With the coming new year, there is an inspiration to begin something new. Resolutions are usually made to fix something that needs fixin. So guess what is the number 1 thing in the US? According to a small article out of Journal of Psychology this month-#1 goal is weight loss. The study showed how greater than 50% will maintain the resolution for 4 weeks then the numbers drop steadily with a minority of well wishers continuing up to 6 months. It is fitting that weight concerns are at the top of any wish list seeing how 1 in 3 Americans are obese (followed by the usual high blood pressure, high cholesterol and high sugar). This speaks to that "spark" of an idea for getting back to high school weight always floating around somewhere in the frontal lobe of most US citizens. Along side the thought bubble is the self defeating notion that "it's too big a task". This negative feedback loop of failure to maintain change will become the dominant idea in greater than 50% of Americans who embark on the quest to look, feel and perform better in the New Year.
The Saguil Approach to stack the odds of success in favor of the metabolically challenged well wisher is simple; Invest!! Unfortunately, this 6 letter word has been associated with "stealing" in the last few decades beginning with vitamin/snake oil pushers, car salesmen, real estate investors, home mortgage officers, and wall street firms. Taking away the greasy outer layer of this nugget of an idea will yield the essence of what I am proposing. Taking something of value, placing it in a safe spot and increasing it's value with time. Try now to translate the idea of 'value being monetary' to instead being in excellent health. Imagine a pill you take 1-2 times a day that would insure a permanent high, no clouding of judgement, improved physical endurance and a perfect digestive system guaranteed weight loss without any side effects! I think that most people would at least try the pill hoping for a way into a life that is only thought to exist in fiction.
Investing in a lifestyle change is tough. Where to start? All my patients have "been there and done that" whether a virtual program or membership. I see the frustration in going through another round of the "same ol failed routine" but the challenge is try not to generalize. A DVD box set of changing exercise routines will probably be the same technique in a different package every year you order it.....there is only so much a charismatic trainer can do via recorded media. A hired teacher/trainer is totally different experience. You have a personal coach that cannot be paused, you have someone that dynamically changes the program based on what they see your likes and tolerances are. Essentially, there is a human being paid to specifically fit a program into you and not the other way around. A sustainable lifestyle change is one that you will want to do daily, one that will provide a sense of accomplishment and one that will leave you feeling like you are missing part of the day if not performed. Sounds too good to be possible? Maybe, most people hit a plateau and stop making gains....at that point, revisit an expert and redesign another program to catapult to the next pinnacle. Nothing lasts forever but if brainstorming with someone who 'changes lives for a living' increases the chance of you keeping a resolution.....it is worth the investment.
The next argument is affordability. I will end the debate this way:
-solution B; don't make a lifestyle change, work as is, pay bills continue with unhealthy living, accumulate diseases, have a retirement fund but poor health, burn up the fund paying for medicines, surgeries, therapy or visits to every specialist in the doctor alphabet after you get on medicare. Be well known by the ER staff not for the company you owned but for the frequent visits to the department...it will be a bad sign when the ER attendings call the residents in training to take a look at you and behold how a text book disease looks.
-solution A; give up something you love now in order to pay for the beginning of a change, maintain the change, reevaluate the next path to a pinnacle, get used to not having so many material things, love healthy food, embrace exercise, improve work performance, see the beauty of your immediate family, scale down the house, get a clean bill of health from your doctor to travel to Mt Everest in your late 60's, do volunteer work teaching the next generation how to work and live all the while keeping happiness in your heart.
The 2 solutions are at opposite extremes with a large grey area between but should suffice for assisting in the picture of where most of my people who make excuses end up. Postponing change will lead you to pay in the end with your health followed by your savings. So where to start? This should be where your health care team jumps in. If your doc has helped to change lives in the past, he will have a collection of names and ideas from successful and charismatic facilitators. The range will be from meditation gurus to exercise physiologists, to registered dietitians, lifestyle coaches, instructors in ancient practices like Qi Gong, Yoga, Tai Chi...even to other doctors who may serve as the first stepping stool to improve suffering before your journey. Bottom line is it will take a few attempts. One failure just means you are closer to a success. To exclaim you have tried that and it doesn't work is just setting you up for solution B. Don't feel bad if in group B; western medicine does work to control symptoms but usually at the price of getting farther from the cause of your problems. I cannot tell you how many times I used to see patients on medicare coming in with a long list of medicines often with interactions to each other because no one physician knew who was supposed to monitor the list.
This New Year, commit to making a change, seek out someone who has helped others, set the intention of where you want to be in 6 months, 12 months, retirement. Don't sweat the details of the whole journey, just take some baby steps. Martin Luther King said "you don't have to see the whole staircase, you just have to take the first step".
