The Importance of Habits

I'm taking a little left turn today.  Still on the discussion of habits, but not specifically about the Seven Habits of Highly Effective People.

It is so easy sometimes to let our good habits slide.  I have a very specific routine to my day.  I eat at specific times, for the most part, my breakfast and snacks are pretty much the same and lunch and dinner differ every day.  I also work out at specific times, wake up and go to bed at roughly the same time every day ... I even have my bath nights 3 days a week on the same days.  That all works for me.  That way I don't go off track.

Yesterday (Sunday), however, I was so off track with my habits, it was a brutal day for nutrition.  I left at 11 a.m. to attend several seminars on ... ironically enough ... nutrition.  I took some food with me to try to keep my blood sugars stable and prevent me from eating what I shouldn't.  That worked during the day.  But after spending 3 1/2 hours in seminars and 1 1/2 in transit home, and not drinking enough water, then going for a walk before dinner, I was very hungry.  Dinner itself wasn't terrible.  The salad and quinoa were great ... the bacon wrapped scallops ... not to much.  Especially since I had a little feed of them.  WAY too much sodium.  To make matters worse, I munched away in the evening on gluten free crackers and roasted garlic hummus.  Granted, that was way better than my old habit of eating chips, smartfood, party mix.  However, by the end of the night, my stomach was so bloated, I felt like I looked like I did 4 months ago.

So ... this morning I woke up at 5:30 (my usual time while I'm not working and not going downtown) ... had an awesome workout followed by my protein shake ... then I made my usual healthy breakfast, espresso and lots of water (1 litre in so far and it's only 9:30 ... 2 more to go during the day).  I'm back on track today. Practicing my good habits.

Most of the time, I love my routine.  It seems restrictive and boring to a lot of people I'm sure.  I, however, need structure in my life.  I can't be trusted otherwise.  I make poor choices and I suffer for it.  But occasionally, I rebel ... and that's OK if it's only for a couple of hours or even a day.  But it's so very important to get back into good habits ... bad ones are lurking around the corner, ready to pounce.  And they are so much easier to stick with.

Next week's topic (which I promise will be on Sunday as it's supposed to be) ... ironically enough is about being proactive ... and about sticking to promises ... especially self promises.

I wish you an awesome day and an fabulous week.  I hope to post about some other stuff that's going on.  It's shaping up to be a very busy week.

All the best my friends :)