Happy 2024!
It’s been 2024 for five days. How you doing?
If, like millions of other Americans, you made a resolution to completely overhaul your eating and drinking habits when the clock struck midnight on December 31, five days can feel like a lifetime.
You’ve been doing all that planning. Measuring. Perhaps even logging and tracking.
It’s been five days of intense focus on all the things you put on your plate, and likely even more. . .all the things you’re trying to keep OFF of your plate.
Trying is the operative word.
WHAT’S HAPPENING?
It’s about now that you’re recognizing you need more than sheer willpower to eat the way you THINK you should be eating.
If only you didn’t have to think about it at all, but simply wave a magic wand, you’d be well on your way to a new year of eating the way a responsible post-treatment survivor “should” eat:
- Skipping the booze
- Red meat less often
- Figuring out the soy thing
- Getting plenty of produce
- Ditching your reliance on dairy
That’s a tall order. Can you even imagine tackling all of those things AT ONCE?
Nothing that big is ever that simple. And anything that big requires starting small.
Like by paying attention.
Paying attention to the foods you buy at the grocery, the recipes you cook from, the restaurants you frequent, when and why you’re eating in the first place.
Of course, there’s no reason this can’t be the year you finally get a handle on your post-treatment eating (start here!), but I suggest you start with getting a handle on how you’re gonna approach it.
Try this exercise:
- Identify your biggest struggle with food/diet/nutrition; write it down.
- Use this prompt, and write about it: “What is it about _______ (your struggle) that makes me afraid/panicked/stressed/angry/overwhelmed (circle the word(s) you feel about your struggle)?”
- Ask yourself this, and write about it: “What will it be like if I don’t change what I identified above?”
Once you’ve identified your biggest struggle, as well as what’s behind that struggle, you’ve paved the way for taking the smallest step that you can tolerate AND continue with consistency. Clarity and consistency are best friends; they’ll get you where you want to go in your pursuit of optimizing your post-treatment nutrition.
YOU NEED MORE THAN TOOLS
A-ha! You thought I was going to give you a food plan, grocery list, recipe suggestions, and breast cancer nutrition guidelines, didn’t you?
My guess is you already have those tools.
But, you’re still struggling with your nutrition and you’ve decided THIS IS THE YEAR you finally get a handle on it.
Okay, go for it.
Just remember, having the tools will get you only part way to your goal; putting in the work gets you all the way there.
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This information is for educational purposes only and is not intended as medical advice. Please consult your dietitian or doctor for guidance specific to your needs.
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