I have been reading a book about habit forming. According to the book it takes about 30 days to truly embrace and form a new habit. The stages of the 30 days are broken into 3 10 day segments. I have been thinking about this in terms of my new "habit" of eating clean.
1. Unbearbearable: The first 10 days are unbearable. I wanted to quit. I felt terrible. I was sick of waiting 3 hours between each "meal." Sick of feeling restricted, stuck to a plan and told what to do by the rules of eating clean.
2. Uncomfortable: Better than unbearable but not my too much. Some glimmers of hope start to emerge. In this stage (where I am today) I feel ok, I am sometimes uncomfortable but I also feel amazing at other times. I am NOT constantly thinking about food because I know exactly what and when I am going to eat. The "set it and forget it" method actually feels like its working.
I'm proud of my progress.
3. Unstoppable: the last 10 days are supposed to feel unstoppable. You have energy, this feels right. You have made a healthy choice and its paying off. You don't doubt yourself like you did in the earlier stages. Things are going right.
The biggest mistake we make in stage 3 is thinking that we can simply take a day off or cheat because we have come this far, hey! we deserve it! But no. Habit forming doesn't work that way. I can't wait to reach the unstoppable stage and I will hopefully write about it when I do.