Achievable vs Sustainable

I have a personal philosophy concerning change. I have been thinking about it since recently a couple of my friends have embarked on life changing projects that are spectacular and dramatic. And so have we, with this savings project.

My philosophy came about few years ago, when the baker and I embarked on a weight loss program, let's call it WW. We did brilliantly and still maintain ourselves around the old landmines of Christmas, Easter, birthdays and such. But we worked hard. You had to do a lot of thinking and planning. You had to make some choices and changes that would be there forever. It wasn't a short term stint, we followed that program for more than 12 months.

To successfully complete the program, you do six weeks of 'maintenance', where you work out how to stop losing weight and live 'normally' again. About half way through our journey I found myself using this finishing point as a motivator. Like 'Ohh, I'm going to have butter on my toast again when I get to maintenance,' and 'Ohh, I'm going to have 60gms of cereal when I'm on maintenance,'. Then one day the leader suggested that I add up all those things that I was going to go back to eating on maintenance, and see if I could do those things while successfully maintaining my weight. I would not.

I had to look again at what I was doing everyday, the choices that I'd made that I wasn't intending on continuing with. And I had to think again about what I could do, as opposed to what I would do. My choices had to be achievable, and sustainable. I could live without buttered toast, but I wouldn't. I had to choose something else.

Thus my philosophy was born. Achievable vs sustainable. I find myself living this way again with our savings plan. We certainly do without many, many things, but what about later? What are we just going to go back to buying, having, using? And what are we using, having, buying now without even thinking about? Are we denying ourselves some things and mindlessly consuming others? The powdered milk episode is a perfect example. I can use it, I did use it for a few weeks, but now I don't. I don't like it. So I'm back buying regular milk and looking for alternative product substitutes.

I had to think about my philosophy as I shopped at our local, huge supermarket for the first time in months. I didn't have the time or energy to go to Aldi, so, list in hand, budget in wallet, I hit the shiny, tempting-product laden aisles of the megamarket.

I did well. Very few branded items, nothing other than what was on the list and within budget. I saw aisles and aisles of things we don't use or need, and I saw what I buy week in, week out. I realised that shopping at Aldi has re-trained me, and I know what we need. I also noticed that there's very few things I'm leaving out or missing on the weekly shop, which is good. A sign of sustainable changes.

I hope a burst of my philosophy helps my dear friends who are facing similar choices to reach their own goals. Can you see yourself doing this in a month, by Christmas, next year? Will you still be doing it then? Will you be able to? Check back. The end goal is a massive motivator, but if the way you're living now isn't a part of the end result, you will find yourself doing this over, and over again. Change is hard, change is challenging. The hardest part is to stop fooling yourself that you've made a change when you haven't.

To my more paranoid friends- the last paragraph is not directed at anyone specific. The 'you' isn't necessarily you, I could mean me, not you. You are all brilliant and I am ever supportive of all your endeavours.