I will turn 42 next month and in that 42 years, I have never been a vegetable eater.

You wouldn’t need a second hand to count how many times I have eaten vegetables (excluding potatoes) in my life.

I have lived on the Irish diet of bread, potatoes, and meat.

You might wonder why I am telling you this but there is a point.

A couple of days ago, I was talking to a friend and I was telling him how I want to be healthier.

Over the past couple of years, with my brother’s illness and death; I lost some motivation and put back on some weight that I had lost.

The difference this time is that I don’t just want to be someone who loses weight; I want to be someone who lives healthy, and that means eating healthy.

It’s about how I identify myself.

The role of the stir-fry

My friend suggested that I start eating more vegetables in the form of stir-fries and then gradually introduce more vegetables and a greater variety of meals.

My first thought was that I would have to look up how to cook a stir-fry then, I would have to buy the equipment e.g. a wok.

So, I told my friend that I would make a stir-fry next week.

Yesterday when I woke, my first thought was:

‘If you want to live healthy, take action now!’

With that, I walked down to the shops (I did get dressed first), bought some pre-prepared vegetables (to minimise resistance) and some sweet and sour stir-fry sauce.

When I got home, I only had a frying pan so I used that for the vegetables.

I then cooked the meat on the George Foreman grill before dicing it up and throwing it in with the vegetables and adding the sauce.

The result was delicious but that was not what was important.

I now believe myself to be someone who lives healthy and I had taken my first step to reinforce that belief.

Today, I sprung out of bed, and following meditation, I went for a walk, done a kettlebell workout, and spent 20 minutes stretching.

I followed that up this evening with another lovely stir-fry.

In two days, I have shown more commitment towards healthy living than I have in the past 2 years and all because I chose to identify myself differently.

My stir-fry won’t change the world but taking daily small positive actions, consistent with my chosen identity will change my life, and the stir-fry was the first of those actions.

Big changes won’t happen overnight but they will over time.

The lesson

We are often put off making changes in our lives because we believe they are going to require massive action but the best results come from taking small actions consistently.

The best way to get yourself to do this is by adopting the identity of the person you want to be e.g. in my case I chose to see myself as someone who lives healthy.

When you adopt and commit to a new identity, you feel compelled to be consistent with that identity.

This encourages you to make the right choice in the moment of decision and every time that you do, you reinforce the new identity.

That small actions are what makes real and lasting change in your life.

So, maybe a stir-fry can change your life.