It’s kind of a misnomer, this page. Because it’s not about dieting per se but about positive change and habit formation. It’s about POWER. I am not a big fan of unsustainable dieting or of undue deprivation but I do understand that a lot of people are after changing things in their diet for the better. But it’s not just diet that this page is about though, I mean, it can be anything requiring positive change – from ‘drink more water’ to ‘cut out sugar’ or ‘give up soda’ to ‘exercise more’, ‘push yourself harder’, ‘get more sleep.’ All changes require the formation of a HABIT, well, at least most changes that are here to stay fare best when integrated into a routine that we no longer question. It’s cementing that routine that’s the hardest part so I’m sharing with you my Stairway in case you, like me, are a ‘visual person’ and you want to use it to get to where you want to be.

All you need is this: A piece of cardboard or posterboard, tape, and a cut-out person (this will be you). Step 1: draw a stairway on the posterboard beginning on one edge and ending on the other. You could make it shorter and draw something at the end like, I don’t know, something you want to reward yourself with when you get there (e.g. you could draw a spa to indicate where you’ll be going when you reach the top ;-)) Step 2: draw a person going up. You can use my picture to the left here (click on it) by tracing it on a piece of paper and cutting it out or, better yet, you can make your own one and customize it to look more like you ;-)

Step 3: stick some tape behind the person so you can stick and unstick it on the cardboard (you’re going to have to replace the tape halfway as it loses its stickiness but that’s OK). You can also just pin the stairs on a cork-board and just use tacks to move yourself up. Step 4: Every day that you follow your plan, you go up a step in the stairway. In this way, you get to visualize how far you’ve been and all the steps it’s taken to get to where you are!

Then, of course, if you ‘fall off the wagon,’ AAA!!! you fall off the stairs and have to begin again at step number one! Eventually though, it will look something like this: