Design Your LIfe

There comes a point in every one of my client’s transformations where they simply gasp in unbelief at the burden of change looming before them.  “You cannot seriously expect me to prep vegetables EVERY week!”  Or, “What do you mean I need to sleep more in order to speed up my metabolism?  I always get less than 7 hours.”

What is your sticking point?  What is the one thing you won’t do (or give up) that prevents you from progressing towards health and body peace?  We sometimes dig in our heels and simply refuse to do that thing.  And we usually have a VERY good reason for refusing.  Maybe you don’t like to cook, or maybe you don’t like to exercise.  Perhaps you have stated categorically that you DON’T like vegetables and you clearly don’t have enough time to cook a wholesome meal every day.

Bear in mind no matter how valid our reason for sticking to the status quo we are still designing our way right out of health and an ideal weight.  That’s right.  We design our lives for better or worse.  The ABSENCE of time to exercise is part of our life design--the one we put in place.  Processed food out of a box, can, freezer, or bag, for all its convenience, is also part of the design.  Truth is we create the life we want.  When we want an active healthy body that hums along with a fast metabolism and maintains an ideal weight we design our habits to result in that transformation.  No one is going to do it for us.  No one else can.  My beautiful friend Elizabeth Anderson, a renowned trainer and fitness guru, once told me she could tell a lot about a woman’s health by looking in her purse.  She went on to suggest a stash of raw nuts, protein, foil-pack tuna fish, hard-boiled eggs, fruit, chocolate, and water, generally belonged to someone with a fit body.  

When I cited this life choice with one former client she complained that it was too much trouble to pack her bags with sustainable whole foods.  She was too busy to think ahead like that.  It seemed to her to be a bit obsessive.  In addition, she hated to be in the kitchen and therefore would not be able to take a lunch to work every day.  Her conclusion was she needed to continue to eat fast food with her co-workers every day and find another way around that pesky weight problem.  Her chosen life design was firmly in place and unmovable because she forgot she was in charge.  She forgot she could BE who she wanted.  No one held a gun to her head requiring her to order French fries.  Eventually she realized she could be someone that planned ahead for lunch by packing the necessary fuel.  Was it more effort?  Yes.  Did she want to be someone that CLAIMED her health with her actions and choices?  Yes.  She decided the payoff from shopping, prepping, and cooking more meals with plant fuel and lean protein was worth it.  We have the freedom to honestly recognize where we have relinquished our own power and to retake the pilot’s chair.

Are there areas in your body management where you have designed healthy habits out of your life?  Do you wanna insert a new design?  Go ahead.  Enjoy.  Please feel free to share your discoveries along the way.  I look forward to hearing from you.

Tres Hatch is the author of Miracle Pill 10 Truths to Healthy, Thin, & Sexy.