It's so easy.....It's so HARD!

Healthy eating is a lifestyle.  It's a huge change that you need to make and stick with it.  Ive found that when I start a diet losing the first 5 to 10 lbs is easy.  I stop eating the crap food and the weight starts to fall off.  Its after those few first weeks that it gets hard, really really hard.  I have failed at  numerous diets and weight loss programs, going gung-ho in the beginning, losing the first weight and then slowly slipping back into my old habits.  I never permanently changed the lifestyle.


Changing in that way is a hard thing to do.  Until recently I was comfortable in the habits I had, with two kids under the age of 4 my day is a blur.  Get up, get the kids dressed, get myself dressed, somewhere in there try to have breakfast.  (I never succeeded at the breakfast part.  I always cook something for the kids but I use the time that they are eating to shower or dry my hair or get dressed.  What I should be doing is getting up earlier than the kids and getting ready then.)  Next we climb into the car and do the drop off at preschool and on my way to work, more times than not stopping at Starbucks on the way, grabbing a coffee and something to eat.  At work its busy and at lunchtime I run to the cafeteria at work and get something......usually a salad but even I know that with the dressing and cheese and croutons its not all that healthy and then I eat at my desk.  I also have a large coke from the fountain, there is nothing like ice cold coke from a fountain...its so cool and sweet.  I get the afternoon munchies and find something in the vending machine.  Then home, cook dinner, bathe the kids, do the dishes.  We put the kids to bed and fall into our spots on the couch when its finally quiet.  Only to wake up and do it all again.  Its a rut that I'm stuck in.


Reading back that paragraph above there are plenty of things that I can change right there:  

• get up earlier
• have breakfast
• skip Starbucks
• make healthier choices at lunch
• don't eat at my desk
• walk at lunch (my company has beautiful grounds, a nice walk would be enjoyable)
• have a piece of fruit in the afternoon
• stop drinking coke

Now, those aren't all going to change suddenly today.  But I did start one of them.  Today I haven't had any coke.  I know there are thousands of people who don't drink soda at all, I'm definitely not one of them.  But it is wasted calories and a LOT of sugar.  Things I don't need.  So today is day one soda free.  All I can say is "I really really really want a coke!"


Ive heard that if you do something consistently for 30 days it becomes a habit.  I hope in 30 days I'm still not drinking soda and I also hope I'm not missing it.  


Its baby steps that I need to take in order to make the huge change that is coming.