Thinking Two Steps Ahead

Can you see it now?  How exactly does planning ahead nudge us forward?  Planning ahead, thinking ahead, can mean the difference in meeting our goals and in how we  recover from setbacks. Visualization.

Thinking ahead means taking the present, looking at where we are, picturing where we want to be, and then using that to plan the future. It only takes two steps to make a difference in how far we can go. Thinking two steps ahead  means utilizing the present to make it easier to achieve our goals in the future.

What time do you have to get up to walk around the block? How about walk around the block twice? What do you need to pack for lunch to avoid the fast food solution? What do you need to plan to have on hand for when the afternoon (or mid-morning) “I have to have a snack attack” hits? What do you have to do now to prepare for when you most need to rely on your motivation, which might be exactly when you are least likely to make that choice that will move you forward?

First, take a few minutes to think about your actions. Take some time to envision yourself reaching your personal long-term goal, whether it's losing 50 pounds, competing in a triathlon or lowering your cholesterol. All of these big goals can be broken down into specific behaviors that over time will increase your health and wellness. Now, when you take it a step further, each of these action steps requires another plan or mini-goal.  Achieving these goals is easier when you start thinking ahead and preparing a process that fits into your schedule. And, we all have very different schedules. When you spell-out exactly what you’re working on, it will be easier to track progress toward your mini-goals and stay on course toward your larger goal.

You’ll also need to prepare a Plan B. There will always be surprise hurdles, traps and unplanned events that can waylay  your best laid plans. You can either wait for them to derail you or you can plan how to tackle them in advance. As soon as you’ve identified your mini goals, the next thing to focus on is finding where there’s room for flexibility. Having a Plan B in place before you need it means you're thinking strategically and will be more likely to stay on track.

You can be sure that the road to wellness won’t always be smooth and straight. It’s definitely a corkscrew. This is why it’s important to make friends with failure. When you experience a succession of small setbacks or changes in course, the bright spot is that it helps you hone your skills in dealing with those issues that are outside of your control. And, that really is a big help on your road to success.

We all fail. Sometimes we do it in a big, public way, and sometimes it’s a private affair. But, if we’re smart, determined and resourceful, we don’t let it stop us. This is what we mean by treating setbacks as guides not brakes. 

It’s not the failures that define who we are, and when we use failure to move forward in a positive direction, they can certainly nudge us into the person we want to be.

It’s a lifestyle choice . . . not a diet

Just the word “diet” conjures up some pretty distasteful emotions. Deprivation, doing without, giving up, cutting down, and cutting back. It also brings memories of past failures and mostly unpleasant experiences. There’s a reason “diet” is a four-letter word. And, there’s an even better reason why diets don’t work. A diet is usually, by definition, a temporary condition, until the weight is lost.  But if it isn’t part of true lifestyle change, that weight comes running right back home.

To help us come to terms with our overall condition,  the weight loss industry will see close to an estimated $ 65 billion in revenue this year. (That’s 13 percent of the almost $500 billion a year we spend on groceries.) It includes diet soft drinks ($21.15 billion), health clubs ($19.5 billion), diet books and exercise videos ($1.21 billion), artificial sweeteners ($2.52 billion), and the list goes on.

Now, what happens if we shift the focus from “diet” to, hmmm, say “lifestyle change?” When this happens, we’re also shifting our focus from a pretty negative relationship to a positive one.

So, back to that “diet” word. Consider that today about 72 million of us in the United States are on some kind of diet, spending that $65 billion we mentioned earlier. That’s a little more than $1000 spent per person “dieting” on average. What would happen if instead each of these 72 million people used that $1000 plus to make healthier and more nutritious food choices?  That averages out to about $20 per week. Now, leave out the soda, fast food, pre-packaged and highly processed choices. You’ve saved more still. 

Seriously, doesn’t a lifestyle change seem like a better approach? We know habits are, well, habitual. But we have the option, the choice, of deciding what we “make” habitual. We get used to doing things a certain way, and then it’s not an effort to continue doing them. We just have to decide what’s important and where we place our focus. For example, getting into the habit of eating whole grain products instead of refined grains. Getting into the habit of drinking more water. Getting used to less salty food over the course of several months through gradual reduction. Same for sugar. Making a fresh salad instead of thawing out the frozen pizza. Moving away from screen time and walking the dog around the block, several times. You get the idea.

Suddenly, your healthier choices become new habits, and you have a new food-lifestyle relationship. You’re not “dieting”—but look at the result! And, look at who is now in charge.

Independence Day? Shall We All Declare Our Independence? Yes!

This week we’ll celebrate Independence Day—but are we really—independent? Are we self-determining, self-regulating?  You know this is a wellness and well-being-oriented Blog, so you can guess where this is going.  But, read on... 

Food for thought:  Many of us are already focused on the traditional hot dog / hamburger cookout on the grill, accompanied by chips, soft drinks . . . the list goes on. But, what if we use this Independence Day as the time to shift our “food focus,” just a little bit at time? If we do, we can take a giant step in declaring our independence from chronic illness by Independence Day 2014... and, that’s a goal worth pursuing. 

