We all know it’s coming. It happens every year!
You know, the season of resets, fresh starts, and resolutions. I’ve always had a love/hate relationship with the New Year because I had always been awful with self control and never had enough discipline to stick with anything worth sticking to. That was until I learned a lot about discipline.
3-4 years ago my husband I went through a program called Financial Peace University; a financial program by Dave Ramsey. It changed so much in our lives, in ways we never thought it would. At this point, I had gotten us into extra debt trying to make extra money from home with MLMs, my husband had just been laid off, I was working 2-3 part time jobs trying to make ends meet with his unemployment, and we had a HUGE car payment that was totally unnecessary.
Here’s what the program did for me. Besides make me more knowledgeable and wise about money and spending (It’s still a struggle to stay on the path!) , for the first time in my life, it taught me discipline. Uggghhh YES! DISCIPLINE. You can ask my parents, the only things in life I was EVER disciplined about were the things I was extremely passionate about. Like; guitar, volleyball, my friends, etc.
So what does this have to do with food or wellness? Well, while we were trying to get out of debt and I was getting a crash course in disciple, I was working at a running store. This spurred the idea to train for a half marathon. I trained and ran my first half (Something I never, ever thought I would do!!) Then, I trained for and ran ANOTHER half marathon. When I ran my second half, I was going through a lot emotionally. I knew I was turning to food and alcohol to comfort myself, but I didn’t have enough discipline to have control and stop. But then, I finally hit my rock bottom. My friend tagged me in a video Melissa Hartwig had done about the similarities between food addiction and drug addiction. I sobbed the whole time I watched it because I knew that I had a problem and I HAD to fix it.
I did NOT want my daughter to learn unhealthy habits and emotional eating problems from me! So I was determined to do this program! When I first saw the list of restricted foods for Whole30, I laughed. A terrified laugh. I didn’t REALLY want to do it, but everything I had tried up to this point had failed. So I jumped in, with 2 feet, and I STRUGGLED the first week. My body was in shock and detoxing all the shit I had been putting into my body. The first time I knew it would stick for me was when I saw someone else eating something I would’ve gobbled up before, probably ice cream or candy. I had no cravings for it!!! It wasn’t stuck in my head, “Just one bite won’t hurt!” No thinking about the food until I finally caved and ate it; NOTHING! That was my lightbulb moment. I had control over the food, not the other way around!! All of those years (pretty much since I was 11) of emotional eating and food addiction had brought me here. I had finally conquered one demon, after another, after another. The more momentum I gained, the better I would do. Just like getting out of debt and training for a half marathon. The discipline was showing me something I had never seen before, the sweet reward!
So why do I share all of this today?
Because I want YOU to know that it is never too late to slay that sugar dragon or conquer those demons! Life is about a series of choices and how you react to things. I had always dealt with them the WRONG way and I have finally figured how to do it in a way that is emotionally and physically healthy! I want to encourage you to make small realistic goals. Have some tough love with yourself but also be gracious. If things don’t go as planned, don’t jump off the wagon immediately! Take a deep breath, brush yourself off, and try again. Doing something like Whole30 in January, would be an amazing accomplishment to jump start your year. It would be a way to open your eyes to what you are capable of when you stick with something. Is it hard, Yes, but it’s only as hard as you make it. If you go into it with determination, you can do it no problem. You are an adult, making these decision to change. You CAN do/eat whatever you want, BUT you are choosing to create better habits and relationship with food. This mindset helped me get through my first 2 weeks of my first Whole30.
If you’d like to join me over on Instagram, follow me @mamawardswholekitchen or on Facebook under the group named “Whole30 instead of Pie!” I’ll end with one of my favorite quotes from Dave Ramsey- “Children do what feels good, but adults devise a plan and stick to it!” You can devise a plan and ACTUALLY stick to it. If I can, so can you! Seriously! Coming from the girl who never before had self control in her life! I am an open book. If I can help you in any way, let me know! I hope you see January 1st as a fresh start to be the best you possible- Mentally, emotionally, and physically! It’s not cliché if it works! 🙂
XO,
Amanda
Amanda’s Whole Kitchen 