Changing your life is hard.
There is no way around the fact that breaking old habits and creating new ones can be difficult and time-consuming, and you will still have slip-ups along the way. Rarely does anything worthwhile happen overnight.
Lately I’ve been considering how I would make changes if this fourth week here at Green Mountain at Fox Run, a Vermont spa for women with weight issues, was my last. If I was going home, how would I implement what I’ve learned here? How would I make healthy eating changes that would last?
A lot of times when trying to figure out how to change and ultimately fix my eating habits I’ve done what everyone else tries to do – make a list of changes to be implemented. This list is usually long and difficult to put into practice. It includes points like don’t eat after 8 p.m. and only eat cereal twice a week and 15 other specific ideas about how to better control the way I eat.
I wasn’t necessarily following a diet plan but I was setting myself up to fail by trying to change too much too fast. I would implement all the points for a day or two and ultimately find out that I wanted to do too much changing in the beginning.
In a class here at Green Mountain it was recommended that we focus on three things we want to change when we are going home. Just three things, and those don’t have to be super strict things we plan on doing every day. But by cutting down the list to just a few points we exponentially increase our chance to succeed in doing those three things long term. And then once they are fully incorporated into our lives we can make a couple more changes and snowball our way into a new life.
Making small changes isn’t as hard as trying to completely change all your habits at once. It might take longer and it might seem like nothing is happening at first, but in the long run it’s the best way to change your life.
9 Responses (Add Yours)
“…we can make a couple more changes and snowball our way into a new life.”
Love how you stated this concept, Mary!
Great post, Mary. I feel like I’ve finally begun to understand the concept of small changes – and I’m twice your age. Of course I understood it intellectually, but for some reason I’ve always been good at trying to outsmart myself. No matter what, it isn’t easy.
If, at your tender age, you can clearly see this as the way to long lasting change, you might just save yourself another 25 years of torment.
Love the picture. Is that one you took on a walk?
[...] This post was mentioned on Twitter by Merry Mary. Merry Mary said: My post is up! RT @GreenMtnFoxRun: Making Small Changes. @amerrylife shares insight for making changes that last http://bit.ly/7Lowu [...]
Great post. I’m going to tweet about it :)
.-= Gina’s last blog post..Two Reviews; Granola and the Biggest Loser =-.
I love it Mary, well put! Always have a goal to be better, but never to be perfect; that’s what I say. We can always make improvements, we just don’t need to make them ALL in week 1.
@ Marsha
Thanks! Any big task is usually accomplished one step at a time building upon the previous step but we seem to completely forget that concept in regards to our own bodies.
@ Cindy
Yes, I am very happy to be working out the issues now. I’ve had a lot of older, wiser women tell me to do it now instead of waiting. So I’m trying my best to figure things out now.
Yes the picture is from one of the walks! Scout Camp Road, actually. It’s very beautiful!
@Gina
Thanks!!
@Robyn
That would be a lot of changing in one week! Whew! Thankfully it’s okay to work toward a goal a little at a time once we give ourselves permission to make small changes and be okay with that amount of progress toward our goal.
Thank you, this is very inspirational. Sometimes we get down on ourselves and overwhelmed because there are so many things that need to be changed.
.-= Walking Queen’s last blog post..My Lab Results =-.
[...] My second post at A Weight Lifted is here. I will be posting my thoughts there every Wednesday as well as the links on Friday. So check out the blog and catch me when I’m there. [...]
Great post :) Gotta go through those 179 degrees before you hit the 180.
.-= FLG’s last blog post..Surprise! =-.
Leave a Reply