Challenges are Opportunities to Grow
How do you react when something is too difficult? If you fail, do you give up? When you are faced with a challenge, what is your initial thought and reaction?
Your Mindset
One of the coaching pillars as part of our coaching series with FCM Coaching is learning about a growth mindset vs a fixed mindset. This approach is about how our different mindsets are used to guide our decisions. The approach was developed by Carol Dweck who has studied human motivation and what makes individuals successful or not.
A growth mindset is where you look forward to challenges, you try your hardest and when you fail, you learn from your failure and try again until you succeed. A fixed mindset is when you believe you are just born with certain capabilities and qualities and that there isn’t anything to do about it. A fixed mindset also takes failure hard and moves away from the situation instead of learning from it.
Your Growth
Now, you can have a combination of the two mindsets about different aspects of your life. But look over your past experiences with challenges. Did you take them on and grow from the experience until you succeeded? When you fail at something you are dedicated to, did you give up? You might think back and see yourself going both ways, one time you grew up with the challenge, and others you walked away, pouted, and maybe had a tantrum (it happens!).
The great thing is that your ways are not set, your brain is a muscle that you can work, and changing your thinking and developing a growth mindset is one strategy to following through with your health journey. Making a change for yourself isn’t always easy because of old habits and thoughts. If you take your failures and rather than beating yourself up about them, you allow yourself to reflect, learn and grow from the experience, this is a growth mindset.
Your Quality of Sleep
The cause of sleep deprivation can be as simple as not going to bed at a decent time. But some may have a more serious issue, such as sleep apnea. Getting evaluated by a sleep specialist for this is important. Not only do you gain weight with sleep apnea, but it’s also associated with hypoxia (low oxygen) causing issues with the brain and sympathetic nervous system (the part that is involved in fight and flight).
Stimulating the sympathetic nervous system can increase cortisol. Increased cortisol increases blood sugar, which increases insulin, which causes inflammation. Inflammation stops the breakdown of fat cells and increases the production of fat cells. It is a vicious cycle of being overweight, not sleeping, and because you’re not sleeping you’re putting on weight.
Shift work also contributes to the issues of sleep- increasing weight. So those on shift must take extra care with everything else to avoid weight gain and other health issues. One way to address this is by creating a bedtime routine.
What You Can Do Today
Coaching approaches like this are applied within our program. We know the importance of personal development that it takes to make a lifestyle change along with your nutrition change. Book a Discovery Call to visit with us coaches about your next steps in your health journey and learn about the health concerns we support as well with a personalized plan like yours.
Oatmeal, A Quality Piece of the Nutrition Puzzle
What really is the big deal about oatmeal? Enjoy a warm steamy bowl of educational facts with a little flavor added with some recipe ideas.
Let's Talk
Take the challenge and jump for it! Book a FREE 30 minute Discovery Call to ask questions and learn what the next steps are for you in your health journey.
