“Renew You” Challenge – Be a part of my Weekly Challenge (I mean, opportunity!) to help set you off on the right foot and in the right direction for bringing health to your week. You could even add it to your calendar. This week is about losing weight…
Take it from me – losing weight doesn’t have to be a struggle. (And yes, I mean that!) It’s just that too often we get caught up in all the “dos and don’ts” of dieting that we forget to simplify things and just take one step at a time. So before you skip this blog post just because it says “diet goals” in the headline, take a second to hear me out.
I read about an interesting study the other day that really made sense to me. It looked at the ways people achieve goals; specifically, it looked at what their focus was that helped them through the process, and what they found was pretty cool.
When people focused on “how” they were going to achieve their goals, they were less likely to actually achieve that goal than when they focused on “why” they wanted to achieve it. Makes sense, right? I mean be honest, do you want to think about cutting calories and exercising more, or do you want to visualize a slimmer, healthier body and maybe even fitting into your “skinny” jeans again? Now you’re starting to get the idea!
The problem is that people get so caught up in following every little detail that they end up getting frustrated and just giving up altogether, but like the study showed, when folks step back and simply focus on why they want to achieve a certain goal like weight loss (for example better health, more energy, being there for grandchild’s graduation, looking good, etc.) they are more likely to persist.
So this week, consider a goal that you are striving towards. It could be weight loss, sticking to a gluten-free diet, even be saving a little extra money—whatever! Take that goal and write down the reasons that you want to achieve it. Then decide on your number one reason, and spend a little time thinking about it every day. I bet it helps you achieve your goal!