May 24, 2018

Embrace Change

          Welcome to afitnewyou!  This week I want to encourage you to do something that many of us have a hard time doing...and I'm not talking specifically about getting to the gym and eating better; although what I am going to suggest is certainly related.  This week I want to encourage you to embrace change.  While there are a good number of people who love change, I think the large majority of people have a hard time accepting change, and some are even afraid of it.  I believe this is because we are creatures of habit and there are a thousand and one cliches to support the idea that we would rather continue with something that we know we should change, but do not simply because we don't like change.  One example is "The devil that we know."  I don't have a background in psychology to really explain why we tend to avoid change when we know it would be healthier to embrace it.  But I do have enough experience, particularly in the fitness realm where I can see people having a hard time making the changes that they need to do in order to live a healthier life.  While I do agree that many of us would be happier, healthier and benefit from changes with our jobs, careers, relationships, etc., let me focus on what I know more of, and that is changing behaviors that benefit our fitness.  I'm sure almost everyone of us wish to be leaner, stronger, faster or something of the like...so that means we are in fact looking for some change in our lives.  Now you just have to embrace the change to make the change.
          Pretty much every person I know is working out and / or eating healthier in order to see some sort of change in their life.  They want their blood work to improve, quality of living to go up, body to become leaner, gain muscle mass, improve strength.  People focus on their fitness to reach some goal that is down the proverbial line.  While this seems rather obvious, what is inherent behind that thought is that they are looking to experience a change from where they are now; there is this desire for change.  In a post I had written previously, I asked you to fill in the blank, " I train so I could ______."  That blank was often filled in by something that would require the person to have change in their life.  Again, seems common sense.  But if so many people are looking for change, why is it so hard for us to embrace change?  That isn't such a simple question to answer, but as I said earlier, it primarily comes down to the fact that we are creatures of habit and most of us find it hard to make changes that we need.  But the good news is that if you make and embrace needed changes into your life, those changes can be your new norm...and that is how you start a healthy lifestyle.
          Often my advice to someone who wants to have the most dramatic impact on their health and fitness, is to make small changes, not large ones, that can be adhered to and maintained for the long haul.  Because in my experience I know how hard it is for people to embrace needed changes, I know it is more prudent to make simple, incremental adaptations to your lifestyle so that they can become regular behaviors.  I often go back to the example of brushing your teeth.  We are not born with the instinct to brush and floss our teeth.  We have to learn that behavior.  My young children still have to be reminded to brush their teeth because it has not become that second nature behavior yet.  But brushing regularly becomes such an easy way to maintain our health for two reasons.  First, as we get older and get smarter we learn the importance of doing so to preserve our health.  Second, brushing regularly becomes part of our regular routine.  Where at one time, albeit it at a very young age, we found it to be a nuisance thing to do, overtime, it becomes both valued and a regular part of our lifestyle.  You would probably think a lot less of someone who didn't brush their teeth regularly.  And the same should be thought about other changes in your life that affect your health.  Joining and getting to the gym, and shopping for and making healthy food choices might seem like a nuisance thing to do now, but if you make those changes, and embrace and value them, you will eventually do them as part of your regular lifestyle.
          To reach your fitness goals, and live a healthier life, you need to embrace the changes that you know you need to make to get you there.  It is obvious that doing the same thing all of the time will not get your where you want to be if it hasn't done so already...it is the "definition of insanity" and it will simply be you "spinning your wheels" trying to get there.  We all know this, so instead, do what you need to do, make the changes that are required, and even more than that..embrace those changes.  The more value you put on them, the greater the likelihood that you will adapt them into your normal routines.  Change should not be feared.  Change is good.  Sometimes even change for the sake of change is good.  But in it's simplest form, change is needed to get you to a place that you want to be if you haven't gotten there already by doing what you have been all along.  Embrace change.  Make the adaptations to your life that you need to get you to where you want to be.  Embracing change is the new direction you need to reach a fit new you!

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