It’s amazing how we can retrain our bodies, or more like, our minds and brains. Even the close-minded stubborn ass brains some of us have! If you look back at your life, I guarantee there are things you do regularly now, even food you love and eat regularly now at 35 that you would never eat at 15. Or stuff you wouldn’t have been caught dead at mom’s dinner table eating as an 8 year old, but at 23, you’re allll innnn! Just throw some ranch one ’em and you good! Crazy, right?
Funny that maybe you were never really into biking or rollerblading, and then one day someone introduced you to it, and you were hooked! Now it’s one of your favorite activities that you thoroughly enjoy and get hyped to do. You may even find yourself craving it! It’s amazing how the mind and body can change, isn’t it? Reality will always be – you don’t know what you don’t know. There will forever be blind spots in your life. And being open to new things, will one day have you grow into a totally new person.
When it comes to diets or living a healthy lifestyle, it’s the same thing. We’ve all seen the Biggest Loser – people who are morbidly obese and live ridiculously unhealthy lifestyles, in every way, transform right in front of our eyes. They see new things, they expand their brains and bodies and hearts. They become people they didn’t even comprehend they could be. They find self worth. Truly. I know for a fact that those people couldn’t even fathom that they would enjoy counting calories, feeding their body with fruits and vegetables and items that fuel it well. Couldn’t even function at the thought they could bust their ass working out like they do for hours and hours a day! They could dream about it and try to do it for a few days here and there, yet it of course never stuck and never became a part of who they were. You may even think I’m talking to former versions of you at the moment.
After being on that show though, after going all in and getting the emotional support and push they needed – day in and fucking day out – they changed. They weren’t the same people even 2-3 weeks later if they got kicked off early. And the ones that win or last until the end…they are completely unrecognizable afterwards. They don’t recognize who they see in the mirror, they don’t have any of the same habits. They aren’t even the same people with the same brains. They don’t think about the same shit anymore. Their new life, being healthy every day, becomes just as easy as their old one spending afternoons at KFC eating for two, and barely walking farther than the fridge to the bed to the couch each day.
I’m going to make a statement that sounds crazy to those of us sitting on the lazier side of life.
It’s just as easy to exercise every day as it is to sit on your ass and not exercise every day.
I know you read that and rolled your eyes – yet I’m dead ass serious! I wasn’t that active as a younger kid, yet from middle school and on, I have always been active. Until I wasn’t. Cause then I was injured. And it was the first time in my adult life that I realized how easy it is to NOT exercise every day. I have had a lifetime commitment to be active 6 days a week for as long as I can recall. I mean I went to college and earned a couple of degrees related to exercise science and fitness, for sweat’s sake!
My lifetime commitment to physical activity probably got vocalized in my early 20’s and here I am at 39 still going strong. I have had short phases in the last couple of years dealing with a shoulder impingement, car accident and doctors telling me not to, so I didn’t work out. For the better part of 2+ decades though, I have been active 6 days every week. If you know me, you know it’s what I do. I have often taught fitness classes, so it’s a forced and guaranteed way to get in activity, yet even on days I’m not. Most all friends of mine have had hang out sessions that involve walks, Zumba, yoga class, biking or paddle-boarding. It’s who I am. Vacation or home. Rainy or sunny. Inside or outside. It’s what I do.
Yet in the phases where I was recovering from injuries, it honestly became just as easy to not work out every day as it was when I did. Working out daily is a part of my life. Not an obligation, not something I have to do, it’s something I love to do and am honored to do. It’s what’s best for me and my life, and therefore excuses don’t even play a role in the subject. There is no negotiating for me. I work out and then I go to dinner. I exercise and then I plan my appointments. It’s not a phase. I’m not soft on the subject. Never will be.
AND EVEN AFTER EXPLAINING ALL OF THAT – I finally saw how easy it was to never work out. Once you take it out of your habit or routine, it’s like it was never there! You just fill your time with more work or TV or in this day and age – social media scrolling and Netflixing, etc. After a handful of weeks (or months) without exercise, you wonder how the heck you ever made time for it before? You can’t even believe you used to shower twice a day every day! You don’t even remember doing all of the damn laundry to wear workout clothes every day AND work clothes every day.
