Contributed by Jean Sumner
In an ever changing world it is sometimes overwhelming to keep up with the changes in our lives or the changes we need to make in order to be healthy. Technology alone can drive a person crazy. For example, have you purchased a new cell phone recently? Now this wouldn’t seem like a traumatic event however there are so many new and different features on these phones, it is almost like never using a phone before in your life. Fortunately, the principles you can use to change your diet and lifestyle apply to every change in your life. So once you master the principles of any type of change you, you will be able to be the master all the changes in your life – including changes in your diet, exercise and overall lifestyle.
Change really can be quite simple, if you ALLOW it to be. It is as easy as taking one step at a time. However, if you don’t break it into small steps it can be extremely overwhelming. Let me explain this comment with a story. A year ago a friend of mine was diagnosed with cancer. This diagnosis set a lot of change into action. Over the last year she have become a vegetarian, started juicing vegetables, began sprouting, went to a raw diet, increased her spirituality, began meditating on a daily basis, started eating green smoothies, began taking a infra red sauna daily, started journaling, started a prayer book, read everything she could find on health and wellness and in general completely changed her life. Now, if I told you that it was necessary to make this many changes it is likely you would be completely overwhelmed and not make any changes because it would be way too much for your system to handle.
However if you use a systematic method of breaking change down into small components you can become the master of any change. My friend did not make all of these changes at once; she was constantly making small changes, taking it one day at a time and often one hour at a time.
If you are looking to incorporate healthier foods into your diet, try the following steps: Add the ingredients for a new healthier recipe onto your grocery list next week. Then when you go to the grocery store pay attention to how much you are buying on the outside edges of the store and how much you are buying from the inside aisles. Each week try to incorporate a new, healthier recipe into your diet and also try to purchase more whole foods. These are the foods on the outside, perimeter of the store verses the processed foods which are thee boxed, bagged and canned food on the inside aisles. These are two simple changes that will help you eat healthier with less pain to your system and your families.
So much of change has to do with what you are thinking. If you think it will be difficult, it will. If you think you can’t do it, you are right, you can’t do it! However, if you allow yourself to look at changes as small, easy steps you will find it so much easier to incorporate any type of change into your way of living.
Let’s say you want to implement a healthier lifestyle. As discussed, setting your goal to change your diet, exercise and increase your spirituality would bog you down and most likely no change will happen. But what if you had a small weekly goal and you built on these goals through out the year. This way you could be 52 times better by the end of the year. Let me give you an example:
Week One Walk for 10 minutes per day
Week Two Add extra fruit or vegetables to whatever you have for dinner
Week Three Turn off all electronics and spend some time in silence for ten minutes a day.
Week Four Add 5 minutes per day to your walk
I am sure by now you get the picture. Doesn’t this seem simple? You can make dramatic changes just by breaking them down into smaller steps. So good luck in whatever change you want to make. Remember, one small thing at a time will equal big changes in your life!!!!