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<\/a>Then something dramatic changes that throws your life out of kilter and your healthy habits out the window.\u00a0 That happened to me this week.\u00a0 Just a few days after opening our new business\u00a0 (a life-changing operation in itself) we had a death in the family.\u00a0 My brother-in-law suffered a traumatic head injury.\u00a0 While he was unconscious from the first, it took several days before all his automatic responses stopped and he was at rest.<\/p>\nEvery aspect of the acronym H.A.L.T. came into play during those long, difficult days. Don\u2019t get too hungry<\/em> — difficult if getting away at mealtimes is not convenient.\u00a0 Don\u2019t get too angry, or stressed.<\/em>\u00a0 Well, avoiding emotional stress was not an option!\u00a0 Don\u2019t get too lonely.<\/em>\u00a0 Lots of people around, but taking the quiet night watches made boredom eating a definite temptation, particularly since vending machines were convenient.\u00a0 Don\u2019t get too tired. <\/em>Needless to say, watching while someone you care about slowly passes from this life — and doing that for days — saps your energy and makes you instinctively look for a sugar boost.<\/p>\nAdd in the lack of choices available when you sleep during regular hours and stay up alone at night after the cafeteria closes, and you have a recipe for healthy habit breakdown.<\/p>\n
What can you do when life throws you a curve that can\u2019t be straightened out?\u00a0 You do your best and plan to get back on track as soon as possible.\u00a0 Diets fail because we think of them as temporary fixes and plan to go back to \u201cnormal\u201d as soon as we reach our goals.\u00a0 We can reverse that idea when we are in a place too difficult and too emotional to make wise choices.\u00a0 Tell yourself, as I did, that this is temporary and you will go back to your \u201cnew normal\u201d as soon as possible.\u00a0 If we are talking days, not weeks or months, you won\u2019t have any lasting damage.<\/p>\n
Heaven\u2019s streets are paved with gold, but we are still traveling on asphalt.\u00a0 We are going to experience trials and griefs.\u00a0 Things beyond our control will knock our good intentions flat at times.\u00a0 Just remember that these tough times will pass and plan to get back on track when they do.<\/p>\n
Eating to live and living for Christ,<\/p>\n
Susan Jordan Brown<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Sometimes it just happens.\u00a0 You are rolling along on your new healthy lifestyle and feeling pretty good — and good about yourself.\u00a0 You are developing a taste for good-for-you low glycemic food and only rarely miss that soda.\u00a0 Exercise has become a part of your life, not something you must do for a while. Then…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":423,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[68],"tags":[279,161,278,277],"class_list":["post-1002","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-encouragement","tag-death","tag-h-a-l-t","tag-hospital","tag-tragedy"],"yoast_head":"\n
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<\/a>Then something dramatic changes that throws your life out of kilter and your healthy habits out the window.\u00a0 That happened to me this week.\u00a0 Just a few days after opening our new business\u00a0 (a life-changing operation in itself) we had a death in the family.\u00a0 My brother-in-law suffered a traumatic head injury.\u00a0 While he was unconscious from the first, it took several days before all his automatic responses stopped and he was at rest.<\/p>\n