Choose Your It.

You've seen the Nike ad. Just Do It. Yeah, that's right, Just Do It!! I love that mantra. I even use my own version of it, "Bring It!" If you don't know what "it" is, just Google exercise, nutrition, fitness or diet and you will be deluged with ideas. Or maybe your neighbor or coworker is trying a new juicing diet or just joined Crossfit and is looking really good. You can't watch too much TV before you are reminded that everyone else is losing weight with the latest gadget or weight loss program.

So, where are you in all of this? Maybe you are so overwhelmed with total information overload and so many choices and opinions and products and books and articles that you are frozen in place. Or maybe you are just refusing to be sucked into this wellness boon. Who can blame you? I'm in the fitness business and I am overwhelmed at times! Stop the "Insanity" stop! (Nothing against Beachbody-I love those guys! Tony Horton-you are still my favorite!)

So, where do you start? You start...drum roll please...with you.  Close your eyes and ask yourself, "What do I need to do?" or "What do I need to stop doing?" Do not, for one minute, think that this is easy. It is simple, but it isn't easy. One of the reasons there are so many options is because we all have different motivations, goals, health issues, injuries, and lifestyles. There is not one program, one book or one trainer that will be the magic pill for you. YOU ARE THE MAGIC PILL. Being able to shut out the noise around you and sincerely think about you isn't as easy as it sounds.

This internal look requires that you stop using the latest gimmick, or, the latest excuse. It means you can no longer tell yourself that you are just waiting for the summer to be over, or for travel to die down or for your in-laws to leave. You would have to start, well, pretty much right then. And, that's not easy. It's much easier to wait for the perfect time, the perfect product, the perfect amount of motivation--the perfect something that falls in the future. The reality is...there is no perfect anything... perfect or not, the time is now.

Now is the time to divert from the diet coke machine to the water cooler, to replace the bowl of candy with a bowl of apples, to set water out at the conference table and to walk the stairs instead of taking the elevator. Small changes absolutely add up to huge differences. And, we all know those "tricks"-we have been re-reading them for decades. (If you want real proof that small changes do work, read the book, The Compound Effect, by Darren Hardy.)

This process isn't about just making smaller, healthier choices, it's about making those choices in a way that they become part of how you live. How do you do that? It's easy. One, define your "it." Two, keep track of your "it."

Everyone's "it" is, obviously, different. Even if you have the same goals, the way to that goal is very individualized. I like to ask new clients to think about what it is they are trying to achieve (name the goal) and then choose one change to get closer to that goal. Answers vary from adding strength to a cardio heavy routine, to drinking more water to smoking one less cigarette a day. The idea is to make that one change directly relatable to your goal and something you absolutely know you can achieve. Start with something you know you can do! I tell some clients to just go stand on the treadmill. Even the best fat burning treadmill program won't work if you can't get out of bed. Drink 1/2 of your daily Starbucks, increase your weight in the gym by 10%, add a multi-vitamin to your diet, and always park as far away from the front door as possible, try a different class at your gym. So go ahead, close your eyes...Choose Your It.

Then, do it.