Big Changes equals Big Changes

Months ago it was suggested to me that I do a blog about little changes one can make to improve one's health. While I do believe everyone can change some smaller and easier things to make themselves healthier (choose zero-calorie beverages, have the leave mayo off of your hamburger, get 30 minutes of aerobic activity most days, etc.) the reason I haven't blogged about this so far is because I know this in my heart: Small changes yield small results.

I think most of us want to see big results.

Here is the hard reality: The bigger the changes you make, the bigger the differences you will see in your body and health.

This is not what most people want to hear. They want to hear that if they take some magical pill, do some sort of cleansing diet, or perform one specific exercise the pounds will melt away and they will have the body of their dreams.

I'm sorry, my friends, but it just doesn't work that way.

Yet another difficult truth: The changes to your body won't be permanent unless the changes to your lifestyle are permanent.

The fact is that I did many fairly "right things" for many years: I enjoyed lifting weights, but did not do any of the exercises (particularly squats and lunges) that weren't my favorites. I did cardio for 30 minutes, 3 times a week. I always drank diet soda and zero-calorie beverages. There is nothing wrong with any of these things, but truth to tell, I was simply dabbling in good habits.

When I took the blinders off and faced the fact that my own resistance to do the hard stuff was what was standing between me and being the super-fit person I knew I had the potential to be and implementing big changes....... THAT's when I started to see the big results:

-I got serious about my Weight Watchers program and stopped piddling around with it, giving myself Tuesdays (my weigh day) as the day to "Have a break" and eat what I wanted, or going "just a little" over in my points from day to day.

-I cut out most refined foods, to include low-cal treats laden with artificial sweeteners and foods that had names of ingredients I could not pronounce.

-I stopped eating so many processed foods and replaced them with real, whole foods from ingredients as close to fresh as I could find them.

-I all but cut out artificially sweetened beverages (although I will occasionally still drink a diet coke or sweeten my tea with Splenda), and made it a habit to guzzle water, keeping a water bottle with me at all times. (I now drink, on average, a gallon of water a day.)

-I've hired a personal trainers who have incorporated very difficult power lifting moves, squats, and lunges into my workout routine. I don't always like it, but I don't whine and I gave it 100%, every time.

The point? I've made really big changes and embraced them as a lifestyle, instead of something I'm doing temporarily. As result I have a much smaller, more symmetrical, and tighter body with muscles that sometimes illicit compliments from total strangers.

I'm not done... but I'm sure coming along!

So was it worth it, you ask? Yes! A million times over! It will be for you, too. That's a promise I don't mind standing by.

All of this came about one change at a time, but I WAS deliberate about it.

No one I know has ever strolled towards a goal or one day looked in the mirror and said "I look fantastic! How did this happen? Must be all of those small changes!"

The fact is that seeing a big change requires a big change. And to keep the benefits, one must continue on with the big change. It's a truth that hurts, but it is the truth.