There is a lot of fear and anxiety surrounding the concept of changing your diet or committing to self-care because you don’t want to fail.

I know as, a mom and business owner, how hard it is to find the time for self-care.

Keeping a — family, social life, or business — healthy is challenging. And it’s easy for your self-care to take a backseat. Especially when it comes to eating right.  It’s easy for you to downplay your NEED and DESIRE for it.

I get it.

I want to set aside your fear and anxiety about failing or that you have to follow everything to the T. There seems to be a higher expectation to be perfect when it comes to eating right.

The reality is that you can not be so rigid.  You have to be kind and gentle to yourself.  Because every little step will make a difference. And if you keep moving forward, you’ll get there.

What you will find is that structure and knowledge will make things easier for you to eat right and care for yourself (and your family). You can take it all or just some of it.  No matter how much you take, you will find increased flexibility and ease.

I’ve taken bits and pieces from the interactions with the women in the past Wellness Bootcamps to show you.

“After the bootcamp I felt a big shift. I felt a lot more energy. I felt less hungry and less interested in crappy food. I am inspired to cook. Instead of letting things rot in the fridge or the counter, I find I am looking up recipes online. The Breakfast Challenge and the Spring Fling Bootcamp were warm-ups to get me familiar with eating healthy. Now it just comes easier and I feel much more relaxed.”

“One of the best things about the bootcamp was the weekly packets with tons of information and recipes. And I appreciated learning the ‘simple’ things I could do to improve my health (like drinking lemon water in the morning), along with some of the more challenging ideas (like trying to be gluten-free or daily-free).  I’ve incorporated the simple things and the recipes into our daily life. I have the tools to make the challenging things happen, when I am ready. I’m not there yet.”

“I’m not there yet”, she said and that’s ok because women do this for different reasons.

Some women want to feel better, some want to take the time for themselves. Some women want to learn more about healthy eating and cooking. Some do it to lose weight. Some want to be in a community of like-minded women to feel inspired and supported. And some want to be ‘hard-core’ and follow it to the T.

“I have been thinking a lot about what motivated me to join the Bootcamp. I normally don’t do anything like that.  I love to cook and I can find sources on my own.  I don’t think about carbs or calories or grams.  I just eat what I like and try to eat more healthy food than chocolate.   I really like Maria’s food and the way she thinks about food as the way to make your body healthier and love your body.”

“I’m not worried about a few pounds here or there.  I want to feel good physically and mentally.  Maria’s recipes do just that and they are interesting.”

“I really benefitted from having someone to talk to about eating habits in general and a group that I felt I wanted to be “accountable” to (i.e., help motivate me to stay on track or get back on track). I was inspired by Maria and the other women.”

“I had never tried to be gluten free before, so the few weeks of being gluten free was good from the standpoint of learning alternatives, reducing unnecessary calories, seeing how my body reacted, and having others to talk to about it.”

This is why I created the Online Wellness Retreats.  To give you the opportunity to put structure around eating healthy, to let you explore how your body would react, and to be surrounded and inspired by other women.

Understanding your reason and your goal will help you get comfortable with how much you are able to do.

I love that all these women decided to participate.  They each got what they needed to get one step closer to feeling healthy and taking good care of themselves.

You have to start where you are. You won’t be perfect but you will get one step closer.

The Spring Fling Online Wellness Retreat starts tomorrow, Friday April 29th.  There is still time to register. I hope you will join me from whatever point you are in your journey.