A lifetime of habits

A lifetime of habits seem so hard to change, habits feel as natural as breathing, your habits are a comfort to you, its familiarity and they are so difficult to break. New habits that replace old habits are hard work and you consciously have to make yourself do it, you have to push and it does take all your effort, it doesn’t feel natural to you, it doesn’t feel part of your routine…yet….but if you keep making the changes one day you won’t have to think about it anymore, you won’t call your diet “A healthy diet”, it will just be called “ This is what I eat” this is my diet that just happens to be healthy (But still not depriving yourself of your favourite things).

This is what happened to me many years ago when I started thinking more about a new healthier lifestyle, I remember thinking to myself everyday….oh today I was good and I ate healthy, but most days was not like this! I just couldn’t seem to eat healthy most days…To be honest it just felt like hard work and seemed all too hard because there were many aspects of my diet I wasn’t happy with, as well as issues with my weight. My weight came on while I had spent some time travelling overseas. I remember I was in Thailand and I stepped on a scale outside the shop and was horrified and I actually thought there is no way that scale is right, it has to be wrong!

In retrospect it must have be right but I was in denial and not facing the reality. I had been eating way more than I normally would, as you do while travelling so how did I think I wasn’t going to gain weight? The amount of walking I was doing did not negate the amount of food I was eating! The truth hurts, but not realising is not a great way to live and doesn’t help you. How can you change what you don’t acknowledge?

So I guess back about 10 years ago I started making small changes, making it more nutrient dense, adding in some exercise here and there, really looking at snacking and portion sizes and I learnt about the amount of calories in food because they do matter, it is helpful to know where your calories come from. It’s just being aware, so you can look back on your diet and you can see where it is you might be going wrong. I find that the amount we eat is really underestimated, and especially when it comes to junk food. Also alcohol and other liquids like juices and soft drinks, they are in addition to meals not instead of (usually!).

The real passion came in 2006 and this is when I decided to become a nutritionist and I was working out regularly because I was working in a gym (as a massage therapist at the time). Of course over all this time my weight was coming down to a point where I was happy, but it’s weird though because even though I knew I wasn’t overweight anymore I still had “fat” days where I still felt I was bigger than I actually was. I think for some people you just will never be happy with your body, especially women. We are soooo hard on ourselves! Somehow you have to learn how to be happy with your body –no matter what weight you are. But if you want to change it doesn’t just happen, you have to actively do something.

The change has to come from you and no one else, sometimes people even get that light bulb moment where you are just like:
That’s it!..enough is enough I can’t continue like this, because even though change is hard, not changing and staying the same might be even harder! I need to make some changes TODAY, not tomorrow, not next week, not after that birthday….TODAY!! Now what will my plan be? How will I get there? It will be hard but I really really want this, and not doing anything is not an option for me anymore.

If what you are doing right now is not getting you the result you want then do something else, try a new way, get some help with someone who can give you insight. You cannot expect a different result by doing the same thing over and over again-that is the definition of insanity right?!

Does any of this sound familiar?
Comment below!