#9: #1 Obstacle to Achieving Your Stepparenting Goal

Hello stepparents! Recently I’ve done several episodes relating to wellness.
Like finding a sanity routine, find the show notes for that episode at www.synergisticstepparenting.com/7. And the benefits of yoga and how it led me to finding my stepparenting superpower, find the show notes for that episode at www.synergisticstepparenting.com/8. 
In this episode I’d like to explore the most common obstacle that I’ve seen prevent stepparents from achieving their goals. Find the show notes for this episode at www.synergisticstepparenting.com/9.
Recently I’ve been doing intermittent fasting. The way I do it is I eat relatively healthy during an 8-hour window and only drink liquids the rest of the time. During the first month of this lifestyle change, I became aware of my eating habits.
The Destructive Long Term Habit I Didn't Realize I Had
I realized that what I had been doing prior was akin to hoarding food. Eating much larger portions than my body needed, past the point of hunger. Eating when I was bored or when I thought I was supposed to eat. Not just when my body needed to eat.
It was interesting to suddenly become aware of this habit that I had been practicing for decades without realization.
It also became apparent that a large contributing factor to developing this habit were my caregivers. Don’t get me wrong, my grandparents were remarkable people. But learning about their history, it was clear why food was how they showed love and why it was such a big deal.
My grandfather was on the front lines during WWII enlisting just before his 20th birthday. He walked from Kiev, Ukraine, to Trosiny, Poland on foot. He accomplished many heroic feats during those last 11 months of the war, among them freeing a concentration camp.
During that year he also became intimately familiar with hunger.
My grandmother evacuated Moscow, Russia fleeing to Omsk, Russia with her mother and sister at 14 years old. They lived there for 4 years, the remainder of WWII. The available rations of food were very small and in spite selling off family possessions for extra bits of food, they were starving.
Rumor has it some days her mother, my great grandmother, had to choose which child to feed.
How Your Thoughts, Beliefs and Actions Keep You Stuck
So, it’s no wonder I remember my grandmother cooking all the time and feeding everyone who chanced to stop by for a visit.
My grandparents raised me for most of my early life. They were truly magical people ... full of love, a zest for life, a love for travel, erudite and exceedingly generous.
It’s not surprising given their history, though, that from an early age I had to finish everything on my plate. And when I was particularly resistant to it, I was bribed with sweets to do so.
You see the nuances of our caregivers’ thoughts, beliefs, and actions seep into us at a very young age when we’re absorbing knowledge like sponges. When we’re little, we take on their thoughts as our own. Beliefs are just thoughts we think for a long time.
And our beliefs affect and inform our actions.
#1 One Thing in the Way of Achieving Stepparenting Goals for My VIP Clients is Their Mindset
In my work with my VIP clients in the Stepparenting Breakthrough program - learn more about that at www.synergisticstepparenting.com/workwithmaria - I noticed that the number one thing in the way of reaching their goals is their mindset.
Find the FULL episode and show notes here. 

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