“I Know What I need to do BUT…”

How many times have you heard yourself repeat the refrain above? Whether I am counseling someone recovering from chronic dieting, anorexia nervosa, bulimia or a client desiring to make nutrition and exercise changes to fight diabetes this seems to be a common theme. We often have the intellectual knowledge and an abundance of facts and figures to back up that insight. The rubber meets the road as we attempt to translate what is in our brain into action. True, sometimes we have faulty facts. Perhaps you are still buying into some diet mentality chatter. Perchance you still believe that you need to cut out all of your favorite foods or that if you don't work out at the gym for an hour it doesn't count as exercise. The trouble is with the flawed thinking, not your inability to take appropriate action. We have confronted that type of challenge in this "Ditching Dieting" blog. If the "all or nothing" is still your challenge, take time to review some of the previous blogs. If that is not what is keeping you from doing what you need to do, read on!

Take time to consider barriers that arise when you are determined to provide your body with the nutrition it needs. Are you preplanning to address schedule or environmental challenges that could arise as you focus on fueling your body? What would motivate you to make efforts to supply your body with healthy nutrition that focuses on a balance of lean protein sources, fruits and vegetables and higher fiber carbohydrates sources? Making weight change of any kind a focus will not be effective long-term. Whether your body is underweight or overweight from imbalances in your food and activity, fixating on the numbers will only serve to frustrate you. Brainstorm and come up with outcomes that are important to you. It might be better energy; fewer or less sever medical problems that are nutrition related, or the satisfaction that you are making wise investments into your future health status.

Making peace with a reasonable activity/exercise plan is sometimes more challenging than addressing the food issues. It can seem nearly impossible to limit your activity if you have a tendency to abuse exercise. There are others who hate exercise; even though they know that their body needs activity. Once again, the state of imbalance is the issue. Redefine your definition of exercise. Think non-stop movement. Make activity about getting more flexible, releasing stress and having some fun. Giving your body the activity that it needs should not always feel like drudgery and should definitely not be all about calorie burning and weight issues.

You do know what you need to do to pursue health and wellbeing. Do it for yourself. Others will benefit! If you are not doing what you know you need to do … find out why! Don't beat yourself up with the mental ball bat or blame others for your lack of action. That is a defeating way to think and will only serve to immobilize you!