Achieving your Health Goals

It's the end of January! Have you given up on your health goals?

It's hard, it's a lot of work, it's not fun, you're over it. I get it!

Did you know that there is a Quitting Day? Yup, it's January 13th? This is the day when most people quit their New Years resolutions. By 01Feb 80% of New Years Resolutions fail. How about you? Did you set New years resolutions? Are you sticking to them? Or, have you given up?

New Years sets that "I can do anything" vibe filled with new hope and refreshed energy. Similar happens every Monday and every 1st of the month. It's a fresh start to the week or a month. But then reality sets in and brings you back to the ground.

Why do we quit our health goals?

• Sometimes we set a goal that is unrealistic for our situation.

• Sometimes we need accountability, either self accountability or external accountability like a health coach and we don't set that up for ourselves from start.

• Sometimes we need a tracking system or a check in. You've heard a phrase: What gets measured, gets done!

• Sometimes it's lack of planning. For example, setting a meal plan to help keep you on track.

• Sometimes it's self doubt. Now this one is deeply programed in us and we allow our past failures to dictate our future. We doubt ourselves. Our brains say: you haven't done it before, so what makes you think that you can do it now?

Think about when a baby is learning to walk. It's very wobbly, not confident and falls many times. Do you consider that a failure? Baby stands up again, muscles get stronger, confidence grows and eventually baby starts to walk. Baby doesn't think I've never done it before, I've never been successfully walking before, so I'm giving up. No! That baby keeps getting up and trying until it starts to walk eventually. However, we as adults don't think we can get up again. We think we've failed.

So what do we do when self doubt creeps in?

We need to do it differently, we need to plan and also, we need to be prepared for obstacles.

We need to assess why we didn't meet the goal in the first place. The human urge is to skip this step and just restart again, but taking the time to evaluate and understand why we didn't meet the goal in the first place, what were our thoughts and actions, can be very telling. For example, you've set a goal to lose 5lbs per month for the next 6 months. However, you got a flu and you were down for a few weeks. There was nothing you can do. Ok that's a valid reason.

However, for most of us this is not the reason why we don't achieve our health goals. In fact we get started, we gain momentum, we feel great and then the self doubt creeps in. We start to self - sabotage. As we get closer to meeting our goals, we hit the upper limit that we've set for ourselves and subconsciously start to self-sabotage. Sometimes we feel undeserving of our health and happiness. Sometimes we think that we'll leave people behind, if they're not aligned with our goals, it will be awkward and difficult. Think about the girlfriends whom you get together with every Friday for a happy hour , they'll no longer be interested in hanging out if you're the only one not drinking. We fear our own success, our own ability to achieve our health goals. This is a real fear. We fear that if we eat healthily it will impose on others, we'll have to cook separate meals, we feel we'll make other people feel bad. So we get all these messages downloaded on to us from society and how we're socialized. We stop trusting ourselves, we stop trusting that we can really do this. Can you relate?

How to achieve your health goals

Understanding why you want to achieve your health goals is key. That baby that's learning how to walk is determined to get across the room, it's craving independents, it's on a mission. It believes I can do this now. For you, what is that motivation, what's that compelling reason? Ask yourself what is in the why for achieving your health goals? What's in the way of believing that you deserve it and that you can handle loved ones reactions, because people will have reactions and that's a fact.

If this resonates with you and you're ready to delve deeper, allow me to be your personal health and nutrition coach. I can help you achieve your health goals. In my Nourished to Alive program, we focus on mindset, we debunking nutrition information and make it applicable to your bio-individual needs to help you achieve your health goals through nourishment not punishment. Believing new thoughts is one of my signature coaching techniques, offered through the Nourished to Alive program. It's a program that allows you to delve deeper, to help you reclaim your own healing power by tapping into your inner knowing that helps you start living a happy and healthy life today and for the years to come.

For more information on how to set achievable health goals, book an introductory nourishment session and let's make this year your healthiest.