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I’m vegan. I don’t eat any animal products—no butter, no eggs, and sadly, no cheese.
Would you believe me if I told you that just a little over a year ago cheese was one of my major food groups? No joke. I used to buy sliced American cheese from the deli and eat slices of it for a snack. Cheese and crackers with a glass of wine was my favorite Friday night treat.
When I got my wisdom teeth removed, I took painkillers for the first time. I stayed with my mom during my recovery and sat in front of the television like a zombie. The only thing I really remember about this time is that I ate an entire pound of sliced cheese in one day. I won’t tell you how that turned out, because it’s not pretty.
I was dependent on cheese—and even thinking about giving up cheese made me extremely nervous. What would I do without my pizza, cheese and crackers, grilled cheese, Greek salads with feta cheese?
After a lot of thinking about veganism, food choices, and where our food comes from, I knew that veganism was the lifestyle that I needed to live. Don’t worry. I’m not going to try to convert you, and I’m not going to take away your cheese.
I’m sharing this with you, because I want you to know that I fully understand how hard it is to change a habit or to form new habits.
If you want to be successful at changing a habit, you better have a damn good reason.
I would not have been able to give up cheese if I didn’t do a lot of research and learn a lot about how cheese is made, how cows are treated, and how factory farming affects the environment. If I didn’t have a damn good reason for changing my diet, I would not have been able to keep it up for this long.
Enough about my cheese addiction. Let’s talk creative biz habits.
Let’s say that you want to work on your creative business for one hour each evening after dinner. You’ve got big goals for turning your fledgling creative business into a successful, full-time venture. In order to do this, you have to give up an hour of television. This means saying goodbye to The Real Housewives of New Jersey and Seinfeld reruns.
At first glance, this might seem easy. But, we all know that habits are hard to change. You might make it through the first week, but when the second week rolls around and you catch a sneak peek of the next episode of The Real Housewives of New Jersey where Teresa upturns a table and freaks out on her sister-in-law for stealing her hair stylist, you might find yourself back in front of the TV “just this once.”
Remember the reason. Repeat it over and over. Mount it on your wall. Stick it on your fridge.
One thing that can help you stick with your new routine is to remember the reason that you’re doing it. “The why” is so important when you’re trying to change a habit. When you aren’t feeling motivated, think about the reason that you’re building or changing this habit.
Think about the last time you changed a habit. Did you have a good reason? Did that help you push through the times when you just wanted to give up?
I have to have bread. I know I am addicted to carbs; I get frustrated when I try to monitor them and that is not pretty. And then I had a tumor removed two years ago. When a weird cyst appeared on my foot several months ago my husband pretty much demanded that I do something about my eating habits.
There is no denying that when I eat over 100 grams of carbs in a day I get allergy like symptoms, bloated, and irritable. When I wrote this down I was finally able to recognize that whether or not it made any sense I had to follow through with this new habit.
Writing it down has made all of the difference for me.
Over the past couple years, I’ve been able to correlate what I eat to my health. It’s interesting how much eating habits can affect how we feel physically and emotionally. When I’m going down a “junk food” path, I remind myself that I’m going to pay for it. I’ll be sluggish and cranky if I don’t eat healthy foods, so I can relate!
I wish health and happiness for you! Thanks for sharing your story–maybe it will inspire others to write down what they’re eating and how it affects them.
April, I struggle everyday with an almost 20 year habit. I smoke. It’s been one of the hardest things I ever have tried giving up. I’ve tried everything and some products work better than others. My next quit date is next month I’m trying electronic cigarettes. After doing some research I found I can control the amount of nicotine until it’s down to nothing. If I still feel that need to smoke I can use the no nicotine version without bothering anyone else with smoke. I realize that the biggest part of smoking for me is a fidgety, nervous habit it’s something that calms me when I’m upset. I can live without the nicotine and chemicals (i’ve done that) but not the action itself. April, I wish you the best of luck giving up cheese and dairy, some of my knitting group friends are vegan and they tell me they still really miss cheese. I chose a vegetarian lifestyle myself as my body can’t seem to process meat protein.
