Assembling your Elephant: "It Looks Like a Snake!"

Snakes: a long limbless reptile that has no eyelids, a short tail, and jaws that are capable of considerable extension. Some snakes have a venomous bite. - Thank you Dictionary.  Snakes can be brightly colored and obvious or hidden within their surroundings.  Snakes can be beautiful and intriguing or can be defensive and dangerous.  Snakes can be larger than life or barely noticeable.  No matter their shape, size, coloration or demeanor, all snakes are sneaky.

There are several ways we can apply this to your Elephant.  Let's begin with diet.  Within your diet are sneaky ingredients that can sabotage even the most ambitious efforts.  Aspartame and the like.  High fructose corn syrup. Artificial colors and flavors. Sugar.  Nitrates.  Sulfites. Tartrazine. Sodium benzoate.  Even ingredients like E1520 and E620 are snuck in to assist with color, flavor or shelf life.  These all but invisible ingredients (dozens more exist) are found within packaged, processed foods products conveniently designed and marketed as natural or healthy.  What is E1520 anyway? 

There are larger, more obvious food snakes as well. Soda.  Ice cream. Fast-Food.  Luncheon meat.  Breakfast cereal.  Powdered cheese sauce.  Minute rice.  Canned fruit.  Bagels.  Microwaveable vegetable pouches.  Bread. Turkey Bacon (I know I probably lost a few readers on that one).  Many of these foods are relatively fine all by themselves if eaten once a month or when in a bind, but if your menu is breakfast cereal and canned fruit for breakfast, a cold cut sandwich with a soda for lunch, and minute rice with steamed, microwaved veggies for dinner and ice cream for dessert, you may be sabotaging your health without even knowing it.  

Snakes mightn't be food at all but sneaky behaviors that derail even the most determined train.  Self doubt.  Complacency.  Comparison to others.  Excuses.  Denial.  Fear.  These mind sets sneak in and with considerable extension smother determination, dreams, goals, interest, passion, purpose, growth, life and possibility.  Sometimes it happens so invisibly over time that it isn't recognized until  a bottom is found.  The good news is that at any moment you have the ability and courage within you to rid yourself of the snake.  It may take more than one foul swoop, but it is possible.  

Start with real food.  Foods without labels make great snake repellents.  Give your vitamins their vitamins by eating many colors and textures and flavors.  Wash it all in with water.  And, because snakes have a musky odor, remember to wash your hands. 

How is your Elephant coming along?

Share your story, ask your questions, or report your progress below.  I would love to have a conversation with you!

Anna~