Question: I find it very difficult to follow my chiropractor’s advice on exercise and diet. Do you have any suggestions?
Answer: Changing your behaviors and adding new productive activities in your life is all about self-esteem. The only one who is going to change you is you. You can get personal advice from the Dalai Lama himself or motivated by an inspirational speaker but change comes from within, not from without.
Your outlook on yourself and how you perceive yourself must be envisioned in a new light. Your self-image can be damaged by self-depredating language and berating yourself. The inability to change your routine is usually the result of negative input by either yourself or someone close to you. Change the “no” I can’t to “yes” I can. Smile at yourself in the mirror. Learn to forgive and love yourself for who and what you are no matter what your physical or mental state.
Change does not occur over night. Give yourself small challenges at first so you have a sense of achievement as you make these small successes. An example would be to exercise for just 10 minutes a day the first week you start an exercise program, especially if you never exercised before. This may seem like a minimal achievement to someone else but it is the start of something big for you.
Know your own abilities and capacity to grow and always set yourself a little more of a challenge every day. If it is nutritional changes you are attempting, don’t get consumed by the final big picture or total amount of weight you are going to loose. Initiate changes in your diet that can become permanent healthy habits. Fad diets don’t make people loose weight or get healthy.
Changes in dietary habits will lead to a lifetime of healthy eating. Understand exactly what the goals you and your chiropractor have designed. Make sure they are realistic for you and if not, re-design them. Stay within yourself and don’t let external pressures from the media or people in general interfere with your personal quest. Build your self-esteem and following your chiropractor’s advice will be a cinch.
Quote of the week: “No one can make you feel inferior without your consent.” –Eleanor Roosevelt