Start with the Why

In an effort to find inspiring material for one of my H3 lectures, I came across an amazing Ted Talk by Simon Sinek. If you’ve never heard of a Ted Talk, then you need to acquaint yourself with Ted.com. Ted.com is a website that believes passionately in the power of ideas to change attitudes, lives and ultimately, the world. Their passion is conveyed through motivating videos and conferences presented by amazing speakers from around the globe.

Simon Sinek is one of those amazing speakers and his video, entitled “How Great Leaders Inspire Action,” had me riveted immediately. The basic premise of his philosophy is that people don’t buy what you do; they buy why you do it. Companies and individuals that are outstanding in their field don’t start by telling you what they sell or believe, or how they make their product, but rather why they do what they do first. Their passion drives the process. Simon illustrates this concept using what he calls, “The Golden Circle,” as seen below.

 

Most companies/individuals start from the outer ring of the circle and work their way inward. For example, Dell computers might explain their company by first saying what they do; “We make great computers.” Then proceed with how they do it; “We make them with only the highest quality materials.” Lastly, they would explain why; “Because we want you to buy one.” However, the undisputed success of Apple can be explained by their reversed thought process. They start with the why; “Everything we do, we do because we want to challenge the status quo and give individuals access to the same technology and information as the largest corporations.” Their how would sound something like…”Our computers are beautifully designed and very user-friendly.” Lastly, their what would simply be, “We make great computers.” Of course Simon’s video explains the concept much more eloquently.

What got me so jazzed about Simon Sinek’s idea is how wonderfully it applies to weight loss and exercise. Our journey to achieve or maintain a healthy lifestyle should start with the why, not the what.

 

For example, here is conventional thinking from the what to the why:

What: I want to lose 20 pounds

How: I will exercise 5 times a week and eat a healthy diet comprised of 1500 calories.

Why: Because I hate being overweight and out of shape.

 

Here is inspired, passionate thinking from the why to the what:

Why: I want to feel strong and sexy in my body and I want to be able to play with my children without any limitations. I want to be proud of my body. I want to be passionate about my health.

How: I will exercise regularly, eat a healthy diet, reduce my alcohol intake, and cut out processed foods. I will commit myself to this process.

What: I want to lose 20 pounds.

Instead of starting with a number on the scale, or a clothing size, start with the core ideals that drive you. Start from a place of internal passion, not external motivating factors that in the end, don’t help define you. Watch Simon’s video and see how it can apply to your quest to improve your health. Email me and let me know what you think! lvolz@hhhealth.com.

Coaching Corner: Sustainable Change

You’ve got two options:  Option A, lose 100 pounds in 6 short months only to gain 50 pounds of the weight back within the next year; or option B, lose 100 pounds over 2 years and successfully sustain that loss for the next 30 years. Clearly, I hope we’d all choose option B, but what is it about instant gratification that may have us leaning toward the first option?

The fact is that when we decide to make a change and become persistent on changing anyone of us can make that change a reality in a short time frame. The issue here isn’t whether we can do it or not, but rather will the change be sustained and last a lifetime?

As hard it can be, we have to focus on establishing strategies that are doable for the long-term in order to be younger next year. We have to block out the short term gratification of seeing the scale move. The media is constantly sprouting more details on new diets and fast weight-loss schemes; however, for the majority who implement these diets, they are just that— a DIET. If we don’t change our environment or create strategies in our lives that are designed with longevity, we’ll never create change that’s sustainable. Ask former guest Lyle Orr about change and how he’s created something maintainable.

Hilton Head Health’s, Bob Wright often talks about the facts behind members of the National Weight Control Registry (an organization of over 10,000 people who have loss significant amounts of weight and kept it off for a long time) and of the major habits as part of their lifestyle. When it comes to sustainable change, we have to figure out unique healthy strategies that work only for us; but at the same time, we can also learn from individuals who have gone through the struggle but are now sustaining success. Check out how most of the NWCR members are maintaining and then figure out how you can implement:

• 90% on average exercise 1 hour per day


• 78% eat breakfast every day


• 75% weigh themselves at least once a week


• 62% watch less than 10 hours of Television per week

A lot of the time we see weight loss as just eating better foods or exercising a little more, but check out the mindset approaches successful individuals utilize to sustain change:

1. BECOME SELFISH – people who sustain change are selfish. They put themselves first when they deserve to and they choose their health over other people or responsibilities.


