Category: goal-setting

Making Changes for the Better

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Leo Babauta on his Zen Habits website invokes readers to see:

“The uncertainty and discomfort are a necessary component for us to do anything meaningful.”

Making changes–even when they’re for the better–isn’t always easy. It can be downright hard to try doing something new that has the potential to transform your life and elevate your confidence.

I say: Just Do It. The more you take action the easier it will get to keep taking action.

“A body in motion stays in motion” is the old cliche.

There’s a great lyric in a Vampire Weekend song that is so generic I dare repeat it here because it’s not the exact lyric.

The idea is that a person doesn’t want to live the way they’re living yet they don’t want to die either.

It can be scary to change in any kind of way. Yet I urge you to consider that there’s a way out of the pain by going through it and figuring out what the pain has to teach you.

You can use your pain as the catalyst to figure out your life’s purpose.

My contention is that I was able to heal in part because I placed Service Above Self.

After you have a setback and you’re in recovery from whatever happened you have the choice: to roll over and passively accept a life of pain. Or to do what it takes to heal and be well.

For some of us it will take longer to get to where we want to be. Recovery is not a race nor is it a competition.

Yet the point is you can change for the better at any point along the road of recovery.

To change the world you first have to change yourself–as Michael Jackson so beautifully sang in his song “Man in the Mirror.”

In a coming blog entry I’m going to talk about something Leo Babauta wrote in one of his books years ago.

His theory of focusing on your 5 Commitments I want to apply to recovery.

As hard as it can be living in recovery there’s always hope that you can change your life for the better.

I maintain that focusing on your 5 Commitments in life can be a way to heal and be well.

3 Tactics for Achieving Resolutions

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I’ve figured out how to make it easier to achieve a resolution.

Three tactics are involved:

1.     Focus on one goal at a time.

Set aside everything else you want to do for now.

The secret to achieving goals and resolutions if you ask me is sequencing each goal in order from easier to achieve to harder to achieve.

Choose as the first goal the one you’re most likely to achieve.

This will give you confidence to tackle other goals and will boost your self-esteem.

Refrain from piling on multiple sub-goals along the way. You’re not an octopus who can reach for multiple items at the same time.

2.     Reward yourself for little victories as well as milestones.

To reinforce the positive behavior of having gone to the gym 2x/per week I bought myself a new doormat. It’s a cheap and cheerful pick-me-up.

3.     State your goals and resolutions publicly to members of your change support team.

In my life I’ve found that by globally recording my resolution in the blog I was able to force myself to go to the gym 2x/per week.

The one week I couldn’t do this was out of my control. Yet more often than not if you ask me a person does have control.

Holding yourself accountable to others is a foolproof way to actually do what you say you’re going to.

Losing Weight and Keeping It Off

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In only ONE YEAR from the time I was 22 until I turned 23 I gained 20 pounds. In ONE YEAR.

When my mother is with me when I’m giving a talk she turns to the audience members and tells them: “Chris was a former chubby.” Thanks, Mom.

I wouldn’t use the term chubby  or the far worse term fat to describe a person.

The personal trainer at the gym gets it right: you can carry a few extra pounds and be healthier than a person who’s skinny and flabby.

You can be thin and in ill health because all you eat is chips and cookies and junk food. You can be heavier and eat mostly fruits and vegetables.

As I reported in this blog elsewhere maintaining your weight is not as simple as the number of calories you consume every day versus the amount of exercise you do.

Nearly as soon as I gained those 20 pounds I felt poorly. I made an appointment with an actual M.D. who had a private practice focused on nutrition. She wasn’t a dietician or a nutritionist.

Her name is Rama Z. Koslowe and she practices in Staten Island, NY–one of the boroughs of New York City. I’ve recommended her to other people.

How did I lose a total of 15 pounds and keep this weight off for good?

Once a week I replaced unhealthful food with a nutritious alternative: skim milk instead of whole milk. Skinless chicken instead of eating the skin. And so on.

In 2011 when I turned 46 I stepped up my efforts. That’s when I started to lift weights at the gym. Within a year of doing this I dropped one pant and one skirt size.

In my life I find that lifting weights that is doing strength training was the most effective exercise out of any kind I ever did.

Other people swear by spinning classes or Pilates. That’s fine if you find these kinds of workouts help you better. I haven’t tried spinning. I used to do Pilates years ago.

You can view my blog entry on setting up a home gym.

It took me 6 years to lose those stubborn 20 pounds I had gained in one year. As the years rolled by I read every reputable fitness and nutrition book I could check out of the library.

