05 - How to have a health mindset
I was diagnosed with fatty liver disease related to excess weight and my lifestyle when I was halfway through a naturopathy degree. I worked alongside many, many nurses who smoke – a lot. And a huge proportion of people I know in the health sector have experienced burnout. We are all fallible humans. And knowing how to take care of ourselves is not the same as actually taking care of ourselves. There’s still plenty of room for me to grow in this area, but here’s what I’ve come to learn about developing a health mindset.
Identity is Queen
Identity is Queen when it comes to health. We need to identify as someone who can be healthy, in order to be healthy. This may well sound like new age mumbo jumbo but it’s not. The moment the doctor gave me my diagnosis I replied “In a year I will be the healthiest person at this clinic”. I didn’t know it at the time, but my identifying as a healthy person, even in the midst of the onset of an often progressive condition, was the north point on my internal compass which helped me lose 24 kg step by step and reverse the diagnosis. In the plethora of books and articles I devoured to form my weight loss plan, I read Atomic Habits by James Clear which explained that we cannot maintain a habit that contradicts our identity. We can also change our identity through our habits. By seeing myself as someone who made healthy choices and through fasting daily and reducing processed foods, I become the person I had decided to be. Through the lifestyle coaching I do I have seen the opposite all too often. People who struggle with their weight tell me “I’m the fat kid from school” or “I’m just someone who can’t lose weight”. With these identities it’s an uphill battle to get changes to stick. Challenge the identity, and it becomes easier.
2. Get your mind on board
Imagine that your health advisor said to you “I want you to follow this eating plan. It’s going to be boring, complicated and taste like rabbit food”. How long do you think you would stick by it, even if it promised to make you feel better? Chances are, you wouldn’t even start, right? This is what we do to ourselves! So many times my clients come to see me and tell me they’ve tried to eat better in the past but they can’t change because healthy food isn’t tasty, it’s too hard, and there will be no pleasure in it! We can only change our eating habits at the speed we get our mind on board. See it as a cross to bear and it’ll be hard to stick to once the first wave of desperation or motivation passes. See it as an exciting opportunity to finally feel better and it will be much easier to make the changes.
3. Motivation is a con
The biggest mindset mistake I see people make is waiting to “feel like it”. Motivation is such a con! The idea of motivation makes us think there’s no point starting until we’re all in and fired up – so we never start. Truth is, making a small shift that we don’t actively resist is enough. Once we build up a little momentum, we can make another one. It’s a cumulative effort of continual course correction, not a crash and burn all – or – nothing. Don’t wait to feel like radically changing absolutely everything about your life. Just write down the things you feel would help, and choose one small step that you feel you can try.
4. It will never be perfect
Don’t wait till conditions are perfect – start now with the first right step. This is similar to the previous one, except this time people feel “motivated” but conditions aren’t right. “I really want to get healthier, but I’m busy at work” or “I really want to start a new diet, but I’m really tired”. When we wait for work to be calm, the kids to not need so much from us, our extended family all to be ok and there to be an absence of drama… we wait for ever. We tend to do this because we’re waiting to be able to do it perfectly. Don’t do it perfectly, just do 1% better than before.
Let’s do this…
I hope you’ve come to see that mindset matters as much as habits when it comes to starting to improve our health. When our mindset and habits are aligned, we can truly make traction to get the results we are after. You can probably tell I’m not a perfectionist about health – just passionately imperfect! Even the alignment doesn’t have to be perfect. Every degree of shift in direction you make in your mindset will take you to a whole new destination.
If you have a multitude of health issues you’re trying to get on top of, and want support getting your mindset and habits to lead to better results, then jump onto my calendar and book in your discovery call.