I am dedicated to Direction Not Perfection because I want you to have a place where you can belong and trust the information that you are hearing on your journey to be healthy and fit.

I interview other professionals to keep evidence-based information coming your way and I have a great lineup in store for you. Another way I build my episodes is by relating real-life stories that are happening around me. I explain how they affect health and fitness and show how you can learn from their experiences. If one person is going through a barrier or habit breaking roadblock, someone else has gone through it as well (OR WILL and can be better prepared for what the future holds).

Living in your reality.

Setting attainable goals and working towards them is an important part of a successful health and fitness journey. Goals or habits that have been working for us in the past, may stop working because of the simple fact that we are not living within our current reality.

As our phase of life changes, ie: having a baby, experiencing emotional or physical trauma or even having a heavy holiday season, we enter a new reality and need to adjust our goals and habits. Life happens and whether the change is by choice or it is thrust upon us, it helps to acknowledge the new reality so that we can have appropriate expectations as we consider our health goals.

It also can be helpful to understand that this is not our new forever. It is a new, short-term reality. Adjustments need to be made to handle this short-term phase so that the momentum we have built up won’t be lost.

The inspiration for today’s podcast came when the reality of a family member was drastically changed this week. Due to an accident while cleaning up from Hurricane Dorian, my uncle went from being incredibly active, to being in pain, stuck on the couch for weeks to come. This also changed my aunt’s reality as she becomes his caretaker until he is back on his feet. It is easy, in these moments, to feel that all is lost and nothing is under our control, but if we give ourselves grace and realize there are areas we can control by making small changes, there is still hope to at least maintain our health until our circumstances change again.

Journal questions

1. What is your current reality? Write down every barrier you can think of that affects your eating or exercise: injury, family, energy, disease state, phase of life and so on and so forth

2. Do different seasons in your career life or home life bring on different barriers or perhaps make life a little easier? (my example is a school year vs a summer season – my reality is crazy different… one makes my life easier and the other I’m pulling in my tools to thrive)

3. What perceptions do you have around your current season of life? Do you feel hopeless and stuck? Do you feel hopeful and moving in a positive direction? I’d really like for you to elaborate on your thoughts.

I present you with journal questions to get you thinking about how the topic relates to you. They can motivate you and provide momentum for your health and fitness journey. If you take the time to actually write down answers to the questions, you are building insight into your nutrition and fitness barriers or successes. As you look back through your journaling answers you can see what has or has not worked for you in the past and build on that.

The journaling questions are also a form of accountability. If you were working with me personally, we would be setting goals and reviewing and assessing those goals every time we got together. The podcast is a way to absorb free content and motivation. The journaling questions serve the purpose of setting up the goals for the week and the insight to keep progressing forward in your journey. You can use the following week’ podcasts to assess how the week went and set new goals, respond to new journaling questions and keep moving forward.

Homework:

Goal setting will always be part of your homework. Once a week write down your focus or goals for the week. Every Friday reassess them, tweak them or change them to fit your needs. It’s “Your journey, your way”.

Links:

Lindsey House:

www.healthaccountabilitycoach.com

www.facebook.com/houselifestyles

Direction Not Perfection, Accountability and Coaching from your Wine-loving Dietitian

https://braughlerbooks.com/store/books/direction-not-perfection