(If you are having trouble viewing the video, you can watch it here.)
Hi, everyone! I had a few days off this week and was happy to spend the extra time with my kids. Since my daughter is in school during the day, it was just me and my one-year-old for a good part of the day. It took him a little longer than average to start walking. But, since he got the hang of it, he has taken off and never looks back. He also loves being outside all.the.time. so, being a summer person, I am a little disheartened with the cooler weather change.
But the weather doesn’t stop him. He is a man on a mission. And while he has been walking well on his own for a few months now, he will occasionally have little bumps and trip-ups. (Especially when he is excited, running towards something.)
Watching him this week, I feel like many people who are trying to change their eating patterns can relate to what he’s going through.
It takes a lot of focus at first. We are changing many things we do throughout the day. But then we get the confidence to cruise around and then walk well on our own.
That doesn’t mean we might not ever trip or bump into anything.
We might overeat at one meal. We might realize half-way through a snack that we’re not actually hungry. We might forget to bring a snack with us somewhere and get HANGRY!
The point is, while he might cry for a minute, he just gets right back up and keeps going on his merry way. He might turn to me for comfort, and I will provide it.
What I don’t do is berate him for falling. Can you even imagine? Just yelling at a baby who is learning a new skill.
Most of my clients aren’t babies. In fact, they seem pretty comfortable yelling at themselves if they don’t stick to our meal plan or don’t meet a goal we have in place.
Will I yell at them? Nope. Will I comfort them? You bet. They are learning a new skill and I am here for support when they need it. We might dig a little deeper to make sure our plan is set at an achievable level (like, I wouldn’t encourage my son to run a 5k right now), but otherwise it’s just that new skills take time to learn.
This was such a beautiful post. We need to encourage more and judge less. Thank you for sharing this.