Getting started on a health journey can be overwhelming, but the best approach is to begin with small, achievable steps. The key is to build consistency rather than making drastic, unsustainable changes. It’s essential to set realistic goals, like drinking more water, cutting back on sugar, and introducing basic supplements. Having a coach or trainer to guide the process ensures accountability, personalized support, and a clear plan for reaching your health objectives.

Rather than attempting to overhaul everything at once, the focus should be on gradual improvements that are sustainable. A coach can help you assess where you are, create a tailored plan, and make adjustments as needed to keep you on track. They also play a crucial role in referring you to other professionals when necessary, ensuring you have the right resources to address specific health concerns and continue making progress toward your goals.

Highlights of the Podcast

00:05 – Starting with a Coach

01:01 – Setting Realistic Goals

02:17 – Focus on Consistency

3:07 – The Role of a Coach

04:01 – Accountability and Adjustments

07:05 – Replacing Bad Habits

10:05 – Seeking the Right Support

11:57 – Long-Term Success

Dr. Matt Chalmers [00:00:05] All right. So one of the big things is when we’re talking about, you know, we want to get health, we want to get in shape, like where do you start? The number one place, get a coach, trainer, get a coach, get something. The coach and trainers offer you substantial amounts of benefits. One, they offer accountability. So it’s not just you in this. It’s now you and somebody else. And you’re held accountable to specific standards that you get to set. Second of all, a coach is going to help. Our trainers can help make sure that you go through it in a way that is the most is the fastest, easiest way for you and is most tied to what you need. One of the first things that you need to do with these with with your trainer or your coach, everything is do a goals call. All right. Where are we? Where are we trying to go? What do we want? And is that rational for where we are? So is that a good next step?

Dr. Matt Chalmers [00:01:01] So if you don’t work out at all and your diet is absolute trash and you don’t supplement at all going to, you know, ten supplements a day, working out an hour to 90 minutes a day, five days a week, and eating really clean is not going to last. It’s way too big of a change unless you had something significant like a death in the family or something like that just happen. So coming up with the here’s where you are. Here are the next best steps are oftentimes the best place to go. And the thing is, is that a lot of times, you know, well, you’ll be great if you work out five days a week for 90 minutes and, you know, you radically change your diet. What can we add into your life that will make you better and that you’ll be able to sustain? That is the that is the actual question that we should be asking for A lot of people, it’s, you know, let’s drink some more water, let’s drink sodas, let’s cut the sugars back. You know, let’s try to get a little bit more sleep. You know, let’s take, you know, a couple supplements, right? You know, a B3, B, D3, you know, maybe omegas, you know, if you have something specific going on, something like that, and, you know, start walking and let’s just cut back the amount of the Cokes we drink, you know, the full sodas. You know, we drink full sugar sodas.

Dr. Matt Chalmers [00:02:17] You know, those sort of steps are a great place to start for the vast majority of people, because what we’re trying to do is make consistency that sticks. And so the idea is, is that, you know, I do this a lot with people. You’ll have people come in and I’ll meet with them and then it will kind of figure out where we want to go. We’ll get some suggestions and I’ll talk to them next month and be like, How do you do? You know, like, here’s the things that you’re supposed to do here. Here’s your plan, how’d you do? And you’re like, Hey, two of the three things, I killed it. The great, the third one. All right, We reevaluate that third one, make sure that that’s still in line with what we can do. We build on the other two. Like, that’s a great way to start getting healthier. And you will. You will end up getting healthier. If you look at the look at it in the course of a year, you’ll end up being a lot healthier than you would if you try to make a giant amount of change that you just failed. So you’re getting with somebody and saying, okay, here’s where I’m at, here’s what my life is.

Dr. Matt Chalmers [00:03:07] You know, how do I start adding in The things are going to make me healthier, You know, how many can we add in and what can we do is really, really important. So going with a coach, acting with a trainer is one of the most important things you can do if you want to maintain health. The other thing is, is that, you know, you want to make sure that you’re in a position where you can do these things. You know, if you want to start working out, Do you have a gym? Do you know what you’re trying to do? Have you been checked out? Those sort of things. So getting a coach to kind of walk you through these things are really, really important. Now, if you want to start working out and you haven’t because there’s always that transition, right? Getting a trainer or getting a coach training somebody to work with you on that is even more important because the larger the change we make in our our daily lives, the more accountability, the more, you know adeboye is, the more you know, you know, carrot and stick, right? Like, you missed today’s workouts.

