I have not failed. I’ve just found 10,000 ways that won’t work
Thomas A. Edison
“Lifestyle” encompasses all of the small and big habits we do on a daily, weekly, monthly and even yearly basis. That being said, it is the things that we do most often, “good” or “bad” that will have the biggest impact on our health. For example, daily walks for 15 to 20 minutes can have a more significant long-term impact on your health compared to high-intensity training once per week for 1 hour.
Lifestyle counselling involves the assessment and optimization of our habits and routines; what we eat and drink (and what we don’t); how often and how we move our bodies; how well we sleep and for how long; how we talk to ourselves and about ourselves; how we manage stress and how we take care of ourselves.
I strongly believe in small sustainable changes when it comes to lifestyle modifications. Far too often, people will attempt to make grandiose changes to their lifestyle only to find themselves the following week full of guilt and frustration. They blame themselves for being lazy and not staying motivated and punish themselves for having indulged at a gathering.
You are not the issue and you are not a failure. Society’s approach to lifestyle modification is the issue; it sets us up for failure.
The good news is that failure is a great teacher. It tells us what doesn’t work for you which enables us to set new strategies together that will get you closer to your goals.
Failure should be our teacher, not our undertaker. Failure is delay, not defeat. It is a temporary detour, not a dead end. Failure is something we can avoid only by saying nothing, doing nothing, and being nothing.”
Denis Waitley