Douglas: Welcome to the Unleash Your Potential Blog, what question can I answer for you today?
AchieveAI: What steps can I take to improve my physical health?
Douglas: Thank you for posing this question. I will admit that as I sat to work on the blog for this morning, I was challenged by the question. In part, because I am not qualified to answer this question in full, but more because in some ways, physical health is a place where I struggle. However, this is the question I drew and I committed to answering all 100, so here we go.
First of all, you need to start with a daily commitment to better health. Without an honest and daily commitment, your efforts are not likely to have a lasting impact. I think that phrasing it as better help is important as it allows for incremental improvement. If you have read any of my other blogs, you know I am a big fan of celebrating incremental wins and committing to better, just implies that today will be better than yesterday. You may have more work to do, but you can celebrate the small wins.
Once you have committed to improving your physical health, you need to take stock of what that means. “Improved physical health” is contextual. For me, it means one thing, but for an Olympic distance runner, it might mean something very different. If you are going to improve, you have to know where you are so you can set achievable goals.
Like with all things, if you want to do something differently than you are doing today, you need to set goals. Goals are how we plan for future success. Make sure that you are setting SMARTR goals that set you up for success.
Once you have your goals and action plan in place, make sure that you are working with your physician as you start making changes. Unless you are a physician, you might not understand what potential long-term effects might result from the choices you make in the short term. I am a strong proponent of having support as we tackle life’s challenges and when you are talking about improving physical health, it just makes sense to me to have an expert on physiology on your team when you make those choices.
Improving anything in your life often involves changing habits. I know it does for me. Over the past year or two, I have wanted to improve my physical health by losing some weight. It's not that I dislike how I look, I have done a lot of identity work to be able to like the person I see in the mirror every morning. However, I realize that the amount of weight I am carrying is putting unnecessary additional stress on other body systems. I want to increase my chances of living a nice long life and losing some weight would go a long toward that. Note that within everything I just wrote, losing weight is about improving my health not because of a negative body image. If you have a negative body image, losing weight won’t help that. There is some other work you need to do to love the skin you're in, before worrying about changing the body you are in.
Back to my point, as I started to work on my weight, I did many of the things you would typically expect, I increased physical activity, tried to reduce portion sizes, and reduced things like sugary drinks and processed foods. As much as thought I was doing, it wasn’t having much of an effect…at least not for any length of time. I then realized it was time to talk with my doctor. I realized that part of my challenge (and perhaps the biggest challenge) was my relationship with food (e.g. mindless snacking). All the good work I was doing at meals was being thwarted by what I did between meals. I need to change my reaction to hunger. Part of the work was mental but part of it was also physical. My doctor prescribed medication to help me deal with the reaction to hunger. All of this is to highlight that I needed to bring on an additional professional to help me through my physical health improvement. It is okay to ask for help.
In many ways, improving physical health is like improving anything else in your life. Figure out where you are now, decide where you want to be, make a plan to achieve change, gather resources (including human resources), take action, track your progress, and celebrate the wins (big and small).
I hope my answer sheds some light on your question. If you want to dig into this concept further, I encourage you to reach out and set up a conversation. In the meantime, check back tomorrow for the next question in the Unleash Your Potential Series!
Be Well!
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