Building Steam with a Grain of Salt

I feel like I’m FINALLY gaining some SERIOUS ground on this whole ‘weight loss’ thing and am really starting to feel great (4 days raw, woohoo).  I am impressed by how quickly results show up with raw food.

I would love to share a few tips on how these things are happening:

1. FIND WHAT MOTIVATES YOU.  I did what I had been avoiding doing the whole time I was ‘trying’ to lose weight, which was ‘get real’ with myself about how I was feeling.  It is a lot easier for me to ‘lie’ to fit in with my friends and pretend to be happy with myself ‘the way I am’.  The fact of the matter was, I was smiling on the outside and crying on the inside.  Truthfully, I think it is just fine to admit that you’re unhappy with the way you look.  Just because it may cause some confrontation/discomfort within your circle of friends is no reason to lie to yourself.  Just today, a few of my friends boned up and asked me about some things they could do to start helping themselves be healthier.  For me, motivation comes from being honest with myself and getting a good picture of where I’m at vs. where I want to be.  From there, I can set a goal.  I may fall short each day, but in 6 months, I can be there.
2. GET REAL.  I MEAN, REALLY REAL.  I took some pictures of both front and back; I won’t lie, it was pretty devastating, yet at the same time, I knew that six months from now I will look back and realize that those pictures were the turning point and really helped me to make better decisions about how I was spending my time and what I was putting in my mouth - even if it was nibble by nibble.
3. BREAK IT DOWN.  Or, should I say, ADD IT UP.  It started when I realized I had eating a WHOLE BAG of Sunchips in 1 week.  Nibble by nibble, NO! I wasn’t eating that much.  However, by the end of the week, it was an entire bag of chips.  Add that to everything else I was ‘nibbling’ on, I really was creating a monster - and it wasn’t under my bed!
4. DON’T BE AFRAID TO TRY AND FAIL.  I have started P90X and quit it at least 3 times now.  That is just in 1 month.  I have found on some days, I would rather just do yoga, other days, I would rather just ‘run’ on an elliptical machine.  Some days, I only have time for 10 or15 minutes of exercise or simply stretching.  I do my best to DO SOMETHING every day toward my health.  It may not be as much as I want to do, but I know that just being in the habit of doing things will make a HUGE difference.  So, nibble on exercise!
5. BE AWARE OF THE LITTLE THINGS...see above paragraph.
6. FIND A COMMUNITY - OR CREATE ONE.  I started a Raw Food Meetup Group here in Wichita and we have a meetup at least once per month.  It is so fun and refreshing to get together with a few people and eat healthy food!  NOT all of our members are Raw, or even Vegan!  We all do share a commonality of enjoying Raw Foods, though, and getting together and doing something healthy.  It is also a blast to try out other people’s flavors and trade recipes.  Everyone is in a different space as far as food preparation goes and there are some amazing dishes traded around.

Where do you get ‘stuck’ with your goals?  What are some things you have found that help you to get over hurdles? They could help us too!  I invite your feedback and as always, thank you so much for tuning in!