Your relationship with yourself is hands down the most important relationship you’ll ever have. There’s no question, no debate, it just is.

If you’re skeptical as to why, check out my previous post on it.

But I bring it up because it’s very relevant to today’s topics of you being the expert on you.

Because your relationship with yourself is so crucial and omnipresent, you’re also the uniquely qualified expert on you – what you like, don’t like, tendencies, habits, mentality, beliefs, etc.

And because you’re the “you” expert, it automatically qualifies you to be the expert on getting yourself healthy, too.

But I’m Not An Expert

Before you go believing those five little words your brain has already started uttering, you ARE the expert on you. Can we agree on that? 

Ok, good.

It’s by default then, that you’re the expert on getting yourself healthy. You may not know everything you need to know (yet) and you may not have the resources (yet) that you’ll need to implement a plan to get yourself healthier.

But you’re it, my friend. I’m here to guide you, but I can’t make you do anything. That’s your department.

For example, I can tell you until I’m blue in the face that I think Crossfit is the end-all-be-all of getting healthy (it isn’t, but we’re pretending here). But unless you actually enjoy Crossfit, you’re not likely to continue doing it for very long.

We change by feeling good, not by feeling bad. And only you know what feels good to you and what feels bad.

See how we’re coming around to you being the expert on getting you healthy?

If group fitness classes are your jam, I could name off a couple dozen varieties of classes. But if group fitness classes make you wanna crawl up into a ball because you hate working out in front of other people, it wouldn’t matter if I could name two hundred varieties of classes, you still aren’t likely to do them.

So it’s on YOU to figure out what your jam is. I’ve got a list of a whole bunch of ways you can get your activity in, and there are countless more out there. But until you begin trial and error figuring out what works for you, there’s an endless amount of information I can put in front of you and it will have minimal effectiveness at best.

Sure, you may not know the science behind sets and reps, but you know the science of your body – you know if running feels terrible on your knees and an elliptical may be more suited to your achy joints. You know if early morning activity primes you for the day or deprives you of that precious 30 extra minutes of sleep.

You ARE the expert on you, so get to researching!

With Food Too?

Yep, you guessed it… it’s the same with food.

You may not be a nutritionist armed with macronutrient needs and RDAs, but if you listen to your body, you can learn how you need to eat to feel good.

Eat a giant bowl of pasta and feel sluggish and lethargic for a good 36 hours? Or what about those 4 cocktails and then passing out – rough night of sleep?

Your body will tell you everything you need to know if you’ll listen. But that’s the hard part – listening. And because you’re the only one who CAN listen to your body, it again makes you uniquely qualified to be the expert on you.

Although you might not yet know why or when, you know what foods you crave and how to satisfy those cravings. If you think about it long enough, you could think of what foods you eat by habit and what foods you actually want to eat.

History is Proof

We went thousands of years without coaches, personal trainers, and nutritionists telling us how to get healthy. Some of it was handed down from family culture, but much of it was also because humans were more in tune with our bodies.

It’s possible to get back to that place – and it starts with recognizing your rightful place as the “you” expert. It is a responsibility, but it’s equally a privilege because you’re in charge of your most powerful asset – YOU!!!