Our lifestyle medicine practice encourages baby steps and small changes. The goal is health that lasts a lifetime. ❌ “Falling off the wagon” and “cheat days” are two phrases we need to cut from our healthy dialogue! Don’t these phrases feel crappy and shame-y?
What if your lifestyle medicine doctor said it’s normal to have bad days?
Reversing diabetes or losing weight is exhausting work! And making the switch to a whole food, plant-based diet doesn’t have to be hard.
Tame your expectations: it takes more than one visit to the gym to build a six-pack
Luke, my eight-year-old, loves working out. As the youngest he’s always striving to keep up with the rest of us. The other day I was doing a workout and Luke was doing all the squats, chest press and planks right along with me.
But between every set he’d lay on the ground, crunching up to look at his abs and say: “Do I have a 6-pack yet, Mom?”.
“No Luke, not yet, keep working at it”.
Then we do another set. “Ok how about now mom?”. 😆
Trying to reverse diabetes, lower cholesterol or lose weight is similar. It doesn’t happen after one good meal, or even one good week of meals. It takes consistency.
So when we set unrealistic expectations for ourselves we’re sure to be disappointed.
Get on the no-shame train
Sometimes we have patients who cancel their follow-up appointment because they feel guilty. They didn’t make all the changes we talked about and think we’ll be mad.
OMG this makes us so sad! It’s normal to have setbacks and normal to take a while to evolve. And we are the last people to judge!
Making diet and lifestyle changes is challenging at first. It requires planning ahead and finding new norms. Plus if you live with anyone you have to worry about their habits encroaching on yours! Working on your health is not a cookie-cutter process.
⭐️ As long as you keep moving in the right direction – without shame or guilt – then you’ll make lasting change.
But what about when I go to Africa?
There’s always going to be a wedding, a birthday party or an extra stressful week at work. Or just the months of May and September for a busy family! 🙂 We have to expect these things.
I recently had a conversation with a friend who said it was impossible to be 100% plant-based all the time. What about when you travel to Africa?? I asked her when her next trip to Africa was planned.
Spoiler – it’s not! 😂
We can easily get all wrapped up in the future with scenarios that may never happen! The AA community talks about this with “one day at a time”. Don’t worry about your sister’s wedding – she’s not even dating. Focus on today.
Now, we’re not saying this is easy or that lifestyle change is linear. There are days when the couch and a bag of chips call your name louder than anything else.
But that’s okay! There’s no shame, acknowledge the detour and get back on track with your baby steps to the healthy you.
Eight simple steps to kickoff lifelong health
Ok if the “healthy you” doesn’t happen overnight and requires baby steps, where do you start?
Here’s our favorite baby steps to kickoff habit changes:
- Start with breakfast, a big bowl of oats and berries!
- Focus on fruit for snacks. Keep apples, bananas, clementines, a pint of blueberries nearby. The WHOLE fruit, not a bar or dried version.
- Add in a 15-minute walk at the end of your day. Either right after your workday or after dinner.
- Set an alarm at night to start winding down for bedtime. Optimal sleep begets good habits
- Try Four Square breathing, do 4 times.
- Batch cook sweet potatoes for your weekday lunches
- Drink seltzer water in the evening instead of alcohol
- Watch one of the plant-based documentaries.
Pick one or two to start. Do it for one week, then build in another one. Stay consistent. Ditch the pressure of overnight transformations. Embrace progress over perfection.
One final word of caution: Don’t pay attention to people who are ahead of you in the process.
I’m over here trying to figure out kale and she’s making her own nut milk!
Lastly, don’t compare your week 2 with someone else’s week 222. 🧐 We all evolve at a different pace. You don’t know how the woman making nut milk got to that point and what she had to overcome.
When my family started eating plant-based my kids put ranch and hummus on everything. Now they eat spinach by the handful.
It’s an evolution. Embrace the journey to the healthiest version of you. We’re here to support you for every step: make an appointment or join our membership.