While it is an inevitable part of life, for most of us, change is never easy.  When our normal routine is threatened by things like career moves (good or bad), family crisis, a change in our children’s schedule or any number of other unforeseen circumstances, often the eating plan you have laid out can suffer.  But it is important to remember that just because something is changing in your life, it does not mean that the healthy lifestyle you have been working on needs to be altered as well.

There are different ways change tends to affect people’s eating.  If the change has been brought on by stress, eating to handle the added pressure can sometimes follow.  Or you got that long awaited promotion or a new job and your schedule has changed.  All of the hard work in fitting healthy eating into your old schedule now goes out the window.  What I want you to know is change does not have to set you back to the beginning.

Think about all the strategies you have learned over the past year.  These are all tools you have added to your mindful eating toolbox.  Tools you can use to tackle problems like change.  By maintaining the healthy lifestyle you have created, you add stability to your life that the change threatens.  If you don’t alter your healthy habits, you will find the change seems less intimidating and just another part of life.  By maintaining or taking control of your healthy lifestyle, you will exercise better control over handling this change as well.

A famous German spiritual author named Eckhart Tolle said, “Some changes look negative on the surface but you will soon realize that space is being created in your life for something new to emerge.”  Allow yourself to embrace whatever change comes your way, knowing that by maintaining the intuitive eating principles you have set for yourself, you emerge a stronger, healthier person, and become even more ready to face changes in the future.

Your turn to take action: How will you prepare to handle change in your life without changing your healthy lifestyle?