Change is challenging. Change is scary. Change sometimes seems impossible. This is true whether considering applying for a job in a new field, deciding to sell a house, breaking up with someone, switching to decaf coffee. And when the change we seek is as fundamental as the food we eat—and the potential effects on our health and bodies—we can find ourselves with thoughts that have become our default position: I can't do this.

There are myriad areas of our lives where self-doubt rules the day. This space is concentrated on the ketogenic protocol and how following it properly can break the cycle. Unlike the big changes (moving, asking for a promotion, etc.,) our food choices are made daily, often in front of others (can we say 'judgy- judgy?') What we eat (and decide not to eat, in the case of keto) can alter our appearance. Again, people might notice the change or, worse, the lack of change. If we've declared to all and sundry that "This is it. This time I'm going to make it work!" and then a week later, the office orders lunch delivery, and all can see the 6-inch sub and bag of chips on your desk, just as always. Blerg! Letting ourselves down—again—and reinforcing our insecurity. Not to mention "failing" in front of an audience. Not that falling short of our intentions while all alone is any better. It's just easier to compartmentalize and ignore, to promise tomorrow we'll do better.

How are we to stop limiting ourselves? Because let's face it, an ongoing mantra in the back of our minds about how we always fail or never stick to a new way of eating can pretty much guarantee we'll fall short, that we'll give up. How can we not? We've laid the future out for ourselves. So we need to flip the script, as they say. Remove can’t, never, always, and any other negative words from our thoughts. It takes practice. When we start listing all the ways we may falter, replace the thought with how we’ll succeed. We can acknowledge the pesky, offending put-downs without buying into them. “That was then, this is now”, and all that. In short, we need to speak to ourselves as we do to others whom we’re encouraging and cheering on.

Self-doubt makes us self-limiting. Would we allow anyone else to dictate to us what we are capable of? Probably not. (I always chuckle to myself when I hear someone say, "Don't tell me what I can't do, because that's all I need to hear to get it done!" If that's the case, ask someone to tell you you can't lay off the carbs, or show up on time for once, run a 4-minute mile.) No, we tell ourselves what we can't do, and then we follow suit.

The thing is, choosing what we eat is one of the very few aspects of life over which we have control. The weather? Nope. The economy? If, only. How long our neighbors leave their four anxious, vocal, oversized dogs alone in their under-sized backyard? Don't get me started.

But we are the deciders of what we eat. The habits of a lifetime may be challenging to modify, but it can be done. We created the practices. We can change them. 

The first step? We stop telling ourselves what we can't do, what we've always done, what others will think of our decisions. We can morph from self-doubting to self-assured, from self-limiting to self-actualizing. By the way, we needn't share what we're doing with anyone. This change is for us. We deserve it. We know what to do. And we can do it.

If I can do this, you can do this. I promise.