Coaching Corner: Change Your Environment

It’s un-describable being at Hilton Head Health; we’re in this bubble on an Island, secluded in a plantation surrounded by the healthy lifestyle every day. H3 is a bubble of positive energy, unwavering support, controlled portions, phenomenal exercise classes, continual encouragement and immense motivation. What if we all lived in this bubble? What if we engulfed ourselves in an atmosphere like this at home and at work? I’ll tell you one thing… We’d all be pretty dang healthy, that’s a fact.

The most important step in every guest’s journey begins when they step out of the bubble of H3. That first step is when the environment changes. If you don’t take anything away from this blog take this: Change Your Environment, Don’t Let Your Environment Change You.

Here are the first steps to changing your environment:

Clear out the Kitchen. We unknowingly sabotage ourselves when we stock goodies or treats in the cupboards. Make sure your home is a nutritional blockbuster. Maintain fresh fruits, vegetables, lean meats, and whole grains at all times. Take it one step further and have one day each week that you commit to cutting berries, peeling carrots, chopping lettuce, portioning meats, and bagging metabo meals.

Layout the Game plan. Whether you’re a planner or not, create a system in your environment that maps your weekly game plan. Make Exercise Appointments in your weekly planner or calendar; these appointment should highlight what exercise you’ll be doing at a specific time of day. Remember to keep it visible, somewhere you’re guaranteed to walk by at least once per day.

Surround yourself with support. Make certain that people around you aren’t throwing you off your game. Place yourself around people who are positive, excited for life, and the kind of people that health is ingrained in everything they do. Our peers have the biggest impact when it comes to executing our true intentions.

Keep at Least One Cue. Whether it’s a picture of your kids, you crossing a finish line of a race, or the vision of you at your healthiest; there has to be one thing in your environment that draws you back—At all times, one tangible item or image that intrinsically motivates you to make healthy decisions on a day to day basis. Zig Ziglar says: “Motivation doesn’t last, that’s why I recommend it daily.”

Take these action steps and implement them into your everyday life. Evaluating and controlling your environment is the ultimate key to sustained success. No matter what happens, Catch yourself each day, Control each situation, and Change it to your healthy lifestyle.