Healthy living means letting your mind control your body, not letting your body control your mind.  Yes, it’s a mind game you play with yourself but just how do you control your mind?.  It’s all about mental rehearsal using positive visual cues, and productive goal setting.

 

  1. Mental rehearsal — Do you see yourself looking fit and trim?  Do you see yourself making healthy choices when you eat out or while grocery shopping?  Do you picture yourself working out at the health club or getting up 30 minutes earlier each morning for a brisk walk around the neighborhood?  Our mind is a powerful tool.  Use it to your advantage.  Mental rehearsal means constantly practicing the choices you make, the foods you eat, the exercise you accomplish.  Picture in your mind making healthy choices.  Having the success you desire.  See yourself accomplishing the small, baby steps towards a healthy lifestyle and soon all those baby steps will add up to success. You must mentally rehearse the choices you make.  Practice them in your mind first. Then watch them become reality in your life.

 

  1. Positive visual cues — Have you ever noticed that everywhere you turn you are being tempted to eat, drink, and be merry?  Why worry about your health when there is so much life to enjoy, right?  We are bombarded with visual cues that can easily sabotage our “healthy living” goals.  How long has it been since you saw a pizza commercial on television or was confronted with a never ending candy counter while paying for your gas?  It seems everywhere you turn; you are faced with visual cues that will sabotage your best laid plans.  So why not rebel against all those cues that want to lead you in the wrong direction and set up some positive visual cues for yourself.  If you want to lose a few pounds, find a photo of yourself at the weight you’d like to be.  Make several copies of the photo and post them around your house, in your car and at work.  See yourself where you’d like to be.  Do you want to participate in an athletic event?  Get a registration form for the event and post it on your refrigerator. Whatever your healthy living goals are, find visual cues, reminders of what you’d like to accomplish and post them as constant reminders of where you are headed.  So the next time, you head to the freezer for ice cream after seeing an ice cream commercial on television, you’ll come face to face with your goal and make the healthy choice!

 

  1. Productive Goal Setting — Do you have specific, measurable, realistic goals for healthy living?  Ask yourself, if I continue on my current path, where will I be in 5 or 10 years?  Will I be living a healthy and productive life?  If your answer is “no”, then today is the day to make a change.  Write a list of rules and guidelines you would like to live by.  Write another list of current rules and guidelines you are living by that do not contribute to a healthy lifestyle.  Compare the two lists. Post them on your refrigerator and challenge yourself to live by the “healthy lifestyle” rules.  Goals are accomplished with small steps.  For example, if you want to start an exercise program then start small.  Instead of spending 45 minutes everyday exercising only to be sore, tired, and irritable by Friday, start with 5-10 minutes of exercise 3 days this week.  Soon those few minutes every other day will become a habit and will eventually expand to a full-fledged exercise program that is part of your daily routine.  Set small, attainable goals that you can focus on.  Break down the changes you’d like to accomplish into bite sized pieces. Before you know it, you will be accomplishing your goals for a healthy lifestyle.  Make small changes every day.  Small changes, repeated over and over again lead to big changes. 

 

Making changes is never easy.  We are creatures of habit.  The old way is the easier, comfortable way.  Today is the day to take inventory of your lifestyle.  Are you healthy, vibrant, full of energy, and physically fit?  If you want to be, you can be!  I challenge you to start today with small changes.  Put into practice mental rehearsal, positive visual cues, and productive goal setting and soon you will be living the life you’ve dreamed of!