21 Days
When I realised that I was putting on weight after maintaining my ideal weight for 5 years... I began to take stock and wonder.... what it was I was doing to cause my sudden 1 kg a month weight gain. After just 4 months, I have put on 5 kg's and so I knew I needed to make some changes..... In a chat with my husband, I had a moment of clarity and knew what the problem was.
Well, it isn't actually that I have started any bad habits like eating fattening things, bingeing on cakes, chocolates or even drinking more than the usual amount of coke a day.... in actual fact I was drinking less of my favourite fizzy, sugar rich drink.
What I have been doing... or rather not doing... is following my normal active regime. For most of last year, I walked every day. I walked my kids to school, and met them on the way home. Even on Saturdays and Sundays, we as a family all went on a walk. After the long December school holidays... and some lazy relaxing days... I just got out of the habit. I have stopped drinking as much water as I usually do, and I have spent long hours behind my PC, and have neglected my own personal movement program. It took just 5 weeks, to forget my normal healthy activities.... and four months to realise what I wasn't doing. I have also noticed that as I have neglected my normal good habits... the bad ones have crept back into my life, like starving myself, jumping on the scale every other day, and being negative and self-destructive towards myself because of how weak I supposedly am... when I can't even lose a couple of kilograms. Being negative towards my body and how I look. I realised that I had also neglected to listen to my body, by feeding it when it's hungry, resting and sleeping when I am tired.... and taking a break after hours of work. I have also neglected to pamper myself with the little things I enjoy.... like a hot, relaxing bubble bath, getting lost in the pages of a book, and those little things.... that are just for me..
It takes just 21 days of doing something once a day - every day to make it a habit... good or bad.
It also takes constant vigil and staying focused in the right now to keep that good habit enforced in your daily routine. So if you find yourself saying, 'I'll drink water in an hours time," or "I am going to start walking tomorrow." or "I will start going to the gym next week." either decide to cancel the idea.... or do it Right Now!
If we spent as much time doing things... as we do thinking and talking about them, then I believe we would probably get a lot more done. Yes, you have to plan and visualise things in your mind, and yes talking about things is important... consider your average work project... the planning and meetings before the start of the project are important, if you are considering big changes in your family and in your life... you do need to take time out to think and plan, and then the times comes when you just have to get on with it.
Otherwise, that bad habit called procrastination just rears itself in your life and gets really comfortable. After taking 4 weeks out to consider where I was going wrong, there were then a few days, when I just didn't want to get out there and start walking, and so I thought about... and realised again that my procrastination was probably justified, and that was only enforced when I set out to get back into my walking and energetic moving program.
On the first morning, I set out energetic and enthusiastic, by the second morning breathing the cool air of autumn, with muscles starting to protest I knew I would have to have help, and so hubby and the kids were roped in to get me moving. On the third morning, my elegant gait of last year was a distant memory as I hobbled home, muscles protesting. On the fourth morning I was ready to give up.... although I am still getting up in the morning and moving somewhat slower, I am at least back in motion.
In this there was also a lesson, once you start something like walking two to three km's a day, keep at it every day, cos if you take a break... all that hard earned fitness, just puts you right back at the beginning, having to start all over again at day one.
So let me know how your habits have changed in the last few months.... and what you are doing about it.
Love and Laughter to You and Yours
Mands
E-mail: [ mands ]