*This is an update post for the “12 Months to a Healthier You” Challenge. To read more about this challenge, why I’m doing it and how you can participate, click here.
In January I decided to follow along with Crystal Paine as she set out on a year-long journey to improve her health. She checks in each week to give us an update on her progress. You can read more about that here.
I knew from the start I wouldn’t follow her plan exactly, but I’ve veered further from the path than I expected to. Partly because the health goals I was focusing on didn’t perfectly match up with Crystal’s plans so it was a little bit tricky to coordinate blog posts that would make sense. But that’s just a technicality. Wanna know what really happened?
I think I got overwhelmed. Again.
I do that when it comes to learning about my health.
There is just so much information out there.
“Don’t eat meat”. (Never paid any attention to that one).
“Don’t eat wheat.” (Trying hard to ignore that one.)
“And by all means, only consume organic, pastured, raw, grass-fed, and otherwise totally perfect food.”
“And tons of water. Pure water. And some lemon.”
And then they start attacking my Dr. Pepper.
Oh boy. This health journey is getting rough.
At first I was facing it with strength and dignity (like a true Proverbs 31 Woman). Ready for a new challenge and ready for the wonderful things I would accomplish with all this energy I was about to have. I was a woman on a mission.
But somewhere along the way I began to feel very burdened. Honestly, I began to feel depressed. And if you’ve been around my blog for long, you know that when I use the word “depressed” I don’t mean “in a bad mood”. I mean my emotional state was very low, under the weight of a very heavy burden.
I was feeling like a miserable failure because I hadn’t yet completely converted my entire family to a whole-foods, wheat free, ultra-healthy diet.
Knowing what I know about depression, there’s no way I’m gonna let some made-up standard of man throw me into that pit. <<–Tweet that)
It’s too hard for me to get back out.
So I stopped worrying about what we eat.
Maybe I went a little too far back the other way. I even bought some Pop Tarts. And ate some of them. And some white hamburger buns. Alert the Real Food Police! No wait… don’t… because I’m not under their jurisdiction any more.
I think in the process of “letting go a little” I forgot, to some extent, that I was trying to get healthier. Not sure how a person forgets such a thing but apparently it can be done. It was a nice little break from reality, but now I need to get back on track and treat this body with respect. God has work for me to do, and like I’ve said in previous posts, I need to be healthy in order to do it.
While I’m not going to live under the burden of a perfect diet (which by the way doesn’t exist for several reasons) I also can’t “throw the baby out with the bath water”. We’re going to do our best with what we know, what we can afford, and what we have time for. <<–Twee that ))
(I’m not going to make my own tortillas. I’d rather read a book with my son.)
Have you ever gone through a similar process? If you’re discouraged with trying to figure out how to get healthier, overwhelmed by not just the information, but the oppressive amount of conflicting information, let me encourage you not to give up, but to slow down.
- Give yourself the time and grace to learn one thing at a time.
- Change one thing at a time.
- Be careful what blogs you hang out on. Take what you need, leave the guilt behind.
- Do what you can within your budget.
- Focus on the one area that is most important to your body, right now.
- Document your improvements. It’s easy to think you haven’t made any progress, but I bet you’ve made more than you realize.
- Get some support; a friend, a coach, someone to encourage you and to keep you focused on your goal.
- Have a plan. Nothing will send you back to your not-so-healthy habits like not having a plan for the good habits.
- Always keep trying to find ways to treat your body–God’s temple–with respect. But never worship it by making your health goals your new god.
And so my friends, I’m coming back to the challenge. I’ll probably post at the beginning and end of each month, just to let you know what I’m doing and how I did. My hope for you is that you will join us on this adventure and that you will see it as such; not a heavy burden, not a god, just one more way God can bring us closer to our best selves.
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