By Nancy Mehlert, MS
Your current nutrition lifestyle is a deeply ingrained habit. You are good at it. You do it without thinking. It’s second nature.
Learning anything new takes learning and practice. To learn a new language, sport, or to drive a car requires that you learn it and then practice it, over and over again. Practice will involve mistakes, discovering techniques, recognizing pit falls, learning lessons from mistakes and repetition, until overtime, you become proficient. With even more practice, you will become a pro. Your future Nutrition Lifestyle requires the same effort.
It is unrealistic to expect a 28 day diet or a 40 day program to result in lasting change. Most of us don’t obtain a degree, learn to speak a foreign language or get highly proficient at a new job in 28-40 days.
We become highly proficient at something when we accumulate experiences and then become wise and proficient because we have had those experiences.
Experience is what makes children into adults.
Experience is what makes the amateur into a pro.
Thus, changing your nutrition lifestyle will involve a process that ebbs and flows. It will involve good days and bad, wise choices and poor ones, periods of time where you are mentally strong and other times when you feel drained and unable to control anything. It will involve practicing new foods to eat, new thoughts to think, new ways to plan and shop, new ideas and new concepts. It will involve getting educated, exploring your own body, emotions and experience.
Learning and practice require one more thing…. TIME. Part of the commitment involved when we take a new job or become new parents is the commitment of time. When we decide to make something important, something else may have to take a back seat for a while until we learn proficiency. When we focus on something intently, and make it a priority, we will see learning, growth and change. Learning a new Nutrition Lifestyle will require this kind of dedication until your new lifestyle becomes second nature. It is an endeavor well worth pursuing. When we have our health, we can live fully.