Changing Your Health For Good

 

This post is all about Changing Your Health For Good.

Forever.

Through failure. Through good times and bad.

Through sickness and health. Amen

It’s doggie story time!

After spending three days with my new dog Peanut, I gushed to my friend, who is a veterinarian, “He’s so good. Never barks and just wants to sleep by my side.” She looked at me with knowing wisdom and said: “Six days, six weeks, six months. Call me after you’ve had him for half-a-year.

At the six-week mark while cleaning up a pile of barf, after Peanut ate a bag of chocolate kisses foil and all, it occurred to me that this six days, six weeks, six month timeline goes for other life changing resolutions as well. Maybe you’re adopting an exercise program or sleeping more at night or trying to eat a low sugar diet.

The first weeks are all, “This is awesome!” Then about six weeks in, the honeymoon is over and you start fooling around on your new habits. Before long you’re fighting your dog for that bag of chocolate kisses.

There’s actually good research on this. Fifty percent of people who start an exercise program will drop out at six weeks. Ironically, six weeks is just about the time we start seeing positive results. We want to Change Your Health For Good though.

Six weeks is when new behaviors start looking like a new life.

 

The heart gets a little stronger, your gaze a little clearer and then when you need to solve the puzzles of the world, its all a little easier. Six days, six weeks, six months, if we’re talking about a life-time that might last 1020 months, six months doesn’t seem impossible.

 

I went on and on about that here–http://anngarvin.net/continue-make-world-go-around/

 

If I were reading this, I’d be saying, “But the first six weeks is the hardest! How do I get that far?”

My answer might surprise you. Plan to fail.

I’ve been failing since I began trying to prioritize health behaviors. My path to health is a series of short-term failures, tweaks, with longer-term successes. Every day I learn from my weaknesses (candy) and make a plan to support myself (don’t buy it).

It’s my zig-zagged path to health, it’s not an all or nothing proposition and I’m not going to treat it as if it is. This keeps me going for the long haul and not getting bogged down by a quest for perfection. This is what Changing for good is all about.

So how’s my dog doing, now that I’ve had him for awhile? He still sleeps by my side and gazes adoringly at me but he also barks like a SWAT team is approaching every time a leaf blows across the lawn and eats more socks then dog food.  So it’s up and down, just like me.

We get each other. I’ve had him a year now and he’s changed my life, so it’s true then, the heart wants what the heart wants…it just takes about 6 months to figure it out.

Thaaweeeet

sweet peanut

7 Comments

  1. Beth Orozco on July 13, 2014 at 3:31 am

    Great post. Thank you for permission to fail! I ate pizza tonight knowing full well that tomorrow the gluten monster will come a knockin’. I’m not a bad person, just a little weak at times… Thanks Ann!

  2. Susan E. Chabot on July 16, 2014 at 8:55 pm

    What a great and healthy perspective. You are so right about the “6 weeks, ” Ann! I have GOT to keep that in mind. Thank you! Thank you!xo

  3. Rebel Sowell on August 15, 2014 at 7:17 pm

    I fail all the time at trying to quit smoking, but I never stop trying. Thanks for another great post.

  4. I Can't Commit - Ann Garvin on May 23, 2019 at 4:15 pm

    […] I talk a little more about how to commit even when you fail, here […]

  5. Jacki Damson on September 1, 2019 at 2:50 pm

    Thanks, not only for the common sense wisdom, but the perspective! I enjoy your outlook on life.

    • Ann Garvin on September 1, 2019 at 4:34 pm

      Thanks Jacki, I’m so glad to hear from you?

  6. Jay on September 6, 2019 at 2:04 am

    This is just the encouragement I need at this moment. Thank you, Ann!

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