Making (Health) changes stick - PART 1: Understanding the challenges of making change for improved health

How to stick to your health goals and achieve the health benefits you desire

Whether you are making diet changes, wanting to making healthier choices or breaking a lifestyle habit that is no longer serving you. The road will twist and turn and there may even be times you want to stop. Let this give you a new perspective on making change and how to work with some of the most common pitfalls on the journey.

This is a big topic so I have broken it down into 2 parts, otherwise this would be essay length…

In Part 1: Understanding the challenges of making change for improved health - I take you through some of the challenges to achieving you health goals and what may be a unique way of looking at change.

Then in Part 2: Pitfalls and what to do about them - we look at some of the really common challenges and what you can do to set yourself for the best opportunity (lets take the chance out it it) for success.

Part 1: Understanding the challenges of making change for improved health

How to reach that health goal when the motivation subsides and you are left with little to no visible progress and find yourself questioning the meaning of it all.

How to make change? How to break ‘bad’ habits? How to stick to your health goals?

So perhaps a little controversial, but I'm not sure the size of the goal actually matters at all (yes there are exceptions, but for the most part, nope) and here is why?

Big goals dont happen in just one step, one action or in one day, this you know. But what can often be missed is the step of breaking down that one big goal into all the small, incremental changes that collectively and done repeatedly add up to that big goal.

From my past working life I have a background in project management, so seeing the parallels this way comes a little easier. It was my job to facilitate the process of identifying almost every one of those little steps, record them, tracking progress against it AND trouble shooting WHEN (not if) there was a snag, delay or issue with a task.

Our bodies are more complex and changing habits is far less linear but this gives us insight into the nature of making change and how to approach it for success.

You certainly don’t need to go to this level but it must be acknowledged that 1) any change required multiple adjustments to execute and 2) there will be bumps in the road.

Motivation is fabulous, but often short lived and flows when things are easy, just like we can see in the case of new years resolutions where its fizzes out quickly with little meaningful change.

Change requires sustained action, beyond motivation and ease, in the direction of the goal.

For many reasons, there if often an expectation or at very least a hope, that we achieve our goals quickly, with some effort, but not really that much and as little discomfort as possible.

When it comes to health, I feel there is a few additional layers that compound, and add to the challenge of making changes.

We are busier, more occupied, more stressed and more distracted than perhaps ever in human history. Add to this a medical system that, for the last couple of decades has been able to provide solutions for critical care and numerous chronic health conditions that require soo very little of us, to get the outcome, i.e. take a tablet and that's it.

..But, to truly address health issues from a wholistic perspective means looking at the diet, lifestyle, emotional and social factors that have gotten you there AND those that keep you there now.

I'm not going to lie, looking at it from this view can be overwhelming and bring a sense of 'surely it cant be that hard, there has to be an easier way, I’ll go find that instead' or when the motivation wears off the ol' trusty, 'is it (the desired outcome) really worth the effort'. Your health is worth the effort.

There is an overabundance of information and opinions on every topic and issue that can have you questioning everything and not knowing which was is up and where the hell to start. This is where a qualified naturopath can clear the path and help determine what is happening for the individual that is you and guide the best place for you to start.

But as almost anyone who has had a weight loss goal would attest. There is no easier way or magic pill. Some people get stuck at this point, feeling like the goal is insurmountable, or like they are broken because everyone else can figure it out, push through, make it happen, but not them. That their body just wont or cant.

I assure you, this is NOT the case.

Making true change requires getting uncomfortable, for a little while at least. There is an inertia that needs to be overcome before the momentum can change and have you propelled in the direction of your health goal.

This is as true for the big changes and the small. It could be argued that big changes are actually just lots of little changes, done repeatedly, all lined up.

I think of it like changing the direction of a tide.

I picture it like when you are in a bath and make waves with the water, after a while you have created enough momentum that you dont need to do much anymore... Until you want to change the direction the water flows. When you start to move your hand in a different direction, the water resists, creates turbulence, thrashes around. Stop at this point and you would be thinking that perhaps its wont change, maybe its not possible or that the water it to rough to stay in, too uncomfortable, too scary and too hard to change. 

But if you keep moving the water in the new direction, it eventually starts to follow the hand and builds momentum again to follow your actions.

As silly as it might sound, I feel this illustrates quite well, how many people feel on the journey towards their big health goals.

Part 2 coming soon…. and will take you through the common pitfalls and what to do about them, to stay on track and achieve those health goals.