Intro to creating a healthy mindset

Over the coming days and weeks, I will coach you on how to create the right mindset that is required to not just achieve your health goals but to maintain those results for the rest of your life.

What I require from you is to read each coaching article I send you and provide me with your feedback and thoughts about how it is going to help you to create that perfect healthy mindset.

The first thing I do when coaching a new client to become healthy and fit is to change their mindset.

You might well have heard of the concept of ‘the power of positive thinking’ and the amazing results that some people attribute to it.

To some people, it represents a bunch of mumbo-jumbo, but once you look behind the science of it you can see why it makes sense.

Each of us has an estimated 2 million pieces of information coming into our minds every one second. Stop reading now and listen, do you hear all the sounds around you?

They were there before and your senses were picking them up, but you were filtering them out from your conscious. Until I directed you to them you weren’t aware of them.

Of course, the more you learn, the more you know. So from all my clients, I have coached, I have always tried to learn something new from them. This, in turn, has made me a better coach and better understanding of what it will take to, not just change some one's life for the better, but change it for many years to come.

What you focus on is what you get

Stored in the hypothalamus part of your brain is the Reticular Activating System (RAS), this is like a filter and whatever you place your attention on, it identifies which of those bits within the 2 million pieces of information that you are receiving, relates to what you are focusing on.

Put simply, if you believe life is good and things are going your way, you will come across information that supports that. On the other hand, if you believe that life is painful and you are having a hard time you will see the stuff that relates to that.

How does this all relate to your health? Well if you see yourself as an unhealthy, unfit person who finds exercise hard work and inconvenient, then you will see all around information that supports that. You are therefore unlikely to exercise.

If you believe that you can’t be truly fit and give in to temptation easily, guess what you will give in and then say to yourself “see, I told you I can’t resist temptation.”

Stephen Covey in his book, The Seven Habits of Highly E􏰁ective People refers to this concept when he talks about things being first created in the mind before being created physically. To that end, it is therefore essential that you set clear and well-defined goals at the outset of your programme.

The first goal you want to set is your Vision. What is it you want to achieve by the end of the programme? Be clear and precise.

For example, at this point, some people set weight loss targets and that is okay, but actually, it is not really that motivating.

You need to consider why you want to lose weight.

Ask yourself questions such as:

•What impact will achieving the goal have?

•What will be the results of achieving the goal?

•What’s important to me about achieving the goal?

•What will I gain from achieving the goal?

Each time you give an answer, ask the question again in relation to that answer. For example, you might say “losing weight will make me look better”.

When you ask the question again, i.e. “what’s important to me about looking better”, you might answer, “it will give me confidence”.

Each time you ask the question you are stepping up to a higher value. Values are those things that are important to you; they drive your behaviours and are consequently very motivating.

By doing this exercise you will become very clear about why you are setting out on your journey. When things become challenging as they surely will, remind yourself of your Vision and this will help inspire you to keep going.

Chris, myHealthCoach