Again, today was a difficult morning. As you know by now, my workouts are scheduled for the morning before the kids get up. Well, when one kid didn't sleep much and the other go up when I would normally get up, it is hard to get the workout in. But with the littlest ones help, there was some added resistance to my crunches. Glad that my pain is amusing to them.
During a recent Zen and the Art of Triathlon podcast, Brett mention an app on his iPhone called "Habit Checker" where the iPhone will ask on a periodic basis if you remembered to do the specific task. Sound like something that would be beneficial in our family. We start many things with all the good intentions, but our life gets in the way before they become habit. To commit something to memory only take repeating it three times, but creating a new habit takes 28 days or more. That just does not seem fair. But, we will live with it.
Another suggestion Brett had was to set my alarm to remind me to go to bed. This one has great potential. Say if I want to get up and get my workout in by the time the boys get up, so I have to get up at 4:30 am. Well if I need to get seven hours of sleep, then I would work backwards form the 4:30 to 9:30 pm. But on top of that, it takes me a half an hour to fall asleep, that move it to 9:00 pm. In order to get into bed, there is an hour of prep for the next day, including getting the kids cloths ready, getting my workout cloths laid out, lunches made and everything in order. Therefore, now I need my alarm to go off at 8:00 pm. Tie this in with creating a new habit, then in a month, you no longer need the alarm, you have everything ready to go for morning before you go to bed and life is much less chaotic in the morning.
Next step in my road to a healthier life is to set my alarm clock and prep for the morning. Jennifer will surely appreciate it, just in the fact that the kids will be ready to go. If it can be done for a couple of weeks, then it would have to be said that we are on track.
Another step that is planned is the inclusion of more fruits and vegetables in the diet. To start, we are going to have to stock more fruits in the house. The last banana in the house made its way into my lunch bag. After that there is nothing but cookies, crackers and pretzels to eat. Not good, but just goes to show where we can easily make improvements.
Small step are better then no steps.
No comments:
Post a Comment