What if I can't do this? (How To Get Out Of A Rut)

Today I got scared.  I felt doubt creep into my mind.  I felt that pit of fear in my core and I felt frozen with a question I can never answer in these moments.... "what if".

I was at a ladies gathering when the subject of Paleo came up.  One of my new acquaintances had read an article on the subject and, like most people who initially hear about the lifestyle, had her judgements about it.  She said something along the lines of "Just you wait! Once you have kids all that effort to live healthy and paleo will fly out the window and convenience will rule".  I joked with everyone about it, but inside I felt that pit in the bottom of my stomach growing.... What if she's right?

At this moment I lead a life of leisure compared to my usual schedule.  My husband and I are stationed in a location for 6 short months before we move on to our next duty station, so I have made little effort to busy myself with full time training clients, fitness classes, and work in general.  I'm a stay at home mom with no kids... haha!  It's wonderful and I know it!

That all being said, I still have lazy days where I would rather go get chicken nuggets (ew, I know) over cooking myself something for lunch.  I wish I could just throw a PB/Jelly sandwich in Jese's lunchbox.  I will go an entire week where I eat processed sugar on a daily basis.  I am far from a perfect Paleo princess friends and am the first to admit it.  I seem to go in waves... three weeks of perfection... one week of debauchery.  I "periodize" my paleo eating! LOL (only my trainer friends will get that joke).

Getting Back To The Point
When my new friend said that about "just you wait till the kids come" I started doubting myself.  If I have an entire week of poor food choices while leading this extremely leisurely life, what will I be like when I truly am stressed with school, a full client/class schedule, and a kid.  Will I say "F - it!  Here's some Cheerio's Boy"!  Will I end up conveniently forgetting everything I've learned over the last two years of my paleo journey?  Will I have the dedication, and motivation to prepare my sons "first foods" rather than buy commercial baby food?  Will I set a good, CONSISTENT example for my son?

Quit Being A Negative Nelly
No I am not going to be a Debbie Downer this whole post.  To help myself get out of this fearful thinking/feeling I am going to write about what I normally do to get myself out of these ruts... in hopes it will shake me out of this one! :D  Realize I write half of these blogs because I need to hear my advice much more than anyone else does!

When I start to feel these "what if" fears, something has to be done to get me out of it.  One of the most effective ways to get myself out is to get NEW motivation.  Motivation can be elusive.  I heard it said that motivation is like a shower... You must get it daily for it to be effective.  It's so true!  We get fired up about getting healthy from some external source (a quote, an event, a friend getting her butt in shape, etc) and we set out to make change happen in our lives.  Eventually, though, whatever got us fired up in the first place fades.  To keep going we have to find more things to motivate us.

What Lights Your Fire?
What motivates me seems to be education.  Education, and frienemies getting in better shape than me!  LOL =P  If I don't continue to search out and read up on clean eating and exercising the years of knowledge accumulated previously gets stored in the back of my brain to lay dormant and get dusty.  Here are a few places I get motivation from.  They are busy mom's who don't let convenience decide how healthy they are going to be.  They don't FIND time to prepare healthy meals for their families, they MAKE time.  

• Christina is a new mom who writes about her struggles and successes of raising her first child in a clean eating way.  I like her because she is witty in her writing and has a ton of info in her pretty little head!
• Peggy not only has an amazingly informative and helpful blog of her own, she has a great article packed with her list of fav paleo and/or parenting blogs!  Check it out!  The list is extensive and introduced me to a lot of brand new blogs I'd never heard of. 
• Check out Sarah, author of Everyday Paleo cookbook.  She's like a super-human!  Mother of three, published author, crossfit enthusiast, and regularly posts stuff on her blog. 

Don't Forget To Remind Me
Another thing that helps kick me out of my rut is to REMIND myself that I plan to change.  Have you ever "forgotten" to change?  "Oh yea... I forgot, I was going to look up a new recipe to try tomorrow night", "oh yea... I forgot, I was going to skip my starbucks trip this morning".  Sometimes our habits are hard to break, not because we lack will power, but because we get busy and forget!  To combat this I write my intentions/plans down on post-its to remind myself to do them.  At one point I had more post-its on my walls/mirrors/car dash than friends on Facebook.  =P

It Takes Two To Tango and Sometimes Three!

My sister & I finishing our 1st Half Marathon!

A generic tip that seems to always work for me is to have a partner to change with.  No matter what my goal is (eating better, exercising, getting an educational book read, etc) if I have a buddy or two to hold me accountable I ALWAYS follow through.  I would never skip out on my workout buddy who gets to the gym at 5am expecting me to be there with her!  I think twice before stopping for fast food rather than cooking when I know I'll have to tell my buddy what I did.  Having a partner who wants to make change in their life just as much, or more than I do has always helped me stay on a linear path towards my goal.

I Accidentally Lost 50#'s!
Lastly, I know it's another generic tip, but it's another MUST for success.  We must prepare!  No one ever "accidentally" eats a perfectly clean diet, makes their own baby food, gets their Masters degree with a full time job and 3 kids, or loses 50#'s.  You can't hop on the highway and wish your way to San Diego and make it there.  You have to plan your route.

How do we plan?  Ask yourself this:
What is my long term (12 month) goal?
What is the half way mark to that goal (this is your 6 month goal)?
What do you need to do each month to reach the 6 month goal?
What do you need to do each week to reach your 1 month goal?
What do you need to do each day to reach your weekly goal?

CONSISTENT daily action is the only thing that will keep us heading in the right direction.  It helps if your goals are specific rather than general though (i.e. I want to eat 100% Paleo 6 days a week VS I want to eat a cleaner diet.  OR.... I want to lose 50lbs by July 1 2013 VS I want to lose weight).  For me, my goal is to stay more consistent with my paleo eating.  A day or two of botched eating is fine... a week is no bueno!  My goal can be to eat 100% Paleo 6 days week.  To accomplish that on a daily basis I know I will need to cook dinner 6 days a week (If I cook extra I can get away with serving left overs 1-3x too to lighten the load).  Although I have TONS of recipes accumulated I need new ones to keep my motivation up.  So on Sundays I will google some recipes or look through my cookbooks for new ones to try.  Make my menu for the week, make my grocery list, and be set up for success for the week.  Easy Peasy!!! :D

Get The Stick Out Of Your Butt
My last piece of advice I need to hear (and you may need to hear too) is lighten up!  In my short journey in life thus far, I've realized that I am not perfect... I know! Shocker!  Nor will I ever be perfect.  My motivation, inspiration, and dedication will ebb and flow.  I will not be the perfect paleo parent.  I will probably eat chicken nuggets in the future, and may even feed my son them.  I will order Domino's and eat the crap out of that cheesy bread.  The best advice I can give myself in these moments of fearing the "what if's" is to lighten up!  Keep learning... Keep growing... Keep going!  Life goes on.