I've made great progress in my ninja training since I started several months ago. My strategy has been to take one small, simple step at a time. Often what causes a lifestyle change to fail is doing too much too fast. We only have so much willpower and taking on a lot of change can sap that power and cause us to crumble. It's one of the wisest pieces of advice on health I've ever heard and it really works.
My first small step was taking caffeine out of my diet. I have an anxiety disorder and caffeine was just fuel on the fire. That one small step led to taking pop out of my regular diet. It's something I can only have as a treat, but funnily enough it's been over 6 months and I don't crave it. That step led to water being my main drink. Anything else is a treat. I never thought I could be a water drinker. I hated water and drank soda all day every day. The change is amazing! I love water now and pop doesn't even look desirable anymore. My next step from there was focusing on basic healthy habits. I was terrible at taking care of myself. The basic daily habits I worked on was eating 3 meals (I was averaging 1 and a half), drinking 6 glasses (50 oz) of water, and sleeping at least 7 hours. Creating solid habits in those areas taught me a lot about myself and my anxiety triggers.
My newest small step has been to tackle the added sugar in my diet. I took a week and just recorded my daily amount of added sugar in grams. At the end of that week I calculated my average: 61g. For several weeks now my focus has been to limit my daily added sugar. I started with 50g and slowly worked my way down. This has led to me naturally making small changes in my diet that limit added sugar. Sugar is hidden in a lot of foods and many foods that appear healthy have more sugar in them than you'd expect. I am now at my goal of 25g of sugar or less a day! I learned the hard way when I made the move to drinking only water that sugar is addictive. You have to take it slow to get off the stuff or you'll suffer. My final goal of 25g or less is actually the recommended daily maximum according to my research. And I just hit it so YAY!
It's been 9 months since I started. I have lost around 40 pounds and solidly built many healthy habits into my daily life. The best part is maintaining this is easy since my strategy is to turn the changes into habits. When I reach my weight goal, staying there will come naturally. But my main focus is my health and not just my weight. I'm so excited about my progress and the road ahead.
That's it for this Ninja Training Update. Feel free to send any feedback to thehalflingninja@gmail.com or leave a comment. Thanks for reading!
You're never too small to make a difference in the world.
The Halfling Ninja
thehalflingninja@gmail.com
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