Healthy Living DIY

First, make sure you're representing your goal to yourself in the most powerful way. Your mind tends to think in questions. It will take a little practice to re-word those questions more powerfully. But it's well worth your effort. Let's look at an example.

What if the typical question you ask yourself is something along these lines:

• Why can't I seem to remember to take my vitamins?
• Why do these healthy living habits seem like so much work?
• Why can't I motivate myself to exercise?

Now let's look at the answers you're likely to get from asking this type of question:

• All the reasons you can't remember to take your vitamins. Generally, these reasons will be disempowering and unflattering and make you feel even worse about the situation than you do already.
• All the reasons why it's too hard to live a healthy lifestyle.
• All the reasons (also unflattering and disempowering) around your failure to exercise.

Question: Does this type of answer help you solve the problem?
Answer: NO!

So what if, instead, you were to ask these questions:

• What can I do to make taking my vitamins easier to remember?
• How can I make my healthy living habits more fun?
• What can I do to get myself to the gym more often?

Now, you have questions that are likely to lead to the solutions you're looking for. This is quite important, which is why I stress it so frequently. Not surprisingly, the very first topic we address in the "Incubate Your Best Solution" part of my Ultimate Stress-Buster Kit is asking powerful questions.

Second, clarify your activity and give it a specific time. Write it down. How you write it down may vary according to the activity.

For example, let's say you decide that first thing in the morning is the best time to take your vitamins. Great. So when's that? If you always get up at the same time, you could assign it a time on the clock, like 6:45. But in this case, it's probably going to be better to link the new activity to something you already do in the morning, like brushing your teeth or drinking a cup of tea. If so, maybe a simple checklist on the refrigerator would help.

Next example - let's say you want to exercise 3 times a week. Too vague. You'll never make it. Specify the activity and write it into your calendar on a specific day and time. Walk, Monday at 6:00 am. Tennis, Thursday at 4:00 pm. Bike with the kids, Saturday at 10:00 am. Write it down as an appointment with yourself.

Third, make your activity easier to follow through on.

• Set up all your vitamins for the week to come on Sunday morning.
• Pack your gym bag the night before and set it next to the door.
• Call a friend (ahead of time, like a date) to do the activity with you.

I once knew a woman who was very committed to getting in shape. She wrote out an entire 3-month project plan. Here's what part of it looked like:

• Mondays at 6:00 pm - walk with Julie.
• Tuesdays at 7:30 pm - play tennis with Jane.
• Wednesdays rest day.
• Thursdays at 5:30 pm - yoga class at the "y."
• Fridays at 6:30 am - walk with the neighborhood walking club.

She'd already set this up with Julie and Jane, signed up for the yoga class, and checked out when the walking club walked.

• Do you think she was successful at keeping up this program for the duration of her 3-month project? You bet!
• What do you suppose she did after that? She set up another 3-month project.

Ok, two more bonus suggestions.

1. The book, Word Cures: How to Keep Stupid Excuses From Sabotaging Your Health contains 21 reasons people commonly say they don't do what they know what they could to optimize their health and offers specific suggestions for each reason.
2. The healthy living manual, Saboteurs' Guide to a Productive Life and the wellness coaching program that goes with it, offer direction and support on setting up and following through a 3-month wellness-promoting project.

Hope that helps!