Small stepping...

So lately Cliff and I have been focusing on small stepping our journey. What does that mean? Letting go of daily perfection and instead looking for the small steps that we can do daily that do not stress us out. The militant style "all in or all out" mentality doesn't serve anyone. At least I know it has not served me. Starting a "program" is nice. It outlines everything so neatly and gives me a daily to eat and to do list. I go out and get all that I need to accomplish this program goal. But it's like going back to school - the best time I have is picking out school supplies. The actual going to school..not so much. The actual following of the program - not so easy. How can this be done easier where you don't feel like a total failure every 25 days (because you barely made the 21 day challenge and now it's day 25 and all bars down).

"I just can't live this way"

"I will just be fat/unhealthy"

"Whatever, I'll get back on the wagon Monday"

What if there was a better way?

Small Steppers is a 90 day program (yes I know it's a program) but it's like none other. There's no list of things to eat to lose weight. There's no exercises you have to do every week. There's just you, defining how you want your health and life to look and then small stepping your way there. No stressful ditching of all things you love on the dreaded Monday. It's not a transformation, it's an "emerging" of your best self. The self you have lost over years of comparing yourself to others, to the ads in the Shape magazines, to the articles that offer what your lifestyle SHOULD look like, what you need to do for a living to be happy, what money brings you. Where did YOU go? How did you change under the influence? What if the chatter in your head could be changed? What if you spent some time thinking about what YOU want for a change?

Over the years since I stopped leading Weight Watchers I have been thinking about how MUCH weight loss and maintenance is dependent on your mentality. Your beliefs about yourself, about your abilities, about your traditions around food, about the chatter in your head. That's 90% of the decision. The other 10% is what is available in the house. If the good stuff is there and the mind is right the decision is easy. If the good stuff is there and the mind is not right, you go out to eat and the good stuff spoils.

We were introduced to Sid Garza-Hillman, creator of the small steppers program, at the Healthfest in Marshall, TX. He's a powerful speaker with a simple approach. His podcast "Approaching the Natural" is amusing and relaxing with his low stress approach to change. And the best part is it's effective! When you really look around you will see that walking slowly to the life you want is actually what most of the successful "losers" do. The transformation stories you read, where the person is writing 5 years after the start of their weight loss, you see that they changed little things here and there. Things they could control that didn't stress them out. Then they moved on to the next thing they could do and in time they go from unhealthy couch potato to personal trainer at the gym running marathons. They didn't become a different person, they emerged into the person they wanted to be all along. I love this approach to lifelong change and Cliff enrolled me in the course so I could see what it was like. He also went over the top and had Sid himself call me to tell me this was my birthday present from my husband!!! I know, not many men compare to this one that God gave me 😍

So I posted a picture on my Journey to Incredible health facebook page of my large waffle fry from Chicfila that I had for lunch today. (If you aren't a member of this page request it today! We share lots of great stuff and recipes on there). Point being, why did I eat fries for lunch? Isn't that the worst? No actually it's not but yes it is not necessarily healthy. I started craving these fries at 9am for no good reason. I wasn't in front of them, I didn't see a picture, I couldn't smell them. I didn't cave to an addiction. I simply wanted some fries. I ran errands and didn't really stress about them but still wanted them all the same. At 11 I hit the drive thru. I hardly ever eat fries and because of THAT and the fact that it was not an emotional eating moment, I got fries! I ate them slow and savored every bite, also noting at the end the greasy film it left in my mouth 😑. I'm not living the militant perfectionist life. There are times, many times I will say no and it's not a sacrifice anymore. It's a habit. It doesn't even bother me to say no. But today to say no would have been militant. So what if every now and then you have fries? If it's under control and not controlling you, it's life. When it becomes an addiction, an every day necessity, an emotional cure to a bad day - that's when it's controlling you and has to be diverted. But today? Today was fry day. Not to be confused with Friday which is tomorrow and will likely not include fries 😊😊 No French fry challenge..sorry y'all 😁