I need to say this again…
What no one tells you about change…
Even though we know it ourselves…
Such an amazing moment.
In more ways than one.
Especially as it all happened so quickly that our other 19 month old daughter at the time was actually there in the corner of the room, drawing Peppa Pig (well trying to)
Completely oblivious to the whole situation…
Until she turns around, sees the new baby
It was literally that quick (huge contrast to the first)…
But safe to say, a few sleepless nights have happened since…
And NO one can prepare you for it…
When you come home with a little bundle of joy..
The moment you have been waiting for…
You never quite understood just how much it changes your life..
I mean, how can something so small have such an impact?
And -I’ll be honest – there was me before our first baby saying
“it’s just like having a dog, right? It will be fine”
^^ similar but not quite…dogs (especially Labradors don’t learn so quick haha)
BUT..
No matter how hard it is sometimes though…
How tired you are…
How good it feels for your head to hit the pillow and your eyes to drift off…
(Even with my inability to wake up as fast as Mrs Fruci to the crying…)
That disrupted sleep is hard…
But we keep going..
Because we know this doesn’t last forever…
Fast forward a few years
And my sleep is BACK…
We have two amazing little miracles…
But isn’t it fascinating?
Just how much we are willing to do…
And push through…
As we know this is a special time..
That won’t last forever..
Yet…
I can’t tell you how many times I have thought about quitting things…
Giving up.
Why?
Well it feels good to quit.
You get a buzz and a dopamine hit from it.
Simple because there are lots of positives to quitting.
You might get that 30 minutes back that you used to have to use to exercise.
You have no one chasing you up..
You feel pressure has gone.
It feels good initially.
You know, like when I would call in sick from a presentation (used to hate public speaking)…
But guess what?
As time goes on..
Things get worse.
We think that if we cover our eyes
Things will go away.
But the problem is just compounding in the background
And getting worse.
Which brings us to starting all over again…
Forgetting that even if you feel like you are behind..
IT IS EASIER TO KEEP UP THAN CATCH UP
^^^ read that again…
This emotional cycle of change might sound familiar to you:
Stage 1: Uninformed optimism → you know, when you start something new. You are motivated. Excited.
Stage 2: Informed pessimism –> you start to think ‘this is hard’…”I am not sure I can do this”…<<< bit like a few weeks in to parenthood…
Stage 3: Pit of despair –> you feel low….and look for the next shiny object to give you that UNINFORMED OPTIMISM again
And we are back to Stage 1 and we repeat AGAIN…
That is the yoyo dieting cycle..
UNLESS>>
We make it through to
Stage 4: Informed Optimism –> you accept where you are now. You have that self-awareness. Focus on progress not perfection and although it may seem slower, is actually FASTER because you don’t give up and end up back at Stage 1…
Stage 5: Success and fulfilment new habits are forming. You get a real reward and feeling of achievement …
I will be going over this in a bit more detail inside our February Kickstart programme which is now open 🙂
Specifically for women 40+ and 50+ who pretty much know what to do but need the accountability to do
So they can get fit, tone up and develop a better relationship with food…
If you’d like more info
Reply with ‘Kickstart’ and I’ll get you the details.
Are we here just to ‘get through it’ or are we here to make a difference and enjoy it?
Matt