Today I wanted to share with you 3 lessons I learned while cleaning my icemaker and how these lessons can impact our ability to achieve our health goals.
We have a tabletop ice maker at my house that is used at high frequency. We’re a family of 5 with 3 active kids, a husband who has a very active job and lifestyle, and myself, we go through a lot of ice and prepare a lot of water bottles each week. Especially with the heat that we get here in the South, a cool drink is essential.
But recently while I was refilling my water bottle and adding ice I noticed that some discoloration was in the ice basket. This stopped me in my tracks because as a doctor, I hold my and my family’s health in high regard.
This leads me to lesson #1.
Evaluation - I realized that I really didn’t even know where to begin with cleaning my icemaker. But, I dove right in, without reading any instructions, and tried to clean it as I would a dish in the sink. However, after doing this, I figured out that this was not the proper way to evaluate all of the surfaces that had gotten dirty.
Much like our health. We may realize that we don’t feel as energized as we used to, or our pants don’t fit as well as they previously did. But many individuals won’t stop to seek out the proper support for the proper evaluation of your actual problem.
You think about that diet or supplement your friend mentioned, or that you heard about at your local mom’s group and go with it. It may not even be the right plan for you, only leaving you with the frustration of why that didn’t work as well as you thought it should with improving your health and reaching your health goals.
So much like my icemaker, you will need someone with expertise to properly evaluate the problem and give you a viable solution.
For my icemaker, I went to the instruction manual and to a YouTube expert who created videos about cleaning the exact model of icemaker I have and how to see and reach those hard to clean surfaces.
Turns out, my icemaker actually had a self-cleaning function that I wasn’t even aware of at my first attempt.
Much like your health, when you bring a physician health coach on board to help you with your health goals, you save time and frustration because I have the expertise to properly evaluate you and direct you on those things that can be done to achieve your goals. And, typically we can accomplish great gains with just a few simple steps.
This leads me to lesson #2.
Accountability - Now after I figured out the proper way the icemaker should be cleaned, I thought I could get it done quickly while the kids were asleep for the night, and by morning they’d have fresh and clean ice for their school water bottles. Nope! This was not the case. The proper process of cleaning my ice maker actually would take some additional time and effort.
However, my kids were holding me accountable for getting it done because they consistently would ask “Mom, how’s cleaning the icemaker going” and “When will we have more ice”.
This is also a vital step in achieving our health goals; accountability. We don’t develop conditions of pre-diabetes, PCOS, diabetes, insulin resistance, and weight gain overnight. We also can’t improve and reverse these conditions overnight. This will require time, effort, and commitment.
Having someone there along the way to keep you accountable is important to keep your goal in focus and on track towards achieving those goals. This is where having a health coach on board is vital because we can all use a cheerleader to consistently encourage us to make healthy choices to achieve our goals.
This leads me to lesson #3.
Persistence - Like I shared with you, after the first proper cleaning of my icemaker, I figured out that it actually takes multiple cycles of the cleaning cycle to actually clean it to my satisfaction. As a reminder, as a mom, and as the doctor in the house, I hold my and my family’s health in high regard. So there was no way I would let my kids place dirty ice in their water bottles. So that icemaker had to be spick and span clean before we’d use it again. Each time after a cleaning cycle I’d check it properly, being able to see those hard to clean spaces since I now knew how to do the proper evaluation on it; and each time it would be cleaner than before. But it took persistence in running those cleaning cycles to achieve my ultimate satisfaction with cleaning.
Much like reaching your health goals, it will take persistence. Persistently making those healthful food choices, persistently prioritizing your mental health, sleep, and warding off stress, persistently making the decision to move with intention each day; to achieve your health goals.
I teach individuals strategies to help them achieve SUSTAINABLE health and well being. Setbacks can occur, but when we have a sustainable plan and are persistently putting in the effort to stick to the plan, then we will achieve results.
Cleaning my ice maker turned out to be a surprisingly insightful experience, providing valuable lessons that extend beyond the world of household appliances. Proper evaluation, accountability, and persistence are fundamental principles that not only apply to house cleaning but are vital for our health and well-being. By having a health coach on your team like myself and applying these lessons, you can proactively manage your health, make informed choices, and ensure that you achieve your health and wellness goals SUSTAINABLY.
The Essence of Health is in You!