Clean Eating for My Family v. Clients (aka everyone else in the world...)

Yesterday was a day. 

A beautiful day - it SNOWED in Texas!  Not much, but enough to fill this Midwestern girl's heart with joy!

A bit of a lazy day - I got to enjoy my coffee and the Today show and my iPad for a full hour before I had to get up and accomplish things.

A productive day - shopping for clean eating basics (I forgot how much ghee and eggs and organic almond butter we go through when the entire family is doing 30 days of clean eating!) at Trader Joe's (bonus!), walking the dogs in the crisp flurries, writing some way overdue notes and slogging through a webinar (ugh... I got scammed out of an hour of my life...).

And a challenging day.

The challenge was one I am SO familiar with...I spend a huge portion of my days talking to people about Paleo eating and its benefits.  And 90% of the time I get to hear all the reasons why they CAN'T.  Can't give something up, can't make it 30 days, can't get their family to do it with them, can't find the time....can't, can't, can't.

And, believe it or not - I get it.

I don't know what flipped my switch and made me able to accomplish nearly 2 years of clean eating.  To get through that first 2 weeks of super-squeaky-clean eating that changed my life.  To allow me to break up with sugar and heal a life-long dysfunctional relationship with food and lose 80+ pounds.

Maybe it was the cancer I didn't even know I had.  Maybe it was God.  Maybe it was timing, or losing my mom, or boredom, or logic, or the realization of what "I would do ANYTHING to feel better about myself...." meant.

Who knows?  Who cares anymore...no matter the stories I tell or the facts I site or the examples I share - if someone isn't ready - there is nothing I can say to convince them to give it a go.

I love what Melissa and Dallas Hartwig say in the Whole30 book....don't tell me giving up sugar and drinking your coffee black is HARD.  Battling cancer is HARD, birthing a baby is HARD, losing a parent is HARD....you've been through much harder things in your life than giving up sugar!  It's only 30 days...you can do ANYTHING for 30 days.

That phrase help me up during my first 2 weeks of "what the hell was I thinking" clean eating back in April of 2015!

But the reality is - if you don't want to - you won't.  You'll say you can't - but you can.  You won't.

Maybe I should push harder to help more people...but I don't.  I don't waver - at all.  I believe all the way down to my toes that this is the healthiest way to live.  The healthiest, most natural way to feed my body.  The key to longer, more vibrant life.  And I continue to preach, but I don't push.  I suggest.  I remind.

Except when it comes to my family!

I PUSH!

And yesterday - I had to push hard!

There has been more thumb-sucking than usual about this January's clean eating.  Poor me - there's nothing to eat.  Poor me - all my friends are meeting at _____ and having _____.  Poor me - I want a food reward and YOU won't let me have it.

Ugh!

But family is different than everyone else.

Strange at it may seem to some - I genuinely want good health and riches and joy and happiness for everyone.  I am a glass way more than full girl and want to share that with the world.  But I don't like to be pushed, so I don't push.  I absolutely want others to share their good fortune and secret tricks and opportunities with me, but I want to be the one to decide if I take advantage of them....so I don't push.

But with my family - it's more.  It's about quality of their lives.  It's about not falling victim to Alzheimer's like my mom and her mom and her mom.  It's about not getting cancer.  It's about not having old lady knees at 40.  It's about feeling good about your body and your appearance and in your clothes at any age.  It's about taking control of their health.  Knowing the power of "You are what you Eat".

It's about loving them so much I am willing to have them not like me a couple of months and probably a hundred other meals out of every year (most of the time, they are totally understanding, but sometimes there is a LOT of eye rolling and heavy sighing...). 

It's about wanting a better, easier, more passionate, sprightly (is that a word anyone uses anymore???) life.  It's about creating a NORM that is healthy.  A baseline that is lean and clear and full of vitality. 

It's the hope that they will be armed with this knowledge and power and these habits to take them through their lives.

Parents do it all the time.  We want a better life for our children. 

Why does that have to mean finances and material things?  Or a bigger city?  Or a more advanced degree?  Or a bigger house?  Fancier car?  Unlimited mobile plan with the latest phone?

Why not a healthier better?

And so I push.  And I struggle with pushing, but I believe in it and I believe in them - just like I do with grades and volunteer opportunities and rescuing pets and sharing kindness...

And now I feel better because I wrote it down.  I wonder what brings out the "PUSH" in you?