Welcome to The Own Your Health Podcast.
I'm Cyndi Lynne, and I can't wait to
help you step into your health power. Now,
when this airs, it will be December 27th.
We will presumably be through the first part of this
holiday season that many of us celebrate and getting ready
for the second part for the new year's.
And one of the things that comes up most
often with my clients and even friends and family
talking is like, what's your New Year's resolution.
Now, New Year's resolutions tend to be something people either
love or hate, very little middle ground.
There's people who want nothing to do with them
and people who actually look forward to them every
year as a means by which they can change.
Either way, most people tend to do some
process of reflection on the year that's passed
and anticipation of the year ahead.
So if you're perfectly happy with your system and what
you've got going on, great, more power to you.
As the Brits say, carry on.
However, if you'd like a little boost in making
that change, then you're in the right place.
Today we're going to focus primarily on health goals,
and I even have some notes here because there's
things I absolutely don't want to miss telling you.
But this process that I use works for really any goal.
The health goals are what I see the most
with my clients and people coming into my office.
So the process is really this two pronged approach.
Very often people make outcome goals, and I'll call that
the first prong or the first type of goal.
And that outcome goal is something as straightforward as I am
going to lose ten pounds or I'm going to run a
five k, or I want to be pain free.
That's a real common one for the
clients that come into my office.
And while achievement goals are great, they
can be these outcome goals or achievement
goals, basically the same thing.
They can also be a little bit tricky.
They're very aspirational, they're the golden ring that you
see that you want to get to, but you
don't always have control over all of the factors
that contribute to attaining that goal.
For example, wanting to lose weight.
People know that it can be really tricky
and difficult, and it's not a linear process
and there isn't a magic formula, and your
body, at different times, in different health stages,
will gain or release weight in different ways.
So acting on the goal of losing
ten pounds can be very tricky.
It's very often best to reinforce these kind of
aspirational or achievement or outcome goals with habit goals.
And that's the second prong of the approach.
It's kind of a one two punch.
Look at the pie in the sky of what
you actually really want and then shape the things
that you can actually directly do something about.
So one of the things that people talk to
me about all the time, and I hear this
from clients, and I see this from people who
come in with injuries, is I exercise every day.
I exercise every day for 2 hours
and I still am not losing weight.
Now, I will tell you that weight loss is
probably, and I've mentioned this before, the stats vary,
but anywhere from 75% to 95% diet related. Okay.
It's very difficult and usually not healthy
to exercise your way into weight loss.
Does activity have a million good benefits? Yes.
Weight loss isn't necessarily one of them.
And we can talk about this on
another episode if you want to.
But when we talk about the habit goals,
I start to talk to them about what
other habits besides this exercise habit, and I
actually talk to them about over exercising.
What other habits do you have that
contribute to your desire to lose weight?
Do you have a fasting habit?
Do you have a habit about what
you eat and when you eat it?
Do you instill any habits about relaxation?
Do you have any habits around sleep?
Sleep is a huge factor in hormone management, in
weight management, so many things, and yet so few
people have very strong habits around sleep.
So if someone came to me saying they wanted to lose
weight, sleep is one of the first things that we tackle.
Because even with a great diet, even with
an appropriate exercise plan, if you are not
sleeping, you're typically not going to lose weight.
And if you're really not sleeping to the point that
you just kind of weight continuously, you may lose weight,
but you're not going to be losing fat.
Another story for another day. Another example that has some of
the same habits behind it, is the clients who come to
me and say, I just want to be pain free.
I just want to be able to move without pain. Great.
We start to work together in the office.
I give them specific exercises, very highly specific
exercises that they can do, and then we
tackle other sources of inflammation in the body
which can contribute to pain.
We tackle sleep.
That's another huge one.
That's a huge factor in so many aspects of our health.
And we always look to support our
bigger outcome goals with habit goals.
And so I encourage you, and I purposefully don't want
to make this a very long, drawn out episode, because
I encourage you to consider the two pronged approach.
So after you're finished listening to this, or even pause
it if you like, and sit down and think about
what is your big goal for the year?
Or what is your big goal for your health.
It's sometimes helpful to narrow that down when we
start thinking about business goals and family goals and
work goals and all of these kinds of things.
