2019 #42 Pay attention to your habits

What's the best weight loss plan for me?
The answer, of course, is the one that you can sustain! The one you can live for the rest of your life.
Any plan (even one you create for yourself) is simply an opportunity for you to pay attention to you habits; to find the ones that work for you, and change the ones that don't.

Transcript
​Lots of people ask me, what's the best weight loss or exercise plan for them What do I think about this plan or that plan or this program or this idea? And although I'm happy to share with what works for me, I actually think that question misses the point. The best plan is the plan that you can sustain for life. It's the one that teaches you and helps you learn how to have anything you have in a healthy balance.

Of course, if you're watching on YouTube, make sure that you hit the subscribe button to get notified of every new video when it comes up. And if you're watching on my video blog, make sure you subscribe so you get notified of every new video and you get my hints and tips in between.

So let's come back to this idea about what's it all about? Like why bother choosing a plan? Well, if you want to make changes in your life, you want to lose weight for instance, then know that any plan you choose is simply a guide. It's there to help you reveal habits in your thinking and in your behaviors, and offering you alternative viewpoints and alternative actions to try out. Any plan should lead you to ask the questions: 

Are you getting healthy variety? Are you getting the nutrition your body needs? Are you listening to your hunger signals? Are you choosing healthy choices in healthy proportions? Are you having joy and pleasure in your food with that healthy balance? Are you finding the freedom and the flexibility that works for you?

If it's not getting those things, that's what you have to look for. As you start to try out a plan, you're going to have some wonderful opportunities to observe your habits, to observe your thinking and your preferences, in action. Undertaking a challenge, like a fitness challenge, healthy choices you know, many of you have been trying out Oct-sober, for instance, No alcohol for October, things like that. Anytime we make a change, it's going to reveal things about ourselves. And the key thing to look out for is not the thing that most people always ask, Is this working for me? Do I like it? Yeah, those are important. But that's not the main point.

It's really an opportunity to pay deeper attention. To delve into what's really going on and notice what the plan is revealing to you. So, when you're considering your options about what plan to follow, or what you might like to do differently, even if it's one you making yourself we sometimes call it a protocol, you're making your own protocol...

What scares you about that? What are you dreading? or seeking to avoid? You know, I have so many people come to me, and go "I know I'm going to start so I just had to, you know, have the Last Supper if, if you will. I had all foods I really love. I had big portions. I had all of the things before I got started, because I'm starting tomorrow", these sorts of things. And it's such a terrible idea in the end. But what does it teach us? Well, it teaches you that you're worried about deprivation, about being denial, then you've got an idea in your head, and this diet mentality that's propagated out there all over the place, that you have to go without in order to succeed. You have to not have the things you like. And it's just a lie. Because if that's your thinking, your never going to want to sustain that, you're never going to want to sustain that for the rest of your life. So, notice that. Notice.

So the question becomes not Can I have it? but How do I have it? How do I get it in a healthy balance? How do I have the foods I love that I enjoy? How do I not feel like I'm missing out?

Coming back to the plan, what excites you about that plan? What are you looking forward to? You know, it always feels so good to be taking action on our own behalf. Right? To finally decide, actually, I'm doing something about it. And that's why we always so often have those early wins. We have that enthusiasm. We have that motivation. In the early stages. You know, we're determined to do something and we're actually doing something about it. You will notice that notice how good it feels. To act on your own behalf to have your own back to choose something for you.

Just make sure then that you actually then, like what it's saying. Right? When you answer these questions, what scares you? What excites you? What do they tell you about yourself? Do you like what it's saying? Why? Why not? Do you like your reasons for creating change? 

So often, we want to create change because we have to or some external event - we want to look good at the wedding, during the holiday, be fit for that anniversary, or for our health, for the kids for other things. We have to find out internal reason we have to find our compelling reason. Why does it matter for us? Do we like that reason? Again, if we don't like it, it's unlikely to be sustainable. 

So that's all in anticipation. Of course, as you start to try out whatever plan you choose whether even if it's your own protocol, what choices do you change? Do you feel like those changes are sustainable for you? Try that for a week or two or a month. Do they feel good in your body? And again, do you like your reasons for making those choices? Is it because you have to? or because you want to? Why do you want it? Because you care for yourself enough to give yourself the best, to move yourself forward, to actually look after you? Or because you're hating how you look and how you feel? Can you come from love?

