Written by: Kristy Kilcup, Executive Contributor
Executive Contributors at Brainz Magazine are handpicked and invited to contribute because of their knowledge and valuable insight within their area of expertise.
I wish you all a healthy mind and a healthy body for 2022!
Every year we bid others excellent health and wellbeing for the new year. And for ourselves too. We typically develop a few personal health goals that include improving our sleeping habits, nutrition and movement regime. And while these goals are specific, measurable, attainable, realistic, and timebound, we realize we have fallen short or completely fallen off our well-formed health plan after only a few short months of implementation.
Why does this happen? While we design S.M.A.R.T. goals to create clarity and focus, goal setting requires additional support pillars to increase success. These pillars include purpose (the underlying reason for your goal), accountability & support, and psychotherapy.
Let's dive into each one of these pillars so that you can prepare yourself for 2022 informed and armed to address the ebbs and flows of your reality.
Purpose
Purpose is the first pillar that I will address. Purpose is what I call the long-burning fuel. And I'll elaborate on this shortly. But for now, think back to your first 5 to 10 minutes of your run, swim, or bike ride.
Those first 5 to 10 minutes feel terrible. We are trying to talk ourselves into continuing, and it's just the warm-up! Physiologically the body is moving through the energy systems:
Anaerobic Alactic (ATP-CP system) - giving us up to 30 seconds worth of energy, then to the Anaerobic Lactic (Glycolytic system) - lasting up to 3 minutes, and finally settling into the third Aerobic Glycolysis (Aerobic energy system).
I'll get to the point now.
To successfully reach our goals, we must endure the same transitory process psychologically when executing our health goals, like the physical warm-up process. The New Year always welcomes New Year's Resolutions derived from excitement and passion. We imagine how life WILL be different this time and how it will feel when...we lose 20 lbs, improve our sleep, increase our energy, or feel comfortable in our skin again.
And here comes the truth bomb.
When we plan our goals from a place of passion, we set ourselves up for failure. Why? Because, in using the warm-up analogy earlier, passion is fueled by the ATP-CP or Glycolytic energy systems. The energy (in this case, motivation) burns quickly. As soon as we hit a speed bump derailing us from our plan, we lose the motivation to get back on track. We have run out of the fuel needed to pick ourselves back up and try again. Or to commit to the same level of intensity that we had starting out.
Accomplishing our goals requires us to move with the ebbs and flows, pivot and change, and have the motivation in reserve to accommodate this reality.
Passion does not allow for this agility and level of delivery. Instead, we just get excited about what could be, wear blinders to any other possibility and give up when life gets in the way.
Arming yourself with a sense of purpose will extend your level of motivation and commitment. We create these emotional anchors that remind us of our endgame when we arm ourselves with purpose. Think of it this way, when we are emotionally attached to a particular car or house that is a little overpriced, most of us will justify buying it. Why? Because we connect to the feeling of owning a car or house. We make decisions based on emotion, and these emotional attachments are very powerful. So to accomplish your goals, you need to create emotional attachments to the outcome.
Ask yourself these questions (replace the word body with your preferred word choice):
What will accomplishing this goal do for you?
How will it positively impact your relationship with your body? (or choose from these: spouse/partner, children, work colleagues)
In improving this relationship with your body, what are some of the other phenomenal outcomes you will experience as a result?
Why is this important to you?
Drill down on this last Why question until you feel emotions surface inside of you. That is when you have peeled back enough of the proverbial onion layers to get to your ground truth - your emotional anchor.
If you complete <<said goal>>, you will experience <<x, y, z,>> and these are important to you because <<your ground truth why response goes here>>.
Powerful.
This is your purpose statement.
And your ground truth becomes your emotional anchor supporting you when life gets in the way - when motivation and energy levels are low, and you just want to sabotage your health plan. When these feelings come up, you immediately hold onto your emotional anchor, reminding yourself why you are so committed to your work. As a result, you successfully navigate the ebbs and flows (also known as walls, mountains, and barriers) of life.
Accountability & Support
It's time to go back to school!
When you are looking to implement your health goals and truly change the trajectory of your health and mental wellbeing, having the attitude and mindset of going back to school are needed. Think of it like this, when there is an intense desire for career advancement, we often turn to education.
We enroll in a program whereby we commit a few nights a week focused on learning new material and a couple of hours on the weekend to complete the assignments. As a result, we meet the requirements of our career goals by the end of one semester or year. This opportunity exists for your health and wellness goals as well.
Using weight loss as an excellent example, when our goal is to lose 10, 20, 30 or 40 lbs, we need to go back to school. We need to understand the root cause of our behaviour for gaining weight and understand our unique needs in accomplishing our weight loss goals. It's not enough to enrol in a weight loss program as you can easily Google and download a calorie deficit meal plan and exercise workout plan for free. But to find a plan that caters to your unique biological needs (like WHEN you should be working out, HOW you should be working out, WHAT you should be eating to nourish your body) are all based on your UNIQUE physiology.
Going back to school affords you a heightened sense of awareness, acute sensibility and preciseness in your decision making. As a result, you become more attentive to your sabotaging behaviours allowing you to correct them, swapping them out for new healthy alternatives, and ultimately creating permanent weight loss habits in their place.
