Perhaps you've been toying with the idea of giving Paleo a try and have decided you're ready...almost. You've told yourself you're going to be 100% committed...but not until the New Year begins.
While I am a fan of making sure you're as best equipped as you can be to make a lasting, effective and positive change to your health, and choosing to implement them when you're best suited to make your own health a focus (finally), I am not an advocate of another behavior that tends to go hand in hand with those good old New Year's Resolutions.
As in, thoughts such as these:
"I'm going 100% Paleo as soon as the New Year rolls in, so from now until then, I'm eating whatever I want, and lots of it!"
"I have already been tested for gluten sensitivity, and I totally get the connection between those awful acne breakouts I've been getting on my face whenever I even eat a little bit of bread, but I don't care. I'm having as much bread and pasta until New Year's Eve, and then, I'll be 'good'"
"I know I should be better prepared and bring healthy meals to work, but there are always so many tasty things brought in for our lunch meetings. Even though I know that my favorite gourmet sandwich from the cafe downstairs in my office building piles on the Camembert and hummus, both of which usually leave me feeling nauseated and bloated the next day, it's really hard not to have them. Once 2012 begins, I'm going to pack veggies to bring to work every day".
See the trend? I've seen and heard statements like these from clients over the years, all too many times.
If your mindset is such that following the Paleo diet is the equivalent to strictly adhering to some antiquated deprivation diet that you've tried for the last fifteen years (also beginning on New Year's Day), I'm happy to tell you that you're quite mistaken.
And, as such, there's no reason to not start now. We've got just under a week before the start of 2012, so consider this: do you really want to 'eat whatever junk you want' and then pack on a few more pounds, have a couple more stomach aches and perhaps some lovely acne along for the ride into the New Year? Is it really worth it?
If you think you're ready for Paleo in less than one week, then I challenge you by this suggestion: aren't you ready for it now?
If not, fine, wait until you are ready. Wait until you've finished moving to your new home, until you're comfortable in your new promotion at work or until you've adjusted to the youngest of your kids having left the nest in order to go off to college.
But please, don't trash your body for a week and then assume that something magical is going to happen on January 1 to suddenly make you 'ready'.
Of course, in a perfect world, I'd love it if everyone were Paleo now, but short of that, I prefer to suggest to people that the pick the most optimal time for their own personal lives to give this great change a fighting chance.
You won't regret it!
