Joy In The Moment

What’s Your WHY?

By Joy Pape, FNP-C

At this time of the year many people are making New Year’s Resolutions. Often, it’s about losing weight. I don’t make New Year’s resolutions and I teach my patients the same. Why? Because most people don’t keep these resolutions for the long term.

Rather than think of “New Year’s” Resolutions, think of what you want to change in your life. Most importantly, ask yourself WHY you want to change. Then, take steps that are small and doable. Once you’ve conquered these for at least a month and have made these changes a part of your life, you can add others.

Most of us don’t change without a reason. Your WHY is YOUR reason. It needs to mean something to YOU. Ask yourself “What do I want to change?” For example, it may be that you want to lose weight.

Then ask yourself “WHY do I want to lose weight?” This reason may be different at different times of your life. When you were younger, it may have been to look better. Fitting into a smaller size or being more accepted by your peers might have been enough to motivate you. As you get older, your WHY may be that you realize the extra pounds are not good for your health.

Now that you have the WHY, look at what stops you. What is in your way from losing some weight? It could be that you think you eat too much or aren’t active enough or eat late into the night. I often ask my patients “Do you think it’s because you are hungry or is it habit?” A habit is something we do over and over again. By substituting new actions for the old actions you build new habits. Depending on the cause, we look for a simple solution that is realistic and doable for that person. One way won’t work for everyone. I then ask “What can you and will you do this week?” It may just be not to eat after 8:00 pm.

Finally, I ask “What are you good at and why?” I suggest they use the same principles for anything they want to do in life. You can do the same and have some joy in the moment during the process of making the changes you want in your life.

Joy Pape, FNP-C, CDCES, CFCN is a Board-Certified Family Nurse Practitioner, Diabetes Care and Education Specialist and Foot Care Nurse who specializes in Weight Management, Obesity and/or Diabetes and holistic care. She practices at Weill Cornell and has a private practice in the Village.