Small Steps Pave the Journey
So, you’re starting over. You’ve started a new chapter in your life and you’re ready to focus on your health and wellness. Woohoo! The past is behind you, and you’re facing the horizon of new beginnings. So… where do you start?
It’s so easy to immerse yourself in the world of health and wellness, but quickly become overwhelmed with the vast amount of information out there – some of it even conflicting.
I remember when I first set out to follow a healthy lifestyle in 2005 – I was about 30lbs overweight and had had my share of binge drinking and eating in the previous years. My self image wasn’t that great and depression was always lurking in the shadows. I jumped headfirst into my new life at the ripe age of 21, knowing hardly anything past some exercise and nutrition stuff I’d learned in a few classes. It was the early 2000’s so there wasn’t a lot online yet about this. Eating around 800 calories a day, I all but starved myself to lose the weight, and spent every spare moment of my time awake exercising and obsessing about food and calories. Having never done this before, I started waking up at about 5 in the morning, drank a ton of water and then ran with my dog for about an hour. I’d come home, shower, and eat a very small meal, go to school, walk everywhere at school, walk all day at work, workout when I got home with about an hour of aerobics and crunches, crash, wake up and do it all over again. I took some days off, but this went on for about 6 months before I let up and just walked and was merely “careful” with what I ate.
Did I lose the weight? You betcha! Did I look good? Oh yeah! Was it sustainable? Not in the least!!
The HUGE steps I’d taken were just too big and too much to sustain! Along the way I got married, so my schedule changed and life was crazy. I started gaining weight again and put 50 lbs back on. We decided to lose the weight and, through doing much of the same as before, I got the weight off again within 11 months but the day I hit my goal I found out I was pregnant. I then gained 65lbs EXTRA pounds on top of pregnancy weight. I was miserable and food was my comfort.
I wanted to get the weight off, but this time I decided I couldn’t do it again. Not in the same way. Something had to be done differently! Over the years since beginning the health and wellness journey, I’d learned a lot. I had already finished my degree in Health Promotion, and shortly after getting married we began selling nutritional supplements. I volunteered to teach aerobics at a local church activity center, and I was learning some of the mistakes I had made, like eating less than 800 calories and working myself to death! I began building a new way of doing things, based off of education and personal experience that became my new lifestyle.
My then-husband had developed dangerously high blood pressure and I’d developed thyroid cancer, so we began eating for our health rather than our looks (at least that’s what it was about for me!)
With some help from our naturopath physician, I was able to develop a nutritional plan that focused on systems and body function. The aim was to do something that would stick, not sacrificing joy in food, and to be free from big pharma ruling our lives.
Slowly, within about 2 years we both lost the weight and he got off of his meds because of the way we were eating. I gained no additional weight with my second pregnancy, and food was very enjoyable!
Over the course of the next 2 years I lost 65 lbs. Some of it was due to protecting my baby from food allergies, but much of it was by taking small steps towards shifting my behaviors and nutrition towards sustainability.
If you notice, however, I don’t look very happy. After 10 years in that emotionally abusive marriage, I came to the realization that I was spinning my wheels to be healthy and well – but I was depressed, had brain-fog, was fatigued, confused, anxious, and my body hurt from widespread inflammation. I had CPTSD. I realized that I would NEVER be well and achieve my full purpose in life while being oppressed and abused. (You can read about that journey in my book here: You Think You Know, But You Have No Idea…) So the next step in my health and wellness journey was to *actually* take my life back. Literally.
It was time to *start over*.
So in 2017 I did just that. You can read all about it in my book.
My health and wellness journey really took off the moment I took my life back. I immediately became a Certified Health and Wellness Coach and Worksite Wellness Specialist, was hired as a Corporate Wellness Director, got several other meaningful certifications, and launched my coaching business.
The steps continued to be lay in front of me every day. I continued to struggle with sugar, as I’d always done, but I also continued to take life day by day and celebrate the small wins, push past the hard days, and ultimately get a grasp on my 7 dimensions of wellness which I am always focusing on.
I developed strategies to help others, and am always learning more.
I’m about to graduate with my Masters in Public Health concentrating in Nutrition, and my passion is to help others figure out where their “Restart” button is, what it looks like, and how to access it. Everyone’s is different, so cookie cutter plans don’t work for everyone. Each individual must do what works best for them, and discovering that takes a little work!
So the moral of this story is – don’t bite off more than you can chew. Take small little steps that you can incorporate easily into your life for positive change that will last, and don’t make decisions that you can’t live with for the rest of your life!
If you need help with navigating this journey, please book a discovery session so we can see if coaching would be helpful for you! Discovery sessions are free and there’s no obligation to commit to anything. It’s my gift to you 🙂