Branching Outside My Comfort Zone

Throughout the course of a long journey, sometimes you have to take detours... to go a different way than you were used to going.  Maybe a different way than you've gone your whole life.  Usually when you're used to going a certain way, you get pretty ticked that you have to take a detour--think about it, you're driving to work the way you've always gone, you know exactly how long it takes you to get there, what traffic will be like, etc, but then there's construction & you have to take a different way.  It's frustrating because now it's going to take longer to get there and it's unfamiliar territory.  But sometimes when you take that detour you discover things you would have never known existed if you had gone the "usual" way.

Weight loss is no different.  Oftentimes an overweight person knows just as much about nutrition and "diets" as a non-overweight person.  Most of us have TRIED to lose weight before, it's not that we lack the knowledge necessarily, but something derails us over time.  I'm no exception to this, as you know if you've read this blog for a longer period of time.  Maybe the thing that derails us though is doing things as we've always done them... taking the familiar "dieting" route.  Yes, you know what works for you at first, but sometimes you have to take a detour from that comfortable route after awhile.  I know I'm not alone in saying that the first few weeks eating healthy & moving more, you're really motivated... you're eating great foods, going to the gym, etc... but then maybe you get bored.  Or tired of eating the same low cal/fat/carb/whatever foods.  So you quit.  I've been there.  I've done that.

But maybe what we need to do is take a detour--go off the beaten path that you've made time and time again and spice things up!  What that means to you will be very individualized... to me though, that means trying new foods and trying new activities.  I used to get stuck in the rut of buying basically the same groceries every week because I knew points values and it was easiest.  Figuring out new recipes or snack ideas took longer and took more effort.  And exercise?  Forget about it!  I hated to exercise in public at all, let alone running on the streets of my town!  But you know what?  I need to do those things.  I need to take the detour every once in awhile, and while it might take me longer to go that route, and it might be scary because it's unfamiliar, in the long run, branching outside that familiar, comfortable zone is going to be the key to my success.

I'm starting with small steps--doing the Couch to 5K program, working out at a busy gym (when before I would have gone home if I'd seen that many people there!), and trying new foods that earlier in life I'd declared that I "hated".

(the first time I ate McDonald's in over a month--Fruit & Maple Oatmeal!  Only 7 Points Plus!)

So what are you doing to step outside your comfrot zone?  What detours will you take?  Ultimately we all want to end up in the same place--happy & healthy, but sometimes we have to take a different route to get there!