Last week I talked about making changes; how I didn’t want to be on a diet anymore and I wanted to work on changing my own life habits- essentially, practice what I preach.
After a week of working on making changes- small changes not for the next few weeks or months but for my life- forever, I realized that it’s hard.
Competition dieting was hard- no doubt about it. But it was temporary. Diets are temporary- weeks, months- until a specific goal or time and then after a while you go back to “normal” (weather you intend to or not).
Today I was talking with Kelly from Juice Hugger around the corner about making changes in life and how different they are for everyone. Everyone has their own sense of “normal”. Everyone has their own sense of comfort. What may be normal and unhealthy for me might be a healthier day for others (or it could just be wishful thinking).
My normal before and between competitions are at one point and my normal during competition is at another point- one only obtained from a strict diet and exercise regime. After finishing my second show I’ve realized that I want a new “normal”. This week as I struggled to eat with intention- to eat mindfully and joyfully- I realized how hard it was to change my own habits.
I want to get into a healthier state and lose some of the weight I put on since the show and while it would be easy to say “Low carbs for the next 3 weeks”, I find myself asking, “What about after?”
Is it better to work hard in an un-mantainable way for a short period of time for a specific goal, or is it better to work longer, less stressfully and more manageably for a longer period of time?
In the end I suppose it’s all about goals and intentions. I don’t want a “bikini body”- I want a new “normal” state for me, my health and my body. It isn’t something that is going to happen overnight or in 3 months but it’s something I want to be able to have for the rest of my life.
It’s hard to realize that when you are truly looking to make a change, it takes time- time to adjust and time to see changes but it’s worth it in the end, isn’t it?
