How My Habits Changed by Association
Hello - I’m Leigh. Being the Executive Director of Wellspring has brought me an unexpected benefit. I joined Wellspring in 2017. I am not a clinical mental health professional. My education (DBA, MAML) and experience has been in ministry leadership and management. However, my role at Wellspring has unexpectedly inspired my mental health and creating healthy habits resulting in an effort where I have lost almost 40 lbs. and have gained greater physical fitness. Wellspring’s healthy habits events, articles, and podcasts over the past few years have rubbed off. I am different!
Truthfully, my first habitual choice came before I started at Wellspring. I was intrigued by something my husband (a Physical Education teacher) shared with me—water first thing in the morning wakes up your brain. I thought, “I can drink water first,” even if I was not willing to commit to six-8 oz. glasses of water a day, and I did start drinking more water. Over time, I started to make a couple different choices of food and tried to walk and bike ride sporadically, but I never really saw any weight loss. I had helped Wellspring set up an annual Healthy Habits event for 2 years at that point. I knew the content, but I was not willing to make any real efforts to change my habits. I was accepting my aging and overweight condition, although I was not really happy about either.
Then, one day in June of 2019, I stepped on the scale and saw my weight at an unprecedented level. At that point, I said NO MORE! I found an app that attended to both mental health and weight loss and I committed to the process. I thought I could learn something on mental health, maybe lose weight, and receive some inspiration for a Wellspring app (which we now have!) I read their daily mental health and habits content, logged my food, tracked my weight, and exercised. I was learning things Wellspring had been teaching—mindfulness. The effort worked!
A year later, I had much-improved eating habits, I was exercising, but not rigorously aerobic exercise, and started some pilates videos I found on one of my streaming subscriptions. My weight was at a plateau and we were in a pandemic. This past October I decided to take things to the next level. I needed to make a bigger change. I decided to join a fitness class/gym program that uses High-Intensity Interval Training (HIIT) workouts. HIIT workouts are tough, yet very efficient—perfect for my lifestyle. I was committed both financially and in my mindset, I needed to do more to break through my plateau.
Today, I am in the best shape I have been in since the early 2000s. I am better fitness-wise even if my overall weight changes only slightly now. I am still striving to lose my last 15 lbs. even if it takes another year.
Being at an organization like Wellspring that supports mental health and healthy habits in our educational materials and events has made a difference in my life. I never thought I would be this happy to feel this strong. When I look in the mirror now and see myself in photos back then, it makes me wonder why I waited so long to take care of myself. The change came when I made a decision. The decision was easier after learning how habits and the brain work—Wellspring’s educational efforts rubbed off on me.
“Do you not know that your bodies are temples of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God? You are not your own;” 1 Corinthians 16:19