Resolution Renewal

Dear Denise-

I’ve been following you for awhile, love your truth bombs.

And everything you say is super easy but I’m just not getting results.

My New Year’s resolution was to do all your suggestions.  How long do I need to do all this stuff to feel better?

–Wanting to Feel Better in Phoenix

Dear Phoenix-

First…Love you!!  Glad you’re loving the thoughts I share.

Second…Resolutions, they are tricky things!  So full of life and excitement on December 31 and January 2 but quickly fading as the holidays fade back into real life.

As we stare down another first of the month let’s revisit your resolutions and make them more likely to stick.

1. Change your outcome based resolutions to action based.  For example, “I will lose 50 lbs” becomes “I will walk 1 mile daily, eat 5 servings of veggies daily and strength train 2x weekly.”  Also, this needs to be 3 resolutions!
2. Once you’ve got a new list of actions, prioritize them into what will be the easiest to implement and give you the quickest wins.  So number 1 better be something you can see yourself doing with very little prep work.
3. Track your actions.  I’m not saying to not track your weight but success will be measured by actions.  Your weight will fluctuate daily depending on how much salt you had, if you have to poop, what week of your cycle it is; things you can’t control.  Tracking your walking is something you can control.
4. Rinse and repeat.  At the end of each month weigh yourself and compare results to the ACTIONS.  Only lost 1 lb and only walked 1x/ week….How do you modify next month for more results?
5. Commit to 1 new ACTION monthly!  Then in April you can layer a second ACTION like eating your veggies.  Track both walking and veggies.

This might seem like the slow way to lose 50lbs because you’re only doing 1 thing at a time AND research has shown that by only focusing on 1 new habit/month by the end of the year you’ll have created 10 new habits that act like compounding interest (a little grows a lot) vs start 10 new habits on 3/1 and do none by 3/9.  It’s too much to track, too many decisions.

90% of your day is run on habits.  (I get up, feed dogs, let out dogs, start coffee maker, 20 minutes on phone, shower, leave at 5am…..)  We only have so much mental power to decide what to eat at each meal, how to prepare it, what days are gym days, and what do I do when I get to the gym, when do you add meditation and what about those walks-what if it’s raining or too cold, do you walk?  TOO MANY DECISIONS.

VS

I will walk daily.  If it rains I will take an umbrella.  If it’s cold I will walk on the treadmill.

An example.  This year I committed to walking an intentional 1.25 miles daily.  At first it was tough to remember everyday, but I had my checkoff sheet to remind me.  Also hubs was not remembering my goal so he’d unintentionally invite me to watch a movie with him and be a little hurt that I put him off until after my walk.  Now (54 days in!) he asks when I’m going for my walk.  In February I added 10 push-ups at the end of every walk.  I spent the first 2 weeks dong 10 push-ups right before bed because I forgot until I was checking my list at bedtime.

Habits…

A mindset trick to making sticky resolutions…what can I add?

Our minds do not like deprivation, so “I will not eat dessert” is painful and less likely to succeed than “I always eat my veggies at every meal.”

First, like the pink elephant, you are always thinking about it.  As soon as I say don’t think about the pink elephant what pops into your mind?  When I say I can’t have dessert all I dwell on is dessert instead of the yummy looking asparagus appetizer I “can” have.

Eventually you’ll eat the veggies, be satisfied and only eat 3 or 4 bites of dessert or even skip it without even realizing it because you are satisfied or even full!

Adding resolutions are more likely to happen than subtractions.

Finally, there’s mindset.

The first days of any new action there are a lot more decisions around it.  What if it’s cold?  Raining?  I’m busy, do I get up early, stay up late or skip it?

And mantras help.  At the bottom of  my checklist I have written, “what would someone who has decided to walk a mile do?  (she’d go for the damn walk!)

It’s part of #thesexyunsexylife.  I do the things that others won’t do in order to have the things others can’t.

I take the walk, eat the veggies, lift the weight so I can be lean, active and healthy as I age.

I will be the 80 year old climbing Diamond Head while my cohorts wait at the bottom.

I will be the 100 year old volunteering at the dog shelter while my cohorts are watching The Price is Right (if they are even still alive).

Now what about you?  What’s the end goal?  What do you GET to do now to have that?

Don’t worry about the deadlines and before long you’ll be 50lbs lighter.

Enjoy the journey!  How cliche! And yet when you take time to notice the journey you’ll be able to keep the results because you’ll have become a person who walks and eats her veggies daily vs a person trying to lose weight.

The walker will keep walking because that’s who she is now.  The dieter won’t know what to do once her goal is reached because she only learned how to be a dieter.

RISE Phoenix!

DO the thing!

xo,

Denise

Need a little more than a check list to get going?  I have 2 spots opening in March for 1:1 coaching.

Not sure coaching is right?  Let’s talk.