Keep Your Eye on the Ball

Every day people link health, nutrition, weight loss, etc. to the idea of reaching goals.  What are our goals - where do you want to be.   I was thinking about that tonight while I was on the message board for our current (and awesome) Kids Rule program.  At Prescribe Nutrition, our goal is to help you reach your goals.  Especially those who feel frustrated as to why they may not be getting there on their own.  The tricky thing about the entire world of health and smart nutrition is that when we're trying to feel our best and feed ourselves well, we pretty much know it's up to us to commit in order to make progress.  And it's true!  No one is stopping us but ourselves.

Your little helpers.

...But sometimes it's easy to get real hard on yourself.  We have a tendency to blame a few things: laziness, willpower, lack of results and feeling confused.  Here's the deal - if you feel like health is a constant hurdle, well you need to know something - it's not just you. Whether you're dealing weight loss resistance, energy issues or completely lack good nutrition habits, you need to know that a) you're not alone in that feeling and b) most people don't succeed on their own. This month we're talking about how it takes a village, and when it comes to goals, well logically it makes sense to realize that applies there.

Let's think about goals.   Like, actual goals in soccer.  I still may not understand what 'offsides' means, but I do know it's pretty dang hard to score a goal without your teammates.  Everyone knows the crucial pass is just as important as the winning kick.  Bottom line: we need people to fall back on, to hold us up when we're behind, and to help us keep our eye on the ball.   

Takes more than 1 to score.

Recently Katie and I ran a New Rules program for a small team of people, co-workers to be precise, which was something new for us.  What made this program so unique was the fact that they could all share their experience on a daily basis: what recipes had they tried, did they feel different cutting out x or y, what they did if sugar cravings hit, and so on. 

Having a team, a partner in crime or anyone who shares your goals or knows the value of them to you is absolutely key to achieving your goals. We are imperfect, us humans.  Sometimes we conquer and sometimes we cave.  Having someone to hold us accountable can often be the biggest game changer when it comes to health and fitness.  So what do you do?  Get a walking partner.  Get a Groupon deal for yoga classes with your best friend.  Find co-workers and do a rotating healthy pot luck.  Start a recipe exchange at your company.  When you talk about your goals, and share your successes and your fails, those around you can and will relate.  So don't try to do it alone, create your own wellness village.