I had a week at work I am grateful is behind me…we converted all our purchasing/credit systems over to a new and tested one (our parent company uses it with great success) that eventually will make us a more efficient, stronger and healthier company. The greatest challenge with any type of corporate change is getting everyone involved to believe and be positive about the new systems…much like getting someone to believe that the BTD diet will do the same on a personal level (stronger and healthier)

My whole week was filled with comments from subordinates…mostly negative…about how the systems were cumbersome and hard to use. I was using every analogy in the book to overcome the negativity…short term pain for long term gain…you just traded in your skis for a snowboard…. you are going to fall down many times and you will not be flying down the hill as you did with the skis until you have mastered the board…you just purchased new skates, your feet are going to hurt till you’ve worked the skates in (we Canadians like to use winter sports in our analogies) Sometimes I would say: your company has worked 13,000 man-hours to get these systems up and running because we are committed to your success (we have many sales reps in the US who make well over $300k a year on the new systems). Slowly, but surely, by the end of the week the negativity slowly subsided.

My point here to this is to draw an analogy with the BTD diet. When I first started on the diet, I found it very hard to give foods up that I was accustomed to eating for 30 years…pasta was the big one for me, as well as milk, coffee, pork sausages, and corn bread (one of my favorites). My mind wanted to stop eating them but my body kept craving them…the first few weeks was hard and melancholy for me. I replaced coffee with green tea and I hated it, even though I love the taste now. Pasta was so easy to make and being single and on the run a lot was a convenient food to make when stuck for time. I have switched to rice and spelt pasta which at first I found not to my liking, but have grown to like. Pork Italian sausages with corn bread and rappini(n) was the hardest because it was one of most favorite meals. I have since replaced it with lamb kebobs(b), and brown rice(n) and I’ve kept the rappini. As I was going through this change, I had at my disposal, encouragement from people’s experience with the diet, written testimonials etc as well as biofeedback from my body that I was feeding it better (more energy, less stress)

I’ve eaten O foods that I would never have eaten…one is figs (b) with walnuts (b)…a snack I now eat in between meals for a quick energy boost (I read somewhere that figs contain an enzyme in it that helps breakdown the walnuts and the protein that it carries). I could go on and on but the fact remains the initial change in my eating habits was a hard and painful one but the result or journey was well worth it. This journey…which is still ongoing...has many pitfalls, but what journey hasn’t? I have great support from the web site and the daily articles and tidbits from the Doctor and his colleagues and 14 other fellow bloggers with their daily challenges and helpful hints to help me on the way.

Winter is only 10 months away…maybe I’ll hang up the skis and give snowboarding a try…I may have a sore butt the first few times down the hill, but I’m sure I’ll get the hang of it eventually.