It Never Has to be 100% to Make a Difference

I would say it’s been a minute since I’ve written anything but it has actually been much longer… sorry about that! This summer I had some health issues that were taking most of my attention, but I am back and will definitely write about the experience of this past several months soon.

As you know, I am very passionate about helping people learn about healthy lifestyle changes, and the impacts they can have on their health, but I also really want people to feel like these changes are attainable and realistic. Enter: balance. Balance is hard, probably the hardest thing for most people to try and wrap their heads around because it feels like our world is operating at 0 or 100 all the time. I didn’t even realize how much of a hidden barrier this can be until I talked with several people in my life who shared their struggles with lifestyle changes, and when I asked them what the sticking points were, it kept coming down to the fact that they couldn’t go all in all the time so they just gave up entirely. Then I started realizing how much relief there could be when people learned they didn’t have to be perfect every second of every day while making lifestyle changes.

When I started making changes all those years ago, I felt pressure to do it all at once, and do it all the time. I felt like if I didn’t change everything related to that lifestyle change, then what was the point. As the years went on, I relaxed and started realizing that doing something even 10% of the time was an improvement over doing it 0% of the time, and that every little percent was worth trying for.

 When I was talking to my friend at work recently, she mentioned she was wanting to try and go dairy free to help with her skin. She knows I eat almost completely cow’s mik- free, so she was asking for some advice. As we were talking, she started saying how she wanted to make this change now, but because of all these scheduled dinners and trips she had coming up she thought it was better to wait several months until it was all over. This surprised me and I asked why those trips and dinners had anything to do with her wanting to make a diet change and she told me it was because she didn’t think she could do it for every meal while out with friends and on vacation, so there was no point in trying. While I 100% get that following a stricter diet while not at home is much more difficult, it is not a reason to put off something that you think might make you feel better! I told her I thought she should make the change now, like she wanted, and while not at home, just do it when she was able, and eat dairy when she wasn’t. I told her reducing her dairy intake at all (however much was realistic that day) even if it meant having it other times, was still worthwhile. She all of a sudden got so much happier and calmer. She didn’t realize that was even an option, and the thought of not having to wait several months for things to “calm down” (like they ever do?!) made her realize limiting her dairy, instead of eliminating it, was very doable.

A couple weeks later I was talking to another friend at work who is also into holistic health and using lifestyle changes to promote a healthier body, who had a similar issue but with a completely different subject. She was venting to me about how she struggled to find the cleanest laundry detergents at the store, and how everything either had bad ingredients in it to being with or eventually changes to have cheaper, worser-for-you ingredients. She asked what I used and when I told her she had very strong opinions about how that brand was now owned by someone else, and how they had changed their ingredient lists and what were people supposed to do now. And while this is a very frustrating problem to have, I also have to remind myself from time to time, that I don’t want to live in fear of the world and everything in it. And I told her the same thing. I told her that while I agreed it was hard to find laundry detergent I liked, I also had to accept that it is just laundry detergent and my main priority was finding a brand that didn’t make my skin breakout after wearing clothes. I told her that I have learned to pick my battles, to remember what the most important things are, what the non-negotiable things are, and how to let everything else go. We all try so hard to do what is best for our bodies and our families, that sometimes it becomes overwhelming and exhausting trying to “protect” ourselves from everything out there. Until we take a step back and remember that changing one product successfully is a massive step, and not having everything be 100% perfect is okay. She came up to me a couple weeks later to let me know that what I had said about “picking your battles” really stuck with her. When she got frustrated, or struggled to make a choice, she remembered that statement and it allowed her to refocus and relax.

I know these struggles are not unique because I face them regularly, and these are two examples of many interactions I have had with people over the years. When you embark on your journey, or really no matter where you are in your journey, remember every single tiny step you take towards change is worth taking, even if it is the only step for now. Every time you eat an extra veggie, schedule some self-care, do feel-good movement for your body, change out a more-toxic product for a less-toxic one and read an ingredient label to see if it has something you know hurts your body- you are making a worthwhile change in your life. But don’t forget the whole reason any of us started making these lifestyle changes was to feel better and feel healthier so we can better live our lives. No matter what, you still have to live your life or what is the point? Learning to balance changes with life and learning to pick your battles on a daily basis will help you SO MUCH. Nothing you do, no matter how infrequently you do it, is a waste!