Honestly, Is Happiness In The Numbers
As a healthy body advocate and personal trainer, I know how important it is to set goals. They are essential to keeping us motivated as you travel through your health and wellness changes.
What is more important is focusing on the correct goal for you. Weight loss is usually front of mind for most of my clients. However, I do like to approach this goal with caution. When setting a kg loss as your prime target, I would encourage anyone to ask, “What is my WHY?”. Why do you want to lose that 5kg? Why do you want to be a certain size or a certain number on the scales?
Is it happiness? Do you think it will make you happy? Do you think your life will be perfect if you could “just lose a little bit more weight”?
Using happiness as your incentive can be a very repetitive cycle. It can feel like the mountain you can never seem to climb.
Setting a goal of weight loss to give you a healthier disposition or to reduce your blood pressure is a far kinder and mindful approach.
We should continually set goals throughout our lives. Goals to do with lifestyle, family, careers and those goals that we dare to dream of. They are all part of that ‘unclimbable’ mountain.
In a world of perfection, it is difficult to navigate what is a normal thought pattern. We are often silently cursing ourselves because we don’t look like the girl or guy on Instagram or in the so-called “health” magazine.
Sure, our population definitely needs to take a serious look at how we are living such fast paced lives with a “I’ll do it when I have time” attitude. But there are also the extreme messages of rapid weight loss, 6 week challenges and diet cycles that will only leave you feeling like it is all your fault because, a) you couldn’t stick to a 1000 Cal so called “meal plan”. Or b) you stuck to it but you’re feeling like crap, have no energy and you certainly don’t look like the chick in the brochure.
It’s the perfect marketing trick… just like the sweet, sour, crunchy and salty take away food that you just can’t leave alone. They are supposed to be addictive. Imagine if everyone who did a 6-week shred challenge actually gained control over their weight, ate a balanced diet, and never had any “mind fuck” over their body again… Imagine how broke the diet industry would become. Happiness will NOT come from weight loss. Gaining control over your life, thoughts and overall health will bring you happiness. Do you remember the ‘unclimbable’ mountain I told you about .. well that’s life … It can be a steep climb sometimes! But if you set your goals along the way, you will find happiness in the journey… NOT in the bottom of a protein shaker!
