Bamboo spends it’s first four years barely above ground. It doesn’t look like much is happening.

But guess what? It’s happening.

In the fifth year, it shoots up 80 to 90 feet in one year. All along the rhizome system beneath the earth had been growing stronger and stronger. Building it’s foundation. Gathering the solid footing it would need for its next stages.

It can’t be rushed. There’s no quick rhizomey-kinda fix. There’s no shot, or powder, or pill, or surgery to make the bamboo grow faster. When it’s ready, it’s ready.

Optimal health is that way.

It takes time to reach a healthy weight and stay there. It takes time to get your head on straight about food things, especially if it’s been crooked much of your life. It’s a multi-step process–getting the food down, balancing the exercise, dealing with the triggers, using food as an emotional salve, assimilating in a healthy way with a food-addicted/obsessed culture, finding a healthy spiritual place, and identifying your own unique calling. There are many parts. It’s a process that can’t be rushed.

Know this: if you are moving each day in that direction, it’s happening.

I didn’t say “perfectly,” mind you. I didn’t say you must get an A+ and beat yourself up when you don’t. If you do that, stop it please. Stop it now. Don’t sabotage your journey in that way. Don’t beat yourself up. That will only set you back.

Do…let it go.

Celebrate what you do. Jump up and down when your baby steps move you to a healthier spot than you stood the day before. Know it’s a process. Know it’s happening.

And if you doubt that because you can’t see the evidence you want at the scale, in your pant size, or in your head, think of the bamboo. Commit to one baby step each day. Just one. Then wait, Lovelies, and see what happens when all your days come together.