I’m serious, though! That’s how it goes. It is crazy (and embarrassing) how fast it all goes. The reprogramming happens fast as hell. Even to the negative in life.
If this is you – and exercise or physical activity is foreign to your heart and knees – just start moving! I don’t care what you do…just move! Music is a HUGE aid when it comes to movement. Most humans enjoy music, and whatever type you enjoy, turn that shit on, crank it up, and move! I don’t even care that it’s not like workout type of activities – it could be vacuuming the house, scrubbing the shower down, weeding in the yard, or a simple walk or bike ride for just 10 minutes. Slow as hell. Maybe in pain. Sweaty. Gasping for air. JUST START! Set a timer and just go. Don’t sit down or stand still until it goes off. And then every few days, or every week, you add a couple of minutes on to the timer. Simple! A reprogramming you’ll be so grateful for, all starting with just a few minutes at a time and just with the help of your favorite old jams!
Some other examples that I have often heard with clients and friends is the breakfast subject. It’s an actual reprogramming of the brain and body to eat breakfast every day when you’re out of the habit, or to skip it if you’re working on fasting. While based on my own experience I think it’s easier to get used to NOT eating breakfast if you’re in a phase of fasting, than to add it in, I think it’s a big reprogramming ordeal period.
Being the daughter of a nurse, and having had lots of nurses and PA’s/NP’s as clients, I’m very familiar with those that don’t eat as many meals as they need or should. Thinking back, I am pretty sure I can say that about 75% of the people I’ve ever trained or taught do not eat breakfast. They got out of the habit somewhere in life, and never got it back. Or sadly, sugar filled cups of heavy cream and milk with a dash of coffee, have replaced the actual meal.
Breakfast is “hard” for lots of people. While I think it’s a rather bull shit statement, it is what it is! There’s nothing about a meal that’s hard or easy. They’re just meals! So if that’s what you say, I invite you to reconsider the way you speak about it.
Eating breakfast isn’t any harder or easier than opening your mouth to chew any other snack or meal, you just say it is cause you’re not used to doing it! Which is often why I recommend shakes – for those that haven’t eaten a real meal for breakfast (at least not during the week or work days) in years or decades. I get it fills you up when you’re not used to it. I get it can feel like it weighs you down at first. So the reprogramming comes from switching the habit and just getting your body used to fuel earlier in the day. I vote shakes or smoothies, as drinking versus chewing are different for the body. Drinking a smoothie or protein shake is easier, quicker, and potentially healthier than most other convenient breakie options. Just make sure you have protein in there! Cause there’s barely a point without it!
I hope you get what I’m talking about at this point, and can think about things or habits in your life that you’ve reprogrammed yourself to do OR NOT DO throughout the years. We’ve all done it! We didn’t naturally wake up at 5am for work when we were 4. We probably didn’t even do it but for a few years in high school until you took that job at 25 or 45. A reprogramming, right?
You didn’t read books for fun when you were young, yet you wanted more out of life and started reading autobiographies or self help books, or even the Bible, regularly as an adult. And now you’re an avid reader – look at that?
Bottom line: it’s all about programming and reprogramming – NONSTOP in this life!
You don’t like something in your life, take a look at the subject and reprogram your brain and life and most likely your schedule to change it. Add in new healthier habits: one salad a day, prayer, activity 3-4 days a week, a gratitude practice! On the flip side, reprogram and rid your life of other negative things: complaining, laziness, social media, gossiping, fast food, alcohol (or limit amounts) or drugs.
Whatever you do – work to make your life healthy-ish by frequently assessing and doing some reprogramming. The small little steps and daily habits will in due time help to create a whole new person…maybe even the person you never knew you needed, or never thought you could be. It starts with shifts in the programming. It starts small and compounds quickly.
My overall advice: just do the damn thing and stop worrying about “hard” or “easy”! Pretend you’re a computer – it doesn’t give a shit when you ask it to delete a 1gb file or a 35gb file, right? While the larger file may take an extra 3 seconds to delete, it doesn’t bitch or complain or make a situation about it. But where’s the lie? Hard or easy, it just does it! Be like that. And in the moments you’re caught up in being human, or on your bull shit, or being suffocated by fear – remember that analogy!
You deserve to be healthy-ish. So reprogram your life to reflect that!