Picture this.
You’ve decided to make some changes in your lifestyle. The kind of changes that you’ve been trying to make for weeks, months, years.
You’re going to stop eating the things you know aren’t good for your long-term health.
You’re going to start going to the gym and being consistent with your workout routine.
And you’re no longer going to be a victim of mindlessly scrolling on your phone at night before you go to bed.
So you can actually, you know – Sleep – and wake up having energy for the upcoming day.
So you decide that THIS will be the last bag of chips, box of chocolates, or frozen pizza that you eat.
It stops here – and now.
And good news – you know exactly what you need to do.
You downloaded the online grocery shopping list, meal plan, and free workout program to follow in order to create some momentum.
You’re doing great after you avoided sugar for 48 hours. You even made it to the gym on Monday AND walked for 30 minutes on Tuesday.
And then Wednesday comes. And it’s Susie’s 22nd birthday.
Your boss celebrates her birthday at work with three dozen cupcakes so everyone is able to have at least two, if they’d like. One vanilla, and one chocolate.
You’ve already committed to avoiding sugar, because it’s a very slippery slope for you that constantly leads to eating more sugar. But you don’t want to hurt Susie’s feelings, or make your boss feel like they wasted their time and money for making homemade cupcakes for all to enjoy. Not to mention, it’s been a stressful morning after dealing with a very tough client and you have a tight deadline.
So you make the decision to eat them. And you feel great – for about 30 minutes.
Until the buzz wears off.
And you face the fact that yet again, you have made a compromise to a commitment that you made to yourself.
You told yourself that this time would be different – but it wasn’t.
Why not?
Because Nothing Changes unless You do.
After a couple of hours, your energy starts to dip and you begin craving sugar.
Because eating sugar, as you already knew, makes you want more sugar. Everything produces after itself.
There are four cupcakes leftover because two of your fellow employees didn’t make it into the office for the day.
So you grab one more cupcake – of each flavor – and quickly eat them attempting to quickly remedy the energy crash you’re experiencing until lunch.
However, just an hour later, you’re unable to finish the lunch that you packed, full of fresh fruits and vegetables, lean protein, and healthy fats, so you eat what you can and continue on your day.
You no longer have any desire to go the gym that evening. Not only have you gone through a rollercoaster of energy highs and lows, feeling defeated and exhausted from the stressful workday and blood sugar spikes, but eating those cupcakes “ruined” your entire Health and Fitness plan – at least according to you.
Instead, you feel ashamed that you failed to uphold the standard you set for yourself, and have no motivation to continue forward with the plan.
The same kind of All-Or-Nothing thinking that keeps you stuck in this cycle of defeat perpetuates itself.
After skipping the gym, and finishing your dinner, you finish off the pint of ice cream that was leftover from last week because you already know that your attempt to eliminate sugar from your diet has been ruined.
You finish the day checking your social media, and see everyone’s curated, seemingly perfect lives. You see lots of healthy meals they ate that day filling up your feed, reminding yourself of how you wish the day played out earlier. Before you know it, you’ve already spent 30 minutes on your phone, wishing your life was more like your digital friends and favorite influencers, and feel more like a failure than you were before you opened up your app.
You attempt to recover ground on Thursday, but you aren’t able to. You’re reminded of your “failure” from the day before, and can’t let go of the fact that yet again, you have fallen into the same patterns you’ve been stuck in for the Last. Ten. Years.
Because Nothing Changes unless You do.
For so many people, this is the kind of cycle that they find themselves in on a weekly, monthly, yearly repeating basis.
Again, and again, and again – they fail to make any progress toward their Health and Fitness Goals, and they can’t help but wonder why?
Because Who you are determines what you do.
This will inevitably be the outcome of any attempt to change behavior that is not also associated with a change in identity.
You need to change the type of person that you are, not simply the things that you do.
How you see yourself plays a massive role in the way that you will live your life.
Instead of trying to change what you do (Actions) Focus on changing who you are (Identity).
If you want to become someone that lives a Healthy life, you need to identify as that kind of person.
If you want to read more books, you need to identify yourself as a reader.
If you want to run a marathon, you need to identify yourself as a runner.
Who you are (Identity) determines what you do (Actions).
Now, it’s not a such simple black-and-white relationship. The things you do absolutely have an impact on how you see yourself, and the way you see yourself absolutely has an impact on the things you do.
But focusing on your identity, instead of your actions, will have a much greater impact than trying to live by a set of rules that you create in order to force yourself to comply with.
So – What kind of Person do you Want to Become?
Who Will You Be?
Only you can decide for yourself.
One of the surest ways to become that person you deep down desire to be is to surround yourself with people you want to become more like.
If you don’t already have a Health and Fitness Family, we’d love to welcome you to ours.
Book a No Sweat Intro today, and take the first step toward making the rest of your life the best of your life.
