, but I see health as a whole container and the foundation of the
container is our spiritual health.
When we know what we
believe in - when we are in tune and spiritually healthy - life is better. Keep that in the back of your mind as we run
through the topic of health, consistency and why we fall off track.
The 3 Main Reasons We Fall Off Track And Actions You
Can Take TODAY
1. Life gets too hard
When
you're in a difficult season, thinking about planning ahead with your food and
squeezing workouts in, feels
exhausting. When I'm in a tough season,
it's really easy to come up with an excuse to not do 'that thing' because it
just seems like a little bit too much - I'm already so exhausted. I know a lot of you can relate to that! And then what happens? We end up fighting ourselves
because we know it won't really take THAT long to take care of 'future you'
that little bit better.
Here's how it commonly plays out (at least for me): we've just got home from work and sat down to chill for the
first time that day, exhausted, and then the battle in our head starts and
exhausts us even more. We know we should
get up and prepare some healthy food...it'll only take a few minutes. But getting up feels too hard. The internal battle we're having comes
because any time we have actually got up and prepared meals for the next day or
layed out gym clothes, we've set the next day up for ourselves to be in a much
better space where we're more likely to reach health goals. So we know it's going to help us, but still,
we don't do it.
Here's
what's REALLY going on...our routine is not
solid enough. We don't have this
true-blue plan to figure out how to navigate this season of life that we're
in. The reason we don't have solid
enough routines is often because we aren't taking where we're trying to go and
what we're trying to be, seriously enough.
We're not really checking in with ourselves to ask WHY we are choosing
to take that extra 15 minutes to take care of ourselves...to ask why we are
putting these things on the back burner when we say our health is so important
to us. Food and movement are two of the
biggest components of us having the energy to do what we actually want to be
doing and really thrive.
Action: To combat the
'life-getting-on-top-of-us' excuse, next time you're faced with that internal
battle, try taking a conscious moment to reflect and ask yourself "why am I making this choice right now?".
2. We simply just don't care enough
Sometimes,
the desire to say screw it is bigger than the desire to improve. If this resonates with you, the question you
should be asking yourself is: "what is it
going to take to care enough?"
For me (and this might work for a lot of you), I sit down and give myself time to watch my hand write out the answers to the following:"I want to be healthy because..."
and then on another page, "these are the
things keeping me from being healthy...".
Action: journal your answers to these questions
and take time to REFLECT. Reflect on the answers you see in front of you and I guarantee you that your care-ometer (it's a word now) is going to go up a lot!
We
often feel exhausted in our bodies, or every time we look at ourselves, we hate
what we see and then we feel frustrated.
We know we need some kind of plan and kick up the butt, but at the same
time, we aren't identifying the real WHY; the real reason why we want something
and the things that are actually getting in the way of us reaching that healthy
point, so we just slap a diet on top of everything else going on in our
life...and then what happens? We're 2
weeks in and we're frustrated, feeling like a failure because we can't stick to
it. We feel like we've wasted money and
then we want to cry because we've fallen into the same trap again. Like, how did that happen AGAIN? All that turmoil because really, we just
haven't cared enough. We aren't
sacrificing or getting rid of things that are causing unhealthy habits in our
lives. We're
not consistent enough to see the result to create the momentum to keep
going.
I
often get asked how I stay motivated.
Here's my honest answer: I don't stay motivated. Motivation
comes from continuously seeing progress and a lot of times we don't see
progress, so we quit. In reality, if
you're doing something the right way, progress won't come within a couple of
days or weeks - it takes time. Since you
are your biggest critic, you are the last person to actually see your
progress. The more self-aware and
intentional you can be, the more likely you are to stay consistent with food
and movement and your health journey as a whole. Do yourself justice and take time to
be more intentional and more self-aware.
I know you might not feel like you have the time to do this, but I
promise that you do! And when you do
make that time, you're actually going to have more free time than you've ever
had. I bet you don't realize how much
time you're spending hating your body, spending money and energy doing and
choosing things that don't honor and steward your body. This is going to be freeing for you; maybe
even a huge pivot in your life once you are able to do this!
3. You're in over your head
Maybe
you're a little ambitious...and don't get me wrong, it's not a bad thing! I love ambitious women - that's how I define
myself to a degree! But people who dream
big often tell themselves unrealistic things about what and how much they can
do. You can be realistic and you can
still be challenged, but we often deceive ourselves in moments of
motivation. When we have bursts of
motivation, we run with our dreams and we can tend to get a little in over our
heads with our ambitions that we lose sight of our whole lifestyle outside of
reaching that goal.
The
other problem we tend to have is that there's no solid, verbal commitment to
our ambition...it's only things we tell ourselves about being 'all in' and that
'everything is going to change'. BUT if
you don't have a solid plan to reach a goal, and haven't verbally committed by
telling the people who love and support you, it is literally just a
thought. Often we don't actually tell
people these things, because it's a lot safer to not
tell them and fail, than to tell them and fail. You don't just feel like you let
yourself down, you feel like you let someone else down too. The pressure of
telling someone that I'm committing to something gives me a new fire...what
about you, sis!? Try it out if you
haven't already!
Action: sit down and write out what goals you
have for yourself right now based on your current lifestyle, commitments and
relationships. What is going to improve
your life right now? Then tell someone
what you are committing to! I know it
can feel so scary. Make sure you can
tell that person WHY you are going to do it.
Just pick 1 thing. Tell someone
about it and then start to recognize what that does for your life. It's crazy how 1 good, new habit in your life
can give you perspective on all the other habits that you have. When you experience results, that's when
momentum is created which in turn brings more, better habits into your life. It's addictive. Over time, once we commit to something
that is serving us, we crave it. If
you're this ambitious soul, it's time to sit down and take inventory of your
life. Be realistic. What's going to challenge you? Then tell someone.
Last question for
you to ponder and maybe journal on: do you
actually believe that you can simply live a healthy lifestyle?
If this blog spoke
to you, go check out episode 84 of my podcast - The Chasing Freedom Show. You might even
like my episode from 27 September 2019 called Motivation, Inspiration & How To Stay On Track. You can find it
on Spotify, iTunes, or SoundCloud. If you love the
podcast, screenshot and share it with me on social media @trainertanner #chasingfreedom.
P.S. Did
you know that I have a FREE business coaching Facebook group (called Chasing Freedom Biz Leaders)
for women who are wanting to start or build up their businesses? I do a live
coaching here every Thursday at 12.30pm EST on live video. Join now if you want to be coached for free, to post and
share with the other amazing women and to be held accountable. I just love this
little group because I genuinely love and feel called to build up leaders in
this world.
P.P.S. If you're wanting something a little
more to help elevate you and your business, it's time to start gearing up for
the Belong Conference this year! This is a live, in-person conference that'll
be in downtown Louisville, Kentucky in the fall of 2020. It's a 1-day conference where you'll
experience massive growth in your business AND in your faith. Keep up to date by following @belong.conference on
Instagram.
Xo,
Tan
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