Real Life Wellness: Dare to Prepare

By Bill Hemmer
I’ve had some very nice comments about my articles lately, and I really appreciate the feedback. This is exactly the positive reinforcement which will keep you moving forward on your wellness journey. I have been writing these silly articles for over 10 years now and it can become a pain. But little shots in the arm, like a nice comment or a pleasant response from a person at the grocery store really makes this weekly labor much more enjoyable for me. This brings me to the purpose of this article. In order to stay with any behavior change you must prepare first.

I prepare to write every week by blocking out a specific length of time, always having my eyes open for inspiration, taking the dog out first to prevent interruptions and by waiting until the house is quiet before I begin to write. If I didn’t do all of these things first, I would be starting and stopping, chasing the dog and never get a full article written.

This kind of preparation is absolutely necessary, no matter what kind of tasks you want to do. Let’s say you want to lose weight and have more energy. How can you prepare for that? The first thing you have to do is identify what is sucking your current energy out. Is it lack of good sleep? Is it a poor diet? Is it lack of proper exercise? Is it a feeling of helplessness because you can’t seem to do anything about your situation?

And why can’t you lose weight? Are you eating fast food? Are you exercising? Do you have a plan you can stick to because it is fun for you? Have you identified all of the obstacles that will get in your way? Do your weekly get-togethers usually blow your diet for the week? Do you tend to overeat when you are in certain situations? Do things like birthday parties, social gatherings, stressful situations and sporting events cause you problems? Should you look at these occasions as undermining your ability to lose weight and have more energy?

What should you do once you identify all of these problem areas?

Create your plan of attack against them.  How are you going to change your thoughts and actions to combat these problem areas? Are you going to drink a bunch of water before you go to a social gathering to fill your stomach? Are you going to stay away from the snack table by sitting on the other side of the room? Are you going to tell all of your buddies how you want more energy and better health so they should call you on your second trip to the snack table or bar?

There are many different ways to pre-plan your Real Life Wellness changes. But if you don’t begin your changes with a plan you will likely fall right back into those old habits and feel guilty about it. But guess what? It has nothing to do with will power or motivation. Your guilt will just lead to more bad behavior, because you will just get disgusted.

Next week I’m going to talk more about will power and motivation but just think about this…no Real Life changes have ever occurred using will power alone. Talk to you next week.