8 essentials to make any health change last a lifetime
“Nothing changes until something changes.”
-Ericka Thomas
Transcript
Ep 200
8 essentials to make any health change last a lifetime
Nothing changes until something changes. Welcome back to The Work IN podcast. At the time of this recording it is a brand new year. 2025. And just like every year there are a lot of “New year new you” challenges kicking off. Are you bored with them yet? Frankly what I want to know is why do we offer the same thing every year? Why not focus on making permanent changes that last beyond the next 3 months? So that’s our work IN today as we celebrate our 200th episode and 5th season. I’m going to teach you the 8 essential things you need to do to make any health and wellness change last a lifetime.
Here we go…
Step 1
Get the big picture
First off we need to step back and get the big picture of where we currently stand with our health. What are you already doing for and against yourself? Look at the 4 categories of health: Movement, nourishment, sleep or connection. What have you done in the past in each of these and what do you currently do and think about how those things are working or not working.
Don’t rush this part. It’s tempting to go for a full overhaul with understanding why and how you got where you are.
For example: Weight - Maybe you want to lose some. But you can’t take steps to make that happen if you don’t acknowledge how you got here.
If you’re hearing a voice in your head saying nothing changed, or you don’t know, take a breath. There’s no judgement here. We’re going to go into each of these health categories in detail over the next few weeks. This conversation is just get started.
Step 2
Find your WHY
If you’re contemplating some kind of health challenge in any category there’s probably a reason why. But if you want permanent health changes that reason has to go beyond #’s on a scale. Specific measurable goals are important, don’t get me wrong but those are part of the process not driving reason. Your Why has to be bigger and outweigh every possible excuse your brain can come up with not to change. This goes for exercise, nutrition, sleep and connection.
Example weight: weight is a symptom/side effect of behavior. It reflects the efficiency of our metabolism. But weight by itself shouldn’t be the reason to change. The reason is perhaps lowering cardiovascular risk, improving insulin sensitivity, building muscle and bone density. THose are lasting health improvements. Weight is a side effect of achieving those as well.
Step 3
Create your future self now
This is a brain hack. We can recruit some powerful motivation by hacking the somatosensory system in our brain to help us stay on track. You do this by creating a story of yourself in your mind having already achieved your goals. Think about what that feels like, physically, mentally emotionally, spiritually. If you have a hard time imagining this, write it down. Repeat that story to yourself in the present tense. This changes your beliefs about yourself and we especially need the body to believe in us. We need our entire biopsychosocialspiritual self to get on board and work with us if we’re going to succeed.
What will your story be?
Step 4
Adding Subtracting or both
This is where we put our desire into practice. This is the HOW and What we’re going to do to specifically cause change. Will you add things to your daily habits, subtract something or a little of both. The answer depends a lot on where you start. I recommend starting with addition. Fill in the spaces that are missing. Typically fiber, protein, fruits vegetables, water, and any kind of activity. It’s much easier to add vegetables to your plate than give up all your favorite foods cold turkey. Once you begin to change your palate and learn to like healthier foods and consistent exercise then you can start letting go of the less than healthy stuff you know isn’t good for you. Eventually we do a little addition and subtraction.
Subtracting only is tougher. It’s sometimes necessary and some people like it but I encourage you if you’re going to give things up that you replace them with something healthier.
Example: Alcohol. Or other sugar beverages. This might not be a problem if you’re an introvert but Americans are social drinkers and you can correct a lot of health issues by cutting out alcohol. How will you handle social drinking situations? What will you replace this with. Often it’s less about what’s in the glass and more about the ritual of it.
Step 5
Expect resistance
When you make big changes there will be resistance. It will come in many forms.
Your own inner voice, your family, kids, spouse, parents, work schedule, weekend schedule, and more. Then there is the possible withdrawal physically, mentally and emotionally when you make big changes. I’ll never forget the withdrawal from sugar the first time I did the Whole 30. It was bad. It hit on day 4. The first 2-3 days I felt really good and then boom day 4-6 I just got so angry at everyone. It’s weird what a lack of carbs will do. It passed of course. Interestingly I find the same thing on less extreme plans. It might be because day 4 to 6 usually hits on the weekend and we typically let ourselves run wild on the weekend. Ultimately you have to figure out how to be the grown up in your mind body relationship. Just like any good parenting, consistency builds trust. That is what we need in our selves more than anything for long term health and wellness.
Step 6
Support, Connection, Accountability
This can look like a lot of different things. You can get into an accountability group with friends, choose a partner to do this with, make it a family thing, or hire a fit pro. It doesn’t really matter but you need to tell someone else that you trust to back you up. Someone to hold you accountable. At the very least using a journal can serve as a way to track your progress and hold yourself accountable. Surrounding yourself with people who are supporting your goals will make things so much easier. There is nothing worse than going to a gathering and having someone push the one thing you’re trying to give up. Something to think about when we are part of the support group.
Step 8
Give yourself some grace. Every step forward, and even some steps back count when you’re working toward lasting health and wellness changes. Keep going. Keep the things that work and replace the things that don’t. It’s never too late to start again. You’re not starting over, you’re starting fresh with new experience to build on.
Thanks for listening!
Hey if you want to try some of these things in real life I’m leading an accountability group that is doing all of this live for the next 4 -6 weeks. It’s a virtual course called choose your challenge. And you can start it any time. It includes live connection calls every week with me and the group and it is totally free. Calls are recorded too. Links for that are in the show notes.
If you're looking for ways to handle the effects of stress, physically, mentally and emotionally through the body head over to savagegracecoaching.com/theworkin you’ll find all the show notes for this and other episodes plus lots of free resources. And if you’re in a place where you are ready for more and you live in the Dayton Ohio area I’m taking private clients for trauma informed yoga and trauma release exercise in person and online. So book a discovery call and we can have a real life conversation. And of course I’d be ever so grateful if you would take a moment to like and subscribe to this podcast wherever you’re listening.
Thanks again everyone and as always stop working out and start working IN.
Hey there!
I’m your host Ericka Thomas. I'm a health coach and trauma informed yoga professional bringing real world resilience and healing to main street USA.
I offer trauma release + yoga + wellness education for groups and individuals…regular people like you.
Book a call to learn how I can help.