I've been wanting to learn how to make sourdough bread for a really long time.

Literally for years.

But it seemed so intimidating.

So, for the past year and a half, I've been ordering real sourdough bread online from a company called WildGrain because most of the "sourdough" you buy at the grocery store isn't actually real sourdough at all—they just add vinegar to make it taste sour.

But real sourdough has to be fermented the old-fashioned way, with all the good bacteria and probiotics that your gut loves. 

And, in case you’re wondering, yes, I do eat bread! I know that surprises people sometimes, given what I teach about cutting out sugar and processed carbs. But I'm in Phase 3 of my health journey now—metabolically flexible—which means I can enjoy healthy carbohydrates like real sourdough without any problems.

The thing is, ordering bread online gets expensive. 

And I kept thinking, "I should just learn how to make this myself."

But every time I looked into it, I got overwhelmed. 

The starter. The feeding schedule. The timing. The kneading. It all seemed so complicated.

Then a few months ago, I was bidding on items for our church charity auction—just trying to support a good cause—and I saw a sourdough-making class for up to 10 people. 

So last Thursday night, the big day finally arrived. I gathered seven girlfriends from my old neighborhood, plus my oldest daughter Maggie and one of her friends, and off we went to learn how to make sourdough.

It was a lot of fun, and we had a lot of laughs (especially from the non-bakers in the group), but even after going through all the instructor's slides and following her detailed packet of instructions, I still felt like it was pretty complicated.

But deep down I also knew that if I didn't try it right away, I'd either forget what I learned or talk myself out of it completely.

So the very next day, I decided to just go for it.

I made my first loaf of sourdough.

It took all day. 

I started in the morning and didn't pull that first loaf out of the oven until 9 o'clock at night. But I was so freaking proud of myself.

And suddenly, after actually doing it once, it didn't feel all that complicated anymore.

All those steps that had seemed so confusing in theory actually made perfect sense once I was doing them. It was a lot of steps, yes, and there's a lot of timing and waiting involved, but it's really not that hard. You just set timers and do other things while you wait.

By the end of the weekend, I had made five different things—regular sourdough, jalapeño cheddar sourdough, cinnamon rolls, pizza crust, and another regular loaf. 

My younger daughter Annie, who has embraced her newfound freedom to drive by finding all sorts of random places to go, found me a t-shirt at Goodwill that says "In My Sourdough Era" for $2, which I'm pretty sure I'll be wearing for the next month straight.

Because now I’m obsessed.

But here's what really struck me about the whole experience:

I’ve been intimidated by this one silly thing for years now. I kept thinking about it, researching it, wanting to do it, but never actually doing it. And then, in the span of just a few days, I went from feeling totally overwhelmed to feeling pretty confident.

The difference? I finally just did it.

Ralph Waldo Emerson once said, "Do the thing and you will have the power." Along those same lines, Seneca noted that "we suffer more often in imagination than in reality."

In other words? The scariest part is usually what happens in your head before you start.

Learning to make sourdough might sound like a small stupid thing, but for me it represents something much bigger. It's the first step toward this vision I have for our farm—having chickens, growing our own food, creating a place where people can gather and be nourished.

Making artisan bread from scratch feels like such a foundational part of that dream. 

And now I know I can do it. 

Which makes me think I can probably learn to do all the other things too.

So that's my challenge for you this week: What's your sourdough?

The thing you've been thinking about for way too long, but haven't actually tried yet because it seems too complicated or overwhelming?

Maybe it's finally committing to that business idea, or starting the health program you keep telling yourself you don’t have time for right now. Maybe it's signing up for that class or applying for that job or finally organizing that closet.

Whatever it is, stop overthinking it and just take the first step.

You don't always need more confidence—sometimes you just need to start.

xoxo, Ruth

P.S. I'd love to hear what your "sourdough" is! Hit reply to this email and tell me the one thing you're going to stop overthinking and just do this week.

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