Monday, August 22, 2011

Improving Your Heath with Baby Steps

I have a fabulous client that I have been working with for about three years. She is seriously AWESOME. We got her ready for a wedding, worked of the weight from two babies, and have been through many hours at the gym together...many hours of baby steps.
When she came to me as a client starting out I remember sitting down with her and asking her to keep track of her food for the next week. She did and brought back a fairly blank food chart. Most days looked something like this.

Monday
Taco Bell
Mt Dew
Monster
Tucanos

When we would talk about her making food changes, our goals were things like..."Try to be more specific when writing down food"...and..."only drink one Monster a day." For those who are very health conscious, those goals seem extremely easy to reach, but for this client it was very difficult.

Months passed, and this clients goals started to change to goals like...choose Subway over Taco Bell when eating out, or choose to drink Diet Coke over Mt. Dew. Baby steps of progress.

Still more time passed and the goals turned to things like; try to eat at home (We're talking Lean Cuisines and Eggs and Toast.) Again, depending on where you are at on your health journey these may seem like easy goals, but to this client, reaching these goals were more like reaching milestones.

Fast forward to last week. This client of mine was asking me questions about the amount of sodium that is in foods, and how to incorporate more healthy fruits and vegetables into her kids and husbands meals. Her goals are more focused on eating at home, and the quality of food that she is eating.

After our conversation, she left and I sat there in awe almost. I realized just how far she has come in her journey. She still has some progress that she needs and wants to make to reach her goals, but she makes baby steps toward progress every day, and that is what matters. What I really admire in her is she has really tried to make her changes part of her lifestyle, and not just a quick fix weight loss solution.

It is amazing the things you can do with baby steps. Yes, weight loss can be hard. Yep, achieving your fitness goals may seem very difficult, whatever they may be. However, the truth is, you will be surprised at what you can accomplish if you will simply stick to your goals. You may take some steps backwards, and you may have discouraging days, but don't give up! You can do amazing things! Baby Steps!!


What are some goals you have reached by taking baby steps? I would say all of my fitness and health goals (running a marathon, losing weight, achieving strength and endurance goals) have all been accomplished by baby steps. One day at a time is the only way you can do it. What are some goals you are working towards that are going to take baby steps?

4 comments:

Jody @ Raising Fin and Fish said...

What an awesome experience to be able to see a client from start to finish (or I guess maintenance... not really finish).

Currently I'm working on adding in more protein in my diet.

I'm also focusing on stretching.

Emo said...

Megan I love reading your blog, I read it all the time. I totally pull it up at the gym to get different ideas for workouts. Thanks for being such a good writer. I am totally a reader.

Anonymous said...

Great post and how wonderful for your client (and you to witness)! I have a goal of becoming a "runner"...I am a newbie, and it will definitely take baby steps, as running distance has never come easy for me (even as a kid). I walk/run ~3 miles 3-4 days a week (in addition to boot camp for strength). Each time I try to run a little more and walk a little less. Truly baby steps :)

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