One Thing at a Time

If you have been following my blog for a while you know that I love running monthly experiments. Things I want to try, new skills to pick up, habits to change. It usually ends up looking like a laundry list of to do items.

1. Meditate for 5 minutes a day
2. Walk for 30 minutes a day
3. Crossfit 4 times a week
4. Only 1 treat meal a week
5. Read 40 pages daily
6. Blog 2x a week
7. Do 25 double unders a day
8. Do 10 pull ups a day

Something like that. You get the idea.  Recently however I have noticed that I get a panicked feeling when looking at my daily to do list. My experiments are turning out to be not so much fun and end the month I am not accomplishing what I thought I would.

A while ago a seed was implanted in my brain from my Precision Nutrition course. It was an idea that seemed crazy. It was brought up again recently in an email from a friend that made me take another look at it. The idea is focusing on 1 new habit at a time. Once you master that one, you move to the next one. Those of us pursuing better health know that it requires a balance of good nutrition, exercise, stress management and quality sleep. So what happens when you take all this in at the same time and you are trying to eat 20+ grams of protein with every meal, get more veggies, get to the gym 4 to 5 times a week,  break that diet soda habit, try meditation and long walks, work on getting 8 hours of sleep and read books, blogs etc to help improve self awareness and loving-kindness? Of course this is in addition to the job, kids and whatever other social obligations you have.  It is a bit crazy making.

How do you do it differently, deliberately and probably with better long term success? One habit at a time.  Focus on getting 30g of protein at breakfast and that is all. Declare success that day.  Only tackle your diet soda habit.  Perhaps working on getting an extra 30-60 minutes of sleep each night is where your focus is.  The idea is to pick one thing, focus on it, accomplish what you are going after, make it a habit and build confidence. Very few of us can completely change our way of eating over night and then if we can it is usually for the short term. Wouldn't it be better to move slowly,  making progress and have greater success in the long run?

I admit. The idea of this one thing at a time gave me heart palpitations. How can I only work on 1 thing?! There are so many things I want to do! What I am finding so far is that it makes the daunting seem achievable. I stress out when I think I have to tighten up my diet that may have strayed a bit far off the fatloss path. I love my wine, cream in my tea and treats when I feel like it. If I think, I only need to cut out sugar during the week. I will leave the wine and cream alone for right now. That feels better and less anxiety producing to me.  Chances are I will have better success in not trying to approach it with no more wine, cream or sugar and feeling super deprived which makes me cranky which makes me end up blowing it all anyway on some kind of binge.

More on this later as I continue to see how this plays out in my learning journey.  I really challenge you to consider it. It could be the key to long term success with health that you were looking for!

Don't Waste Your Time!

Over the past few months, I have strengthened my belief that negative self talk is a complete waste of time.  So many of my women friends (and perhaps my male friends too although we don't spend too much time talking about these things) beat the crap out of themselves.  Energy focused on berating themselves for thick thighs, not having wash board abs, not looking like you are ready to step onto a magazine cover or  for not being as strong today in a workout as you might have been yesterday, what ever it might be.

None of us know how long we will have to be here.  We may live a long life of 90+ years or it may end this afternoon.  Regardless, do you REALLY want to spend any of that precious time kicking the crap out of yourself?

I heard a story the other day that I thought was powerful. Two friends are talking as they are getting ready to go out to a party.  One of the friends was struggling with a serious illness.  The other friend asked if her dress made her look fat. Her sick friend replied "You don't have that kind of time".  I loved that. We don't have that kind of time to be letting thoughts keep us from being present, from connecting, from being our wonderful true selves.

Those negative thoughts are all just stories and patterns in our brain.  It takes time and practice but once you become aware of those thought patterns they can be changed.  You can be present. You can be your amazing you. Greet each day as the amazing gift that it is. We have no idea how many we get.  Don't waste any more of your time.