Choose Your Own Adventure

          Welcome to afitnewyou!  The other day I was having a conversation with one of my clients about setting and reaching fitness goals.  We noted how whether or not we actually meet them comes down to the choices that we ultimately make.  I explained to her what I tell my Jr. High Health Ed. class students, that all of the decisions that we come to, and the choices that we make have some consequence; and some are better or worse than others.  While that might be pretty easy to grasp in itself, what might be a little deeper is that the current state we are in, whatever the predicament and scenario, is a result of all of the choices that we have made in our lives up through to this point.  Yes, some choices have a greater impact than others, but they all contribute to being who and where we are today.  I can also appreciate that sometimes, for some people, the quality and / or quantity of options that are available are more or less numerous than for others.  But, as I said, ultimately we have to make our own choices and these directly affect us.  It reminds me of the Charles R. Swindoll quote "I am convinced that life is 10% what happens to me and 90% of how I react to it."  While that can be a bit heavy to absorb, I mention it here because it does apply to you achieving your fitness goals.  Whether you are someone with a "fast metabolism" or someone who has a condition that can make it hard to maintain a healthy body fat percentage, how you handle your own health, such as the food choices that you make, is in your own hands.  Maybe you are some who has a physical disability that may make it harder to be physically active, or are a world class athlete who has suffered and injury and you think your path to your fitness goals is road blocked.  I'm here to tell you that you can still turn it around no matter where you find yourself.  It is up to you to make the choices that will put you on the path to reaching your fitness goals.  Take a look at where you are, think about where you want to go, and make the choices that will help you get there.  It might not happen overnight, but where you are today didn't either, it took all of the choices you've already made to bring you here.

          When I was a kid, one of my favorite types of books to read were the Choose Your Own Adventure fiction books where instead of reading the book from cover to cover as you would with a traditional book, you were allowed to make choices as to how the story played out.  After reading a few pages to get a bit of the story it would give you an option, such as something like "turn to page 87 to get away from the wolves by jumping in the river, or turn to page 91 to climb a tree."  Then, depending on the choice you made the story would continue, such as you chose to jump in the river and now you are heading for a waterfall, turn to page 108 to swim towards shore, or turn to page 111 to ride the rapids to the falls.  The books tried to create a "real" experience for the reader by allowing you to make choices that ultimately dictated where you wound up.  And sometimes those choices had more dire consequences than others.   Again, you can see how this would pertain to all areas of our lives, but keeping your fitness goals in mind, the choices that you make do impact where you eventually wind up just as the stories in these books unfold as you make choice after choice.

 Our lives are obviously more complex than what may occur in a fictitious children's story based on fantasy and ruled by only a couple of choices at a time, but let me give you some examples of how I could see this playing out if your fitness goals were re-imagined as a Choose Your Own Adventure title.  Here are some decisions that I can see you encountering as potential starting plots and follow-up jumping points..  You go to make breakfast and you realize that you are all out of what you were looking forward to eat...do you skip breakfast for the day or do you stop somewhere on your way to work...you decide to stop at a deli on your way in and you are at the counter and have to decide...do you go with the egg whites and turkey on a wholewheat wrap, or do you get a bacon, egg and cheese on a roll.  Here is another, you are exhausted after a rough day at work and you are heading out for the day...do you choose to skip the gym and go straight home, or do you stay true to your fitness goals and get to the gym...you decide to go to the gym but when you get there someone is on your favorite machine...do you decide to goon a different machine until that person gets off, or do you say its not in the cards for me today and turn around and head home.  I am sure you can think of plenty more that may have happened to you even today.

Here is something else to consider, the pages in those books have already been written so the options are finite.  While reading one, your story is dictated by your choices but only to a certain degree.  You can't choose an option that isn't already within the book.  Because of that, you can learn which decisions you should and shouldn't make based on what outcome you are looking for.  If you make a choice to go to one page and you don't like the outcome, you can try the other option.  Read the same book enough and you will know what outcomes are the result of what choices.  And that is basically true with life as well.  How many times have you heard someone with a digestive sensitivity say "I am going to pay for this later" right before they indulge in a food choice they know isn't good for them?  Or think about how you feel waking up when you know you needed to get a good night's sleep but decided to watch just a few more episodes of the show you are binge watching.  I know I am pretty bummed with myself when I make the choice to skip the gym on a day I had the opportunity to get there.  It isn't something new; it is something that we should have learned through previous choices while in the same scenario.  So think about where you are now, and how you got there.  Then think about what choices you can make going forward to get you to the outcome you were hoping for....with those outcomes being achieving your fitness goals.

Some say life is an adventure.  You are tasked with dealing with what comes at you as it does.  However, you can steer your course towards your goals through the choices that you make.  It doesn't have to be overwhelming, just take it one decision at a time.  Think about where you are trying to get to, and what choice would best get you there, or at least in that direction.  Base your decision not only on what you are looking to achieve, but on from what you have learned from previous experiences.  Each decision and choice you make is an opportunity to bring your further along your quest to achieving your fitness goals.  What choice can you make right now that would further get you to your goals?  Start with just that one and see where the journey leads.  Make your subsequent choices with the end prize in mind.  Making healthy choices based on the consequences that they bring is a novel way to reach a fit new you!