Tuesday, January 24, 2017

Health Coach

I've been seeing a health coach (her name's Tia) for about a month now. Seeing her is a free service for Purdue employee families, so I figured I'd give it a whirl. Turns out she's so much more helpful than what I expected I would find.

I am realizing/remembering I do really well with accountability. Like, face to face, not myself or my husband accountability. When she asks me my goals for the week and then asks me to rate how important they are to me or how confident I feel I will accomplish them, I feel something. Something inside me that I don't feel when I give myself a pep talk, or when I text a friend what my goals are for the day.

So last week my goals that I made with her was to commit for two weeks to not eat sugar and also to walk 3 times a week for 30 minutes minimum.

When I went in today to talk with her, I went in feeling like I failed. I did eat sugar. Once. That's what my mind focused on. My mind focused on the one negative pice. I met my other goal, and Tia was like "why are you upset with yourself?! You just met your goal for 13 out of the last 14 days!"

She pointed out that I am a very empathetic, sympathetic, accepting person to all around me. Nice of her to say that. But then she said, "So why can't you show that same kindness to yourself?"

Woah.

I really didn't think my sessions with her would be this helpful.

So now I'm chewing on that.

Goals this week:
maximum one serving of a sugar food the entire week
minimum two at home strength training workouts this week

reward:
After completing strength training twice a week for four consecutive weeks, I'd like to treat myself to swimming lessons at the co rec.

Note to self:
You can do this, Hannah. You are capable. You are not beyond control. You can set goals and meet them. Remember, it's a goal, not a blood sworn oath. Be kind to yourself, take care of yourself, and have grace for when you fall short. You're an imperfect human.