As Lifestyle Counselors, we help clients customize plans for healthier living. Our lifestyle plans are balanced. As a result they include goals for exercise, nutrition and stress management. When it comes to making healthy living changes, we have pretty much heard every excuse in the book. Some clients get really creative when it comes to reasons for not making health improvements.

One prospective client even used the — “We only get about a billion heart beats per lifetime. Exercise will use them up more quickly!” — reasoning not to change. This is a great example (although rare, thankfully) of how we can stand in our own way of accomplishing goals. We sometimes sabotage our personal efforts for positive health changes. A major culprit is our limiting beliefs. These effort-thwarting cannibals can stem from any number of causes and lines of thinking. Some are rooted in childhood memories. Others are a result of past pain and experiences. They can also arise out of conflicting goals and limited resources, like time. However they come about, they’re tough to shake loose. There is new research showing we can be biochemically addicted to our current thoughts. Oye!

What’s tricky about limiting beliefs is they are buried deep in our subconscious which makes them appear to not exist. Oh, but they do exist. Our beliefs manifest in the myriad ways our lives either evolve or remain stuck in an endless rut. The beliefs we hold about ourselves and our abilities are like a ship’s rudder. They steer our attitudes and behavior in one direction or another.

You’ll come closer to meeting more of your goals by following a few easy guidelines. First, be mindful of your thoughts. Are you generally optimistic and hopeful or pessimistic and cynical? Notice ways your thoughts may be limiting your own progress. Second, notice what you say to your self. We ask clients to look for self-limiting statements which typically come in the form of “Yeah, but…!” sentences. If you follow a suggestion for personal growth with a “Yeah, but…!” you are probably blocking growth in some way. A third way is to monitor your progress. Have you been losing the same six pounds for the last three years? Look deep within to see if there is something in your belief system that is creating the behavior that causes you to stagnate in this way. A reasonably successful and sustainable amount of weight loss is 1-2 lbs. per week. How much is that in three years?

Change is hard. And, the older we get, the harder it is to make changes. But when comes to our good health, no effort is wasted. Look no further than within your self as a starting point. Get help in setting realistic and attainable goals. Then get out of your own way.

In Don Miguel Ruiz’s new book, The Voice of Knowledge: A Practical Guide to Inner Peace, he makes an interesting point. He suggests, “Don’t believe what you think!”  He says its all lies anyway. Think about that. Find the ways, places, people and practices to help you move successfully out of health risk ranges and into a healthier, happier lifestyle. That’s Aging Fabulously!