Ready!

Ready. Set. Go.

Ready. Aim. Fire.

The first step is always to get ready. I am noticing that my personal getting ready takes a lot of time and a frustrating amount of getting on and off the proverbial bandwagon. With all that on and off, my proverbial thighs are amazingly toned.

An example of being ready: I learned about kiefer (it's like a super yogurt, with amazing amounts of pro-biotics) nearly three years ago. It sounded like something I would really benefit from. It also sounded like a major lifestyle adjustment. It took me two years to be in a place in my life where I could take on a forever type of change. The moment I did, I and one of my children began seeing huge health improvements. Could I have benefited earlier? Of course. I just wasn't ready yet. But I worked to get myself ready, and I have been going strong on making my own kiefer for nearly a year now.

Four or five years ago, my hubby and I decided to transition away from cold cereal in the mornings because it was healthier and cheaper. We make several yummy varieties of old-fashioned oatmeal, cream of wheat, rice and cinnamon, fruit and spinach shakes and toast and eggs. Shortly after we made the transition (a transition which has stuck, by the way) we encountered the inevitable nay-sayers. "What, you use white rice?" one lady exclaimed. "Don't you know that goes straight to sugar?" Another helpful friend informed us that all of our new choices were terrible for us and we should be eating brown rice and turkey and steamed vegetables for breakfast. Honestly? I have hair to do and car-pools to drive and morning devotional to get ready. I don't have time to start breakfast an hour before we eat. I think their information is great and I would love to be able to do something like it, but I am not ready yet. And being in the tender transition phase the comments made me feel depressed and resentful. Where were these "helpers" when we were pouring quick, delicious, super-refined, chemical ridden, crunchy yumminess into our bowls every morning? But I digress.

The point is, getting ready for serious, permanent change takes time. You have to be in a place where you can withstand the negative voices in and out of your own head and move forward with courage. Getting ready is NOT passive. It requires physical, mental and emotional progress and serious toning of those proverbial thighs.

If any of you are finding yourself in this "getting ready" phase, know that you ARE making progress. The progress may not have permanently altered your grocery list or your waist line, but it is a necessary part of permanent change . . . at least it is for me.