The Beauty of Baby Steps

Making changes can feel overwhelming. You can become frustrated if you attempt to make too many changes at once or even too big a change all at once. I always recommend making changes gradually, taking what I call "baby steps" seems to work best. It allows you to make the necessary adjustments in your habits, routine and thinking. Once you have mastered one manageable step, move on to the next.

You may be wondering exactly how you begin taking baby steps when it deals with your health. First you have to have a realistic goal you are reaching for - something you want to change or accomplish. Let's use improving your diet as an example. That's a pretty broad goal - so first let's break it down and get specific. In order to improve your diet you decide you need to begin eating a nutritious breakfast, increase the amount of water you drink and eliminate sodas and junk food.

Whew! Sounds like a lot to tackle and it is - if you try to do it all at once. So, let's break it down into baby steps: This week you will set as your goal to replace one soda with 8 oz. of water each day. So on Monday instead of drinking 8 cans of soda, you drink 7 cans of soda and 8 oz. of water. Tuesday you drink 6 cans of soda and 2 cups of water. Wednesday replace an additional can of soda with water and continue this daily until you are no longer drinking soda and have replaced it entirely with pure, clean water.

It will take you a little more than a week if you replace a can each day and a little longer if you make this change every other day. But that's fine. It isn't a race. Do what is comfortable for you. The point is to allow yourself to settle into the change gradually. That is important because even though it is a small step, it feels "doable." As you make a series of these small changes, each one builds on the other creating success. You are much more apt to continue when you experience small successes along the way. And realize that just because it is a small change or baby step, doesn't mean it will not have long-term, positive effects on your health. It will!

Do you realize something as small as cutting 100 calories a day can translate into losing 10 lbs. over the course of a year? Or that eating just five servings of fruits and vegetables a day can add up to 14 years to your life?

As each step is accomplished, repeated and built upon, it then becomes habit. That is powerful. When you do something repeatedly, you create new neural pathways in your brain. That makes it easier for you to continue in the new habit. Each succeeding step simply becomes the logical outcome of the one before. When you stop and evaluate your progress you will see that the series of small, baby steps has translated into a dramatic change that you have now made part of your life almost effortlessly!

Take a Step:

What changes do you need or want to make in your health? (Be sure it is a realistic goal - losing 20 pounds in 2 weeks is not!) Once you know the goal, break it down into doable, small, baby steps and then begin! It won't be long until you are celebrating the successful completion of that goal. Then it is time to move on to the next one.

Until next time, I wish you vibrant health! Ann