I don’t believe in the tooth fairy BUT
Do you remember being at that age where you still
believed in magic and fairies? The tooth fairy,
fairies at the bottom of the garden and the special
magic man of the festive period too.
That sense of magical wonder at how something
supernatural could provide these enchanting treats. Do
you remember how old you were when you stopped
believing? It may have been a specific event that made
you realise or maybe your belief simply petered out
with age.
Either way, you came to an awareness that the magic was
provided by your parents, spinning a wonderful world of
make-believe to enhance your childhood experience.
If I were to ask you now if you believed in fairies I’d
probably get a derisive response of “Don’t be
ridiculous!”
What about “do you believe in magic?”. There are some
fairly impressive magic shows these days, yet we still
know that they involve trickery somehow, a clever
illusion that deceives our eyes.
We may not know how they perform the “magic” but we
understand it is not strictly magic. When we’re
watching it, we can be mesmerised by the illusion but
are also thinking ‘how did they do that?’
So why do we still hunt tirelessly for that magical
answer to our weightloss and fitness problems? Seizing
the idea of every product offer (raspberry ketones
anyone?!), to diet clubs, to fad diets (eating carbs
after 6pm turns you into a gremlin apparently….).
We constantly believe the images without giving any
thought to how it would work. After all there are loads
of ‘testimonials’ that say it worked for them – so that
means it will work for you too, right?
When it doesn’t work or the weight goes back on, we
simply look for another one or perhaps even try the
same one again…and again.
By only looking at the illusion, we choose to ignore
the mechanisms behind the scenes that make the magic
happen. The ‘behind the scenes’ stuff is just boring
really isn’t it? Perhaps you’d love to be able to
dance well, or play a musical instrument amazingly, or
some other feat – but you don’t have the time to invest
in the practice you know is required to achieve that.
It’s the same with your health, fitness and wellbeing.
Dropping in to a weigh-in session once a week, buying
all the diet products or buying a gym membership on
their own will not achieve your results. What you do
‘behind the scenes’ to make those approaches work for
You is what will get the results.
Simple approaches like planning your meals for the
week, creating a shopping list to make sure you have
the ingredients for your meal plan and then using that
list to go shopping make the difference.
Writing your planned physical activity time in your
diary (like an appointment), setting an alarm for it in
your phone, telling your friends and family what you
are doing and when can make a difference.
Through a number of recent nutritional consultations,
we haven’t actually discussed the food to be eaten….my
clients are all intelligent women who know what “health
choices” are – considering why they are not making
those choices most of the time is more relevant.
Taking time to sit and think how you approach your weekand events within it will highlight the real reasons why these quick fixes will not be magic for you. From this, you can create your own strategies to deal with them – and any unplanned ones that arise.
The “magic answer” you are seeking is already at your finger tips, you just need to look behind the scenes.
Lisa is a Female Health Coach offering health, fitness
& wellbeing coaching at Custom Fitness, LN3 4PH.
Want to know how she can help You?
Drop her a line by clicking here