You have high hopes for your juice cleanse.
You’ve done your planning, prepared correctly and the fridge is overflowing with fresh fruit and veggies.
But there’s a niggling doubt in the back of your mind.
What if you fail? What if you go back to your old habits? Like the last time you tried to get healthy.
Trial and error is the new normal
We think that if we don’t reach the health goals we set for ourselves that we are somehow ‘defective’. Everybody else can do it, why can’t we?
The reality is that it is normal for our best laid plans to ‘fail’ at times. Except that we haven’t failed – we’ve just found a strategy that doesn’t work for us. Or maybe just needs a little tweaking.
Let’s look at 5 ways your juicing journey can be successful even if you’re scared you’re going to fail.
1. Stop beating yourself up. This doesn’t help. It is no way to treat anyone let alone our gorgeous selves. Give yourself a break and shower yourself with gentle loving kindness instead. You’re learning the skill of creating new habits. Like riding a bicycle for the first time, this takes time and patience.
2. Adopt a gentle curiosity. Instead of beating yourself up, be curious as to what happened if you’ve ‘slipped up’ either now or in the past? Was there anything that you can pinpoint that might have contributed? Perhaps you hadn’t prepared as thoroughly as you know you could have. Or were you tempted by a well-meaning friend? Be prepared to dig a little deeper to uncover the gold here.
3. Devise new strategies to overcome those obstacles. Once you’ve identified anything that might have contributed to a lapse either currently or in the past, let’s look at implementing different strategies. How can you go around, up or over the obstacles that might have stopped you? Now is the time to get creative! Some strategies might just need a little tweak while others may need to be ditched altogether. Then it’s on to trying out some new ones.
Remember it’s all about trial and error.
4. Get support. This is vital. The forums will be the source of some of your best support and advice. Learn from the experience of others who know exactly what you’re going through. Bask in their encouragement and let yourself become inspired by their example. If you can, get family and friends on your team. This will make the world of difference. They don’t need to be super-passionate about juicing to be a fabulous support to you.
5. It’s a marathon not a sprint. New habits, like Rome, aren’t created overnight. Time spent now will pay dividends later. You’re creating a healthy, new you and changing your future. Having a longer term view as you learn the skills to successfully cement in those new healthy habits will make all the difference.
How about you? I’d love to know your best tips for juicing success. Let us know about it in the comments
Claire Kerslake is a health coach, registered nurse and credentialed diabetes educator who is the founder of Loving Life With Diabetes, a website and blog where you’ll find the motivation, inspiration and support to help you create healthy habits in your life. The free video series to celebrate the launch of her upcoming online program Renew is only a couple of weeks away. Click here to get on the early bird list (You’ll also receive the fabulous Zest newsletter, chock full of juicy goodness around twice a month).