What Do You Value?

Let me ask you a question – What do you value?

Perhaps it seems like a simple question and it is. But let me elaborate a little to give you a little more context and talk about why it’s important to see what you value.

First a little background, earlier this week my husband and I sat down to watch a new documentary series on Netflix with Zach Efron called  Down to Earth where he travels around the world searching for things that will make us healthier.

I hadn’t watch any episodes before this, but I chose to watch the 4th one I believe, because they traveled to Sardinia, Italy. Backstory, I lived there for a few months when I was living in Italy as a missionary for my church in my early 20s. I loved that little island, that we affectionately nicknamed the Rock because it’s so dry and literally rocky. But was a beautiful place with so much history and culture… a history that is really quite different from the rest of mainland Italy. Fun fact, Sardinia has been conquered over 40 times in it’s history. The Sard dialect is closer to Arabic than Italian and distance wise, they are closer to Africa than mainland Italy. So… lots of diverse culture there.

Anywhoo… They wanted to visit there because Sardinia is considered a BlueZone, the first actually. A bluezone is a geographic area, with residents following a very similar lifestyle.

So, Zach Efron and his co-host go there to research why they have so many centenarians. It was super fascinating to see a hollywood star have several moments where he realizes that American Diet culture and our definition of healthy is SO backwards. There were several times he mentions, wow… I’m so glad to be eating carbs again. Or no trainer would ever tell me to eat the way they eat here and this is the opposite of what people are telling you to eat in the US.

My husband knows I get annoyed with diet culture shows or shows that push elitist thinking… which to be honest, this one does in a lot of ways. So, I think he was ready to turn it off, but I told him that I was fine with the discussion about blue zones because I love the whole person health aspect of it.  And then I had to pause it at one point to explain something to him and that’s where I’m going with this.

So in this episode where Zach is just dumbfounded by how opposite the advice he sees all through American Diet culture is… I paused it and basically explained to my husband why this is… at least in my educated opinion.

American Diet culture has put so much emphasis on what we look like and what we weigh, and told us to value that… instead of actual health, actual longevity, connection, mindfulness.. Living really.

So, the advice of the bluezone researchers is that of eating for vitality, a long healthy life… not being on the cover of a magazine or looking super good in your before and after shots.

So the question comes back to… What do you value?

A value is the higher purpose and deeper meaning for the change. As a coach I ask this of clients periodically to keep them going in the face of big and small challenges. Values are Highly personal and vary widely, and change over time.

So, to discover your own values, ask yourself “who do I want to be in 5 years… 10 years… 20… 25?”  And then, “Why do you want to be that way?”

Once you have a clear idea of what you value, it is much simpler to frame your desired change around those values.

For example, in my own diet recovery process, I was over exercising. Lots of heavy lifting…not a lot of sleeping and injury happened. So in my recovery process I had to pull back on lifting and working out for a while because of injury and just an unhealthy attachment to it. Mentally beating myself up if I didn’t work out one day… etc. Now that I’ve done the work and I’m in a better place, I have realized that feeling strong is something that I value. I had to uncouple that from a specific visual physique in my mind.. And focus on what I could actually do, and want to be able to DO with my body. So strength has become a doing thing, rather than a looking thing.  So for my change and goals, I focus on acting “as if” I’m already as strong as I want to be. What am I doing when this is a reality? I’m setting up a weight lifting schedule that doesn’t overtake my life and I focus on dynamic movement so my flexibility and range of motion isn’t compromised.

This is a great way to get on track and stay on track with my goals.. AND check in with my goals to make sure that I’m staying true to what I value.

So now it’s your turn… What do you value? Who do you want to be in the future?

If you want to talk this out, again, schedule a FREE mini session here and we can get to the root of what you value. I can promise that this is life changing. Not exaggerating!

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Brooke Spendlove

I’m a certified Intuitive Eating Counselor and NASM Certified Personal Trainer, and the owner and creator of Spendlove Coaching.

My own wellness journey led me to getting my Master’s Degree in Health and Wellness Coaching from Creighton University – Go Blujays!

I help my clients discover that they are the experts of themselves. Using the tools learned inside my program and during coaching sessions, clients learn how to shift their mindset, taking back the power they have lost to dieting and diet culture