What's Getting in Your Way?

As I was rinsing off the salt-crusted soles of my running shoes tonight, I realized how warn down they are. A quick calculation and I realized that I've probably been wearing the shoes longer than the recommended 300 miles. I also remembered that every time I've put them on recently I've been a little bit grumpy about the way that they feel. Have they ever explicitly stopped me from going out on a run? No. But "old, warn shoes" are one thing that I could write in my list of the barriers that I feel get in my way of being as active as I could be.

What do your barriers look like?

In nutrition counseling we often talk about barriers. Part of being a successful dietitian is helping people to overcome or at least recognize whatever barriers they might have getting in the way of healthy eating. This could be a practical barrier such as lack of grocery stores with fresh produce or it could be something more internal such as feeling sad lately and feeling the need to find comfort in food.

Is there something that you're having a hard time accomplishing? Try making a list of barriers and potential solutions. Here's are a few examples - the first is one of my personal barriers and others I've drawn from patients.

Goal: run more often during the week
Barriers: cold weather, uncomfortable old shoes, darkness
Ideas to break barriers: put together a chart of outside temperatures with appropriate clothes that will keep me warm, buy new running shoes, find friend to run with consistently after work

Goal: eat more vegetables each day
Barriers: fresh produce just goes bad whenever I buy it, vegetables are hard to cook and expensive
Ideas to break barriers: stock freezer with selection of frozen vegetables that I know I like, find Pinterest boards featuring easy vegetable recipes to bookmark for trying each week, buy produce with recipe in hand on the day I know I have time to prepare it to avoid spoilage

Goal: lose weight in order to better fit into clothes
Barriers: gym membership is expensive, family doesn't like 'health' food, low motivation
Ideas to break barriers: find a friend to go for walks with outside on a consistent schedule, try making current favorite family meals using healthier ingredients, put sticky notes with inspirational quotes on car dashboard to remind myself of goal

These are just a few ideas of ways to get into the mindset of breaking through barriers. If you can think up some ideas for overcoming your own barriers, try writing them down. Even if you're not ready to take action yet, looking at your list of solutions can motivate you to take small steps in the direction of your goal! Now I'm off to buy some new running shoes...