Health Comes In All Sizes

BY JEN WIDERSTROM

I don’t know a person that is exempt from being overwhelmed with the idea of a lifestyle improvement: losing weight, making a health change, quitting smoking, starting to exercise again, getting back to ‘pre-baby weight’, and the list goes on. So I would like to bestow upon you one of my favorite quotes from a movie that was so massive in reach but so technology driven that many missed the hidden gems of wisdom nestled within all the action:

The Movie: Matrix Reloaded

The Wisdom: “I do not believe it to be a matter of hope...it is simply a matter of time.” –Morpheus

Health comes in all sizes. But changing your body isn’t a matter of hope. It is truly a matter of time. It’s about the small, incremental changes that occur through commitment to daily habits that add up to big shifts over time. Most importantly, changing your body is really about changing your mind—strengthening the mental connection to health over performing the physical activity itself.

When you are consistent in your healthy habits, your body learns to trust what you’re doing with it and is more inclined to respond. If you’re consistently eating quality calories, your body burns fat more easily because it always knows you’re replenishing the fuel source. This is a simple agreement with your body that will become a system that is as reliable as the sun coming up each morning.

ROUTINES AND HEALTHY HABITS CAN LOOK LIKE:

-Starting each morning with water in your body before you drink coffee

-Hitting a daily step minimum

-Add distance to your runs over time to help you prep for a longer race

-Toss in a few greens to your breakfast, lunch and dinner to get more veg in your diet

-Lower your junk food snack attacks (by volume and or frequency!)

-Drink less sugar. (Yes Drink.)

-Tacking five minutes of mobility to the end your day

When it comes to my own routines, my brain now connects even the smallest habits to a bigger purpose. The first thing I put in my body is water, even though I always want coffee first. A lot of my best friends go straight to coffee, soda, or juice...but I challenge you just as I challenge them to make it water. I have made that commitment because mentally it connects me to my health and strengthens my brain to stay on track for the rest of my day.

From another perspective, I have a dear friend who has been sober for 14 years. At 14 days of sobriety it was much harder for them to maintain that personal promise.

But once they began to accumulate those days and months that connected them to their choice and their health, they had something to be proud of and to protect.

This is no different.

The carrot of change that dangles in front of us is the body and behavior change. The work to achieve that is mental. The sustainability of that lifestyle is the ownership—you protecting the life that you’ve built. It’s far easier to protect it once you’ve gotten there, rather than the question marks and overwhelming uncertainty that comes with the beginning of the journey. But as much as the body is going to follow, it’s the brain that needs to make our choices.

The new thought pattern then becomes: after a certain amount of time living with consistent healthy habits, I want to protect the wellbeing I’ve built for myself. If you take this concept and allow it to permeate all of the other places of your life, over time, the habits you commit to and the work you do will eventually compound, become a breezy constant of who you are and create the monumental change you were hoping for.

Jen Widerstrom, Founder

P.S. Remember that no matter what you're going through right now, you don't have to do it alone! There are others like you in our community, where we interact on a daily basis, fight our demons, share our victories, and watch over each other as friends and accountability partners.

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