Before setting goals or working on lifestyle change, it’s crucial to meet your basic needs. As humans, our ability to focus, grow, and achieve is built on fundamental needs like proper nutrition, sleep, and a sense of security. Even the best intentions can feel overwhelming or unachievable if they are overlooked. Addressing these needs creates the stability and energy needed to take meaningful steps towards your goals.

What is Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs?
This framework is often shown as a pyramid, starting with basic needs at the bottom and moving toward personal growth at the top:

1. Physiological needs: Basics like food, water, and sleep.
2. Safety needs: Feeling secure and stable in your environment.
3. Love and belonging: Building meaningful relationships and connections.
4. Esteem needs: Gaining confidence, recognition, and self-respect.
5. Self-actualisation: Becoming your best self and reaching your full potential.

The idea is simple: it’s hard to focus on the higher levels, like confidence or personal growth, if your basic needs, like good nutrition or sleep, aren’t met first.

How Maslow’s Hierarchy Applies to Your Roczen Journey

Start with the basics: Nutrition, Movement, and Sleep

• Nutrition: It’s crucial to fuel our body and provide it with the nutrients that it needs to function at its best. A poor diet can have negative consequences on our physical and mental health.
• Movement: You don’t need to spend hours at the gym; instead, find activities you enjoy and focus on moving regularly throughout the day.
• Sleep: Sleep is often overlooked, yet so essential. Poor sleep affects hunger, energy, and cravings. Aim for 7–9 hours of good quality sleep each night.

Build Structure ‍

Feeling secure and confident in your plan is essential for consistency and long-term success. Structure provides a sense of predictability and reduces decision fatigue, making it easier to stick to healthy habits even when life gets busy or unpredictable.

• Be SMART: Set goals that follow the SMART framework, and from this, have a ‘core’ routine that can be achieved each week. Setting the bar too high will lead to burnout.
• Plan ahead: Take time to plan meal prep and activities. Preparation can help you to be more efficient with your time and routine.
• Regain time: Batch cook and prepare meals in advance so that you get this time back later in the week when healthy meals are already prepared for you - freeing up time to focus on other things like physical activity or relaxation.

Reflect on Gaps‍

If you’re finding it challenging to achieve your goals, it can be helpful to step back and reflect on whether any of your basic needs are being overlooked. Unmet needs often create obstacles that make progress feel harder than it should.

For example:

• Poor sleep: Lack of rest can leave you feeling too drained to prepare meals or stay active, creating a cycle of fatigue and reduced motivation.
• Poor nutrition: A diet lacking in balance and nourishment can lead to sluggishness and cravings for high-calorie, quick-energy foods, further reinforcing poor energy levels and lacking motivation.
• Stress and emotional challenges: Anxiety or feeling overwhelmed can make it harder to focus on your goals and stick to your plan. Managing these can help you to focus and feel more confident in achieving your goals.

Taking the time to identify these gaps allows you to prioritise solutions that address the root cause of the challenge.

Build Confidence ‍

Success isn’t just about weight loss; it’s about feeling good about yourself and noticing improvements in different areas of your life.

• Celebrate small wins: Whether it’s walking further, preparing a healthy meal, or feeling more energised, every step counts.
• Set milestones: Break your goals into smaller, manageable steps, and build on these as you continue to achieve them.
• Practice positive self-talk: Remind yourself of your progress and the hard work you’re putting in, reflect on where you are now compared to when you started.
• Connect: Connection is a powerful motivator and something that helps meet your basic needs of security and belonging, use your group, mentor, clinician and loved ones to share your journey.

Summary‍

By meeting your basic needs, building stability, finding support, boosting your confidence, and focusing on personal growth, you can create lasting change. Remember, the Roczen journey is about progress, not perfection. Celebrate every step forward and enjoy the process of becoming the best version of yourself.