Green Light – Yellow Light – Red Light

I’m sure that you’re all scratching your heads wondering what the title of this post has to do with a Healthy Lifestyle.

Sometimes to change our behavior, using mental techniques helps us to control our wants. Because I’m a visual learner, often times, I use symbols. In this case I’m using a traffic signal to give you an example of using mental techniques to help you with making healthy choices about food and exercise.

When you’re driving your car, what do you prefer--a green light or red light? Well I’m pretty sure that 99.99% of people hate waiting at red lights.

Now picture yourself in front of an open refrigerator door, and you’re approaching a choice; should I eat a fruit cup or a bowl of ice cream? Or maybe the choice you’re faced with is spending the next 30 minutes doing an exercise DVD, or skipping it because you don’t feel like doing it.

That’s a yellow light.

You’ve reached that moment where it may turn green or red:

Depending on what you do.

Weight your choices……..Think about which means the most to you. What’s it going to be? Are you going to make a healthy decision for yourself or are you going to go through the yellow light and eat that unhealthy food, or skip exercising?

Just as on the road, approaching a traffic light that’s on yellow means caution. The light might change or it might not. What will you do?

If you make the healthy choice, the light turns green and you can move forward. You did great. Give yourself a reward for turning positive mental thoughts into action, getting you one step closer to your next objective. The mental process involved will propel your mind to the next Green Light…………

However, as we all will from time to time, maybe a particular choice, for whatever reason, may not be very good for us—like choosing to hold off on our exercise or eat a larger than intended bowl of ice cream.

You’re now approaching the Red Light syndrome.

What’s your thinking pattern when you have to stop at a Red Light? For most of us it’s:

“Oh darn! I wish that light would’ve been Green. I wouldn’t have to wait and I’d be getting to where I need to go, FASTER.

See the correlation.

How many times does life hold you back by the decisions that you make? How many times do you make the wrong healthy living choices for yourself thereby getting yourself further from your goals?

So when you hit your Red Light, think for awhile before you do it again. Use the example of the yellow light. Do you want to keep going faster or slower?

Life is a lot like Traffic Signals. You can go fast, slow down, or stop--it all depends on your personal choices.

So what’s it going to be: cross-town traffic or smooth sailing?

Tell us you’re traffic conditions, because

It’s about a healthy lifestyle!

© Iowa Avenue

Photos courtesy of katebites, walknboston, wwarby, squeakymarmot, and david55king