Set Realistic Expectations For Your Lifestyle Change

My family and I decided to take a week-long vacation in Seattle, WA this week.

Coffee capital of the world! Also, one of the rainiest parts of the country.

I had drawn my own conclusions for what I thought Seattle would be like.
(lots of rain, but REALLY good coffee.

And an overdue vacation with the family, BONUS!!

Let’s just say… I’m glad I’m not a betting man. I’ll keep my boots out of Vegas for the foreseeable future, thank you!

So far, this week it has been sunshine and no decent coffee shops in sight.

All I see are Starbucks. Starbucks as far as the eye can see!
(if this is the first time you’ve heard that Starbucks doesn’t have good coffee. Well… it’s time someone told you)

I can’t help but compare this to what most people believe living a healthy lifestyle will be like.

Start With a Positive Mindset

We draw our own conclusions on what it will take to both look and feel great.

“Eat Chicken and Broccoli, and pound out the miles on the treadmill for 2 hours a day.”

Don’t forget the freezer meals you cook in the microwave for 5 min.(It has only 600 calories)

Gag me. That sounds TERRIBLE!

If you are going to be serious about taking command of your health, I recommend you start setting the right expectations.

To be consistent at something, one must have the proper mindset before they begin.

Set Realistic Expectations for Yourself

Setting realistic expectations for your new lifestyle will prevent you from negative self talk.

Set expectations like:

This is going to be an enjoyable experience.
I am going to learn and adapt.
Yes, I will fail. Yes it will be challenging. (It is called learning.)

Set the expectation that you WILL learn with every time you don’t “get it right”

Draw the conclusion that you are worth every effort you put into yourself. (Trust me, you are!)

Some people will tell you that it is hard. Yes but since when is hard, bad?

You get my point…

The silver lining is, living a healthy lifestyle doesn’t mean slogging through life hating every minute of the process.

A healthy lifestyle is MIND, BODY, and SPIRIT.

And yet we almost all forget about the MIND and SPIRIT part and only focus on the BODY.

Stop drawing your own conclusions on what you think a healthy lifestyle should be like.

Take it from me. It’s worth the effort.

Tips on handling failure.

Say out loud to yourself. “Well, that didn’t go as planned! I could certainly have done better! Oh well.”

List three things you learned from that failure.

Then, say “I will remember that for next time“.

Finally, forgive yourself and MOVE ON.

This exercise does several things:

It acknowledges the past. (the failure)
It notices the present (the lesson)
It learns and improves for the future (the improvement)

Treat yourself to some white chicken chili this week! Because eating well and living a healthy lifestyle can also mean you get to enjoy delicious food. SERIOUSLY!

Chat Soon!

Dr. Sauer

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