Catherine Dean Coaching

Or How To Find The Right Motivation To Help You Finally Achieve Your Health Goals

Catherine Dean is a Nutrition & Lifestyle Coach supporting women feel better, have more energy and ditch diets. Her approach to health and wellbeing isn’t about quick fixes or fad diets. It’s about helping you to create healthy habits that fit around your busy life, make a real difference and, most importantly, last in the long term.

Struggling to make your New Year’s resolutions stick? You’re definitely not alone. There is even an official day for letting go of resolutions that aren’t working for you.

It’s called Quitter’s Day and it usually takes place on the second Sunday in January. If you’re finding it difficult to stay motivated and your New Year’s resolutions are already a distant memory, it’s not that you lack discipline. It’s not because you’re lacking in willpower. It’s much more likely that you haven’t found a strong enough reason why.

When it comes to creating new habits, motivation isn’t everything. Want to create new habits that last beyond? Relying on motivation alone probably won’t be enough. You may already know that motivation can be unreliable, unpredictable and erratic. Not the strongest foundation for creating lasting change. Motivation does matter though. While we may not be able to rely on motivation alone we do need a reason to keep us going when things get challenging.

Finding Your Why?

Let’s say weight loss is your goal. Before you get started, it’s important to know why you want to lose weight. If your focus is on how you want to look or other people’s opinions of you, it probably won’t be enough to keep you going in the long-term.

There are two types of motivation, extrinsic and intrinsic. Extrinsic motivation comes from outside sources and intrinsic motivation is where your motivation comes from within you. I’ve also heard these called fear-based and loved-based motivations, which is the definition I’m going to use in this article.

A few years ago I did a (almost) half marathon in Tours, France. I say almost, it was 12.5 miles, so I’m claiming it as a full half marathon. My motivations were purely extrinsic. I wanted to:

 Look good in my wedding dress  Raise some money for charity  Do a half marathon (it was close enough!) and get a medal

So extrinsic or fear-based motivations aren’t necessarily bad, in fact we need them in life so we do things we don’t want to do. They can give us a much-needed kick-start. For many of us, extrinsic motivations are what get us up and out of the house in the morning on the days we really don’t feel like going in to work.

But, when it comes to things like weight loss or improving our health, extrinsic motivations are usually the quickest to fizzle out when things get tough. Once I’d got my medal and fit into my wedding dress, I stopped running completely. The motivation just wasn’t there anymore.

A few years before that, I used to go to Parkrun regularly. I found it easy to get up early on a Saturday morning to go running in a cold and rainy park in Bolton. Why? Because the sense of community, support & friendliness of the other runners always made it worthwhile.

Examples of extrinsic or fear-based motivations include:

 Focusing on praise from colleagues, friends or family  Doing things to avoid being judged by others  Activities that bring rewards such as grades or trophies

When you understand your love-based motivation and focus on these reasons your chances of success are far higher. Loved-based motivation looks like: • Doing something because you enjoy it • You feel rewarded • It gives you sense of accomplishment • You feel like you’re learning & growing • It boosts your confidence & self-esteem. • It gives you a sense of purpose • You feel a connection with others.

Some specific examples of loved-based motivations:

• To have the energy to play with my kids when I get home from work • To wake up every morning feeling refreshed • To feel a sense of belonging when taking part in group activities • To have a sense of accomplishment when I learn a new skill

Bringing it back to the weight loss example, it’s about focusing on the journey and the benefits from working towards our goal. How much more energy we have when we eat less processed foods. How much better we sleep when we reduce our alcohol intake. How much stronger & more confident you feel when you do exercise you enjoy. How much more relaxed you feel when you are consistently taking steps to manage your stress. When you know your lovebased or intrinsic motivation, your chances of success are much higher. If you’ve struggled to make your New Year’s resolutions stick, it’s likely that you haven’t found a strong enough why yet. Try to find a love-based or intrinsic motivation that is strong enough to keep you going when things get tough. Intrinsic motivations are much more likely to help you achieve long-term success.

Still unsure what your intrinsic motivations are? Try these journaling prompts to help you get a clear idea of what’s behind your goals. Grab a journal or notebook, pen and a cuppa then spend some time answering these five questions:  What do you think you should do, that you don’t want to do? Why?

 What would you like to do more of?

 What would you like to learn more about?

 What’s stopping you doing these things?

 If you weren’t worried about other people’s opinions, what would you do?

Spend some time working through these questions and see what comes up. Often we make decisions about life that come from other people’s expectations. Use the answers from these journaling prompts to help you focus on what you really want and what your next steps might be.

As a Nutrition & Lifestyle Coach I can help you dig deep and find your why, the intrinsic motivation that will help keep you going when things get tough. To find out more about this, get in touch using the contact details below.

If you’re ready to ditch diets, feel less stressed and have more energy a Nutrition & Coach could be exactly what you’re looking for. To find out how fully personalised nutrition coaching could help you to achieve your health and weight loss goals, head to: www.catherinedeancoaching.co.uk

Have a nutrition question that you’d like to be answered in a future article? Send your questions to Catherine at: info@catherinedeancoaching.co.uk