Balance 365 and A Link

If you've noticed some of my posts from the past several months you may have noticed a hash tag such as #healthyhabits #healthylife #B365. What do these mean, you ask? For the past 16ish months, I've begun focusing more on small habits that can benefit my overall health. I have a hard time getting onboard with anything big and scary/overwhelming at this phase of my life. 
Some days I can't even do dishes, so there's no way I can give a ton of mental energy to a big "diet" plan or an intense season of exercise. What I can do is give just a little of myself each day to making healthy choices, and once I make that healthy choice for about a month (or am feeling confident that I will continue to do so) I move on to something else. Back in April, I was introduced to the group Healthy Habits, Happy Moms by my cousin Annie. The group began a Walk the Way challenge in May in which they challenged us to get out and walk every day. That didn't seem too scary to me, so I decided to do it and just loved it! It was great to get outside and get fresh air, plus most of the time I was able to go alone because I would wait until Jeremiah was home so I'd be able to have a little quiet time which made it even more enticing because it gave my mind a mental break from "momming". I found a route approximately 1.5 miles and have kept up with it, several days a week, since then. For me, that is the epitome of successful. It's not a huge goal, or an intense form of exercise, but it's something I can do in this season of life. When I come across a day when it can't be done, I don't feel discouraged, because I know it's no big deal to do it again the next day. I figure with my consistency I've been walking an average of 4-5 times a week since then which means I've walked about 228-285 miles over the past 8 months instead of doing something sporadic and less enjoyable.
Then September rolled around and the HHHM ladies kept sending emails about a new program called Balance 365 and to be honest I didn't even read through the first few. I didn't want to be a part of another "program". Then a few things began to catch my eye -- "not a diet", "food freedom", "establishing lifelong habits for your health" and then I started reading the emails. Finally on the day before the program was about to close, I read through the entire email and thought, "Maybe I should do this." I felt like I had come to the end of my own personal ideas of habits I could come up with myself. I did write out a few and tried to even come up with 12 habits of my own, but couldn't come up with 12 new ones. The concept intrigued me, so the next day, the last day to sign-up, I spoke with Jeremiah and having decided that during the Fall, one of my four focuses would be my health, I signed up, with a bit of trepidation. As soon as I sealed the deal, there was the immediate worry of, "Agh! I shouldn't have spent that money. What if this doesn't help? What if this was a waste of time/money?" But I waited until I had access to my new account and then began reading.
I won't bog you down with all the details of what the program is because it belongs to the founders and if you'd like to learn more you can check it out at the link I'll leave you below. But let me tell you a little about what I've discovered over the past 4 months --

My Thanksgiving pie buddy --I barely captured the picture because she was leaning in for more ;) 

-- Food Freedom. This is no small thing for me. But even after 2 months I realized my food obsession was coming to an end. Meaning, I wasn't constantly thinking about what I was eating, what I'd be eating at my next meal, guilt over what I had eaten previously. Nope. It was dissipating and in its place was... freedom! I eat. I enjoy what I'm eating. Sometimes I eat too much. But the obsession with the quantities, the timing, what I'm eating, is very nearly gone. And it feel awesome!

--Consistency. This one is more difficult to describe. But I feel regular, normal. I realized how much I love this feeling, just this morning. I woke up and was hungry. I eat with my family. I don't walk into the kitchen and wonder, "Hmm, maybe I should have a snack. I don't know. I guess I'll just eat something." Sure, there are days I am hungry, and do want a snack, so I eat one. But for the most part, my body has regulated to eating at normal intervals and not feeling snack-y in between. Even the fact that I don't sip on coffee all morning long has contributed to the good feeling I have, most of the day, now. I'm learning what it feels like to be hungry before meals and embracing it instead of being afraid.

-- I'm listening to my body. This one may sound silly, but it's completely relevant and definitely worth the mention. Many diet programs, especially geared toward women, tell you what to eat, when, how much and you stop listening to your body and its cues. Do you know how brilliant your body is? It knows when you're hungry, it knows when you're full, but many of us have taught ourselves for years how to override those feelings/cues so that we -- don't eat more than 1500 calories a day; eat only a certain number of points; keep eating that cookie dough because it's 'against the rules' so we eat and eat until we feel sick because tomorrow it will be on the restricted list again. It's totally messed up, but the diet industry wants us to fail and keep coming back to them and paying them money to 'fix us' when what we really need to learn is how to listen to our body and eat when we're hungry and feed it good, quality, healthful foods. Do you know what happens when you realize no foods are off limits? You eat them when it sounds good and you can stop when you're full knowing that you will, in fact, get to eat them again. Doesn't that sound like a good, satisfying life? I think so, and I get more and more excited the more I find myself self-regulating and listening to my body instead of weighing foods or counting points or feeling guilt over "bad" foods.

I'm only 4 months in to this B365 world, but it has been life-changing for me. And that's the best part, these habits I'm learning are going to serve me and support me for the rest of my life. It's been hard work working through the fear of whether or not I can do the next habit or sustain it for the rest of my life. I just do it and when I feel ready to move on, I do. There's no race. There's no failing. There's only me, letting go of the fear and beginning to live a life with more confidence and food freedom!

If any of this strikes you as something you'd like to start or consider for your life, I'm about to give a shameless plug. I share all of this from a vulnerable place of how I'm taking steps to live the life I dream of and hope to help others do the same. But the founders of the B365 program are so awesome that they're letting the members of their group have a chance to earn some money back by sharing this program with our friends and family. So if you want to learn more or if you do, in fact, want to sign up for the program, they are accepting new people starting today! If you would be ever so kind, you can use my link to sign up.  https://www.hhhmprograms.com/a/2541/r3BLLxZu

I truly appreciate it!