Help! I don't know where to start

How can I ever lose weight? I feel so tired all the time, help!

I don’t even know where to get started...

If you had three things you could wish to change about your behaviours, what would they be?

What came to mind for you? Maybe it was things like…

• Stop procrastinating

• Daily exercise

• Eat more healthily

• Sleep better

• Reduce/Stop drinking alcohol

Interestingly, those things I’ve listed (classic examples from our clients), aren’t behaviours – they are the results which come from behaviours.

Aspirations or outcomes are typically what we think of when posed a question like the one above.

As your coach, we work with you to think about the behaviours you might choose to get you to your desired outcome.

Let’s say you recognise that you need to relax more as your stress levels are up and you know it’s impacting your health. You may find our blog - 'The right way to rest' helpful. What options might you consider? Brainstorming ideas is really helpful as it might just conjure up things you weren’t expecting or had forgotten you enjoyed. By the way, thinking about what you used to love doing as a child can be helpful here.

You might come up with a list like this:

• Gardening

• Playing with the children

• Running

• Socialising with friends

• Walking

• Joining a club

• Taking up a new hobby

• Reading

• Meditating

• Playing an instrument

• Dancing

Which one would you pick and actually do?

Ensure whatever you pick is effective, something you want to do and which you actually can do. For example, if you want to run on the beach more but live inland then that’s going to be a bit tricky to achieve!

You want to feel successful as that will motivate you to keep going. It will reinforce the behaviour and give you that drive to pursue it until it becomes automatic.

Success breeds success!

It’s been shown that celebrating your wins significantly improves the chances of you repeating a behaviour and can really help habit change. Celebrating can look different to different people: I'm not a whooper or a punch in the air type, however I will give myself a little moment of recognition and inwardly congratulate myself. I smile and might even tell my family about what I’ve achieved. The key is to celebrate immediately.

What recognition will you give yourself for making positive behaviour changes that get you closer to your health goals?