Real or Not Real: Skeletons In Your Closet

In the seventh installment of his Real or Not Real blog series, Profile’s Coach of Coaches, Chris Clark, unearths some skeletons from your closet to help you get closure and move on to bigger and better things in your journey.

Halloween is a unique part of the calendar where we traditionally have a little fun with scary stuff. Some embrace it more than others. Some visit haunted houses, watch the scariest movies one can imagine (and actually seem to enjoy it), wear frightening costumes and even try to spook little kids who come to their door asking for candy.

This time of year, the parties and sweets of the season can come back to haunt us year after year. When it comes to our health, it is normal to have a few skeletons in our closets. Most of us have thoughts or actions about our nutrition, activity, or lifestyle behaviors that are known only to ourselves. What does that look like for you? For me, it includes eating snacks in my pantry only because they are almost gone, and I would rather finish them than throw them away. I need some help seeing those snacks differently.

These skeleton-like behaviors can come with feelings of guilt, anxiety and shame. We tuck them away and they become the skeletons in our closets that no one else knows about, yet they have a grasp on our lives. We know we are going to be back to do the same behavior tomorrow. In that way, the skeleton seems to have life until we break free.

Every single thing we do can become a learning moment and make us better. What if we framed it differently? What if we didn’t focus on the skeletons, but rather what was happening in our lives that led to those behaviors?

Let’s look at the following example:

At 10:30 PM, Shari eats the last two pieces of her spouse’s birthday cake that were sitting on the counter. Afterwards, she feels badly about eating them. Shari tells no one and goes to bed feeling defeated.

Shari might have several good reasons for eating the cake. Instead of focusing on why she ate the cake and considering alternative solutions, she is mad because of what she did.

Here is a list of possible reasons that you might identify with; all things that you and your Profile Coach could discuss so that you can consider alternative responses:

• Location in your kitchen: eye level, counter, pantry – change it (out of sight, out of mind)
• Stressful time of the year – practice stress management techniques (like breathing exercises or meditation)
• Don’t want to waste it – donate the food to a needy family or organization in your area
• Hungry later in the night – examine your eating schedule earlier in the day so you can be sure you’re full late at night
• Just want something sweet – consider lower-calorie alternatives (ahem – maybe a Profile bar would hit the spot)

It is natural to focus on the act of eating the extra piece of cake rather than the reasons behind the act. At Profile, your coach can work with you to discover what is happening in your life that contributes to the behaviors that you’d like to change. Like a skeleton, the behavior is really the remains of the life leading up to it. The real key is shifting your mindset to celebrate the awareness of this behavior and set out to discover the contributing factors. Let’s take our skeletons out of the closet and examine them. You can count on your Profile Coach being there to help and not judge.

Halloween is scary enough on its own. Getting used to feeling bad about what we eat or how little we exercise is scarier. Take a stand that this year and make an effort to fully understand the skeletons in your closet. Start with one, maybe the smallest one. No bones about it, this might be hard at the beginning, but with Profile – your partner in healthy lifestyle change, you can cast your skeletons aside and clean out your closet once and for all. You can do it – Profile can help! Contact your local Profile store to schedule your free, no-obligation coach consultation.