Are You Feeling Derailed?

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You made the commitment and now you are trying to eat healthier, work out every morning and learn as much as you can about new healthy lifestyles. You are so excited and you want those closest to you to be excited too!

But, that is not the case. Your closest support network likes it just the way it is and don’t want to change with you. Whether consciously or unconsciously, they derail your efforts.  It’s hard going it alone and might even wonder if it is worth it.

What are you supposed to do? Should you give up? Should you just force the change on family members? Both answers are tempting, but the answer is no. Instead you have to realize that change sometimes is a journey that takes time with many turns and setbacks along the way. Here are some better answers that will lead to your success:

1. Write down your long-term goals so they can’t go away.   Keep your eyes on the prize! Like a bulldog with a bone, don’t let go.
2. Set reasonable and attainable weekly goals. Instead of trying to overhaul everything in one day, consider making at least one small change a week. For example, try adding one more vegetable serving per day, walk 2000 extra steps a day, or drink one more glass of water.
3. Take small steps each and every day. Make sure that you can go to sleep each night thinking that you made another step toward your goals – no matter how small it seems.   Little improvements add up to big improvements over time.
4. Celebrate every success.   Practice this little trick.   Write down the day’s goal and at the end of the night, make sure you check it off. Even that simple checkmark can be a celebration. Now, if life happened and you didn’t get your planned meal or planned exercise done, you should still write down some small thing you know you did (like the extra glass of water) and then check it off! Now you can go to bed feeling good about your progress and excited for tomorrow. Don’t go to bed thinking you should just give up.
5. Share and communicate your goal with your family and ask for their help. Explain this is something you want for you. Our basic human nature is to enjoy helping others, especially when that help is recognized and sincerely appreciated.   However, our human nature is also to resist doing what feels forced upon us. We hate change.  Asking your family to help you might just be the secret that gets the whole family moving in a better direction.
6. Lead by example. Let your family see what you are doing and how it is positively impacting your life. You owe it to your children to at least show them an alternative that doesn’t eventually lead to diabetes, heart disease, and obesity. When they see how it has changed you, they will want to be part of it.
7. Get the family involved by making meal planning a family event. Take turns having a family member plan the menu. Set some guidelines like it needs to include a vegetable and fruit, but mostly have fun with it.
8. Reframe healthy into something everyone can accept. Instead of using the “H” word when talking about food, use words like delicious, yummy or tasty. Make good choices as easy as bad choices. Cut up fruit and vegetables so they are easy to reach snacks.
9. Schedule and eat as a family. You can role model good habits, build strong family relationships, and enjoy the conversations.
10. Expand your support network outside of the family. Find an accountability partner or join an accountability group. Knowing someone else has your back, really makes a difference.