I feel for you Brandi! My mom has smoked for most of her life. She tried to quit many times and went back to smoking. She stopped smoking a few years ago and hasn’t smoked since–but I know it was one of the toughest things she’s ever done.
Thanks for the support! I’m good without cheese now, because it’s been over a year. But the first few months were a struggle. I’ve found other foods that satiate those types of cravings, but it took me a while to find them and adjust. There are those moments when I miss it–but I don’t get the cravings anymore.
Im in the process of breaking up with dairy milk. For me, I just had to do it. Just start up with the soy milk. But getting myself to stop with the regular milk took months. I know that this is how I work though – in business too – think about doing whatever it is FOEVER and then FINALLLLLY just start doing it and its not so scary or difficult. It’s the time in between thinking it up and starting to do it thats worse than actually starting to do the new different thing.
Danielle, I suffer from that “starting” syndrome too! Procrastination is one of the things I’m working on 🙂
I know what you mean Danielle! That in between time usually is worse!
There are so many habits I’d like to change but I get so overwhelmed and inpatient. It’s like I want to wake up tomorrow and have the perfect routine and lose those pesky pounds. But alas, I stay frozen in my old ways. I’m still trying to find a way to take those baby steps. Maybe the answer is a different ‘why?’
Danielle hit the nail on the head, it’s getting over the thinking part and just doing it. It’s so so scary!
Hey Bridgett,
Try to just make one small change at a time. So, if you want to lose weight–try doing one small thing that will help you lose it. That might mean having a healthy breakfast, taking a 20 minute walk during your lunch break, or doing 15 minutes of yoga in the evenings. Instead of trying to makeover your whole life, pick one small thing at a time. It’ll be less scary and once you’ve made that one change, it’ll be easier to make another and then another.
Cupcakes are my weakness. Which is another way of saying, I’m addicted to all things sugar related… in other worlds POISON. It’s terrible, I know. And I know it’s so bad for me. I’ve noticed that if I each cupcakes when I want to I feel like crap, so I’ve had to literally train my body to eat the things that full me + not kill me. A habit that involves eating healthy 6 days out of the week, only allowing one free day. I call it: the postpone present pleasure for future gain rule + I’ve heard it’s a discipline that translates to all areas in life once you master it.
You can see more on that in this video I love so much called, Don’t Eat The Marshmallow Yet 🙂
http://www.ted.com/talks/joachim_de_posada_says_don_t_eat_the_marshmallow_yet.html
I swear by it! And I believe I owe 99% of my success to it 🙂
I used to looooooooove my cupcakes, too! Now that I’m gluten-free, they’re kind of a pain to make, so we don’t have sweets in the house very often. That keeps me from eating them 🙂
But, I’m a salty girl. I like my chips! It’s my weakness, so I don’t usually buy them at the store. if I don’t have them in the house, I don’t eat them.
I love the one free day rule! I used to have that rule!!! Now, I eat healthy most of the time because I’m vegan and gluten-free. It’s had to eat a lot of junk food when you don’t have many junk food choices.
Really great post and right on time!
I found it very hard for me to change habits. But since I’ve been laid of and I’m working to make my creative business a success I needed to change some things in my life.
I try to wake up earlier every day (I like to sleep but I’m more productive in the morning), do some kind of exercise, drink more water, eat more fruit and vegetables. Most times I can do all of this, some times I don’t 🙂
I used to crochet in front of the tv and now I stop doing that and this is a big thing for me, because it keep me company since I’m alone at home.
I’m getting more things done and that makes me happy. My goal of having a successful business is what makes me not to give up.
Mayi, I too have a sugar addiction that I found very hard to abandone! Maybe there’s a 12 step program that we can join?
Thanks for sharing Marta! I’m sorry to hear that you were laid off. But, I’m glad to hear that you are working hard to counteract that! I just took a look at your Etsy shop, and your pictures and products are really nice. I especially like the gray modern crochet doily. I wish you tons of success!
Thanks, April! That means a lot to me!
When I went vegan people constantly asked me how I did it, and that they couldn’t possibly do it. I always replied. You can if you really want to. It’s actually surprisingly easy.