KAIZEN
Kaizen is a Japanese word meaning ” improvement” or “change for the better”.
Kai means change and Zen means good.
It has been used in various areas such as business management, manufacturing and engineering as well as in health. The concept has been present in Japan following the second World War and has now spread to many areas and is known all over the world.
It is a daily process and in business is done by people at all levels from the CEO to assembly line workers and cleaners. EVERYONE is encouraged to come up with small improvement suggestions regularly so as to enhance productivity and effectiveness. It takes into consideration the employee so that they work smarter not harder and implement habits unconsciously. Over time, continuous small improvements have a snowball effect leading to a more efficient and profitable organisation.
So how can this be applied in health?
You can conduct the same process on yourself- coming up with small changes on a weekly or monthly basis. For example, if your goal is to lose weight, break this down into smaller achievable goals rather than getting overwhelmed… “chunk down” in NLP terms!
e.g.
- Have healthy snacks like nuts/dried fruits instead of chocolate.
- Drink water with lemon instead of other beverages- lemon has an alkalinising and detoxyifying effect on the the body and has been proved to assist weight loss.
- Aim for a gradual increase in exercise duration starting from 10min working towards 30min, increasing weekly. And taking opportunities to increase physical activity where possible during your day- taking stairs, walking to the shops or during your lunch breaks.
Remember, tiny changes lead to huge results!