We’ve all heard the phrase “Rhome wasn’t built in a day”. Usually this applies when I decide to clean out the closets, eat vegetables at every meal, run 2 miles a day, and 5 other things, all starting Monday.

It’s just too much. I’m notorious for jumping in, taking on too much at once, and then quickly becoming overwhelmed. I am learning to slow down, take on one, very manageable, task at a time and take my time accomplishing “Rhome” in my life.

Self Sabotage

Goals, dear, I’m talking about goals here. We say we want to get healthy (or lose weight is how many people put it), but we expect to start a diet, a workout plan, meal plan, completely switch to organic, and go carb free all in the same day.

I’m just going to throw it out there that this is completely unreasonable and that we sabotage ourselves before we even have a chance at success.

Trust me, I get it. I got you babe. I’m definitely the type that, when I make a decision, I jump in with two feet. But by approaching “getting healthy” this way, we allow our ambition to take over during the first day or even the first week, soon to become exhausted and fizzle out, leaving us to feeling defeated, fat, disappointed, and wasteful.

This is so natural and easy though, to jump off the cliff into a swirling, exciting world of pre-packed portioned lunches, perfectly prepped dinners, preset workout sessions with that new, unaffordable, personal trainer, strict no donuts and no treats regimens, and high (or low) expectations of that next weigh in.

Yet, this is just too much to chew and obviously so when you take a step back and look at it this way.

Diving In Too Deep

I’m completely and 100% guilty of this too. A few months ago, we decided to adjust our eating habits. Our goal was and still is to only eat the correct portion size of meat and that everything else on the plate should be vegetables or plant based in some way.

Sounds good right? Yes, a very good idea, but impractical the way I went about it.

I immediately jumped into recipes containing every vegetable I thought we should eat more of, made a massive list of every ingredient possible we would need for those recipes, and promptly went shopping to buy all the organic ingredients I could.  

I used and still love www.yummly.com for all my recipe needs. The problem was that I chose 5 fabulously vegetable packed sides, one for each weeknight, without consideration of prep time, and regardless of our family schedule.

We have activities for the kids 2-3 times a week at 5 or 6 pm, which doesn’t allow us to sit down as a group for dinner. In reality, we would just have 2-3 weeknight family dinners and the others are a more on-the go dinner option.

So, right off the bat, I over purchased our new organic, amazing selection of vegetables and fresh ingredients. And I hate for things (money) to go to waste! I’d almost completely sabotaged the plan prior to the first day!

Lesson Learned

Quit though? Never!! After this, I set a new rule for myself that I will only try two new recipes per week, max.  I’m also able to apply this same principle to other areas of my life. “Rhome wasn’t built in a day, but they were laying bricks every hour.” – John Heywood.

After noticing the repetitive cycle of failure and disappointment, I finally got to the bottom of what was really going on. If this sounds familiar to you, here are the new guidelines I’ve begun to implement in my life. They should help you as well!

– Focus on a single better choice each day. For example, switch one unhealthy snack like a bag of chips for a healthier option, like apple and peanut butter. 

– Try one new healthy dinner option per week. Instead of the quick drive through dinner, we now opt for a healthy, veggie-filled recipe once a week.

– Switch a sweet for a healthier option once daily. I’ve always struggled with my sweet tooth, so I love dessert! Sometimes I’ll give in and have the ice cream, but once a day I opt for a yogurt or a piece of fruit instead. 

Making these seeming simple changes, one at a time, and then allowing the effects to compound will get me further with better results. Progress, step by step, over the long term is always better than a week of diving in at 100% only to struggle and fail miserably.

So I can make a small, healthy decision daily for myself and my family, but I have to remember to take that one step at a time. I can figuratively lay that brick each day by making a single healthy choice, and in our lifetime we will build our own Rhome – in my book, that’s the healthiest family possible, achieved by adding vegetables to our diet whenever possible.