One Step at a Time....the Key Our Success

Looking at all the information out there today regarding health and nutrition is incredibly overwhelming.  There are so many different personalities, books, websites, etc. claiming to have unlocked the magical nutritional or weight loss secret.  Who is right? The French women who don't get fat due to strict portion control? Chris Powell from the TV show Extreme Weight Loss who practices carb cycling? Jillian Michaels from the Biggest Loser who teaches contestants to eat a balanced diet of fat, protein, and carbs? How about my vegan friends? My juicing friends? Or maybe my friend who drinks raw goat's milk?!

After deciding to "get healthy" (still not knowing what exactly that meant) I decided to start researching.  I knew my husband and I did not eat well and had the health issues to prove our diets of today's delicious and convenient processed foods were not working for us.  Something had to change. 

Several times throughout our relationship we had tried different diets, even going so far as to live on nothing but juice for several days at a time.  But nothing ever stuck, continuing the yoyo we've been on for the majority of our adult lives. Every diet we tried eventually ended in ordering a large pizza and topping it off with a carton of Ben & Jerry's... and then just giving up, leaving us in the same place we've always been.  So this time, we decided to start small.  Take things one step at a time.  A good friend gave me this advice that worked in her own life to totally transform the way her and her family eat: Take things one step at a time. Start with one small change and don't move onto the next until you are ready.  

Deciding to do things in steps rather than all at once has turned out to be the best advice for our success. It is also the advice I find myself coming back to when I begin to feel overwhelmed.  Like with so many things in life, I've had to give up the all-or-nothing approach and remember that I will fail and that and failing is ok.  Giving ourselves lots of grace has been the best thing to keep us moving forward.