How do you eat an elephant???
Just as you would eat anything else. One bite at a time.
Change can be overwhelming and intimidating. The familiar is easy -- it’s habitual. It’s mindless. It’s only when we recognize that the familiar no longer resonates with our peace, growth, or beliefs that it starts to become uncomfortable. On the other hand, change is terrifying. If we bite off more elephant than we can chew we usually wind up flat on our butt, discouraged, and promptly return to what we know.
If we are brave enough to make a change, it’s daunting as hell to start. My website and blog have been sitting on the back burner forever because not having them was easier than putting forth effort and falling flat on my face. I have a full time job. I have a long to do list. Websites are a dime a dozen, and I’m the world’s only tech-inept millennial. My website would suck. That elephant is gonna crush me. Blah blah blah. Insert ________ excuse -- I’ve made it.
But here we are, in a blog I’ve started on a website I designed. Pretty much without fail, any accomplishment seems way more terrifying before I start to actually put in the work. Once I nutted up, set my goal, and started taking steps towards it, it wasn’t so bad. Sure, it wasn’t always clear cut. I ran into walls and potholes and hurdles more times than I can count. Obviously there are far more accomplished people who would have better advice than I, but I’m learning as I go and hopefully this will hit home for a couple of people. If you’ve made it this far in this post (--thanks!!!), you may find me relatable and hopefully I can help inspire at least one person to take the first bites out of their elephant.
Reaching a goal requires vision, patience, faith, and most of all, resilience. This goes for all sorts of life situations -- relationships, food, training, athletics, productivity, spending habits…Here I’m going to focus on nutrition, exercise, and general well-being, as it’s where my passion lies. I’ve broken it down into “bites,” as I’m sure no one wants to read a novel from me all at once.
So here goes, an outline of how to eat an elephant:
Know WHAT you want. Set a goal. Don’t feel bashful if it’s shooting for the stars. Don’t worry about how you’ll get there. We’ll take care of that in the next steps. Is your goal to lose body fat? Gain lean mass? Feel energetic and healthy? Etc. Declare your elephant. The more people who know about this thing, the better. A supportive community is one of the most important things in this process. If you choke on a large bite of elephant, someone will be around to provide the Heimlich maneuver. I literally have the lamest analogies, I know. I can’t help it.
Know WHERE you currently are. How do we approach this elephant? How big is he? Do you look/feel/perform anywhere near your dream??
Know HOW to get to where you want to be. This is where I’m going to focus in the next few posts. Nutrition is complex, dynamic, and somewhat subjective, if you talk to the right zealot. However, the basics of thermodynamics and metabolism are relatively irrefutable. If you understand something, you can make better decisions, you don’t have to be as rigid or fearful of your plan being derailed . My next few posts will help you to:
Understand what food is, what it does for your body and goal.
Understand where you can be flexible and under which circumstances it’s better not to be and why.
Understand the common misconceptions that the general public believes - eg eating healthy is expensive, carbs are Satan’s macronutrient, fats can’t make you fat… etc. Knowledge is power. Period.
Know that your path will not be linear, and be ok with that. This is where the resilience comes in. There will be hurdles, there will be adjustments, but the elephant isn’t going anywhere. If you eff it up, try again.
How do you eat an elephant? You take one bite at a time. You have to chew that bite. You may not even see the benefits or changes that that bite made to your life for a while. Slowly, but surely, you’ll demolish that beast and the best part is, the process of it all is where you’ll grow the most.