Well, it's going to be a little bit lonely this week. Mick's gone across to do some work on the farm before the tenants move in (think painting a whole house in a week along with doing a heap of odd jobs) along with some friends. This leaves me at home with the boys and a heap of time to get things done that I have been putting off. As I started making a list of what I wanted to get done I realised that even if I had an army of helpers, I wasn't going to manage to get everything done in 9 days.

This is somewhat typical of me. For some reason, I'm not sure whether it's my personality or my bloodtype or genotype, but I always seem to put this intense pressure on myself to achieve these superhuman feats. It happens a lot when uni's in full swing and I'm trying to work fulltime, study part-time with reasonable results, have a veggie garden, keep the gardens presentable, make healthy meals everyday for Mick's lunches, have dinner on the table at a reasonable hour and spend time with my also full-time working, part time studying husband.

I know that list doesn't seem like much, but somedays it all seems a little bit unachievable. There's definitely a temptations sometimes to let something slip but it's usually followed by the guilt that somebody else would be managing just fine. What's wrong with me that I can't do it all? Last semester, it was the veggie garden that took a hit, it produced well, but I didn't replant quickly, instead I called it letting the soil replenish (code for I don't have time to replant).

This is similar to many peoples first experience with the BTD. At first, before you get into the swing, it just looks like a big uphill battle. There are all these foods that suddenly you can't have, foods that you've never heard of that you should be eating and you can't buy anything pre-prepared that fits all of the criteria. Some days it just seems like you've taken on something completely overwhelming - the time it takes to prep stuff and cook it seems to take up all of your free time. You feel guilty that you can't achieve the 100% compliance that others seem to be able to easily achieve. As you beat yourself up it becomes more of a focus and it seems even worse that you're not able to achieve something so simple as eating right.

Then one day it clicks. You put in place a system; chop veggies up on a certain day, meal plan, start feeling better and then it becomes second nature. Suddenly it all seems right. However when there's a heap of stress, it can all start to fall apart again rather quickly - timesaving becomes more important and then you start the climb back again.

So, what's the lesson that I'm slowly learning - expect less and support yourself more. In life, this means I'm trying to set somewhat more achievable targets and protect my health first. In BTD/GTD, it means, just remember that even 50% compliance at first is better than 90% of the population will ever achieve. Achieve 80% compliance and you'll be on the way to high compliance without even knowing it.