Unstrange Change
By Gus
When I first hired a nutrition coach, it took me a while to grasp how incompatible some of my lifestyle choices were with my goals. Between grabbing fast food on my own and ordering takeout for the family, I was eating out 10 or more times a week.
When it came time to address this, my coach gently pointed out that while I was on board with our plan, relying on restaurants so much would make it challenging to stay on track. She suggested limiting the number of days I ate out.
I kid you not: I told her, “I don’t think I can commit to not eating at a restaurant for a whole day.”
How ridiculous that sounds! She didn’t call me out on my silliness, but she understood right away what I understand now: I didn’t want to change this habit because I was blind to how strange my behavior was.
I did agree to limit myself to only one restaurant meal per day. And I think by the end of the week I realized just how damaging my reliance on restaurants was. Then I was ready to accept that I didn’t actually know what was strange or normal or optimal or necessary when it came to this issue, I was just stuck in my ways.
We don’t want to change things that are unstrange.
When you’re to improve your health and fitness, be ready to question some of your current habits and patterns. Even if they seem normal! Because the thing that’s holding you back may seem completely normal right now while you’re still shy of your goal and bizarre to you when you’ve achieved it.
