Comfort Zones

How many times have you heard someone say that they tried to become vegan but went back to eating animal products after a few months?

Often they’ll say that they didn’t feel right once they started eating vegan foods. This has a lot to do with comfort zones.

Becoming vegan is a big change for many people. Sometimes, people don’t succeed in their goal of living a vegan lifestyle because their comfort zones hold them back.

So, what are comfort zones?

Everybody has comfort zones that relate to a wide variety of areas in our lives. Comfort zones are basically the general range of activities, behaviors and results that a person is used to and feels comfortable with.

Comfort zones can be great because they keep us from going below our standards. However, they can also hold us back from going too far above our current results and keep us trapped.

It’s not that you don’t want to enjoy moving in a direction that is good for you. The mind just has a way of always trying to keep things the same to maintain consistency.

Comfort zones want to keep us right where we are- whether we’re changing things for better or worse. Here’s an example…

Have you ever known someone (not you of course, but maybe someone you know) who seems to be on a diet every time you see them and yet never seems to consistently lose the extra weight?

They’ve tried every diet under the sun, from Atkin’s to Weight Watchers to the latest Oprah diet. Just when they start to lose a few pounds, they gain all of the weight back- plus a few extra pounds just to be sure!

These people have established a comfort zone that is centered on a certain weight. If a person is comfortable at 150 pounds, then anytime she notices her weight going over 160 she will self-correct and lose those ten pounds.

That’s the good news…

The bad news is that if that same person is on a diet and can finally fit into her favorite jeans at 140 pounds, she will also self-correct and gain those ten pounds back in order to be at her comfort zone of 150 pounds.

Comfort zones don’t just have the potential to interfere with weight loss. They can also hold people back from making lifestyle changes like going vegan.

How do comfort zones affect new vegans?

Just as new vegans start to really enjoy the vegan lifestyle, they realize that being vegan is different from the lifestyle they are used to. At this point, they may start to self-correct and find reasons to go back to their comfort zone of eating animal products.

They might make themselves believe that the vegan diet isn’t right for their blood type (yeah, I’ve actually heard that one). Or, they may subconsciously sabotage their efforts by “accidentally” forgetting to pack vegan foods on a trip so they have no choice but to grab a burger at the drive-through.

Have you noticed times when comfort zones held you back?