In a coming blog entry I’ll give a list of my Top Fitness and Nutrition Books of All Time.

I’ll end here by saying that the New York Times has indicated that engaging in 75 minutes of vigorous exercise per week or 150 minutes of moderate exercise is perfectly fine.

Inspiration and Perspiration

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Thomas Edison is quoted along the lines that achieving a goal is “One percent inspiration and 99 percent perspiration.”

The Changeology Step 3 of Perspire lasts at least 30 days. It’s followed by the Persevere and Persist steps which round out and end the 90-day action plan.

Two prior goals I’ve already achieved using the Changeology method.

One was to wear makeup every day to my job. The other was to wear jeans to my job only 2 days a week. In fact I rarely wear jeans at all to my job anymore. And I do apply makeup in the morning before I go there.

Controlling the environment as regards these two goals was simple:

Placing my makeup in a cosmetics case and keeping the case on the bathroom sink ledge for easy and quick access.

Storing the jeans in an out-of-the way rack. Placing the pants front-and-center hanging in my everyday closet.

While I buckle down in the Perspire step I’m going to write in here about other fitness and nutrition topics.

I want to write about these things to give readers hope.

There’s a lot of confusing, conflicting, and downright contentious information about health that is passed off as the only right approach to living your life.

Remember: my claim to fame is that I wrote a book titled Left of the Dial. I see things differently and think differently from most people.

What I know to be true is that a dose of common sense is required when tackling problems that seem insurmountable.

Isn’t a 90-day action plan a short time frame in which to accomplish a goal that has the potential to become permanent for the rest of your life?

In a coming blog entry I’m going to focus on how I lost 20 pounds as a young woman and kept most of that weight off.

In fact I weigh the same at 53 as I did at 40. This indicates I know something about which I speak.

You could get toned lifting all the dozens of diet books that are published each year.

My goal is this: to empower readers not only to dare to dream but to actually do what you dream of.

More on how I lost weight and kept it off in the coming blog entries.

Changeology: Step Three: Perspire

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In the third Changeology step of Perspire you start to act on your goal or resolution.

Here you use techniques: rewarding, countering, controlling the environment, and helping relationships.

My goal was to go to the gym 2x per week and eat salads 3x per week at my job. This week I was only at my job two days and I did have salads for lunch on those days.

Last week I trained at the gym twice. This week I’m going to the gym 2x as well.

Along the way you’re supposed to reward yourself for achieving your sub-goals leading to the destination goal.

Countering is engaging in the health opposite of the prior behavior. Controlling the environment is the way to reduce the temptation to revert back to your old habit(s).

Helping relationships are the bonds you have with your change support team members while working on the 90-day action plan and beyond the 90 days.

Controlling the environment in terms of bringing food to my job is as simply as placing the insulated tote bag where I can see it in the morning. For quick access to it to store the items in and then dash out the door.

A member of my change team is a personal trainer.

From reading this you can see how the 5 steps of the Changeology action plan play out in detail.

I have a friend whose goal is “to be healthier.” That raised a red flag with me.

Your goal has to be S.M.A.R.T. How exactly are you going to execute your plan if you only have a vague notion of what you want to do that isn’t supported by specific measurable achievable relevant and time-sensitive sub-goals?

Trust me when I tell readers that the Changeology 5-step action plan has a greater probability of working than simply wanting “to lose weight” or “to be healthier.”

I’ve already achieved 2 other goals using this method. And I haven’t reverted back to the old behavior since achieving these goals.

You can do it. I cheer you on in any goal or resolution you have in the New Year.

Changeology: Step Two: Prep

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In Step Two: Prep you write down your S.M.A.R.T. goal that is Specific Measurable Attainable Relevant and Time-Specific.

Using my resolution as an example:

Specific:

To gain back the energy to cook my own dinners 4 times per week. To continue to exercise at the gym through the spring.

Measurable:

Lift weights 2 times per week. Pound the treadmill once per week.

Buy food online. Bring food in Rachel Ray insulated tote to make lunch at my job. Have salads 3 times per week for lunch. Eat only organic chicken. Bring fruit and yogurt to job to have as a snack.

Attainable:  This is realistic as I’m not seeking to lose 50 pounds in one month or do some other extreme thing.

Relevant: The goal is one I set. It wasn’t a resolution that another person imposed on me or wanted me to achieve.

Time-Specific: The Changeology method has a 90-day time frame for completion.

The other prime objective in Step Two: Prep is to ask people to be members of your change support team.

This week I’m going to enlist a fitness professional.

Coming up next week I’ll report on Step Three: Perspire.

