Small Adjustments: Are they enough?

So the wife and I were having a discussion about meal planning. I made a comment that I wanted to start eating oatmeal in the morning and sweeten it with brown sugar. She immediately comes back with "What's the point of the oatmeal if you're going to sweeten it with brown sugar?" I immediately back tracked and said "Ok maybe not brown sugar but maybe like a splenda of something" and then we went on with the discussion. It was hours later and I was still thinking about the comment and how it made me feel. I didn't want to eat the oatmeal now because I started to think that it wasn't enough. And that is where the source of this blog came from.

After a few days of thinking about it, I had come to a conclusion that I let a simple comment get into my head and totally derail my nutrition planning because they thought what I was doing wasn't good enough. I think a lot of us let this happen when we try to plan changes in our life. We share what we would like to try with someone and their opinion of it is what stops us from making that change. I brought up my thoughts on the subject back to my wife and expressed how it made me feel about it and how it affected the outcome of it. She explained to me that it wasn't her intended result but everything she knew about nutrition says not to sweeten your oatmeal with sugar in general, to use something else. The point I had to make was even though there was sweetener in the oatmeal, the oatmeal itself was a better option then what I would normally eat. Which could easily have been fast food. And most importantly the discussion to swap a normal meal for something with more nutritional value, which indicates a mental shift.

The mental shift, the discussion, is the key element in changing behavior and that one comment upended the whole thing, thus delaying the positive change in behavior. I bring all this up to say 2 things. First off if someone is expressing to you a change that they are willing to make to better themselves, don't make them feel like they're not doing enough by countering it with something you think is better. Most times that little shift is all they can truly do and may be the catalyst to do more if they feel they are successfull at it. Be more supportive about it. Secondly, don't let anyones opinion of what you're doing to better your health create second thoughts about it, even if its someone with more knowledge on the topic. They may be correct but they're not taking in account what you can phsyically and mentally do at the time.

So to answer the question, "Are small adjustments enough?". Yes they are, any little bit that puts you into a better mental or phsyical state not only is it enough but it can be the spark of success that you need to achieve your greater fitness goals. #PhatGuyFitness is all about fitness and nutrition from the perspective of the "Plus Size" Model. There are so many more challenges for us that may include availabilty, mental, phsyical and potenitally financial challenges. I'm here to tell you every little bit counts and I hope that sharing interactions like these help you push past your barriers so you can achieve your short term and long term fitness goals.

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