A health coaching TRICK in honor of Halloween

Hello Adventurers!

Happy Fall :) In honor of Halloween, I thought I’d share a little TRICK that I use with my health coaching clients…and with myself! I call them mini commitments.

Mini commitments are a tool that I use in my health coaching practice, as well as in my own life. They help you try out a new habit or lifestyle change without feeling like you’re giving something up forever. They’re a way to make our inner critter brain more comfortable with the idea of change or something new. It’s way more manageable to think to yourself “I’m going to prep my meals every day this week, “ over the more general and forever sounding “I’m going to prep my meals.”

It works something like this. Say we're in a coaching session together, and you want to give up drinking soda, but just don’t think you can do it. I challenge you to see if you could go two weeks without soda, if that felt like something you could do. If so, I’d challenge you to do it, if not, we would see if you felt like 1 week might be doable. Sometimes knowing that you can “go back” to a habit that still brings you pleasure is a good way to jump start yourself into it. The idea is that once you make that small commitment to yourself, and start feeling good about the changes you’re making or new habits you’re creating, you’ll stick to it longer than that mini time period!

This month I gave up desserts and sugary treats for two weeks. I had been struggling with being back on the sugar train again, so committed to two weeks without. It felt great to cut it out for a little bit. It reminded me of how good it can feel to cut out processed sugar but didn’t make me feel like I’d be missing something forever.  

What’s one thing you could commit to doing for yourself for one week? I challenge you to do it – one week is all. I promise…if its something you’ve been wanting to try for a while, you’ll feel so much better if you show up for yourself for just seven days. And remember, if you need support, ideas, or an accountability buddy, a health coach can provide that…reach out if you’re interested in learning more about health coaching!