 

 

New Year’s Resolution

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My goal is imperative and I’ll tell you why:

My father at the end of his life had stage 3 colon cancer that spread to his liver.

Though I don’t know that this type of cancer is can be inherited I’m not taking my chances..

It might not seem fair that hard work is required to succeed at a goal.

It takes mental work; physical work; emotional work; and spiritual work to get what you want in life.

My goal is to gain energy and achieve peak fitness.

The sub-goal is to have salads 3x per week for lunch.

To do this I will order food online and bring it to my job in the Rachel Ray insulated tote.

I’ve long advanced in this blog that eating healthful food can improve a person’s mood.

Two other goals I’ve achieved so far have contributed to having an elevated feeling.

They have been acted on using the Changeology book plan.

In the coming blog entry I’ll talk about Step Two: Prep

Sempre Avanti Questo Stagione

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Always – Forward This Season.

The holidays can be a time of enforced outward mirth when inside you’re just low or actually feeling depressed.

You might look back with regret on what you did or events that happened in your life  or goals you didn’t achieve.

You can be grieving that your loved ones are gone too.

I received a generic holiday e-mail greeting:

“A Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to You and Yours.”

Yes: A published writer dashed that off and they couldn’t come up with a more distinctive message?

The truth is the holidays aren’t often bliss–these days can be a burden to get through.

Which is why if you have a New Year’s goal or resolution like I do, you need to execute a plan with a better chance of success.

When the holidays are over, you don’t want to experience another letdown like failing to make good on a resolution.

Only maybe it’s not you–maybe it’s your method that hasn’t worked.

This is why I’ve decided to record my own resolution in here to give readers hope.

I’m going to share the 5 Steps of the Changeology method with you.

In the coming blog entry I’ll detail my own New Year’s resolution.

Sempre Avanti,

Chris

 

 

Changeology: Step One: Psych

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On the upper right of this blog where there’s text I inserted a new quote. It’s well worth it to read and remember the quote.

Here it is in case you can’t see the quote right away on your cell phone screen:

“Proceed as if Success is Inevitable.” – Unknown

This week I’ve started Step One–Psych–in the Changeology book. There are five steps total: Psych. Prep. Perspire. Persist. Persevere.

Step One is where you get in the mental game to psych yourself up to achieve the goal you’re going to set for the 90-day time frame.

My goal is to eat more healthful food for lunch and to save money on buying lunches. So, I’m going to bring food from home instead of buying food outside.

To do this I ordered a purple Rachael Ray XL 10 Gallon Insulated Tote. It arrived at my door. Wow–the tote is huge. I’m going to use it anyway. It folds, so will be convenient to take back home folded up.

With the holidays here I’ve been exercising only once a week on Sundays. At the start of the New Year I intend to go back to the gym to lift weights 2x per week. Plus hop on the treadmill one day a week in the winter.

I’ll stick with this one goal of eating more healthful food and ordering food online to bring with me to my job.

First up is keeping a food diary which I’ve been doing for three days so far. I’ll keep the food diary for 7 days.

Next week I will start Step Two: Prep.

I’m so impressed with the Changeology book that I’m giving a copy out as a Christmas gift.

Using this 5-Step method I’ve been successful so far with 2 goals I wanted to achieve.

Slow and Steady Wins the Race. It’s a cliche because it’s true: Slow and Steady Wins the Race.

My hope is that by sharing my own goal-setting plan I can empower readers to reach for your dreams too.

How to Be Well

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how to be well

This book is the real deal just like How to Make Disease Disappear.

In the coming blog entries I’m going to write about health topics touched on in How to Be Well.

It was my goal to turn back to talking about fitness and nutrition.

With January 1st coming up soon a lot of us are going to want to achieve resolutions.

As always, there’s one goal-setting book I recommend. I seem to have altered the title before in the blogs. The actual title is Changeology: 5 Steps to Realizing Your Goals and Resolutions.

This method is effective no matter the kind of behavior you seek to change.

One goal I have–I really don’t like to use the word resolution–is to create a better weekly meal plan and fitness routine.

Step 1 of the Changeology method is Psych. In order to be effective in realizing your resolution you first have to get in the mental game to do this.

Joining a gym and firing away at exercise before you engage in the Psych Step you’re going to run out of steam two months later and quit.

I’m going to end here with the truth that I’ll continue to detail in the coming blog entry: M.D.s don’t eat junk according to Frank Lipman, M.D. the author of How to Be Well.

He devotes a section of the book to GMOs which should be required reading.

I’d like to start in the next two weeks to use this blog as a forum for New Year’s goal-setting.

My aim is to show how it’s possible to realize your resolutions.