Mini Lesson: Sustainable Change
Dec 21, 2024Video Transcript
Sustainable Change
We have already learned about the roles motivation and our support system can play in our ability to make a change to our behavior and habits. But to really experience life-long health benefits from these changes, it has to be more than just doing something differently for a short period of time, then going back to our old behaviors and habits. To truly experience the benefits, we have to make sustainable changes that we can maintain, throughout our lifetime if necessary.
This can be a lot to think about and for many people it is often the reason they are resistant to change. Even thinking about it feels overwhelming and exhausting, so they simply dismiss that it's even possible to try. The trick is to acknowledge what is going to be the best and most realistically sustainable option for us and start there.
When we are talking about the sustainability of dietary and lifestyle changes, there are several factors that will determine how sustainable a change will be.
Physiological Sustainability
Physiological sustainability refers to whether or not our body will remain healthy while we maintain a certain behavior or habit. So if we are talking about a specific 'diet' or 'meal plan,' it would need to provide the nutrients that our body requires to maintain health to be considered physiologically sustainable. An example that is NOT physiologically sustainable would be a meal plan that provided no more than 800 calories per day. Regardless of the caloric deficiency, there is simply no way to get the proper balance of protein, fiber, essential fats, vitamins, and minerals that our body requires with such a restricted caloric intake. We simply could not maintain this meal plan and our health, so it would not be considered physiologically sustainable.
Financial Sustainability
Financial [sustainability] refers to whether or not we can continue with the behavior or habit and still be able to meet our financial needs and obligations...in other words, can we keep paying for this. So if we are attempting to eat healthier, but we don't have time to prepare meals, we might decide to go with a meal subscription that costs $800 per month...per person. This may seem like a reasonable option for a single person with a good salary, but if we have a family, this may not be a financially sustainable option.
Logistical Sustainability
Logistical sustainability refers to whether or not we have the time and organizational skills to maintain the new behavior or habit. Say we decided that a meal subscription was not financially viable for our family of four, so we want to meal prep our own meals for the week. This option is certainly more convenient during the week when schedules are full with school, work, activities, but it typically requires an investment of time and planning over the weekend. This may not be logistically sustainable for someone who has regular weekend commitments as well.
Social Sustainability
Social sustainability refers to how well we can meet our social needs while maintaining these new behaviors and habits. Whether we are a social butterfly or a wallflower, we all have some need for social interaction that sustains us in a way that nothing else can. As we are making changes to lifestyle and behaviors, this may have a tendency to change how we interact with the people around us. Making dietary changes may mean that it is no longer financially sustainable to go out to eat with friends every night and still meet our body's physiological needs...so we might we might need to consider a shift to making meals together as a way to meet our dietary, financial, and social needs...or find other ways to socialize that are more in line with the dietary and lifestyle changes that will better support our health.
Emotional Sustainability
And emotional sustainability refers to how well these changes support our mental and emotional well-being. It does not matter if we make a change that checks all the other boxes, but leaves us feeling anxious, sad, or overwhelmed. Changes we make to our behaviors should be focused on supporting both physical and mental health.
Evolution through Change
Realistically, sustainable change looks like a process of evolution. It's not about making a monumental change all at once, then never changing again. Rather it is about making little behavior changes, evaluating if that change benefits our health and meets our requirements for physiological, financial, logistical, social, and emotional sustainability, and if it does, then we make it a habit that we don't have to think about anymore. Then we find there is another behavior we could improve and we go through the process again. The more we do this, the easier it becomes and we become more resilient and confident in our ability to make and maintain changes that benefit our health!
Looking for more? Check out our Digestive Balance Basics course that provides a deeper understanding of nutrition, digestion, and their role in health or the development of chronic disease.Ā
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