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| Photo by bayasaa on Flickr.com |
Making Resolutions That Work
Say you resolve to heal your arthritis this year. Great resolution, but how are you going to move from just saying it to actually achieving it? The answer: create positive achievable goals.
Positive achievable goals are realistic and they keep your eyes on the prize. Goals that use negative words or focus on limitations are depressing--you want inspiration! For example, this is a positive achievable goal:
“Every Thursday I will investigate one new recipe using an alternative flour (such as quinoa, millet, amaranth, teff, milo, barley, rye or yam), until I find several types of baked goods that I enjoy making and eating.”
That's much more useful than saying something like: “I will not eat bread, pasta, pastries, cookies or any other baked goods because wheat flour makes me ill.”
Formulating very specific goals also helps. Vague goals like “I will only eat foods that are healthy for my body,” are not as effective as stating “On Saturday I will purchase and/or prepare enough healthy snack food to last the whole week, including wheat-free baked goods, fresh fruit, and fresh vegetables.”
In his book, Awaken the Giant Within, Anthony Robbins does a great job addressing how to set effective goals. This book is an excellent resource for anyone wishing to make positive life changes.
Identify Precise Next Steps
Even great goals that you fully believe in can get overwhelming. One way to get unstuck is by breaking a goal into precise next steps. Each precise next step should be small enough that you can complete it with a single effort.
For example, to achieve the goal of learning to cook with alternative flours, precise next steps might be:
- Check your local library for cookbooks with recipes for baked goods made from alternative flours.
- Pick three recipes you would like to try.*
- Look up the numbers of any local health food stores in the phone book.
- Call to see what alternative flours they carry.
- Get store hours and exact directions to the store.
- Go to the health food store and purchase several of these flours and any additional ingredients you need for the recipes you have chosen.
- Clear two hours on your schedule when you can make one of the recipes.
* You may also find recipes in the book section of the health food store and on product packaging.
Depending on your life circumstances, it may take you a couple of weeks just to take care of these preliminary steps. But each step moves you closer to your goal. They put you on the success track.
Eliminating Wheat
When this article was first published in my Conquering Arthritis newsletter, a brand new reader mistakenly thought that because I was using eliminating wheat as an example of how to make a change, that wheat bothers everyone who has arthritis.
I want to clear up that misconception. Food sensitivities are a major underlying cause of many cases of arthritis. However, problem foods are very individual. Many people have a problem with wheat, which is why I used that as an example in my newsletter. However, for people who have no problem with wheat, cutting out wheat will make
no difference.
Because of this, it is best to first test for food sensitivities. Then you only need to eliminate foods that are a problem for You.
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