Adjusting our intrinsic beliefs...
The truth is..
Lifestyles are hard to change..
No because they are impossible, but because they require a lot of attention from our part (you really have to want it).
Even if my job is to help you with it,
It is not something I can do for you. You have to do it on your own!
This is why is a process...
And if you also care about your health, you will pay minimum attention to what stands out the most; The perfect diet and the most effective exercises, because it has no effect on long term and sustainability...
Story time;
I was one of those persons who at first struggled to follow a diet.. I struggled the most when I wasn’t eating what was on my diet (and my diet was terrible, no spices and no colors), because I couldn’t stop eating what was not in my diet. I will eat and I struggled to get back on track because food was so good and I had this obsessive compulsive behavior towards food. So I thought; "I really need discipline for this!" I would stick with my discipline for few weeks even months, but here I was struggling again.
I understood discipline wasn’t the piece of the puzzle I was missing and I didn’t want to rely on discipline like with motivation.
Believing is hard..
There are many things about diet and exercise everywhere that doing our own thing scare us from being wrong.
I became a flexible dieter.
I ate whatever I wanted as long as it fit my calories and macros, but I still needed discipline and motivation to maintain.
Most people (I was there too), think there’s something we must know in order to stick and reach our goals.
A lot of people will think supplements, blame genetics and because of it, we miss to see what is there for us to learn and stick to the change. (SEE THIS AS PULLING CORDS; WE HAVE TO UN TIGHT THEM TO TIGHT THEM AGAIN).
Here’s when I learned all these psychology tricks to condition our behaviors and be able to change our lifestyle. Everything we want to maintain needs to be trained! It will not happen just because. Behaviors are conditioned by the way we train them. Cravings, motivation, willpower, lazyness, happiness, etc... It takes time but who cares? As long as you are working on it, you are going to have fun!
STOP being hard on yourself because to get there you have to be acting as if you were already there.
okay?
Believe it or not! The behavior we now have is something conditioned by our unaware patterns of living. No ones fault of course, but our unseen and busy life schedules, our lack of information and sometimes from being used to relyING on others to improve our way of living that we tend to get the pressure out of ourselves.
Believe me...
Stories are key for change...
There’s no one thing I can tell you to see the answer. You have to experience this “aha” moment that is going to change the way we do things, you will apply it and is error.. recognizing we make mistakes what grows the desire to make the change.. Being wrong is not all wrong!
(Reading my past blogs can help you construct a fit lifestyle)
COGNITIVE DISSONANCE: it’s the state of our beliefs...
This is what happens; I know you might say; "but is really hard and that’s not what I believe about myself".. but the real change starts by the way you think about yourself..
If you want to exercise or would like to improve your lifestyle; telling yourself “I’m weak, or I’m lazy” will not help at all.. Because your words are your command. What you say becomes your identity... To really change you have to start seeing yourself as the person you want to become and talk about that person accordingly.
How does it works?
We have feelings...
Contradictions gives us this uncomfortable sensation that either
A. Will make our words match our behaviors
or
B. Make our behaviors match our words
Do things to build your self esteem first.
The one you keep on repeated on will be the one that wins.. Change does not happen overnighT! Understanding that having the perfect workout, discipline or willpower will not give us our desired results if our beliefs system are not in accordance with our behavior. Beliefs play the biggest position on making this a long term change..
It feels a lot of work at first, but letting your mind fight with your words will actually push you to get things done.
What you say, your mind listens and this starts being what you see!
Having a fit lifestyle isn't anything different from a regular lifestyle. The only thing that changes is your awareness of the selections you make.
Consistency in learning is what will give you variety and flexibility to see is possible to maintain and get better at it :)