Awesome blog post written by our very own Element 5 Fitness Coach Mary!!  Read below and Enjoy:

It’s 2010 and you’ve made the commitment to improving your health.  You’ve joined the gym, forked over the dough, and made the time in your schedule for exercise and more conscientious eating habits.  Whether it is weight loss, strength gain, fat loss, eating better or stronger performance – the process of HOW to get to that goal is the same.  What’s the process to achieve your success?  And better yet, how do you SUSTAIN it?

We ALL get pulled in different directions: work, kids, errands, household, family, social events and commitments don’t stop or slow down just because WE decide to get into better health.  The challenge is being able to juggle all of those balls, plus still have and make time for ourselves.  It seems unreal – WE know!  But what’s great is that we’re in charge of our own destiny.  Sometimes, we just need to be told that it’s OK to be selfish.   

 An interesting choice of words here………again, WE know!  To clarify: there is “healthy” selfish, and unhealthy selfish.  We all know what unhealthy selfish is, but we don’t all know what healthy selfish is.  This is a KEY concept that we wish we could tattoo into people’s brains!  It is literately the key to your practice of and sustainability of good health.

 Oftentimes, the media doesn’t help in sending us the right messaging about what constitutes “healthy” selfish.  They often use poor rationalization in commercials and throughout other media channels: “I had a bad day at work so I deserve to go home and eat a box of chocolates” – rather than “I need to get my butt to the gym and burn off some of this steam from the day”.  How many of us have shared with one another (some of us on multiple occasions…….which is OK!) that we didn’t feel like coming to the gym but did it anyway and were SO glad that we did??  We knew that we had other feelings or commitments that could prevent us from doing so but we made the choice that would best suit US, and everyone else in our lives too, if you come to think of it.  Kids want to be around happy and healthy parents.  Co-workers want to work with people who feel good and are ready to engage.  Spouses and loved ones want to see us happy.  Feeling good about ourselves is something that not only benefits US, but everyone else in our path. 

 Back to this selfish thing and the media: when you start hearing or seeing negative imaging and messages, do your best to SHUT IT OUT or SHUT IT OFF!  Instead, start creating your own messaging and then simply LISTEN to yourself, because you have your best interest in mind.  You know in your head and in your heart what you want to achieve.  Why let outside influences take you off track?  Don’t make time for that stuff.  Instead, replace it with time for yourself.  Sit and read.  Meditate.  Stretch.  Schedule yourself a massage or similar personal care appointment.  REWARD yourself with healthy activities that take care of you (be healthy selfish!!)

It also helps to SURROUND yourself with healthy associations……..whether it is the type of food in your cupboard, the shows you watch on TV, or the people that you hang out with.  The longer and more prevalent these healthy influences, the more inclined they are to sink in. 

It takes about 2 weeks to either break an old habit and/or form a new one.  It then takes another 2 weeks to make it stick.  We have 6 weeks together as a group.  Imagine what we can make happen in that time, knowing what we do here?  Let’s be healthy selfish together and see where it takes us!

Coach Mary

Element 5 Fitness

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