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Archive for the ‘Monthly Habits’ Category

First off, one more reminder to submit your health tips articles by April 30. I’m running this as a blog carnival, so I’ll do a post with links to everyone’s submissions. Please submit yours and pass the word along as well.

I’m also prepping for my May monthly habit — exercising daily. My goal is to establish the habit of exercising every day, not necessarily get in lots of workout time. So, I’m setting a low daily goal of 10 minutes. My thought behind that is that if the goal is easy enough to achieve, I’ll experience less resistance in doing it. After all, anyone should be able to do 10 minutes of exercise, right?

I’m hoping that the habit will “stick” after doing it for a month. Only then will I work on increasing the amount of time I spend working out.  For now, I’ll work out for 10 minutes and then let myself off the hook if I want to. Knowing that I can quit, guilt free, should help me build the habit.

To that end, I’ve been planning how I’ll work in the exercise. We have a bowflex that I’m getting ready for use. We also have a netflix account, and there are some exercise videos available there to watch instantly.  My husband and I are going to get our bicycles ready this weekend as well.

I think it’s important to plan to change a habit. The bigger the habit change, the more advanced planning is often necessary. I’m working on being ready to kick off my habit on May 1.

Will anyone join me? If not for the exercise daily habit, then maybe there’s another you want to work on?

I’ve struggled a lot lately with my eating and exercise. Most of that I can attribute to stress and simple getting out of the habits that I’d been trying to form. However, all isn’t lost!

What I’m doing right

1. No seconds. This has been huge for me, and I credit this one habit with keeping my weight in check through the winter. I don’t even think about it any more; I very rarely go back for seconds.
2. De-stressing. This is another one that I’ve been working a lot on. I’ve started to come to terms with the fact that simply dieting isn’t going to do it for me. Since stress triggers my overeating, then dealing with stress seems to be a logical thing to do.
3. De-cluttering. This one may look weird in a list of how to lose weight. However, I know that clutter adds to my stress, so getting rid of it also makes sense for my weight loss. Bonus, if I’m busy decluttering, I’m not eating.
4. Exercise. I’ve still struggled with this one. However, I have been doing more to tone up, and I’m more active in general than I was this time last year.

What I intend to work on

1. Stress. I know that I need to work harder on this area. The more I deal with stress, the less I’ll eat without even thinking about it.  I have several ideas for how to make this work.
   • Continue working on clutter and organization. Whether it’s the general mess, not being able to find my shoes for a walk, or losing a bill I need to pay, the clutter really adds to my stress level. My husband and I have both been working on dealing with this, and so far, we’ve been doing great.
   • Me time. I’ve been making time to write almost every day. That in itself is a big help. I’m also taking time to knit, relax, do things with my husband on weekends, etc.
   • Deal with immediate stress. One of my triggers for snacking is immediate stress. Whether it’s a phone call, an emergency at work, or something at home, I often deal with it and then turn to junk food to replenish. And that’s exactly what it feels like, as if I need to be replenished afterward. Instead, I try to do something else for a few minutes, like read, take a walk, etc. This is one of the toughest ones for me.
2. Exercise. I really don’t enjoy exercising, so I’m not sure how to go about retraining myself. It’s something that I know I need to work on.
3. Habits.I already know how useful habit forming can be. I want to return to some of the 30-day trials that I did last year and rebuild some good habits.  Maybe exercising daily should be one of the first?
4. Journaling.Every dieter has probably heard that keeping track of your food and exercise is beneficial. I’ve done it for short periods of time in the past, but never for any extended period. The one thing that I’ve noticed is that it does keep me more aware of what I eat, which presumably can help me not eat as much.

So, to kick off my push to get back on track, I’m going to make two changes.

1.  I’ll start tracking what I eat daily. I’m using Google Docs Spreadsheet so I can log in from anywhere and update it.
2. Beginning May 1, I’ll do a 30-day habit building trial. My goal will be to exercise daily in order to build the exercise habit.  Before I can do that, I have a couple of things I need to do.
   • Buy walking shoes
   • Move some things so I can use the bowflex

Of course, I’ll be posting updates to the blog. Anyone care to join me?

more cat pictures

I wanted to take a moment and update how my habit building for this month is going. My goal was to give up sweets while I’m at work AND to start weighing every day.

In the last two weeks, I’ve had sweets at work once. Not bad.

I’m weighing about every other day. I’m not sure why this one is tough since the scale is right there in the bathroom. I have to step over the darn thing a dozen times a day!

Here’s how I’ve managed to give up my sweet treats at work. I was in the habit of grabbing dessert with lunch. Unfortunately, there’s also a vending machine right outside my office that’s full of temptation.

First, dealing with desserts was relatively easy: I started packing lunch. I can pack healthier food and save money compared to the cafeteria fare. That removes me from one source of temptation with little problem.

I guess I could ask that the vending machine be moved, but somehow I doubt that’s going to happen. Instead, I plan for a healthy snack in the afternoon; if I get really tired or stressed, my willpower is almost nonexistent. I keep diet hot chocolate mix in my office (25 calories) and have that when I want something sweet or chocolatey. I keep fruit in case I get hungry. Those two tactics have helped me avoid the vending machine.

