The (self-) Maintenance Team

 Welcome to the January 2024 edition of The (self-) Maintenance Team! Continuing to build on the idea of making positive lifestyle changes through consistency in small, do-able, habits I thought it might be helpful to build some energy toward change by talking about some specific ideas. Making big lifestyle change can feel daunting, but sometimes that is what people need. I hear folks committing to cold-turkey strategies, tough love, and a kick-in-the-pants attitude. Those approaches work really well for some people! Particularly if you've had success in the past by making a commitment to a big overhaul and changing your whole life to support it, the past evidence that it worked boosts your confidence. That's an important ingredient in making lifestyle changes - belief that the strategy will work, that it's possible to change.

But what do you do when your life is different now and those intensive overhauls would be very difficult to implement in your life. Maybe you were successful in doing an intensive 12-week body recomp in your 20s or quit smoking by just deciding one day and toughing out the withdrawal; that's awesome and proof that you can do hard things! But now you're older - you might have a full-time job and your schedule is less flexible, you might have a spouse you want to have a positive relationship with, maybe children or pets who require your time, you may have a home to care for, and other stresses in your life that syphon your limited mental and emotional energy. What do you do now? Sometimes you'll find success in setting all of that aside to achieve the change you're striving for, but then how do you sustain it? Success begins with the end in mind - asking yourself "what will my life need to look like long-term in order for success to last?"

Taking the time to visualize the lifestyle you'll need to live in order to maintain the change, once you've achieved it, can be super helpful. If you have a hard time imagining it, you can anticipate that you'll probably need to do some trial and error attempts to figure out the right mix. Plan for that and don't beat yourself up when one approach doesn't work - it's all part of the necessary process toward finding the approach that does work for you. You might also talk to someone who lives that lifestyle and ask them, or look at research on the topic, to see what other people do. But visualizing that life - and yourself living it, with all of your important commitments factored in too - holds most of the information you'll need to make the change itself. It won't be dramatic or achieved all at once, but it is a sustainable and achievable way for most people to make lifestyle changes. Think of it as an evolution, rather than a revolution.

For example, people who are fit make exercise a regular part of their schedule and it's typically at an intensity/duration that they can maintain even when under stress or time pressures. Activity also becomes a part of how fit folks socialize, and they develop other habits to support fitness like eating to fuel the workouts and getting enough sleep for recovery. Folks who give up a coping habit (whether it's alcohol, over-eating, or numbing online) develop other coping strategies that they use in times of stress. This often includes social supports, addressing mental health and trauma needs, physical strategies (like exercise or relaxation techniques) and skills for self-awareness (like mindfulness or journalling).

These examples aren't a road-map, but are intended to get you thinking about what component habits are a necessary part of the lifestyle change you're looking to implement and to personalize them to your own life. Here is a brief list of some of the other types of habits that can help to sustain success long-term, in whatever specific habit or lifestyle you're trying to build (along with a couple of example habits for each type). The list isn't exhaustive, but my hope is that it will spark your own creative thinking to come up with ideas that will be a fit for you.

• Social Support - start/join a book club, plan regular times to hang out with your friends
• Time Management - each Sunday, plan out your week and schedule in your new habits
• Sleep - go to bed and get up at the same time each day
• Activity - get outside every day for a walk
• Self-Awareness - do a daily self-check in, how are you feeling and what is your state of mind?
• Nutrition - eat vegetables, track your fibre intake
• Hydration - drink 2L of water per day
• Financial Management - create a budget, track your income and expenses
• Habitat Maintenance - tidy and put things away daily, deal with incoming flyers immediately

Having said all of that, change is hard. Period. Humans are creatures of habit and we very easily drift back into the same well-worn grooves in our lives that we've been treading the past while. So, if you find that change doesn't come easily or that the results are not as dramatic as you'd hoped, then please recognize that your experience is normal! It can be very beneficial to get some specialized support from someone who has knowledge and experience in whatever area you're trying to make changes in. I've made all kinds of changes in my own life over the years and have some professional knowledge in this area, but I still enlisted the support of a personal trainer when I was making a commitment to physical fitness post-covid. Having that guidance was really important for helping me to ingrain new habits and making them my new normal. It's also important to see the challenge and struggle as an expected part of the process - it's not a sign that you won't be successful, it's a sign that you're doing the work! And that persistence is a predictor of success in the long-run.

You can do hard things! Sometimes, the hard things are done all at once in a concentrated 12-week commitment. Sometimes, the hard things are done consistently, over time, until the hard things become the new habit - then suddenly, they don't feel so hard any more. They are the new, well-worn, groove.

If you'd like some support finding your groove - particularly if the change is related to mental health, coping, stress, or if it just feels so overwhelming that you don't know where to start - feel free to contact me through my website, Calder Mental Health Services. I provide in-person services in Edmonton, Alberta and can provide remote services virtually to people in Alberta, Manitoba, Ontario, New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, Prince Edward Island, Newfoundland & Labrador, and the Territories, Canada.

Investing your time, energy, and effort in making healthy lifestyles changes is a worthwhile endeavour. We all know the research about the value of doing all the things we know are good for us. The best time to start is now! So, I encourage you to open a blank document on your computer or pull out a pen and a scrap of paper and create a list of habits you know would be good for you. Then, spend some time daydreaming about what it would look like if you lived your life that way - that doing all the things on your list was your normal lifestyle. Finally, do one thing on that list TODAY; try it on for size and see how it feels. I think you might just find that health looks good on you!