Welcome to the ABC’s of health today we are talking about the letter O optional. The reason why I chose this word is because it is so important for you to remember that you don’t have to anything.
It is always important to remember, we’ve talked about journey, we’ve talked about small things that we can do when every single day, this is about your health, this is about your life, this is about what you want to do.
The reason I chose optional is to remind you that this is a choice. You get to choose if you want to do this or not, and not only do this in general, you get to choose what you want to do. When it comes to health, you can go through a wide range of things that you can do, and it all depends on two things: number one, what your goal is with your health. Do you have any health goals? Number 2 is how you want to live your life.
So maybe you feel like you are struggling, you feel like you could improve something in your health. Maybe you’ve gained some weight over time, and you feel like you would feel better if you lost some of it. Maybe you are a mom, and you just feel like you’ve let yourself go through the years, and you just kind of want to get a little bit of yourself back.
The things that you are going to do if that’s the situation you are in, are very different from the things that you are going to do if maybe you are someone who has been on a health journey for a long time, and you really want to improve your fitness performance, maybe you want to take part in a bikini competition, or a fitness competition. Well, the actions that you have to take are very different from someone who is looking to improve their health simply for a day-to-day life.
So, what I want you to remember today is that all this is optional, even things that are absolute truths, because at the end of the day, you are you. You are in charge of yourself, you are the person who makes the decision for your life every single day.
After you reach a certain age, you don’t have someone picking your meals for you, telling you when to take a shower, telling you when to brush your teeth, telling you what you can or cannot do, you got to a point where you’re responsible for yourself, so you are the one who chooses what you’re going to do.
Do you want to live a sedentary lifestyle and not care about your physical fitness? That’s your choice.
Do you want to simply eat whatever you want with no regards as to how that food affects your body? That is your choice.
Do you want to invest in training and nutrition tracking for you to be in a competition of some sort? That is your choice.
Do you want to invest some time of your day to be healthy to live your day to day well? That’s what… your choice!
I’m giving you some examples here to show you that there is a wide range of levels of fitness and nutrition and health that we can achieve, and all of it is a personal choice. This isn’t something that you have to do, and that is the number one thing to start reaching your goals.
This shift in mentality from I have to to I choose two, from I have to I get to, that makes a difference. If you go into your workout and you know that you should do some exercise for physical well-being, you know that is important to take care of your body so that you age better, so that you have more mobility, so that you’re stronger, so you do a 30 minute exercise program every day. If you walk into that program every day and you’re thinking “oh this is so horrible! I have to do this! Urgh, I hate this move, why do I have to do this…” that is not going to put you in a mental place to give your best to enjoy what you’re doing.
If you go into that same workout and instead of saying “I have to do this”, remember, nobody is making you do it, instead, you say, “I choose to do this, I get to push my body, I choose to invest this time in myself”, this puts you in a completely different mental space when you are doing your workout.
The same thing is true for when you’re eating. If you look at some food and you say “I have to eat this”, really? The truth is no, you don’t have to anything, you choose to for your own reasons.
Owning that you are choosing, that you don’t have to, that nobody’s making you do this, that is a game changer! It seems so simple, but honestly…. It changes everything because you are in the driver seat. You understand that all of this is optional, you understand that it’s a choice that you’re making, you understand that you’re doing this for you, it’s not about someone else, this is about your health, your choices, your life.
Of course, our life isn’t only for ourselves, the fact is that we what we choose interferes with other people’s lives. Private choices always have public consequences. So, the choices you are making, while they are not someone else’s choices, while they are not something that somebody is making you do, of course this impacts other people’s lives. All you need to do is think about your life with your children, if you have more energy, if you eat better, if you push your body to a level that you have energy to go have fun, to run in a park, to hike, to ride bikes etc this means that a choice that you are making is affecting someone else. If you’re choosing to not move your body, if you’re choosing to not eat well, if you are choosing to disregard your self care, of course this will impact someone else in your life.
The fact is that the people in our life either bask in the benefits of our choices, or pick up the consequences of our neglect.
However, this doesn’t change the fact that all of this is a choice. It’s all optional. When thinking about your health look at yourself, and realize that you get to choose. Choice is one of life’s greatest luxuries. You can choose what you do. You can choose how you live. You can choose what you want to do every single day.
My challenge to you is to look at your health, to look at your life, to look at your choices through the lens of this is my choice and how do I want to live the rest of my life, where do I want to arrive in a week, 1 year, 10 years.
When you see your health as your choice and your responsibility, it changes the choices you make and how you live your everyday life.
Keeping it simple,
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