Why "Making Health & Fitness a Lifestyle" Isn't Enough

The Truth…

If you’re looking to drastically change your life by starting to work out and eat healthy you must CHANGE your current BEHAVIORS & MINDSET.

“If you DO what you always did, you will get what you always GOT”

How many people do you know who have lost weight, and then regained it, or regained even more?

Have you experienced this yourself?

In this blog post I go into detail on the psychological importance of lifestyle change & I also share my own experience.

Why “Making It A Lifestyle” Has Some Flaws

I’m sure you’ve heard it many times in the health and fitness world… “It’s a lifestyle” or “make health & fitness your lifestyle”.

While yes… I completely agree with this statement and I myself say this to clients, it does have some flaws. A lot of people forget to tell you some VERY critical aspects to ensure this “lifestyle” sticks and is sustainable LONG TERM.

For people that are starting at ground zero, looking for a complete lifestyle change this is important to note!

To completely change your life you must change your current habits and behaviors. People often fear change because it is UNCOMFORTABLE. People don’t want to acknowledge or be honest with themselves about what they don’t like about themselves or they don’t even notice that what they are doing is causing dissatisfaction within themselves. For example, if you are trying to lose weight and you have struggled with eating for years you can’t expect yourself to restrict calories, lose weight, and keep it off. The reality is, you must look at the root cause as to why you have struggled with eating. Are you an emotional eater? Do you have binge eating problems? If you’re not honest about this, you will never be able to create a sustainable change with your eating habits.

To give you an example & some context, lets get super real right now about a topic & my personal experience — Changing my diet.

When I first started changing my diet and learning about nutrition it was about 5 years ago. With any big change comes ups and downs and a lot of trial and error testing along the way. It wasn’t until last year (4 years in) that I finally started figuring out that I had some remaining issues around food. I did the whole30 and cut out a bunch of foods for 30 days (no refined carbs, no added sugar, no gluten, no dairy). I did the whole30 because I felt like I didn’t have much control over what I was eating during stressful times. The whole30 was made for individuals who have food sensitives but also emotional eating issues. It’s designed to create mindfulness around food and to reset the way you think about eating. I wouldn’t say I had binge eating, but I definitely had some emotional eating habits.

(I have never been overweight & I’ve always been very healthy and active so i’m not coming at this from that point of view, but I have had some issues surrounding food that were brought to the surface during my whole30 experiment).

I realized that with certain foods I would eat them for a sense of comfort. When I felt sad, stressed, and alone it’s like I would confide in these foods. This was SO hard for me to come to terms with especially being someone who was known as the person obsessed with health and nutrition. When in fact I was actually the one who had some bad emotional eating habits that were impacting me more then I wanted to admit it. The truth is, realizing I had an issue surrounding food gave me so much perspective as to how individuals gain weight, and why they can’t keep it off. It can be a literal addiction for certain people, just like drugs or alcohol. It’s important to look at it from this perspective before we judge individuals who have troubles with their weight or with their health.

My Realization

When the whole30 was over I slowly brought back in some of my favourite foods to quickly learn that after eating these foods it left me feeling an immense sense of guilt and a lack of control. I finally admitted to myself… I have an issue with these foods and I have some weird emotional connection that I had developed since I was young to these foods. I cried, I felt shame, I didn’t understand, and I felt SO dumb because I was upset about FOOD!!! These certain foods that my friends and most people could indulge in, I had some weird emotional attachment to. I also never had binge eating issues - that’s not what this is about. It comes down to the fact that I found extreme comfort in these foods and in my brain they were helping me get through difficult times. (This is NOT a healthy mindset to have). I was essentially relying on these foods to get me through difficult times, eating excessive amounts and then would feel complete guilt after. In our society, we tend to talk light and joke about this, which is why it is hard to come to terms that it is actually a serious issue for some people.