Also, I know that I’m a stress eater, so I have to find a better way to wind down. When things get rough, I shut my door and listen to some music or even a book on tabe while I work. It gives me a chance for some quiet time, and I can de-stress without munching.

A couple weeks ago I mentioned that I wanted to work on two new habits: weighing every day and avoiding sweets at work.

While I haven’t been entirely successful, I have done better lately. I’m weighing more often, but I’m still not in the habit of doing it every day.

As for the sweets, I fell off the wagon once last week. That’s not bad, considering I had grown used to sweets almost every day. Unfortunately, our cafeteria always has a big selection of desserts, and it’s tough for me to resist those. Add to that the vending machine across the hall, and I have a lot of temptation to deal with.

One thing that helps is packing lunch. That helps me avoid the cafeteria, and the dessert bar. I also keep some diet hot chocolate mix in my office for a sweet treat for the afternoon. It’s not a candy bar or slice of pie, but it usually does the trick.

I think it’s important to work on habits for at least 2-3 weeks. It’s easy to fall into old habits during that first week or two, but I try not to beat myself up. I didn’t get the habit in a week, so it’s not likely that I’ll break it in a week either.

What habits are you trying to change?

I need to get back on track developing my habits, so I’m going to bring back the monthly habits post here on the blog.

For this month, I want to do two things.

1. start weighing again daily
2. stop eating sweets at work

Unfortunately, I’ve gotten back into the habit of eating sweets with lunch and/or from the vending machine. My goal this month is to give that up.

I’ll post periodic updates to let you know how that’s coming for me.

If you’ve been reading for a while, you know that I believe that dieting isn’t a very productive thing to do. Instead, I’ve worked on changing my habits gradually, and I’ve taken off about 30 pounds in the last year.

My advice on starting a new habit? Pick one and work on it for an entire month. Anything more than that is going to be overwhelming. Choose something that’s doable. Notice that I didn’t say I’d give up sweets entirely for the month, just not while I’m at work. That’s better than what I’m doing now, and it’s a good step along the way without being too much at once.

Work has been hectic, so my blogging schedule is way off track. You’ll probably see some shorter posts for the next few days until things slow down again.

Packing lunch daily is going well. I’m experimenting with different stir-fry recipes, so it’s going well so far. I’m getting used to not eating out, so that’s a plus.

Exercising daily isn’t going so well. I’ve spent some time painting, doing yard work, etc. Unfortunately, I’m only exercising about three or four days a week. Not bad, but not what I was hoping for either. I guess that goes to show how hard this will be for me.

How’s the diet and exercise going for everyone else?

As I mentioned the other day, this month, I’ve committed to building the exercise habit.

So, here’s my update so far.

Yesterday, I did some shopping. Yep, I know that’s a stretch, but give me a break. It was my first day.

Today, I spent over an hour painiting trim. We have an older home with high ceilings, so that also meant climbing up and down the ladder. I think that one definitely qualifies as exercise!

So, for those of you building the exercise habit, what have you done so far this month?

I thought I’d bring back the monthly habit posts here. For one thing, I think a lot of my recent weight loss success has been due to creating (and maintaining) a no-seconds habit.

As I mentioned in that earlier post, I haven’t had much luck building the exercise habit lately. So, in September my goal is to exercise every day, even if it’s just for 10 minutes or so. The idea is to build the habit, not get carried away with long exercise times.

Here are the “rules” I’m setting for myself.

1. Exercise can be pretty much any physical activity, as long as it’s either something I usually don’t do, or more than I usually do. I’m going to try to stick with walking and strength-training, but I won’t rule out a long shopping trip on the weekends.
2. I’m setting 10 minutes as the minimum exercise time daily.
3. My goal is to exercise every day, but I’ll consider six days a week a success.

I’m sure I don’t have to mention the benefits of exercise or the fact that it can help speed weight loss. If you’re like me, you know why you should; it’s just difficult getting motivated to do it.

If you’d like to participate, then post your own goals below. I’ll keep you updated throughout the month.

Okay, I did it. I made it more than half the month, I made it through eating out, candy jars at work and at home. Did I cheat then? Nope.

I broke down and ate two Dove sugar free chocolates. (sigh) My chocolate cravings came back full-force today, and I have to say these really helped. They’re not too sweet at all, but they are practically bitter with chocolate. I guess if I had to cheat, they’re not a terrible choice, but I would have rather made it the whole month.

I’m going to keep going for the rest of the month, despite the chocolates! I know that chocolate is one of the toughest things for me to give up. What’s your weakness?

So, if you’re working on giving up sweets this month, how’s it going?

I’ve been able to maintain my goal, but it’s difficult. I can’t say that I haven’t had cravings for sweets; I have! I’m using artificial sweetener in my tea, and a banana in my cereal adds enough sweetness that I don’t miss can do without the sugar.

I really miss chocolate though, but it seems to be getting easier as the month goes on. I’m hoping that by the end of the month the cravings won’t be so bad. I’ll probably try some sugar-free chocolate, but not until after the month is over. I’m afraid that it’ll get me started again, and I’ll have a tough time continuing the habit.

How’s your progress?