Your Body, Your Guide: How a Personal User Manual Can Help You Reach Your Health Goals In your 40s, 50s, and Beyond.
It is a universal truth that as we age, it becomes increasingly important to prioritize our health and well-being, especially if we have largely ignored it over the past few decades. However, with so much conflicting information available, it can be daunting to know where to start or what to believe.
That’s where creating a user manual unique to you comes in. By taking the time to understand your body and its unique needs, you can develop a personalized plan that will help you reach your health goals and maintain your well-being well into your golden years. In this guide, we’ll explore the benefits of creating a personal user manual, how to get started, and some key tips for staying on track. Whether you’re looking to improve your fitness, manage a chronic condition, or simply feel your best, your body is your guide – and with a little help, you can learn how to listen to it and make the most of your health and happiness.
The first step to creating a personal user manual is understanding your goals.
What do you want from your body?
What does healthy look and feel like to you?
How hard are you willing and able to work to have a healthy body that is strong and full of energy? What are you not willing to do?
What happens to your body if you choose not to be proactive with regards to your health and wellness?
Setting Realistic Health Goals: Using Your Personal User Manual to Establish Realistic Objectives
Developing your user manual means you have to do some introspection, as noted above. What is it that you want and want to achieve?
We develop that by creating goals. Specifically visceral goals, target goals, and action goals. Visceral goals will focus on the emotion and feeling that comes from your results. In fact, the most successful goals are those tied to feelings and emotions. Despite this, many people will set bland and sterile goals like, “Lose 10 pounds in 8 weeks.”
Anyone could write that goal. We have to make it personal so that when you read it, you feel it.
Visceral goals are personal and private.
Here’s how to start your Visceral Goal Narrative (VGN)…
“It is [insert date eight weeks from now]. I am [insert body metrics that are important to you]. I have worked hard the last eight weeks, and it paid off. I feel [insert how you feel] and can’t imagine returning to how things used to be.
Over the last eight weeks, I’ve unexpectedly [insert things that you’ve gained], and it’s felt great. My [insert someone important in your life] just commented on how [insert feedback that would feel great to you]—it made my month!
I’ve achieved my goal by [insert the things that you are going to do]. Giving up [insert something that you need to stop to reach your goal] wasn’t as hard as I thought, and the trade-off for achieving my goal was a no-brainer.
[continue to describe what will happen on this day and how you will feel.
What you are wearing, how the clothes feel, etc.]
I encourage you to take 5 minutes today and think about what it might mean to you to have a healthier body 8 weeks from now and a year from now; a body that is stronger, more energetic, and sexier than you have today.
I’ll cover the target and action goals in my next blog post (stand by).
And if you want to build your own User Manual, what I call your nutrition operating system, then check out my nutritionOS information page at southshorefit.com/nutritionOS. We run this program four times per year, typically in August, January, March, and May.
You will finish this 8-Week program with a clear and defined strategy designed by you and for you so that you can maximize your health and wellness and drop those unwanted pounds.
