Someone I care about who isn’t exactly on the same wavelength as me (and shall remain nameless) has often told me about all the hardships involved with particular tasks that just so happen to be good for you. Running, he says, is really bad for your joints. Eating right means giving up life’s pleasures. Getting thin isn’t worth giving up foods you enjoy.

Au contraire, I say. It’s simply not the case.

Somehow — as a society, as a culture, as humans(? that might be a stretch — I don’t think happens in all cultures) — we have gotten it into our heads that there should be no discomfort involved in life, from the moment we wake up till the moment we fall asleep at night.

But that’s not how life really works. At least not when we’re growing and learning and expanding our horizons, and this definitely applies to healthy eating and weight loss and getting fit and most other things related to this blog. :)

When you first try anything (yes, anything, even things you are naturally talented in doing), it’s new, it’s a little awkward. You feel clumsy, stilted, unable to do things the way you want to. There are fits and starts, and your mind rebels and says, “Hey, I wanna do something fun.” With a little time and practice, though, it gets easier, the road seems smoother and suddenly you are just in the flow, gliding along effortlessly as if you’d never struggled a bit. This pattern is true for just about every learning process worth doing in life, and I’ve found no way to bypass it entirely no matter what (though certainly there are plenty of things you can do to make things less stressful, and that’s what I help my clients do!).

But let’s take healthy eating, for example. You start out by making new foods or preparing foods in new ways, and it’s initially hard because there’s a learning curve. Maybe a recipe (or two or twelve) doesn’t turn out exactly the way you want it to. Maybe you miss certain foods at first. Maybe you start tuning into emotional eating patterns you didn’t even know existed in your brain, and it stresses you to find this out.

I’m going through the same thing right now as I get back into shape. For 7 weeks or so now I’ve been back in a workout pattern that is getting me in great shape. But sometimes I push harder than I meant to, and I have lousy joints unless I’m careful with how I train, so — like today — I have a painful joint that I need to baby for a few days till it gets well enough to work out again.

Why I mention this:

One could incorrectly deduce that because I’m in a tiny bit of pain right now (let’s call it discomfort), I shouldn’t work out period. But that’s silly! When I work out, I feel better, sleep better, look better and have even more energy for my son and my clients and for running my business. A little discomfort now and then isn’t a big deal as long as I attend to it carefully and gently, I allow my body to heal, and I don’t let the pain turn into a huge injury that ends up causing problems for many different areas of my life.

Running isn’t necessarily bad for your joints. It can be if you don’t do it right, if you’re not in good shape when you start doing it for your joints to handle it, if you run too much for what your body can handle, and so forth. But running itself isn’t bad and necessarily to be avoided.

Similarly, eating healthfully is actually not a way of taking away pleasure from yourself in the longer term. It’s the opposite! Sure, you’ll initially miss a few foods you’ve eaten all your life. We’re creatures of habit, and that’s how it goes. (And I struggled with this a lot myself, so I’m not trying to minimize your pain if this is something you’re currently wrestling with!) But eating right is really about giving yourself the gift of long-term health, plenty of energy, stamina to tackle every single day — pleasure of a much more exquisite kind, I have to say. I personally am overjoyed daily with the incredible gift of health that I personally have been given as a result of my own lifestyle change to healthier eating and living. Without it, I can’t imagine trying to chase after my son (and in fact, I didn’t feel capable of caring for a child prior to getting healthy — I could barely take care of myself due to all the illnesses I suffered needlessly from).

But the simple fact remains: It is sometimes painful to make the transition from your old way of eating or thinking or acting or whatever, and yet the discomfort you feel is all totally, utterly worth it and in no way makes the initial change unworthy. The discomfort typically also makes you learn incredible things about yourself and your way of thinking, which is a great by-product that lasts you a lifetime.

And having said all that, I want to say once again that there are plenty of constructive things you can do to make it simpler to transition to healthy eating, to finally losing the weight and getting your health under control. Easing in can really help. Being gentle with yourself often makes it much easier. And you can also rest assured that the initial discomfort is fleeting, whereas the long-term pleasure from getting healthy and thin makes you feel incredible, empowered, really, truly happy — and it’s pleasure that lasts as long as you continue to follow the same path.

So yeah, I’ll take a little pain — a wee bit here and there, a smidgen ;) — if it means I can get the life I want. (And I do, in fact, have the life I want, though I’m always striving to enhance and improve anything I can.) :) And I encourage you to do the same.