WHEN IS IT TIME TO UP YOUR HEALTH GAME?

For busy moms, this is a tough question to answer.

You’ve started making adjustments to your health. You’re drinking water and taking a multi-vitamin to hit possible nutrient deficiencies. You’re adding more movement to your day. You’re being more conscientious about the food you’re eating.

All the Micro-Habits you can fit into your day are being utilized.

And for a while, it seems to be working! Your energy is going up. You’re feeling better. You’ve dropped a few pounds. Overall, you’ve noticed an improvement in your health and wellness.

But then something changes. Your energy is dipping again. You’re feeling more sluggish during the day. The scale isn’t going down, and your pants aren’t getting any looser.

You’ve hit your first plateau. Thus far, all the LITTLE things you’ve been doing have been working. The tiny changes have been fitting into your busy life, and it hasn’t disrupted anything TOO MUCH. Maybe the occasional inconvenience, but nothing drastic.

So why did the improvements stop? And what are you supposed to do now?

This is when it becomes a matter of choice. Do you WANT to continue creating healthy habits, losing weight, feeling better, etc.? 

Or are you comfortable with the changes you’ve been able to make and fine with maintaining what you’ve accomplished?

And here’s a hint – NEITHER OF THOSE CHOICES IS WRONG!!!

It’s 100% okay if you have made these adjustments and they work with your life! You may not be losing more weight, or building more muscle, but you’ve made progress in those areas (and others) and if nothing else you don’t want to go BACKWARD.

But if you’re trying to push even further with your health goals, this may be the time when you have to start making hard choices.

Our bodies are DESIGNED to maintain the status quo!

If you’re taking in too MUCH food, our bodies let us know in lots of different ways – indigestion, bloating, discomfort, sluggishness, weight gain. But once your body has adjusted to the increase, now it works to maintain again. So if you’re trying to DECREASE your food intake or make changes, the body fights AGAIN to keep the status quo, and because of some of the primal hardwiring in our brains and our DNA, the body fights much harder to keep those extra pounds than to lose them.

So that explanation is just to say that once you hit a certain point, doing the small things may not be enough anymore to make the changes you’re after.

Hence, the hard choices. Are you willing to do MORE than just drink more water and skip dessert a few times? Are you willing (or able) to carve out more time for exercise than a few lunges and a five-minute walk after work?

Maybe it’s time for a fifteen-minute walk and adding some squats along with more reps of the lunges.

And there is a reason I’m keeping these “numbers” so small (a few reps, five minutes, fifteen minutes). When you’re starting out, especially if you haven’t been working on your health for a while, and especially if you’re a busy mom who barely has time to wash your hair, much less hit the gym for an hour a day. By starting small (Micro-Habits), you are able to CREATE THE HABIT and make those movements or actions (drinking water, taking a vitamin, walking) a regular part of your ROUTINE! When they are a habit and part of your routine, you are far less likely to SKIP them than to just DO IT because it’s a natural part of what you do!

So when the time comes that a few small things aren’t working like they used to, it may be time to take a look at what else you can REALISTICALLY add to your day without spinning off into overwhelm and burnout.

Maybe it’s ten minutes of walking instead of five. Or maybe it’s ten minutes, twice a day – at lunch and in the evening.

If you can fit in 10 lunges when you’re switching the laundry, can you throw in 10 squats as well?

Before you get out of bed in the morning, can you do 10 crunches every day? And next week can you push it to 15?

Can you add another serving of fruit or veggies to your day? If you have an afternoon coffee break, can you add a banana or an apple to your routine?

Looking for the easiest ways to ADD to your healthy habits will increase your chances of being successful in the long run.

But here is the kicker – DO NOT ADD WHAT YOU CANNOT REALISTICALLY DO! And STOP if you’re pushing yourself too hard!

I’m all for challenging yourself and giving yourself the extra nudge when needed.

BUT!

If you are working to create HABITS, then pushing yourself past your limit is not going to be effective. If you HATE doing crunches but you’ve gotten yourself to the point where you are doing 25 crunches every morning before you get out of bed, DO NOT beat yourself up and keep PUSHING to fit in 40 or 50.

STOP!

Don’t do it. Stick with 25. If you’re feeling like a challenge, do 26! Or if you’re feeling really froggy, do 30.

But when you find yourself not wanting to do it because it seems like too much work or a hassle to do MORE, then stick with the number you’re confident you CAN do until you’re ready to take the next step.

By starting small and creating the healthy habits and routines first, you are more likely to stick with it, continue growing your habits, and meet your health and wellness goals in a sustainable and organic way.

And if you would like to learn how to start creating healthy habits of your own, check out my Healthy Micro-Habits Course for busy moms who are trying to work on their health and wellness without rearranging their entire life. Or you can Book a FREE Consultation and discover what health and nutrition coaching can do for you.