How I solved this

I sat down with myself and gave myself a reality check. I said - you’re not crazy, your feelings are valid, but YES you do have some emotional habits around certain foods. Until this moment, I couldn’t change my habits because I 1). ignored they existed and 2). didn’t want to give up my feeling of comfort I had developed. I had to get SO uncomfortably real with myself so I could get my brain to grasp that I actually needed a BEHAVIOR change in order to address this issue. I needed to completely cut these foods out of my life and change what I’ve always done. Moderation was not going to work for me with these foods, maybe for some people cutting them out is too drastic, but for my personality I knew I had to. I cut them completely out and made a HUGE BEHAVIOR change. Once I felt in control and I felt no emotional attachment to these foods I brought them back in moderately. I want to stress that if I did not make this drastic behavior change, I would not have gained the control I now have.

the MOST IMPORTANT TAKEAWAY FROM my STORY

This is not to say that I have never indulged in these foods again, I have. The difference is my BEHAVIOR surrounding the experience of eating these foods. I no longer do it because I want to feel comfort or a sense of security… I just do it because I genuinely want to eat that food and I fully enjoy the experience and it is in my full control. My MINDSET around eating these foods had to completely shift in order for me to get past these habits.

“If you’re not willing to change, don’t expect your life to either”

How Does This Apply To You?

That was extremely hard for me to share because for so long I had been so embarrassed surrounding these issues. Small emotional eating habits turn into bigger ones and before you know it you have suppressed so much emotion around whatever issue that is going on in your life that you are not willing to face. This is commonly how individuals end up back where they started. They restrict calories, but they NEVER change their mindset or their behaviors around food, so it’s a matter of time before they go back to what they have always done.

For me to get out of these habits I had to be SO UNCOMFORTABLY REAL with myself. At this time of my life, I was very healthy in all aspects - I exercised, I rarely drank, I did not do drugs, I ate healthy BUT… I used snacking and indulging as a way to comfort myself and suppress my emotion. Being real with myself that this was an issue that I needed to finally address CHANGED MY LIFE.

Get so real with yourself right now… Is there any habits that you have right now that you may be doing because you are hiding how you truly feel. For me it was emotional eating, for you it could be excessive drinking, it could be hanging around people you do not even like but allow you to feel comfort, it could be doing workouts you don’t truly enjoy. All of these won’t allow you to be successful in your health and fitness journey if they are not addressed. You may gain traction and progress, you may lose the weight, but if you don’t address these habits you will resort back to them and end up back where you started.

The Truth Hurts

Whatever it is — Sit with yourself and ask …

Am I Hiding Emotion?

What is the reason behind why I do this?

Do I even find joy in what I am doing or am I just doing it because I don’t want to face how I truly feel?

If I were to change these negative habits in my life… what am I so scared of?

Is this a form of self-sabotage because I do not like who I am?

These are hard questions to ask yourself but guess what… The Truth Hurts. Sometimes it really does and it sucks - but it will be the best thing you have ever done. Being honest with yourself about deep rooted habits or emotions is the best thing you can ever do to change your LIFESTYLE. The first step to making any major change is to have a deep realization of where you currently are.

Most trainers and health coaches simply say “Move more and Eat less”. While of course this is true and valid, it is too simple. People are very complicated and psychological experiences and habits dictate the reason we are the way we are. Which is why becoming fit and healthy is much more than eating less and moving more. While trainers and health coaches are not clinical psychologists by any means, we do have to study basic psychology, so there is some understanding there and therefore it should be addressed.

Again, I’m not a psychologist by any means but most problem solving begins with figuring out why there is a problem in the first place. You have to figure out WHY you have developed these habits. Once you figure out your why and begin to understand what triggers you, you can begin to learn tools that will help you cope with these habits. Every time that emotional trigger in your brain comes in and says hey, eat that food because it will make you feel comfort, or have a drink even though you don’t really want to… see what happens if you just DON’T. Believe in yourself, be stronger than the habit, and become so in control of your emotions that you overpower the urge to go back to that habit.

Practicing this over and over again will allow you will be so in control that you will have CHANGED the BEHAVIOR and changed your MINDSET. And then all of a sudden you begin to CHANGE your LIFESTYLE… for good.

Remember — search for the root cause and understand that change takes time and old habits die hard. Be easy on yourself but also believe that you have full control over your behaviours and your mind. Adopt that mentality and you will change your life.

I really hope this helped at least one person or one coach to deeper understand the importance of mindset as well as behavior change. It’s so important to attack deep rooted issues and habits when making a huge lifestyle change like losing weight and beginning a health journey. It’s also important to have the perspective that to create a sustainable change, it will take work, consistency, new behaviors, and a new mindset. It will be difficult and take time but you are capable of anything you set your mind to! :)

STAY HEALTHY & HAPPY TRAINING

-HOLLY :)