[athousandwords]

Quote

"Every action you take is a vote for the type of person you wish to become."

- James Clear, Atomic Habits

 

Lately I haven't been voting very hard for the type of person I want to be.

 

Almost a year ago I rejoined NF, ready to start down the path of better nutrition, fitness, and mental health. At the time, I said "I don't think I'd be back if I didn't believe that this time I'll stick to it for the long haul," and that ended up being mostly true. I've joined every single challenge since that first post and I've made some positive changes: I've lost 15lbs (and maintained that loss for 4-5 months!), learned a lot about what does and doesn't work at this stage of my life, and met some new and old friends here on the boards.

 

But in June I let myself coast for a bit to get through the summer, and since then I haven't returned with the kind of dedication I had in the first eight months. I fell out of the habits I'd been building. The building blocks of health that I thought were routine have fallen completely by the wayside. It's time to start rebuilding those habits, to spend the precious minutes of my day voting - clearly - for the person I know I can be. Who I have been before. Who I still am, deep down.

 

 

Aaaaand of course I couldn't resist such an obvious tie in to the extremely important election happening in America during this challenge. 😁

🇺🇸 If you're American, please make a plan to vote - the earlier the better! 🇺🇸

 

So after re-reading Atomic Habits this week, here's my plan to build back my habits and vote for my identity as someone who prioritizes their health - physical and mental. I'm using the AH framework of: < Make it obvious, Make it attractive, Make it easy, Make it satisfying > to help fortify these behaviors.

 

🥧  Log everything I eat in LoseIt

- OBVIOUS: Use LoseIt's reminders, which will show a notification if I haven't logged a meal by a certain time

- ATTRACTIVE: Log food in LoseIt before checking other social apps

- EASY: Preplan my day so that I only need to update values with the correct weights, instead of searching for foods during meal time

- SATISFYING: I restarted my LoseIt plan to show progress from this challenge. By Nov 24 I should have a 33 day streak.

 

🗽Drink 64oz of water daily

- OBVIOUS: Always have a 24oz cup clean and sitting on the kitchen counter in the morning

- ATTRACTIVE: Kickstart the habit by filling my cup while pouring my delicious morning coffee

- EASY: Refill my 24oz cup at morning, lunch and dinner - just three times a day

- SATISFYING: Use Mio to make the water taste better

 

🦅 Walk every day

- OBVIOUS: Block off times on my calendar when I can take a walking break

- ATTRACTIVE: Walk with a podcast or during a meeting

- EASY: Lay out clothes that are easy to walk in the night before; Start with just 5 minutes of walking

- SATISFYING: Track my progress using Stridekick

 

🤓 Post on NF every week day

- OBVIOUS: After I sit down at my computer, the first thing I'll do is update this thread

- ATTRACTIVE: Stay motivated by being more immersed in the NF culture

- EASY: Keep this tab open; Only need to update my thread - not catch up on everyone's posts

- SATISFYING: Build up a streak of posting - add a new emoji every day.

 

This looks a lot like the challenge I posted last November, and I guess in some ways it could be disappointing to be right back in the same spot. But I'm choosing a positive mindset: I'm so lucky to have figured out habits that work toward my goals and to have an amazing group of people to surround myself with. I'm excited to be back for a new challenge; I'm excited to get back to old habits; and I'm excited to put that energy into voting for the person I want to be.

 

[Sovalis]

Hi Friend! Glad to see you!

 

As a wise woman once said to me when I felt that I was repeating everything: we never loop back to exactly where we were. Life is a spiral: we might come around to similar places, but always from the vantage point of higher levels of experience. I believe you are on a new curve of your spiral and all of your habits and hopes will pay off for you as you continue to follow it around. Looking forward to cheering you on. ❤️ 

 

[athousandwords]

9 hours ago, Sovalis said:

As a wise woman once said to me when I felt that I was repeating everything: we never loop back to exactly where we were. Life is a spiral: we might come around to similar places, but always from the vantage point of higher levels of experience. I believe you are on a new curve of your spiral and all of your habits and hopes will pay off for you as you continue to follow it around. Looking forward to cheering you on. ❤️ 

 

I love this framing, thank you. Happy to have you here! ❤️

 

Week 1 (Wednesday start)

 

 

🥧  Log everything I eat in LoseIt  🇺🇸

🗽Drink 64oz of water daily   🇺🇸

🦅 Walk every day   ❌

🤓 Post on NF every week day   🇺🇸

 

Yesterday was very much a "what am I doing again??" sort of day. I spent a good part of the day rereading Atomic Habits and mulling over what exactly I wanted my challenge to look like. Even though this is very, very similar to previous challenges, I wasn't sure I was going to include the walking goal until the end of the day when I started writing it up. There are a lot of excuses for why I got out of my walking habit: it's gotten cold here and the room with my treadmill is cluttered up with boxes we're sorting through. I thought about sticking with diet/nutrition to start and adding walking back in later. I last left off trying to get 10,000 steps a day and my head was still stuck thinking if I wasn't at that level then it wasn't worth doing.

 

But the core rule of Atomic Habits is to start small. I don't have to be walking 10,000 steps a day, or even 8,000 - almost anything would be an improvement over the 3-4,000 steps I've been averaging. So at the last minute I added walking as a starter goal. It'll be great if I can hop on the treadmill and walk for an hour meeting. It'll be great if I get outside and walk for 10 minutes. Just getting it blocked on the calendar and part of my routine again is a good start. Today I plan to walk to my daughter's daycare to pick her up, which is about 20 min each way. The weather is nice, plus I have extra incentive to do it because my husband needs the car to take our son to an ortho appt and because my daughter loves walking home.

[MezzothePatient]

So glad to see you! ❤️ 

 

Love what Sovalis said about spiral staircase, and its true!!!  It may feel like the same place, but look at the difference a year makes:

 

10 hours ago, athousandwords said:

Almost a year ago I rejoined NF, ready to start down the path of better nutrition, fitness, and mental health. At the time, I said "I don't think I'd be back if I didn't believe that this time I'll stick to it for the long haul," and that ended up being mostly true. I've joined every single challenge since that first post and I've made some positive changes: I've lost 15lbs (and maintained that loss for 4-5 months!), learned a lot about what does and doesn't work at this stage of my life, and met some new and old friends here on the boards.

 

 

 

You've made progress and you rested and now you're gearing up to make more    Excited to cheer you on this challenge!! 

[athousandwords]

7 minutes ago, MezzothePatient said:

You've made progress and you rested and now you're gearing up to make more    Excited to cheer you on this challenge!! 

 

Excited to have you here! Let me know when your challenge drops so I don't miss it!

[Laghail]

Ahh! A fellow emoji enthusiast! I also love how clear your challenge is!