It’s about making small changes, not trying to make sweeping changes in one go. From past experience when I have tried to go shall we say cold turkey, it never lasts as I struggle to sustain it. All it takes is a bad day at work or the kids hounding me and pop that’s it I’ve given up.Perhaps that’s why so many diets do not work as you spend too much time telling yourself what you cannot have and in these moments of weakness you have the sacred items then you go into meltdown as you’ve blown it. It’s a bit like a comment that I heard over Christmas, ‘it’s not about what you eat between Christmas and New Year, its about what you eat for the rest of the year’! One thing on one day is not going to ‘blow the bloody doors off’!
A friend lent Eat.Nourish.Grow by Amelia Greer to me to read just before Christmas (🙊 just realised I have not returned this yet). What I have learnt from this insightful book so far, is that to make life changes it is important to take things one step at a time.
Pre-Xmas I thought about what could be the first thing that I try to change so I cut out Diet Coke, I am just over the 3 week barrier now. A week ago, I made the decision to cut out eating bad things at work. A week on and I have only eaten well at work during this period. Both of these changes were rooted habits in my working day and in both instances were influenced by emotions such as me feeling frustrated about something then feeling the need to make myself feel better.
So these two steps, along with my target of HITT workouts three mornings a week, a run at the weekends, plus drinking 2.5 litres of water/squash each day should start having a positive effect.
What I have seen so far is softer, clearer skins. Less headaches in the workplace and ‘low sugar’ type feelings which subsequently make me reach for something bad and generally feeling happier and more confident about myself.
So one full week in and things are going well so far. There is still more that I need to address, such as my sneaky chocolate bar each evening, but it’s about taking it a step at a time and I have seen some improvements.
Clean Living Clare 