Step 1–Getting My Head Behind My Actions
Ever made a good eating intention and then, not too long afterwards, come to the sudden realization that you’ve forgotten all about it?!
For example, let’s say it’s lunchtime, you’re on the road going from here to there, and you’re starving. Naturally, you pull into the drive-through restaurant waiting with open arms for people just like you. But then you suddenly remember: “Didn’t I promise a couple months ago to ditch lunchtime fast food?”
What happened between then and now that your most earnest intention isn’t even on the radar screen, much less a fixture in your food life?
This is the second in a series of posts about nurturing our resolutions from seeds to regular, natural and easeful parts of our lives. There’s a fair bit of territory that lies between setting a new health resolution and seeing it show up on a regular basis. That’s why I invite you to journey with me as I travel through that territory and navigate the obstacles by being better prepared and positioning myself so I can succeed. I discovered a lot and think (and hope) much of what I learn will help you, too.
As mentioned in the last post, when I saw the recipes for Homemade Almond Milk on Nicolett Miller’s nutritional therapy blog, it must have been the tenth time I had seen the recipe over the past several years–and the tenth time I had wanted to start making almond milk. But this time, I stopped long enough to explore why I hadn’t been able to bring that hope to fruition.
Obstacle #1, I realized, was just deciding whether making my own almond milk was worth the bother.
The main reason I wanted homemade milk was to reduce the number of artificial additives in my diet. Certainly a worthy goal, but there was a powerful reason not to bother: Yet more time spent on food prep.
For many years, I’ve worked to reduce my exposure to artificial preservatives, additives and other chemicals as much as possible. We’re exposed to hundreds and thousands of chemicals each day, most of which we don’t even know about–and no one has ever tested what happens to humans exposed to all those chemicals both in combination with one another and over the span of many years. My thinking is that at least I can control the food I eat, which is why I’ve transitioned to a real, whole foods, mostly organic diet. Except for my almond milk. I drink a couple cups a day and each time I poured a glass, I saw this list of ingredients:
Certainly not as bad as ingesting lead-tainted water, but why ingest all of those things at all when almond milk can be made with just almonds, water, salt and a date?
Lack of time is the big reason to continue ingesting “all those things.” As much as I want a clean diet, I had to honestly ask myself, “Were the offending ingredients in commercial almond milk bad enough to justify the time to make a pure version? Did I really want to bother making my own almond milk and add another food prep activity to my life?”
The answers to those questions are critical. If I couldn’t get my head firmly behind my actions, I wouldn’t get out of the starting gate. And I surely wouldn’t have the motivation to figure out the milk-making process and get in the habit of doing it two or three times a week for the long term.
After some reflection, I realized that at this point, I really couldn’t answer those questions. I hadn’t made almond milk and really didn’t know whether it could be accomplished efficiently and woven into my food life smoothly. However I did feel 100% certain that it was worthwhile to experiment and gauge the time, difficulty and expense involved. And that’s all I needed to get out of the starting gate. I couldn’t see that I had anything to lose by experimenting, but there was a lot to gain if my experiment worked.
So forward we go! Join me tomorrow’s for the next step of the journey: Recipe Frustration #)*+^#$%#!!
What about you?
- Is your head behind your actions?
- Could it help to take a few minutes for reflection: Why is your resolution important to you? Is it a small step towards a bigger goal? Are health concerns motivating you? Will the change help you achieve a healthier weight?
- If your reasons aren’t strong enough to propel a lifetime shift, are they at least strong enough to motivate you to experiment?
- Can you describe your motivation clearly? Don’t let it lurk in the shadows–bring it out! Doesn’t hurt to journal a bit if you’re having trouble putting your finger on your source of motivation.
- Finally, please do email or comment with your discoveries. It helps me understand what you’re going through and, if you’re ok with sharing anonymously, it will help others, too.