It’s sometimes hard to make changes, even when they’re good for us. I can’t count how many times I’ve tried to change my eating habits, my sleeping habits, my exercise habits. The list goes on. The point is that I know what’s best for me generally speaking, but doing it is sometimes hard. Why is that? Why is it so tough to give up my favorite comfort food or to go to bed just thirty minutes earlier even when I know it will benefit me so much? Is it that the reward isn’t that important? That it doesn’t matter enough to be able to fit into a smaller size or to be able to go to work half an hour earlier? Maybe it’s a matter of not being able to visualize the positive effects the change will provide.
The CPA and I have been talking about change a lot recently. We’re both trying to work on different areas of our where we’d like to see improvement – he has his areas of concern and I have mine. For example, he usually has no problem getting up at 5:00 whereas I sometimes have to be coaxed a bit (okay, a lot). On the other hand, I gave up chocolate seven years ago (gasp) whereas he sees it as one of the basic food groups and a necessary part of every meal. We each have our own challenges. But we do have one universal change that we want to make and that is to eat more healthy.
This is a road that we’ve both been down so many times before but this time it’s a little different. Due to some health issues earlier this year, I had to completely revamp my eating habits and ended up cutting out a lot of things such as dairy, wheat, etc. I’ve never felt better and subsequently lost quite a bit of weight. So everything’s perfect now, right? Not exactly. Sometimes (a.k.a. this weekend) I still crave something that I know I shouldn’t have (maple nut goodies) and it’s everything I can do not to give in, even though I know it’s bad for me.
The CPA faces similar issues. Even though he eats better now than he ever has, he wants to be healthier and give up his self-proclaimed addiction to desserts. He knows it will be better for him in the long run, but trying to give up that cookie after dinner is harder than expected.
So what do we do to make these changes? How do you walk away from this…
and this…
And instead, eat things like this…
and this:
(Images courtesy of wikipedia and istock photos)
We know what the books say about making healthy changes and being able to enjoy certain things in moderation. But I’ll be honest, it doesn’t make it any easier. At least it doesn’t seem to get us through the rough spots. Is it just a matter of visualizing the end goal which, in this case, is healthy and fit? Do we put up pictures on the refrigerator of something like this:
(Istock photo)
I don’t know what the answer is, I guess it’s different for everyone. But the overall question is the same: why is it so hard to make these changes even though we know they will be good for us?
If you have tips for what has helped you make changes in your life, I’d love to hear them!
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