Part of my employment responsibility includes “modeling
behavior.” That means we get to practice what we teach. I heard an old quote the other day and wrote
it down on a post-it and put it up on my fridge it says, “Parents tell, but
never teach, unless they practice, what they preach.” My job is kinda like that; I can’t tell y’all
how awesome it is to eat healthy on a budget with Big Mac & fries on my
breath.
So this month my fellow employees and I are working on four
different challenges, divided into 4 weeks. The first week we have been
challenged to give up 250 empty calories. The second week, we have been asked
to increase our activity by 250 calories and the third and fourth weeks we are
supposed to do both. I can’t wait for
week two, that is going to go right along with my walking everywhere to take
better care of myself, but this first week is going to be like taming a lion
for me. I’ll tell you why.
Soda is my vice; I drink a certain one; I drink a lot of it,
and I drink it often. It would, perhaps,
not be even too strong of a word to use the word addiction. I crave it as soon as I wake up in the morning; it is my
comfort food and my coping mechanism, and my treat to myself whenever I think I
have done something worth treating. I am honestly salivating just writing about
how much I love the stuff. But it is BAD for
me, and I mean really really bad,
like BAD bad….. BAAAAAAAAAD. And I
know it.
And so, for week one of my behavior modeling, I will give up
250 calories of the stuff (and actually I am going to give up almost 300
calories of the stuff, because I am going to limit myself to two cans a day). I
won’t even embarrass myself by saying how hard this is going to be. I may turn into a raving lunatic or be in the
back of my closet crying – but I hope it goes better than that. I don’t plan to take it back up next week
either. This is going to be a permanent change for me. I have stocked my kitchen
with limes for my water, and bought a few yummy beverage alternatives like
green tea and the sugar-free flavored drink mixes that I like. I even did a
practice run this weekend and I Did It!
This is going to be a challenge for me, but I know that it
is important. Soda is a large portion of
our grocery budget and it really is terrible for me; hopefully, I can remember
how dedicated I feel at this moment and remember that it is much better to try
and keep trying than decide it is not worth the risk of failing. Even little changes matter a lot, and
so here we go.
