The Secret to Lasting Health Change: Fortify THIS!
I remember having a conversation with a client eight months into working with her. She was going through a stressful divorce. She was hitting her marks with her food, for the most part. She worked out really hard when in session with me. But she wasn’t hitting her workouts (particularly her morning walks) as consistently as she liked. Those walks were stress-reducing, woke her body up, helped her burn a few calories, and provided a great reset for her mind. And yet…she lacked consistency in getting her daily walk in.
And then, we fixed it. We fortified a key habit of hers by changing the parameters of success. When we set up her workout routine, a 30-minute walk was the goal. Come to find out, if Beth didn’t have 30 minutes, she didn’t go on a walk. It was either 30 minutes or zero minutes…and most of the time it was zero minutes. And with work and kids and divorce proceedings, her time demands grew and her ability to walk for 30 minutes diminished.
Plymouth personal traiiner says “shoes on” is a better goal than “ walk for 30 minutes”
We redefined success for her cardio workouts from “30 minutes of walking, or bust” to “shoes on, get out the door, and lock the door behind you!” I didn’t care if she walked for 30 minutes or 30 seconds. Just get your shoes on, get out the door, and lock the door behind you. That is success. Walk the length of three houses? Success. Walk three miles? Success. Walk six minutes and nine seconds? Success. Shoes on, out the door, lock the door behind you.
By lowing the bar (our definition of success) for her cardio workouts, we increased the consistency of the habit. By fortifying the habit, Beth saw more success in her pursuit of lasting health change because she was actively reducing her stress levels…which was the main block in her weight loss journey. In the first eight months of working with Beth, she lost 15 pounds. Not an extraordinary number, per se…but weight loss is a hormone game and Beth had a lot of stress in her life. High stress means more cortisol production (the stress hormone), and less weight-loss success. In the final four months of the year Beth lost 37 pounds! She lost 52 lbs. in twelve months!
Lasting health change, regardless of the outcome we are after, is achieved by fortifying the right habits. Consistent execution is the key. Often times lowering the bar and redefining success is the trick to fortifying a habit.
One of my clients, Kristen, just got a rowing machine (she found out she enjoyed rowing after I brought my rowing machine to her home for workouts a few times…I bring a lot of my equipment to my clients!). My challenge for Kristen is this: 50 meters of rowing per day. That distance should take her less than 30 seconds. The real goal is this: get on the rowing machine daily! Chances are, if Kristen gets on the machine to row 50 meters, she will end up rowing much more than 50 meters. But even if she only rows 50 meters, she is fortifying the habit on rowing daily. Fortifying that habit is her best path to lasting health change.
In my estimation, the goal shouldn’t be a 40-minute workout. The goal should be “get your workout clothes on and pick one exercise.” The goal shouldn’t be ten miles of cycling, it should be to get on the bike daily. Getting going is the hard part…so make it easier to get going. Make “getting going” the goal!
If you find yourself falling short of your health goals, I’d love to help you succeed. Having a dedicated partner, accountability, encouragement, and a solid plan can make all the difference in your goal getting. I’d love to help you bridge the gap from where you are with your health to where you’d like to be. I can promise you that we will dial in your consistency with small wins. I will help you to get your shoes on, get out the door, lock the door behind you. I’ll help you get 50 meters of daily rowing in…or whatever micro-goals we need to establish to fortify the healthy habits most important to your success. You will become a master at doing little things well for your health. And from those little things, you will accomplish big things! Want to get started? Contact me HERE!