Here’s why:  The foods we choose to eat on a daily basis contribute 80 percent to whether we will develop diabetes, heart disease, or cancer.  Already, almost one-half of all Americans report having a chronic illness—and those illnesses account for more than 75 percent of our national spending on healthcare (and we are all well-aware of those costs). Furthermore, almost 80 percent of all chronic disease is caused by three preventable health behaviors—obesity and overeating, physical inactivity, and smoking. The good news... weight loss, as modest as 5 to 15 percent of total body weight in a person who is overweight or obese, reduces the risk factors for some diseases, particularly heart disease, by as much as 50 percent! 

How about this? What if this Independence Day (even if it’s after the big feast) we declare our independence from overly-processed, junk and fast food?  What if we look for healthy substitutions? What if we find ways to work in a little more physical activity?  What if we make just one modest yet meaningful change in our nutritional behaviors each month? If we as a nation of individuals can each make the effort to independently create a positive change for ourselves, we will collectively do great things for our country—and  our own long-term health and wellness. “We the people” can take control of our wellness behaviors—and outcomes. “We the people” can become the solution rather than part of the problem. We are all stakeholders in this effort, and together we can begin to turn the epidemic of overweight, obesity, and inactivity around and reduce our risk factors for preventable chronic illnesses.

Isn’t this something well-worth chewing on?

If Dollars Were Seconds…

How much is a trillion dollars? For most of us that’s a really big number. It means a lot, and then, it’s so big, it doesn’t mean much. 

At some point long before the hundred-billion-dollar mark, large numbers simply become figures on the page, well beyond human scale and intuitive understanding.

A common strategy for beginning to understand big numbers is to use visual representations.

Let’s say one dollar equals one second.

  

One million seconds comes out to be about 11½ days. A billion seconds is 32 years. And a trillion seconds is 32,000 years. We might all have a fairly good idea what we'll be doing a million seconds from now. Most of us have only a vague idea what we'll be doing a billion seconds from now. And, let’s face it, we all pretty much know exactly what we’ll be doing a trillion seconds from now."

Using this logic, our $2.9 trillion in healthcare costs—this year alone—equals 93,000 years. Hmmm...

Let’s turn these numbers around. Here’s an idea. Actually, it’s more than an idea—it’s in the works. We’ve launched a Kickstarter Project, “Well-done, The WellnessManifesto.” This project is all about defining a positive, single action that will be embraced by enough of us to become a very powerful collective action. It can be BIG!  Click Here to see what we mean.

What we're proposing really is exquisite in its simplicity. It only asks that we all get involved and play our parts to make it happen. This is a simple concept, yet one with the potential to change the healthcare landscape.

Prevention and involvement are the only way to turn our healthcare crisis around. While simple, this Kickstarter project is not one of the fun projects most people familiar with Kickstarter want to back. It is however, one of the most important. And, those $2.9 trillion dollars (those 93,000 years) make it absolutely necessary. That’s a lot of dollars and a lot of time. Wouldn’t you agree?  Are you in?

A Contentious Divide?

Touchy? Yes. Controversial? Maybe. Debatable? Almost certainly. What? Our collective wellness and well-being. It is a contentious conversation when it comes to our shared wellness and well-being. We’re all there, and we’re all in this together. We all have a part to play. And, all of us are playing from a unique perspective.

Yes, we are a contentious culture. We disagree on any number of issues—yet we still must find enough common ground to move on so that we can solve what really are enormous problems. Right now, healthcare and healthcare spending, driven in part by our lifestyle choices, is one of the most massive. It has the potential to drive our country to bankruptcy. And, at the heart of it all are two sets of values, motivations and behaviors that have the capacity to split, or divide us. These are values that drive our personal “wellness behavior choices.”

First, a couple of questions:  Do we trust what we know?  Do we trust what we think?  Do we trust ourselves to make the right decisions? Do we trust the solutions available to us?  (Technically, that’s more than a couple.) 

When focusing on our wellness and well-being (which is what this Blog is about), these are hard questions to answer. There’s a lot of information “out there” about what we should and should not do, a lot of dis-information, a lot of bad information, and a lot of information that is just plain wrong. How do you know the difference?

Well, you could listen to us…we try to distill all this information and make it simple (maybe not easy, but still simple), or you could listen to yourself. You really are the expert here, and you know what you will and won’t, can and can’t, do. You also know what you should do and must do, for reasons that may be personal and private, but surprisingly, are more than likely very much connected to reasons held by our entire population. 

No one wants to be unhealthy. No one wants to suffer from poor lifestyle behavior choices. No one would choose to put their lives at risk because of those choices. Yet some of us do. And, those choices will cost us all as we try to navigate our way through the staggering, and growing healthcare costs we’re facing together as a nation.   

When it comes down to it, maybe we’re not so divided after all. Maybe we just have to act on what we know we need to do.