I got lots of comments from you privately and here on the blog about my “Decisions, Decisions” post, and it occurred to me after I posted that decisions are really what drive us to reach our goals. Even tiny decisions matter.

A couple thoughts:

1) Today I was at the grocery store loading up on healthy stuff to take on the road tomorrow afternoon (whole grain bread for my son, easily portable fruit, brazil nuts and other good stuff to tide us over while we’re gone overnight), and I had a flashback to the days when I was transitioning to healthy eating. I had made a rule for myself that I would not leave the grocery store with junk in my cart, and I recall having inner debates with myself *while at the store, pushing my shopping cart through the supermarket, probably looking mildly insane* :) and putting certain foods back due to this rule. If I hadn’t decided I wanted to be thin and healthy more than I wanted whatever it was that appealed at the time (I’m thinking it was chocolate-covered raisins or some such), I’d have left with those foods, eaten them, felt lousy, craved more sugar and other junk and not gotten where I wanted to go with my life nearly as quickly.

Once you decide, you have to really make the cut. It might be inconvenient or frustrating in the moment, but if you really choose health, you’ll do the right thing by saying no to what you want in the moment. Having simple rules to follow really helps.

2) Longer term, you can rely on previous positive experiences to motivate you. But it helps to have a clear focus.

I don’t have the same trouble I once did making changes in my diet when I need to because I’ve had so many positive experiences doing it now that I can rely on those to guide me. This will happen for you as well the longer you do it!

But occasionally I do still have to make tweaks in what I eat, and this past week was one such week because something just wasn’t working. And today, there I stood at Whole Foods, thankfully not hungry (seriously, folks, don’t go to the store if you’re hungry if this is a problem for you!) but still feeling a twinge of frustration that I couldn’t buy a particular item. (What it was is irrelevant because it’s a perfectly healthy food, just one that seems not to agree with my body.) There was a part of me that wanted to buy it and put off my body’s “cleanup” process until I had one more round. Might as well say one more fix, which is the truth of the matter because my body responds to the food like it’s a drug.

But again, I’m well-practiced at this by now, so my logic kicked in and said, “Jennifer, you like to feel good every day, right? You’re tired of these cravings you’ve had the last little while that you’ve been trying to figure this out, right?”

And reason took over, reminded me to walk past that section and I’m over it. In another couple days, I’ll care even less. And in the meantime, my body will have completely detoxed, I’ll be craving-free again and I’ll feel calm, steady and ready to tackle anything life throws at me.

That’s a pretty big motivator — that longer-term picture of happiness, of more patience with my son (you see, when I eat certain foods — like certain fruits, as is the case here — it affects my mood/temperament in a way I’d rather it not), of not feeling like I’m chasing after yet another fix from a food that my body doesn’t like, which leads to highly unnecessary highs and lows.

Do you have a picture of what you want to achieve in your mind? Do you have it written down? How vivid is it?

If you’re not clear on what you want, it’s much easier to get distracted there in the moment. I know that if I want to have my best possible life, I have to eat well to feel well, feel happy, not feel harried and impatient with a not-quite-20-month-old little boy who needs me to be his center, to be more productive in less time when I work, to help my clients as effectively as possible. What do you want? Really?