But go ahead and think about what is your health goal?
Is it weight gain?
Is it weight loss?
Is it a certain amount of agility or flexibility?
Is it being able to walk five k?
What are these goals?
Is it being able to crawl around on
the floor and play with your grandkids?
Think about what those goals are and then craft the
habit goals that you want to go with them.
Now, for example, sleep habits we've talked about.
Some of the more common ones
are sleep hygiene type of habits.
Going to bed and getting up at the same time
every day, preparing for bed, having a wind down routine.
And I can also do an episode on those because
that's one of the more common questions that I get.
It's like, okay, what is this whole business
about winding down before you go to sleep?
So many people run from one thing to the next.
Head up to the bedroom, get undressed,
get in the bed, and that's it.
Women probably tend to do a little bit more
than men when it comes to makeup removal and
that sort of thing, but really having a wind
down routine before you sleep can be helpful.
So if that's one of the habits you want to foster,
then you can stout and write out what that habit entails.
Does that mean going upstairs or going, if your bedroom
is on the main floor, going into your bedroom at
a certain time of night and staying there, does it
mean that you're going to do all the face washing
and makeup removal and teeth brushing and whatever it is
you do to get your body ready?
If it's a hot bath or a shower, that
that's going to be done by 930 at night?
All of these habits may look very different for
each of you, as mine do for me.
And it's okay.
There isn't necessarily a one size fits all, but
I encourage you to choose two or three habits
at the most to support your large outcome goal
and then try those on. In the Community,
in The Hheal Your Life Community, we talk about trying
things on, and that's just a really accepting way to
try something out to see if it's right for you.
And for those of you who've had a lot of success
with that, it may not seem like a big deal.
But for those of us who tend to have some
self judgment, it can be kind of a big deal.
Because if I say I'm going to do something
and then it doesn't work out so well and
then I stop doing it, am I a quitter?
Am I someone who doesn't
follow through on my commitments?
So I encourage you to select your goal, and especially
a health goal for the new year if you're inclined
to set New Year's resolutions, and then the two to
three at most habit goals that will support that.
So some of my habit goals this year
are sauna three times a week, minimum.
I absolutely love the sauna.
I know the health benefits.
I feel so good after I'm in the sauna.
But sometimes the mornings get super busy and all of
a sudden I find myself in front of my computer
dressed with makeup, not having done the sauna.
So sauna three times a week is a habit.
And it's a habit I'm declaring for the new year.
Now, if I happen to be traveling a
week and don't have access, that's life.
That's part of that
giving yourself Grace that we talked about last time, because
we do the best we can with what we have.
So obviously, if I'm going to do the sauna three times
a week and it gets to be the last day a
week and the power goes out, the sauna is electric.
That's life.
Give myself grace and move on.
But I also encourage you to track your habits.
So whether it's a checkmark on your calendar or if
you like to make up a spreadsheet, however, you best
like to track your habits so you can look back
and see, is this a habit that's working for me
that I'm going to continue to try and work with?
Or is this a habit that needs to be
changed or adjusted to something that actually fits better?
And that can happen after you try something on
and after you give yourself the grace to accept
what you've learned about this experiment and then you
don't just walk away and stop.
Remember, grace isn't letting yourself
off the hook, you adjust.
So maybe if I look back on my tracker and
I see that I have been really consistent two times
a week and I'm feeling pretty good, and maybe I
go with two times a week and I use that
time, that third time of week time to do something
else to promote some other habit in my life.
Figure out a sleep routine is
another easy way to do this.
Try two or three items, some that you already do
like brushing your teeth, washing your face, and then either
add to that or adjust the timing on those to
create an evening routine that you really enjoy and one
that really supports you in this habit goal, which in
turn supports your outcome goals.
So I hope these examples have been helpful.
I hope that you can find something to
really zero in on for your health.
And this isn't a forever thing.
This doesn't even have to be a whole year goal.
Try something on.
Pick something that you've wanted to do for yourself,
that you've wanted to do for your health.
Pick the supporting habit goals and give it a try.
And I'd love to hear about what you've chosen
and what habits you're going to try on.
So until next week, I will see you next year,
actually, let's go out and own it.
