For most people, going to the gym once isn’t a big deal. We don’t have much trepidation if someone were to ask us, “For two weeks, eat less food out, get 8 hours of sleep, and spend thirty minutes outside a day.” For two weeks, most of us could make that work.
The problem with this is: becoming healthier is just that; becoming. It is a lifelong commitment to take care of yourself to the best of your ability. It won’t develop in a month, or a few months. It will take shape over the course of years of dedication to yourself, and each one of us, in order to pursue health well, have to make that decision.
So, that’s the question worth answering: How do you make the decision to take care of yourself to the best of your knowledge over the course of your whole life?
To uncover this answer, we need to answer three different questions.
1. How are you taking care of yourself now?
2. What needs to change in order for you to live a more energetic/vibrant life?
3. What is the reason you want to change?
The first question is necessary because it demands you acknowledge the cost of the change you want to make. If you want to get into better shape, then you cannot spend the same amount of time sitting down as you used to. You cannot eat the same foods or engage in the same habits. Your behaviors lead you somewhere, and if you desire to be healthier, you have to take inventory of the current behaviors you have and look at what they produce.
The second question is the price everyone pays if they want to change. The most common issue with this step is that we are not honest about what we can give up. (This is, at least in part, due to a prevailing cultural assumption that our problems can be solved by extreme measures: Lose 30lbs in 30 days, here’s an ab workout for a sixpack in three weeks, etc.)
I do think, sometimes we need to be extreme if we are in dire circumstances; however this usually is
not how long term change occurs. We need to accept that who we have become has developed slowly over time, and if we want to change our lives, we have to accept that reality. So, when deciding what you need to change, the only requirement is that you be consistent at that change.
The third question is what you will fall back on when things, inevitably, become difficult. Committing to living differently means enduring failure and remembering why you are committed in the first place.
It is also helpful if your reason to change is a part of a larger picture than yourself; because it’s widening the positive impact of your change. There is a huge difference between: “I want to get healthy to look good,” and, “I want to get healthy to play with my children, be a more helpful partner, and be a more valuable member to my community.” The second is a far more compelling reason to take better care of yourself.
Lee Ramsey has a passion for fitness as a way to help people grow and change into more adaptable, capable and resilient versions of themselves. He is owner of Sanctify Fitness in Covington and a regular fitness columnist for the NKyTribune.