Dr. Matt Chalmers [00:04:01] You said you said you wanted to stay fat and lazy and, you know, have that heart attack, have that issue and, you know, Sorry. Have that issue and have to deal with it. Friend of mine just just died of a heart attack, so. But. You know, those type of things like are you, you know, are you running these things? Are you wanting to get healthy? Like go over this with you over and over again and make sure you’re in the right direction? It was funny. I did an interview today with on the radio and they were talking about, you know, how you shouldn’t guilt or shame yourself. And the problem with that is that is both true and false. The idea that the idea that you should just do whatever you want to not feel the guilt about it, like, I overate tremendously for the past week and a half, but whatever. Definitely. That’s not where we’re trying to go. The big thing on that is if you overate and he felt bad about it, don’t sit and wallow in the misery that leads to self-hatred and nihilism. And all of those things recognize, hey, look, the reason I felt bad about this was because I let myself down. Right. That’s why you feel bad. You did something. You disapprove of yourself doing the thing. And so we need to fix that.

Dr. Matt Chalmers [00:05:15] The the problem is, is that sitting in wallowing in the misery is what we refer to as being, in effect, like something happened and it had an effect on you. The way we fix this was we moved to the cause side of the equation. So, all right, you had this issue. What are you going to do to cause change to happen? Yeah. So you’re like, All right, cool. I felt terrible for eating too much sugar. So I’m going to start using, you know, I was monk fruit, stevia in the things I create. So I have I consume less sugar. Great. You know, if overeating was also part of it. Okay, we’re going to use smaller plates to drink more water. We’re going to eat your way, our food out. We’re going to recognize, you know, how much we should eat and kind of plan a little bit accordingly. You know, these are the things or we’re going to work out. We’re going to do these things to kind of absorb some of the impact and we’re going to kind of earn it.

Dr. Matt Chalmers [00:06:07] You know, if you if it’s, hey, we’re eat bad one day because, I mean, it’s Christmas or it’s New Year’s. And so we’re going to do something specific, you know, on this one day. Not a huge issue, but if it’s, hey, for the past two weeks because there’s been stuff laying around the house and leftovers and this and that, you know, ever since Thanksgiving, I’ve been eating, you know, junk for four days, weeks. Well, that’s one of those things we need to kind of sit down and be like, okay, well, here are the ways that you can build a plan to stop that. So any time that it doesn’t have to be with food, it can be with alcohol, it can be with cannabis, it can be with, you know, video games. It can be anything that that that stands between you and your goals. Because anything that seems between you and your goals needs to be removed. It’s a hindrance. And so getting around, figuring out, okay, well, how do I make a plan to extract this thing? And then here’s the big piece. Replace it with something else. Because if you just pull things out of your life, oftentimes it leaves a void. And that’s why we ain’t going back to them or creating much worse problems on the other side.

Dr. Matt Chalmers [00:07:05] So that’s kind of one of those things, you know, getting with something kind of planning these things out is a really, really great option, as you know, because that’s going to help you move in the right direction. That’s going to give you some accountability. It’s going to give you something, a teammate to walk through this with. So that’s when we start looking at health care providers. We start looking, okay, what we need to do, you know, I’ve always been a big fan of find a quarterback, you know, find somebody who can help you get where you need to go. So like when people come in here, we do a goals call and we find out, you know, hey, you have, you know, X, Y, Z issues, you know, we’re going to help with, you know, the hormones will help with the diet, will help with some of the supplementation. However, you know, you live in, you know, Oklahoma and so I can’t help you with training. So I’m going to find you a really good trainer to help walk you through the exercises. Make sure your forms. Right. Right. That’s a great one. Or, you know, hey, we’re working something like I have a mental issues because, you know, I have a lot of grief because my mom just died or something like that. Cool. We’ll get you with the therapist who deals with grief. There you go.

