NOTE: This post may seem, at face value, to have nothing sexy to offer for health or weight loss.

Read on, dear friends. I think you may be surprised at how quickly you see progress if you put the recommendations in this post into action.

ASPIRATIONAL VS. AUTHENTIC VALUES

Most of us would say that our core values include family, our health, and some kind of spiritual value such as kindness, religious faith, volunteering, caring for the Earth, etc. These are our "aspirational values".

What we ACTUALLY do - our "authentic values" - is something else entirely. Our authentic values are how we behave and spend our time on a regular basis.

Q: Do your aspirational values and your authentic values line up? Even though I wasn't aware of it, mine most emphatically did NOT for many years..ugh.

If asked, I said I valued my health and I truly thought I did. In reality, I ate fast food, slept too little, and drank too much alcohol on a regular basis.

WHAT, PRAY TELL, IS THIS DOING ON THE PAGE I LOOK TO FOR HEALTH INFORMATION, NOT A LESSON ON VALUES?!

Lol, I get it. It's here because I think this misalignment in our values is a big reason many of us aren't getting the results we want.

We aren't satisfied with our waistline, our finances, or our relationships.

We make excuses to avoid responsibility and doing what we know we should (spend time with family, eat real food, not drink an entire bottle of wine, etc.).

DO YOUR VALUES ALIGN? ONLY ONE WAY TO FIND OUT!

If this resonates at all, I think it's worth taking an honest inventory of your daily habits as well as your excuses. Assess whether these line up with what you say (and believe) you value.

You ARE going to experience some friction if you sit with this. You ARE going to want to make excuses for yourself (even though no one else even knows you're doing this). That's completely normal. It means you're being honest.

As hard as this is to face, I'm convinced this is how we avoid waking up 10 years from now and saying "WTH happened to my family, my health, and my contribution to the world? I had such good intentions!"

Good intentions are great but they don't cut the proverbial mustard.

Our actions are where the rubber meets the road. Ok, now I'm mixing metaphors but you get what I mean, right?!

If you're still with me, you rock. SERIOUSLY. I know this was a heavy lift and I also hope it was valuable to you. I'd be honored to know what you discover.

Now. Go rock your life.