Keep Falling Back Into Old Habits? Here's Why.

In college, I believed that if I wanted to be in shape, look great, and have lots of confidence and energy, that I needed to do high-intensity training, strength training, cardio, and flexibility workouts every week. I would get myself excited and feel super motivated to start working out regularly. I would visualize how wonderful I would feel when I was in great shape and meeting my goals. And then I would start my rigorous workout routine and it would last…about two or three days. And then I would get busy, or it was just too painful, or I would get tired…I always had some excuse. I would always end up thinking, “Well, maybe next time. Now’s just not a good time to get in shape. I’m too busy with schoolwork.”

Your Thermostat

The reality was that my mind and body were set to a specific "thermostat." If you think of the thermostat in your house, you set it to a specific temperature, and the temperature of your house might fluctuate a couple degrees above or below, but it will always come back to the thermostat’s setting. The same thing happens with our minds and bodies. We have a set thermostat, and unless we do something to change it, we will keep coming back to it. Our weights will stay the same, our mindset will stay the same, our habits will stay the same, etc. So, what do we do to change that thermostat? We find and remove “blocks.”

Looking back, I can think of two blocks that were keeping me from my fitness goals:

1. I didn’t identify as an athlete. In school, I was in marching band and swim team, and I only kept up with swim team to put it on my college application. I did not enjoy it. So even though I wanted to be in great shape, I did not identify as someone who was athletically inclined.
2. I associated exercise with pain and hard work, not enjoyment or physical reward. Whenever I exercised, I felt like I had to force myself, or push myself to work harder to get the results I wanted. I never felt like I loved or enjoyed the feeling of working out. I just felt like it was something I “had” to do to be in great shape.

This was unlikely to change, because at the time, I didn’t realize these blocks existed.

But my sophomore year, I had a friend sign up for a half-marathon. Now, let me tell you that there was no physical activity I hated more than running. I wholeheartedly believed I would never like running. I just believed that my body was not made for running, and that was that. But there was a part of me that wanted to overcome that, so I signed up for the half marathon with another friend, and we started training together.

We found a simple training schedule online and diligently followed it. I’m not sure I could have done it on my own, but we held each other accountable and actually stuck with the training.

And the craziest thing happened. I actually fell in love with running. At first, yes, I hated the burning in my legs. I hated the burning in my lungs and that sticky stuff that would build up in the back of my throat. But we picked a nice route that ran along a stream and was shaded by trees…and over time I started to look forward to our runs. My body grew stronger, but so did my mind. I started to love the feel of the breeze as we ran. I started to love spending an hour or two just out in nature and away from the craziness of school. I started to associate that burn in my legs with strength. I loved the feeling of coming home energized and clear-headed.

And one day I woke up and realized that I’d totally let go of that mental block/ I no longer believed I could not be an athlete. I no longer believed I was not a runner. I actually loved running. I ran because I wanted to, not because I thought I had to “push” myself to get in shape. It became a willing choice, not an obligation.

If we look at my original two blocks, you can see that both of them were removed. And the result was a rather dramatic change in my physical “thermostat.”

Kieran Behan

Most of the “blocks” we experience are mental. I found this story, which illustrates this point quite dramatically. Kieran Behan up until the age of 10 loved gymnastics and was determined to qualify for the Olympics one day. But at the age of 10 he had a tumor removed from his thigh and was confined to a wheelchair. Over the next several years, he also sustained a severe head injury, several fractures, and a snapped knee. But every single time, he fought his way through recovery, kept training, and eventually made it to the Olympics.

Kieran clearly set his thermostat high at a very early age. Consequently, it did not matter what happened to him physically, he was determined and driven and eventually reached the Olympics. He kept returning to level he’d set his thermostat to.

We often look at stories like this and almost idolize these people. They seem so different from the rest of us. But the reality is that they just have a different thermostat.

We have a lot of excuses for not reaching our ideal health: I’m too tired, I don’t have time, my body just isn’t built for this, etc. But when you look at Kieran’s story, we really can’t have any excuses. He dealt with several severe injuries and still kept working to strengthen his body.

So How Do You Identify Your Blocks and Remove Them?

This is where coaches come in. Coaches can see what you may not be able to see and help you adjust your mindset and remove your blocks.

Personally, I have developed a three-step process to facilitate the identification and removal of blocks. It’s called the “Roots Method.”

The “Roots” Method

Step 1: Find and validate the block

We start by identifying what blocks or injuries our minds and bodies may have sustained recently or in the past. It is important to do so without judgement. If you have a tree with damaged roots, you aren’t going to start beating up the roots to “punish” them. Likewise, we don’t beat ourselves up for our shortcomings, struggles, weaknesses, or other “injuries.”

Step 2: Heal

When you find out what’s wrong with the roots of a tree, you need to apply the right treatment. If they’re diseased, you apply medicine. If they’re dehydrated, you water them. The same thing applies to our health. If we have a fear, we address it and give it time and space to heal. If we avoid exercise because we associate exercise with pain or failure, then we need to retrain the mind to love and look forward to healthy movement.

Step 3: Strengthen

Once injuries are addressed, you strengthen the tree against future attacks by watering and nourishing it. You don’t shelter it from the weather by building a structure around it, but you do care for it in a holistic manner to help it continue to grow strong. We do the same thing with our health. We continue to strengthen ourselves by maintaining mindset, learning principles of fitness, etc. Thus, we give ourselves the peace and confidence that we will not fall back into old habits.

If you feel like you keep falling back into old habits and are never going to change, know that it's not your fault! Most likely, there is an underlying "block" that simply needs to be removed. You are not weak. Your mind and body are working hard to keep you alive. We simply need to show you how to work with your mind and body to start achieving your health goals. You can, and you will build healthy habits thay actually stick for life!