As a coach I am often saying things like make sustainable changes, set goals, think about your dream health and waffle on about making powerful choices in regards to health, eating and life.

This is all well and good in theory but putting it into practice can be tricky (that why God invented coaches!) What does that actually mean or look like? What does transforming your health actually look like  in the day to day ?

So today am I going to give you a sneaky peek into how to do that today. I am going to share with you how I coach myself, how I set my personal goals in order to work towards my health dreams. As a trained life coach  I use all that I have learnt to coach myself, to manage my health and life in increasingly healthy ways.

I tend to do this regularly, especially if life gets a bit overwhelming or change happens, as it gives me perspective an reminds me that I am not a victim in life but a powerful player in it! But as we are (sort of) at the start of the month this is a natural time to do it.

Coaching yourself is about implementing change and being the source of  transformation in your life. It is not about hoping and waiting for it to just happen, it is about realising that you are the one who manages your life and health and you can actually live your dreams and be part of bringing them into being.

Here is a how to:

Desire for change comes from realising problem areas in your life which are normally revealed to your through negative  signals or symptoms that your body is communicating with you.

1. What is your mind and body telling you?

So for me this month the negative signals that my body was communicating (and that I chosen to listen to) were:

• I had to have a filling in a molar tooth! I was so embarrassed and confused as dental health is directly linked to nutrition and made me realise that there is still some more healing required for my digestive system.
• My skin on my face is not its radiant self, a bit dry and un pleasant looking– a sure sign that something is not right. Historically this happens when I am stressed.
• I got a cold that lasted for a week. I never get colds its a sign for me of low immunity.
• I have been feeling lonely.

2. What is the problem area?

So once you acknowledge these signals you then have to identify what the problem area is – ie what is causing these symptoms.

 My problems areas are:

• I have too many things on my plate. Recently starting a great new part time job with longer hours than previous job and a long commute, launching a business , creating products, designing website, writing 4 blog posts week,  helping run a evening school and then general life has left me with that slight overwhelmed feeling at times and therefore not sleeping well.
• I haven’t prioritised seeing good friends due to the above.

Now  this is by no means a moan. I love setting up a business, my part time job and even my commute (singing to myself really loud for an hour is so good for my soul) but my body is telling me its too much. And as for friends I cant just hope that we may bump into each other or accidentally phone each at some point –  it takes intentionality.

3. Take Action

So now I have two options.

A. Lie back, think oh well I cant do anything about it will just have to soldier on and hope my teeth don’t rot out my mouth and maybe I will have friends one day.
B. OR I can remember I am in charge of my time, choices, health and life so what am I going to do about this?

Guess which one I chose. B!

Now is the time to take action. Once  you have highlighted the problem areas in your life you need to decide on some action, make goals or as I like to call it – make a get happy plan!

Remember a goal is just putting a date on your dream – my dream is to be increasingly healthy and happy so I make goals to make this a reality.

My specific and realistic and fun actions  for November are:

• Floss my teeth every 2 days and regularly Oil Pull (no this is not some weird dating technique) to take care of my teeth.
• Reduce the number of blogs I write and get guest writers in to write blogs to release me to focus on launching my coaching business.
• Get to bed by 10pm Mon – Fri. Sleep is THE most healing thing (besides God – but he invented it so swings and roundabouts…)
• Have weekly ‘friend dates’ on Mon + Tues (my home working days), if they are in my diary I wont forget.
• Get a hands free set for my phone  to speak to friends during my commute to speak to friends whilst driving.
• Regularly cleanse my skin with raw honey (more coming on that soon) to heal my skin.

Do you want to transform your health? Lose weight? Get fitter? Or make your dreams a reality? The follow the simple step above:

1. Take note of any signals that indicate there is a problem – insomnia, skin problem, recurring negative feeling, pain, unusual symptoms – basically anything that is not healthy in the whole sense of the word.
2. Use these signals to identify the Problem Areas in your life. This could be relational, work, family, health concerns, money concerns, nutrition, sleeping pattern, work ethic, saying NO to stuff .
3. Now you can clearly see the problem, it time to take charge and create realistic and specific actions to tackle the problem. I have decided on specific actions like flossing and oil pulling for my teeth, and being in bed by 10pm – these are specific and realistic to me. ‘Getting healthy and eating right ‘ is not specific and does not count as an action , but saying ‘ eating vegetables with lunch and dinner and going on x3 40mins walks a week’ is , see the difference? Be specific, set times, dates and actions that you commit too.
4. Be accountable. Tell someone. I just have, you all now know what my plans are and in a months time when it comes to writing this post again I will need to tell you how I got on – what more motivation do I need:)

You can be healthy, you can lose weight and overcome health problems, all thing are possible. God did not make us weak feeble creatures but a people filled with wisdom, strength and the ability to bring transformation wherever we go – so go start with yourself!