Okay, so really pay attention to what it's telling you. In the end, I actually believe (sometimes this is controversial) I actually believe the plan is largely irrelevant. Whatever you choose, most people know that obtaining a healthy weight, for instance, is about eating healthfully and moving more. 

I'll suggest that long term success is actually achieved through developing sustainable, healthy, everyday habits. Now, perhaps that will take accruing many, many small incremental changes to get you there, if you're a long way from healthy everyday habits. And notice as I said, everyday healthy habits. It doesn't matter if it's Christmas or if it's your birthday or if you're on holidays or you're busy or it's the weekend or it's Tuesday. Every day healthy habits. Yes, we can have indulgences. Yes, we can have celebrations. Again we want to learn how to have them in a healthy balance.

So, you may have to make lots of little changes, you might have many habits that you've developed over time, perhaps unconsciously, that aren't helping. Or maybe just a few. Have you noticed what they are? Have you made a list of the habits you actually want to change? The healthy habits you want to train in, the unhealthy habits you want to transform? Have you written them down? And if so, which one will you start with? 

So often we try and embark on this journey. We try and do everything at once. That rarely works for long. Sometimes you can get some quick wins in the first couple of days. For me, it was like, three weeks, maybe maybe three days, sometimes three hours before I was off track. So small change, I recommend, is always much better, more effective than big change. It requires less willpower.

So make that list of habits or start a program and discover them. Once you have that...How will you identify what changes work for you? And what doesn't? I'll give you a hint here. The answer is almost never what happens on the scales. There's lots of processes going on the determine what happens on the scales. And in the end, we need to divest our mood, our attention, our sense of success from the number. Remember, we're looking to create healthy, everyday sustainable habits. Does it feel good for us? Can we do it for the long term? Is it sustainable? 

So what are the habits you need to change? Have you made a list of them which Where are you starting? How will you measure your success, and what will you do next?

Now, if you're a little bit confused or overwhelmed by all of that, that feels too hard...This is where getting the right support can really make a huge difference. You know, having someone who can help identify those changes and help you take step by step through the process of change, can help you both get there faster, and make the changes permanent, really make them sustainable. And of course, I'd love to help you do that. I know that doing it for myself transformed everything in my life.Of course, if you choose me to support you, and I'd like to help you if you want to, then of course you get someone who's been there who lives this transformation every single day, and he's helped thousands of others create new healthy habits in their life. 

Just so you know, I have some opportunities coming up to work with me closer - I'll be reopening my Stop Sabotaging Your Weight Loss cause for one more time you 2019. As at the time of this recording, it'll open up in the first week of November 2019 because I want to give you the opportunity to get those sabotaging habits under control before you go into the end of year celebration season. Just imagine what that would be like if you didn't go into the Christmas celebrations into the holiday celebrations, into the end of the year and New Year's celebrations, having it actually sorted out. What if you can go through that entire period without undermining your weight, your health, your well being. What if you could do that without sabotaging? Anyway that opportunity is coming up very soon. 

Of course if you prefer to work one on one with me then email me or message me on messenger. My email address is Brian@liveMoreLife.com.au and get in touch. Let's set up a an exploratory coaching session, I will set up a time for that so that we can experience my coaching and see if we're a good fit. Of course whether you choose me to help you or not, you do it yourself, you get another coach, you join a program, you join a group fitness class, whatever it is for you. Remember that when you engage with whatever program you've chosen, you get the opportunity to either reinforce or challenge the perceptions you have about yourself. If you pay attention, your habits that are helping the ones that aren't will be revealed. And then you get to choose, you get to continue with the habits that have brought you to your current life. Or you get to change those habits. You evolve into the person you want to become.

That's the wonderful thing about being human. We get to choose to create the future we desire. So pay attention to whenever your plans, your protocol, your own choices that telling you, get the support you need and move forward to where you want to be. I'd love to help you if you're interested. If so, reach out. Otherwise, go and do it. Make the life you want.

Transcribed by https://otter.ai