Dr. Matt Chalmers [00:08:06] You know, but you or I have people come in and everyone smile. Will do. CT angiograms will find out they have flocking the arteries and they need a stent. Well, all right, cool. Now set you up with a career thoracic surgeon who can put stents in, you know, things like this, you know, or, hey, you know, my my pediatrician is not where I want to go or, Hey, we just found out we’re pregnant. Great. Here are some pediatrician options that you can just, you know, check out, you know, so those are some of the things that are really, really good. If you find a good centralized coach is going to get you where you want to go. Know enough about everything to kind of help out, but then be like, here, look, you’ve now crossover, the crossover, the point where you need this professional to do X, Y, and Z for you. And so that’s kind of where a lot of these good professionals, good trainers, good good health coaches kind of live is. They can provide accountability, they can provide a plan, a path and a plan to get from where you are to where you want to go. And then they have secondary resources. Yeah, it’s like, okay, well we need to get X, Y and Z done. And we found out that you had these issues. Yes, we’re in. Send you over here hearing, get these things done.

Dr. Matt Chalmers [00:09:12] A lot of times we’ll do you know people come in with sports injuries just like that and then I go want to get healthier? We do it. MRI’s be like, hey, you have a tear. So let’s send you out and get your, you know, orthopedic surgery or, you know, we can handle the physical therapy. You know, I can teach you how to do it at home, that type of thing. But we always have access to all sorts of professionals. You know, every once while we’ll talk to somebody and we’ll realize that they’re out of position for a coach and they need more of a therapist. And so we can kind of move them down that road like, hey, look, you know, you need to go here and see these people for these things. So that’s kind of one of those things that we try to make sure that you get started with is when you where you get started with the foundation that you create, the team you build is extremely important for getting healthy. And a lot of times you’ll find somebody who like, hey, look, you know, I’m doing X, Y and Z, I need to step it up. And you coach for it’s more specific to something.

Dr. Matt Chalmers [00:10:05] So, for instance, if your kids have autism, you know, you just find out your kid has autism. And that’s one thing. That’s something that I can help with. But I would refer you out to Dr. Ben. Dr. Baden does phenomenal work with Children of Autism. I did a podcast with her. It’s on the Chalmers Wellness site. It’s in the blogs. Check that one out. She’s fantastic with autistic kids and Wilson people down there. You know, if you have a young child who needs psychotherapy because they had an event, a teacher that said something traumatic happen, you know, I’ll send you over to see Scott and he’ll get you with one of their guys. My son used Allie, who was fantastic. And so, you know, that type of a thing. We’ve seen people who come in and they’ve got, you know, they’ve got issues with, you know, the way their job search. And that’s the thing, you know, I’ve got dentists who can rebuild the enamel on your teeth and put them back together.

Dr. Matt Chalmers [00:10:57] And so you’re got people who have migraine headaches and they you know, the adjusting helps you get all the way there. We can sign up for Botox to release the musculature and the jaw on the neck and head relaxes this thing. So getting somebody who they can figure out what where you are and where you want to go. I always tell people, if we figure out if we do enough information, information, we figure out where you are. And we really. I think that’s one of those things that are really important, getting people from point A to point B so, you know, figure out where you are now, figure out where you want to go and develop a plan to get you from point A to point B. And so that’s one of those big things that a good trainer is going to be able to do. Good coaches can be able to do do not try to make big changes by yourself. The chances you’re going to make maintain a large change are very, very slim.

Dr. Matt Chalmers [00:11:57] So if you guys can get a coach and start walking through things slower is better than no movement at all. And slower is better than, you know, doing a whole lot of stuff for a little bit and then failing at it. So find something that you can do consistently that’s going to move you in the direction you’re trying to go and then kind of work at that and try to get some accountability. Find a coach will meet with you once a week, twice a month, you know, once a month at least, and kind of move through that type of a type of a program that’s going be the best way to get healthy and stay healthy. So if you guys have any questions, have questions at ChalmersWellness.com or drop them in the comments. Thanks for your time.

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Dr. Matt Chalmers

Disclaimer: This content is for informational purposes only. Before taking any action based on this information you should first consult with your physician or health care provider. This information is not intended to be a substitute for professional medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment. Always seek the advice of your physician or other qualified health providers with any questions regarding a medical condition, your health, or wellness