No Time For Soup- GAPS!

This makes me smile.

   
     For the last two weeks I have been under an extreme amount of stress- a three year project coming to completion. With all my time being spent on painting, rearranging, unpacking and cleaning, when was I supposed to cook and eat?  I simply had no time to make soup.  Looking back over the two weeks I am amazed I ate anything at all, and if it was not for my die hard commitment to stay on Intro until I completed it, I would have stopped and gone back to eating what was in the house, or what I could get to the house with a phone call.

     This lead me to think about ways I fail.  No one sets out to fail.  No one makes a plan and includes, "and then quit completely, and admit failure".  We all plan to succeed at whatever we start out to do.  Our goals are optimistic and maybe even lofty.  Anyone who sets goals for themselves is shooting for the stars, not planning to quit and admit defeat.  So what separates the finishers from the quitters?  Why am I still on Intro, instead of eating a Jimmy John's sandwich.  Here are five reasons not to quit.

Five Reasons Not To Quit

1. Remember why you started.  Why did you start in the first place?  What has changed, except your temptations and resolve?  Do you still want your goal?  I started GAPS because I want to heal my gut.  I started GAPS because I believe this is the path that God wants me on.  I am doing Intro because it is a healthy choice for my body.  Nothing has changed, I still want to finish this diet, and I still believe I can do it.

2. It is hard, but you are strong.  What you are going through is tough; it is hard.  The fact is, though, you are strong.  You are capable.  You can do it.  Period.  I did not quit because I told myself I could do it.

3. This is not forever.  It is going to end.  Life will go on.  Whatever you are facing will not last forever.  Endurance and perseverance will pay off.  Hang in there.

4. You want that reward.  I have promised  myself a trip to see my best friend if I see this diet to the end.  This reward is twofold.  First, I want the reward, and I am able to fight off temptation a little bit better because I have a trump card in my back pocket (i.e. seeing my best friend trumps eating a pumpkin pancake).  Second, because I have told my best friend that I get to drop everything and come see her if I can stick to this diet, I now have a level of accountability as well, and the reward is for her too (not that I think so highly of myself that I would consider her seeing me as a reward for her, but I know that she wants me to come see her, thus it is good for her too).

5. You are believing a lie.  This is the biggest reason not to quit.  What ever is tempting you to quit has a lie that goes with it.  For example, I am tempted to eat the mashed potatoes I just made my kids.  Why?  Because I told myself that there is nothing else to eat that is easy, or ready.  That is the lie.  I have broth and broccoli, and I can quickly boil the broccoli and have "soup".  I just need to think out of the box, and remember the other four reasons not to quit.

     I did a lot of thinking outside the box these past two weeks.  Not having soup on hand did not throw off my progress on Intro.  Over the course of the two weeks I used broccoli, cauliflower and green beans in a similar fashion.  After cooking a whole chicken in a crock pot, I took the broth and boiled my vegetable of choice in it.  I used salt and pepper, and it was delicious.  It was actually a nice break from soup.  If I had to pick one, I actually preferred the one vegetable cooked in broth to a melody in soup.  With the green beans I added garlic.  It was so good!

     It all paid off.  I am now on Stage 3!  If I had given in to temptations and lies I would be starting over, now that the stress is over, on Stage 1 again.  That is what I have to remember, and hang on to when temptations come at me.  WILL POWER!