I used weight loss as an example, but you can substitute weight loss for any health and wellness goal—self-deprecation, high stress and low energy, for example. The point is, you need to enrol in a program that requires you to take the time to learn, supporting your personal growth and transformation while keeping you accountable with action steps, reflective exercises and group coaching.
Seriously, step back for a moment and think about it.
You decide to go back to school to learn about YOU.
You set aside time each week to learn the material and complete the assignments on the weekend.
You meet weekly to review questions and discuss any potential barriers (ebbs and flows) that could derail your progress.
You work through this process for four months.
How accomplished would you feel? How confident would you feel about your health and wellness goals upon completing the program?
Exactly. It's time to go back to school.
Find a program like the Weight Loss ACCELERATOR Program that incorporates psychology with physiology to support you and keep you accountable. It may take 21 days to create a habit, but for a habit to stick, you need to have consistently implemented the practice throughout the ebbs and flows, proving to yourself that you CAN form and maintain healthy choices even when life gets hard.
Psychotherapy.
Who knew we needed psychotherapy as a support mechanism when creating and sticking with our health and wellness goals? It seems a little dramatic.
However, have you ever set your alarm to wake up the following day a little earlier than usual, only to turn it off and roll over in bed the next day, completely ignoring last night's decision to wake up early to work out? This act, my friend, is the 'parts war' inside us. A part of us WANTS to be healthy, and the other part of us WANTS to stay in bed.
Here's another example.
We go to great lengths to eat healthy during the week, even declining social gatherings to avoid indulging in unhealthy foods. Yet when the weekend comes, it's no holds barred. A part of us WANTS to eat healthily to be consistent, and the other part WANTS to rebel, easily justifying how we were so good all week long.
Does this sound familiar?
These rationalizations are so incredibly powerful that it seems like a good idea at the time.
It seemed like a good idea to go out for drinks, nachos, and cake with my friends on Saturday night.
It seemed like a good idea to sleep in because I've been working such long hours.
It seemed like a good idea to... You get the picture.
Now while all of these are good ideas and easily rationalized as you needing a break and celebrating life, it's the pattern of these justifications where I want to direct your attention.
Succumbing to these justifications regularly that are not in alignment with your goals is causing this parts war. And like I said earlier, the rationalizations are very powerful. They seduce you into thinking it's ok. Until later on, of course, when you realize it was not ok and begin the guilt and shame spiral.
For this reason alone, this is why psychotherapy is so helpful. The methods used help you to uncover the conflicting feelings that have created these unhealthy patterns of behaviour (these seductive justifications). You learn to reveal the true meaning behind these unconscious feelings and beliefs that are at war with each other and navigate those feelings—releasing them or establishing new roles.
When the parts of you are no longer at war with each other and instead are collaborating on how to best serve your health outcomes, you come away feeling supported, focused, and determined. The act of getting out of bed in the morning to work out or staying consistent with your meal plan on the weekends becomes more manageable.
An example of a therapeutic tool I use with my clients is hypnotherapy. I incorporate hypnotherapy as a way for them to uncover their internal struggles, helping them release the parts of them that are not in alignment with their health and wellness goals.
Just Do It.
With 2022 upon us, when creating health and wellness goals, transforming our bodies and minds... follow Nike's perfectly articulated slogan - Just Do It.
Every time you use the word, maybe or I'll try, you are essentially saying no. You are essentially saying no when you say I'll do it later or tomorrow. So be like Nike and Just Do It.
Even if it sucks, feels uncomfortable, requires a financial or time investment, and is scary, Just Do It.
It's this place of discomfort that creates forward momentum. You've heard this before; you need to push yourself beyond your comfort zone. Make the conscious decision to change the trajectory of the outcome of your plan by changing your approach. What you've done in the past isn't working anymore.
The journey is never easy AND you are always worth the effort. Because you are worth it, life IS about experiences, lessons, growth, and NOT about mediocrity, complacency, and the status quo.
The vision I have for all of you is to help you realize how to access the greatness that already lives inside of you by creating optimal health. I aspire to help as many people as possible transform their lives so they, in turn, can change the lives of those around them.
I write these articles from a place of love, compassion, and recognition that this may cause an emotional awakening.
Thank you for dedicating your time to opening your mind to the possibility that already exists for you.
Here's to showing up for you.
Your Global Transformation Coach,
Kristy
Kristy Kilcup, Executive Contributor Brainz Magazine
Kristy has been in the Health, Life and Wellness space for almost 30 years, so it comes as no surprise that she has created a weight loss program that goes well beyond weight loss!
Kristy's comprehensive industry experience includes her certification as a RTT® Hypnotherapist, honours degree in health science and education degree in biology and physical education, certifications in Health, Life and Mastery Level Transformation Coaching, as well as a Personalized Health and Advanced Nutrition coach. In addition, Kristy is currently completing the NLP Advanced Practitioner.
When working with Kristy, you can expect a holistic approach in tackling weight loss issues as she offers a flexible online weight loss program, group and 1:1 coaching sessions, and a cell signalling supplement, proven to improve hormone modulation, immune system function, inflammation, and more.
