For my third step, I decided to compare the food choices for kapha and the list that was given to me by my doctor and I made up a list of what I could eat.  From there, I chose recipes that included those items and set up a diet plan I could follow.  Unfortunately, I soon realized that I was rationalizing delays in implementing this new diet.  I put myself back a week starting this process because of what I explained away as the agitation from quitting diet sodas and caffeine.  After sabotaging this process of my experiment day after day, I decided that I needed some self-reflection to determine why I was throwing up barricades and excuses in this portion of the experiment.  After some deep introspection, I realized that I had an inherent opposition to referring to this portion of the experiment as a “diet”, a word I detest.  I also fostered a deep-seated justification to eating what I deemed to be comfort, “single girl” food, an interconnected relationship from mindless eating when I was in college and while I was single.  I had to change my internal dialogue to view this as a meal plan, not a diet.  I also had to challenge my view of processed food as comfort food and try to break the desire to maintain that interconnected relationship I had built.

After this breakthrough, I immediately went to the store to begin this portion of the experiment.  While this portion of the process has proven to be the most difficult for me and I haven’t followed the meal plan to the letter, my dietary habits have improved considerably.  I had an epiphany once the caffeine withdrawals had ceased that this portion of the process could be just as successful as the first two steps by selecting unhealthy items in my meal repertoire and phasing them out gradually but consciously replacing them with a healthy substitute.  I found that giving myself permission to tackle one issue at a time made this experiment easier and more realistic for future maintenance.