How to Overcome Barriers

by Suzanne Andrews

How to Overcome the Top 5 Barriers to Your Best Health

“Change is the essence of life. Be willing to surrender what you are for what you could become.”

We all have areas of our lives that could use some improvement but we often put it off, make excuses, or can't make the time to address them. In the process of living our lives to build a career, raise a family, compete to acquire it all, we overlook the vital need to relax, eat sensibly and understand our limitations. Don't wait until your first heart attack, DUI accident, or other shocking event to realize your lifestyle may be destroying you from the inside.

Here’s five barriers and more importantly how to overcome them for your best health ever!

Your Own Psychology

This one of the most formidable barriers. We place limits on our ability to become healthy. Rather than trust that change can happen, we talk down or highlight the impossible aspect of the changes we want to make. Believing that we can't lose weight because both our parents and grandparents were overweight is a false comfort and a method to avoid accepting a challenge. As long as you don't even try, you won't fail.

Society

Changes in society is another barrier. Smoking used to be fashionable, now it’s a primary health hazard. Butter and cream sauces are considered gourmet but now are known to be fattening and increase cholesterol in blood. Don't allow society to sway you with its criticisms, traditions and paradoxes.

Fear

This is a tough one because it comes from within and without.

What will changing be like?

Will I be different?

Will my spouse, family, and friends still love me?

Many fears are deeply rooted in childhood, an event when discipline, accidents, or unhappiness set limits on imagination and exploration. These events place limits on our life potential and individual performance without even realizing it.

Rationalizations

Denial...hides the reality of your situation

Blame...can't or won't accept responsibility

Procrastination...today is the tomorrow you said you'd start. Get going.

Fear of loss...why fear sleeping better, fitting new clothes, more energy, saving money, fewer pills and doctor visits, improved health and self-esteem?

Fear of Failure

Set realistic goals...lose 1 lbs. this week and do it. Next week, 2 lbs. and do it. Then each week after go for 3lbs. and do it.

If you begin a health plan by promising yourself that "I'll look like an Olympic athlete in one month", you already know how that's going to turn out. Persistent baby steps become leaps and bounds.

Functional Fitness Wisdom for You

Time is the most used excuse to not do something. How much time do you spend watching TV? (Honestly). The average person watches 3.5 hours of TV a night. That's 105 hours of television in a month. So all those people would rather watch somebody else live their dreams rather than pursuing their own? Turn it off!

Knowledge...use all the extra time you just discovered to research and educate yourself on what it will take to find out how to remedy all those fears, denials, and pressures in your life.

Energy...you will quickly realize that a healthy diet, regular exercise, lots of water (no sugary drinks) and even just a daily vitamin will give you the energy you've always wanted.

Support System...get your family, friends and co-workers involved. In most cases, you will have overwhelming support and even be considered a role model for those around you that have always wondered what it would be like to become what you are doing.

Has anything stopped you from achieving your goals and you still overcame and plowed through?

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