The Ultimate Commitment: You. By Nicole Burley
As a life coach and a health coach I have the opportunity to observe the complicated relationship people often have with the idea of commitment.
For example, folks are usually very committed when they begin a new health regimen. It’s new, it’s exciting, and they have a lot of energy for achieving their goals. It’s never that difficult to stick to healthy eating and exercise…in the beginning.
But there’s a common misconception that you only need to be committed up until the moment that you achieve your goal weight. There’s a myth that, once you reach that weight, or fit into those jeans, you will live happily ever after and all your dreams will come true.
The magical thinking is that your healthy lifestyle will perpetuate itself with no further thought or effort on your part – once you achieve your dream physique.
Though that would be wonderful (!), it doesn’t quite work that way – and this is why people so often ‘fail’ and re-gain all the weight they may have lost. They were prepared to commit to a ‘target’. They weren’t prepared to commit to a lifestyle.
When you discover that, in fact, you have to commit to making healthy choices over and over and over again – forever – yes, forever – it can be a bitter, bitter pill to swallow.
What a rip-off, right?
Why bother doing all this work to get trim and fit, if you’re going to have to keep working at it for the rest of your life? I’m teasing, of course – but I have found this line of thinking to be very common!
I prefer to look on this reality, and the magnitude of the commitment, as empowering – rather than a source of frustration.
I invite you to think about this for a second: You’re alive.
You are a thinking, breathing, growing, changing person – gifted with a physical body.
Is it realistic to expect that there is a major piece of your existence – your body and your health – that will not require your ongoing commitment and participation?
Likely not.
Losing weight and keeping it off are two very different skills – but both require your steady commitment.
For example – how does this sound to you:
“But I just had my teeth cleaned at the dentist. You mean I’m going to have to keep brushing and flossing every day…..forever?”
It sounds silly, right?
Of course you have to keep taking care of your teeth – always. You’ll notice the ill effects if you go even one day without brushing!
By the same token, of course you are going to have to keep thinking about what you eat and how you move your body every day. Of course you are going to have to keep making smart choices.
You’re alive!
My advice? Be Alive.
Be alive – and committed.
Recognize that your life and your health cannot be outsourced or left on auto-pilot – or ignored. The commitment to yourself begins and ends, quite literally, with YOU.
Please leave a comment and let me know – what is the most challenging part of committing to your long-term health and well-being?
My guest blogger for October 2013 is Nicole Burley, M.Ed, ACC – a certified life coach and health coach with a specialty in plant-based nutrition. Nicole is the creator of The Healthy Habits Coaching Club – an online community where you can stay healthy and motivated – no dieting allowed. www.NicoleBurley.com
Nicole is the author of ‘Proud Not Perfect: A Practical Approach To Healthy Habits (No Dieting Or Deprivation Allowed)’ – available on Amazon.
Nicole Burley, M.Ed., ACC
“Health is fun. Diets are not”.
Join the Healthy Habits Coaching Club!
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