Making Changes For Better Health

I got this great little motivational blurb today: 
"We may think there is willpower involved, but more likely change is due to want power. Wanting the new addiction more than the old one. Wanting the new me in preference to the person I am now." George Sheehan  
(read about this amazing man it's inspiring! http://www.georgesheehan.com/welcome/bio.html)


What struck me about this quote was the idea of addiction. It has been said more times than I possibly count, 'I just love food'! Yep, its great stuff but it can also do you harm when you don't know the limits of consumption anymore. Like an alcohol addiction - the inability to stop and say no is an addiction. On the see food diet? You see it, so you must eat it.... all of it!!!!

Want power is an amazing thing. You want the chocolate, you have it. You want the extra white wine, you have it. So why is that such a difficult concept to turn from a negative to a positive? I want to be fitter, I want to eat better, I want to be a better me, I want to someone I can like, I want to get off this vicious cycle and start enjoying my life again? Wanting can be powerful enough to fundamentally change lives for the better.


George draws your attention to the positive 'new me'. I have spoken about this before when looking at the process of setting goals and adopting new behaviors. Focus on what you want not what you don't want. I want the new me, is a more motivating goal than, I don't want to be me anymore.


There a two things missing from this quote that I feel are fundamental to 'willpower' or 'want' when it comes to change. We have to understand that we are talking about habits. Nothing more unusual or outrageous than a series of behaviors that have been repeated endlessly which need to be altered or made redundant in order to make way for positive new behaviors. Habits are tough things to break and they take years to develop and potentially years to change. So the want has to be BIG!!!!


This is a great explanation of habits from http://zenhabits.net/five-things-you-need-to-know-about-effective-habit-change/  "You’ve heard this one before too, but it bears, err, repeating. Habits are behaviors that we do over and over again. They become almost automatic. How much thought did you put into your last habitual behavior? Not much, right? It kind of happened just by itself. Now that you have your refined plan and you have your mini-plans, it is time to make your new habit almost automatic. And the only way to do it is by repeating and repeating. And repeating. That’s because psychologists have shown that repeating a behavior over and over again means that it happens automatically or almost automatically. So, the great thing about repeating the behavior is that, eventually, you won’t really have to make yourself repeat it. The new behavior will just kind of happen on its own."


Tackling change needs help. In a research paper from 2006 looking at behavior change of people attempting to alter exercise and eating patterns revealed an interesting statistic. Only 1% sought medical help in the form of psychology, nutritionist or GP and about 15% sought the help of a fitness professional. Those that sought help had better outcomes than those that didn't. So relying on will power alone is probably not enough. Get help! I actually think a multi-pronged approach with fitness specific assistance, a dietitian and psychological help with change management is the best way to go (this depends on your specific goals of course). 


The other support has to come from friends and family!