How to NOT ‘Suck’ at Creating a Healthy Lifestyle

We all know that creating a healthy lifestyle is hard-otherwise everyone would have one. These healthy habits we want are always met with setbacks and struggles in the form of lack of enjoyment and lack of motivation. We’ve discussed before that many people don’t stick with exercise because it’s unpleasant or even distasteful.

So here in lies the problem, how do you create a healthy habit by doing something consistently if you hate doing it once or even twice?

Exercising and eating those veggies probably comes to mind.

The ‘Suck-o-meter’ Solution

A good friend of mine, Dr. Chris Maloney, came to me with what he called, “The Suck-O-Meter”. He explained to me that he didn’t want to do anything during our workout that had a high suck-o-meter reading, or high suck factor. I think there is a lot of wisdom in this principle.

While interval training is proven to be effective at improving body composition, aerobic capacity etc., if you hate it or anything else ending in “-urpee” (burpees, chirpees), the probability of reaching your fitness goals is slim at best. There are SO many ways to reach fitness goals, there really isn’t just one exercise. I see this all the time when people ask me what type of treadmill they should buy. I usually ask them first, “Do you like running/jogging?”. Here’s the surprising thing-8 out of 10 times they tell me that they hate it! So why are you buying something you already know you’ll hate!??! When did running become the only way to get ‘in shape’. The answer is NEVER!

You can apply this same ‘litmus test’ or the suck-o-meter to your food choices. If you abhor, not just hate, eating kale than don’t eat it…initially. You may never like kale, but why are you trying to eat kale in the first place? Probably to ‘be healthy’. Instead, how about starting with a healthy food choice that doesn’t involve kale? Maybe a baby spinach salad. Or if you’re still willing to try kale, maybe try it in a fruit smoothie. It may register a brief/small blip on the suck-o-meter but you’re well on your way to continued healthy lifestyle of eating better.

Creating a Healthy Lifestyle: The Cliff Notes Version

Bottom line-there’s more than one way to reach your goals. Your goals are going to be challenging enough to reach without all the extra internal resistance you give to force yourself to do them.

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