3 Key Problems To Creating Consistency In Your Wellness Journey & How To Overcome Them

Let’s talk about consistency in your wellness journey and the problems you might be facing.

“Consistency: small disciplines repeated with consistency every day leads to great achievements over time.”  — John Maxwell

We hear this concept all the time, Consistency is Key. 

So, what I have decided to do over the last few years, is to take concepts like this “consistency is key” and see how it truly plays out in my own life and even the life of my clients.

Is Consistency really key?

I have to say YES it is.

If it wasn’t for me waking up in the morning and following my workout plan for the last year - I probably would have never realized consistency works and seen the huge changes in my body that I have. Like being able to do a minute plank or push ups on my toes (which I wasn’t able to do when I first started out.). I also so physical changes to my body: legs and arms being defined and toned, my clothes become baggy on me and I was truly feeling better in my body.

The key here is that I was making these things consistent in my life.

For many of us we may start something - because we have a problem or challenge we want to solve, like getting in shape, eating healthier or just feeling better in your body.

We can get so gung-ho and work intensively to make make it happen.  We go all out and say, “This and nothing else.”

You may stay consistent for a few days, maybe even a week or two - and then bam … you just don’t see results you want (like loosing 100lbs in a week) or you diminish the small results you may have seen (like feeling better when you wake up in the morning. Having more energy throughout the day.) and you end up saying, “Oh (whatever it is- your new practice, habit, etc.) It just doesn’t work.

Right?  Have you been there?

And then what happens?

You Quit!

Time passes by and you are still challenged by this problem. 

You come across the same solution that you tried before.  You decided to dive into it again, maybe give it a new try and you realize that if you just stayed consistent with it the first time - you would probably have reached your goal by now.

Have you been there?  Is this a pattern in your life?  Let me know, leave me a comment down below.

Yes.  I have been there too and I have done this on numerous occasions.

3 key problems I see when it comes to consistency with your wellness journey and to overcome them:

Key Problem #1: Instant Gratification

We want or have been conditioned to receive instant gratification. This might happen if you want a new outfit. Right? Go out to the store and get one. Unfortunately that isn’t the way it works when it comes to your health.

Yes. There are stories and videos out there of people losing weight instantly with magic pill or special diet. But you have to ask yourself a few questions:

• What were they actually doing?
• Were they creating long term success?
• What did they deprive themselves of to get there?

The work we do here at Holistic Luminary is about making healthier lifestyle changes that work and will support you for the rest of your life.  There is no quick fix when it comes to your health and wellbeing.

If you are unhappy with where you are today with your health and how you feel in your body,  I can guarantee that it didn’t happen over night.  It took you months and even years to get to where you currently are.

It will take some time to unravel those patterns and habits to get to where you truly desire to be.    

I like to joke about the fact that I was literally living my life and one day I woke up and POOF, I gained 25 lbs. Like literally overnight.  I get it, it can feel that way but that wasn’t truly what happened. I neglected to realize that I lived on the couch for a year or more.

You have got to get real that instant gratification will not happen when transforming your health and making impactful lifestyle changes that last.

Don’t get discouraged.

I’d like to bring you back to the FACT that your body is constantly renewing and regenerating itself. It takes:

• 28 days for your skin cells to renew
• 3 months for your blood cells to renew
• 10 years to renew your entire skeletal system

It takes time.

Key Problem #2:  Making all the changes at once

We think we need to make all these changes at once. In fact, some of the changes you want to make might not even be realistic.  What ends up happening when we pile on too many change? It sabotages your efforts and burns you out. To the point that you stop doing them.

How do you overcome this?

Make one change.  Get really consistent with this one change. To the point that new change is a natural part of your life. Then you can add in another change. You might find that you can do two changes at once and pair them together.

Let me give you an example: Say you want to drink more water throughout the day and you want to start taking high quality supplements because you realized just how powerful they are to support your health and wellbeing.  But you really don’t like drinking water and you never taken supplements before.

Start a practice of keeping a water bottle on the counter and put your nutritional supplements right next to it. In the morning, you can even set an alarm reminder, you fill up your water bottle to 16 ounces with water, and take your nutritional supplements with the water. Drink all the water.

You most likely have increased your water intake, first thing in the morning and you took your nutritional supplements.

Key Problem #3:  Not listening to your own body and intuition

For many of us we get information and take it on as if “It has to be this way or else.” We create a belief that in order to be consistent I have to do this no matter what is going on in my life.

Through my own experience, I have to say that, that belief is a problem.  In order to be consistent you need to work in flow with your own body and what works for you.

This means you need to tune in and listen to your body.

Let me give you an example, my workout plan the last year: I work out 5 days per week, 15-20 minutes per day with 2 days off. I have been consistent with showing up and following the plan but there are time during the month, as a woman, when I allow myself to take extra rest days. 

I know this because I have tuned in and listened to my body.  Maybe I worked out only 2 days that week. I don’t beat myself up and I get back into the workout after the extended rest.  My progress keeps going.  I still continue to showed up and have seen huge results of listening to my body.

I can do pushups on my toes!

You can still be consistent without pushing yourself to extremes and quitting.

You do need to be aware if your start to a make excuses and stop doing the things that will get you to where you want to be.   You can get into habits that spiral you in the opposite direction of where you want to go.  (Related: One Simple Daily Habit to Improve Your Health.)

I hope that you have been able to get a better understanding of what may be stopping you from staying consistent with your wellness journey and how to overcome it. It truly is about getting honest with yourself and creating consistent action through small do-able steps. But always connecting in to your body and intuition to guide you and move your forward.

Let me know how this topic has helped you by leaving me a comment below.

If you feel overwhelmed, your have access to overcome your problems in these blog post. Start apply the action that you need and begin to move forward.