So, when does it get easy? Someone recently asked me when the point came that I no longer had to think about living healthy, and when it became natural to just do it. It was an interesting conversation, because thats a tough question to answer. Honestly, I dont know if it ever gets to that place. When you spend the first three plus decades of your life happily eating garbage and laying around doing as little as you can, youre just always going to bring a lot of past baggage with you. There are still some days where I drive past the fast food place and find myself thinking about how great their breakfast sandwiches taste. There are days when I sit down with friends at a restaurant and I order a big greasy appetizer out of old reflex, and I either have to cancel it or give it to others. Just this morning I stopped at the grocery store on my way home from church to get some dog food and a Sunday snack for my son from the bakery, and found myself tossing a doughnut into the bakery bag. (Im happy to report that I did not eat this doughnut!) I feel that my approach for changing my life, putting my main priority on getting my head and my heart in the right place to fight this battle, is infinitely superior to any nuts and bolts plan that focuses on what to eat and how to exercise but completely ignores building up the motivation behind it. Even with that advantage, the struggle is still there, and might always be there. I know thats not what you hear in all the diet books out there, but then, the fact that you dont hear that might be why between 85% and 95% of attempts to lose weight and keep it off fail. That might sound like bad news, but really, I think its pretty cool. Heres why: if you are actively thinking about your decisions, youre more likely to make the right ones. If you are daily fighting off bad choices, you will be better equipped to help others fight that battle too. Those daily struggles, the daily urges to go down a path you know in your heart to be wrong, will help you fight off complacency, and ultimately you wind up being healthier than you would have been if living right was an autonomous behavior. I am DELIGHTED to have these daily reminders, because they remind me that I have to be an active participant in my life, not just a casual passenger. There is one important piece that I need to close with. While it may never become a natural part of my life which I dont have to think about, it does become profoundly easier with time. When I started going to the gym, it was tough to remind myself that I liked doing it. The reasons I liked going to the gym - that it was building endurance, making me healthier, adding literally weeks to my life for every hour I spent there - all made sense in my head, but hadnt quite made the trip down to my heart yet. That voice that wanted to be healthy was still weak. With time, and repeatedly reminding myself of the reasons I wanted to be there, that voice of health got stronger, and little by little I found the knowledge for why I wanted to be healthy being transformed into a genuine desire to be healthy. Today, Ive gone a complete 180 on the gym - I love going, and Im frustrated when I miss a day. I typically take Sunday as a rest day, and all day today Ive found myself wanting to go. The same can be said for eating. Sure, those desires to grab junk food are still there, but the desire to live right, to be the best I can be, has grown so strong that its easy to catch myself, and making good choices now comes from a heartfelt desire to do so, as opposed to my mind forcing a decision that my heart wasnt quite sold on just yet. Hang in there, and never never never give up. You may never get rid of every last temptation, but given enough time it will become a heartfelt desire and a joy to say no to them. The hard moments will always come, but with time they get easier and easier to bear. And from where Im standing, I can truly say that every one of those hard moments was worth fighting, and Id do them all again in a heartbeat. Stay strong - you CAN do this!
Posted on: Sun, 11 Jan 2015 20:03:13 +0000
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