2. SET BOUNDARIES – they remove themselves from high stress situations or health hazards. These individuals put up healthy walls in their environment and focus only on the things they can control.


3.  NO EXCUSES – successful changers are honest with themselves. They aren’t deceitful or liars when it comes to the health behaviors in their life. True to the core of what they are doing.


4. GET SPECIFIC – they get detailed about the change. This is when I am going to make this happen; this is how it’s going to fit into my day.


5. STAY PREPARED – these individuals take the guess work out of things. They prepare for the unknown in relation to their desired change. They set themselves up to succeed.

Do all of the above, and you’ll be on surefire path to solidifying any change you desire…

H3 Tips and Tricks

I have always considered myself a pretty healthy person. In college, while others were eating take out every night or Top Ramen sandwiches, I was attempting vegetable chili or hoisin lettuce wraps. I never realized how much I didn’t know until going through the H3 Healthy Lifestyle Program for two weeks. Yes, you learn a lot of nutrition and fitness tips from the presenters, but the Guests have tricks of their own! Here are a few tips that have really stuck with me as I continue to try to live a healthy lifestyle:

4 Simple Steps to Weight Loss

A few weeks back I stumbled upon this video entitled “Sugar: The Bitter Truth”.  The 89 minute rant by Dr. Robert Lustig, UCSF Professor, vehemently underscores the impact of fructose in our society.  I must admit that I had to break up the presentation into two sittings because of its length, but it was well worth the time.  The in-depth talk makes a stunningly strong case for the elimination of sugars in the human diet.  Fructose he explains is the real culprit and is found in nearly everything, in either the form of High Fructose Corn Syrup or Sugar.  Dr. Lustig asserts that chronic fructose exposure leads to Hypertension, Myocardial Infarction, Dyslipidemia, Pancreatitis, Obesity, Hepatic Dysfunction, Fetal Insulin Resistance and Habituation, if not addiction.  

However, what most interested me was the successful intervention that his department used to help reverse these lifestyle diseases in a large population of children.  The simplicity of the study is what really caught my attention.  The ambiguous recommendations and blatantly overwhelmingly advice from many health professionals is sending the public into a tailspin from information overload.  In the UCSF WATCH Clinic Lifestyle Intervention they taught parents and children four simple things to change.

1.      GET RID OF ALL SUGARED LIQUIDS – DRINK ONLY WATER AND MILK

2.      EAT YOUR CARBOHYDRATE WITH FIBER

3.      WAIT 20 MINUTES FOR SECOND PORTIONS

4.      BUY YOUR SCREEN TIME MINUTE FOR MINUTE WITH PHYSICAL ACTIVITY

The patients were followed every three months and the results were astounding (see below).  Don’t let complexity ruin your plan.  Keep things SIMPLE!

Perfection is the Enemy of Progress

“I should be perfect.”  If we were playing Family Feud at Hilton Head Health, this would be the #1 answer on the board for “thoughts that interfere with your healthy eating and exercise.”  Although you, like many people, know that perfection is impossible, you may continue to strive for it.  You may wear yourself out, physically and mentally, trying to be perfect.  When you don’t meet your unrealistic expectations for your eating and physical activity, you may be very disappointed, feel like a failure, and wind up giving up. 

To challenge your perfectionism …

Give yourself permission to make mistakes.  Mistakes are a sign that you are human.  In most situations, making a mistake is not the end of the world. 

Ask yourself “what’s the worst thing that could happen if I weren’t perfect in this situation?”  Then ask “How terrible would that really be?” 

Aim for excellence, not perfection.  Performing tasks well is important.  In some cases, a task may only need to be done “well enough.”  I used to re-load the dishwasher because I could fit more dishes in than my room mate.  I wasted hours on a task that didn’t require anything near perfection.  To make time for your healthy eating and physical activity, something has to give. 

If you strove for excellence instead of perfection, and if you accepted that sometimes “good enough” really IS good enough, how would your life be better?