Tag: habits

Power of the Sticky Note

Sometimes motivation comes in a little reminder you have posted around the house.

Daily Affirmations

I’ve taken to writing some daily affirmations on sticky notes and placing them wherever seems beneficial. After a while the conscious mind starts to ignore them (“that’s nothing new,” or “been there, read that!”), but the subconscious mind takes it all in – and that is key to giving the affirmation some traction. The other important factor is not letting your conscious mind disbelieve it. It’s okay for it to ignore or feel nonchalant about the affirmation. Better still if the conscious mind just believes it to be true and moves on. You don’t want the conscious mind contemplating how the affirmation is going to come true; details get worked out in the subconscious.

Post It Where You Can See It

So if the affirmation is “I choose to eat healthy,” then posting that on the fridge (or the snack cabinet or the dashboard of your car) creates a scenario something like this: at first your conscious mind is all over it – you contemplate choosing between the apple and the bag of chips (choose the apple). Eventually (and the amount of time varies by person and affirmation), you stop consciously reading the note, the the subconscious mind “sees” it and starts the process of encouraging a healthy food choice. You go for the cucumber slices before even considering the handful of chocolate candy. You crave the healthier choice because your subconscious is at work.

Put your daily affirmations to work for you! Use the sticky note.

No Motivation – Or What My Mother Calls “Lazy”

No motivation? It's easier to stay in bed than get up and go to the gym. While that satisfies an immediate desire, it doesn't get you closer to your goal.

No Motivation

Inertia, also known as Newton’s First Law of Motion, “is a power of resisting by which every body, as much as in it lies, endeavours to preserve its present state, whether it be of rest or of moving uniformly forward in a straight line.” More simply put, if it’s not moving it won’t move unless something makes it move. And when you apply that to a person, my mother would call that “lazy.”

This is the law that makes the TV remote so appealing. Want to change the channel? Click! You didn’t have to get out of the chair and walk the less than ten feet to press a button on the actual television. Of course, if you are younger than 40, you probably didn’t even realize that there are buttons on the TV itself. And I’m sure that I’m not alone in suffering through a television program (or two) because the remote was on the other side of the room.

But my point is that without an outside force we’re likely to just sit still. Admit it, you’ve skipped lunch once or twice (or at least put off having lunch for an hour or two or three) because you were “really busy” at the computer. That computer time, of course, was actually spent writing one rather short paragraph for a report and then reading and posting on Facebook.

So what can make someone change their state of no motion?

Why get up early in the morning and head to the gym? It’s much easier (and warmer) to just stay in bed all snuggled under the comforter. To go the gym involves not only getting out of a warm bed, but getting dressed, driving to the gym, it might be crowded, that sweaty talkative guy might be there and I don’t like talking to him, I forgot to download the latest podcast and there’s no WiFi at the gym, and so on. Those are all immediate excuses – excuses that address the now of the matter, but none of those hold up against the big picture.

Why are you going to the gym in the first place? Whether your goal is to lose weight or be more fit or something else, you had an initial reason. Focus on that reason. Let that be your motivation. Pit every excuse against the reason: will staying in bed instead of going to the gym get me to my goal weight? Answer: going to the gym. Will going out in the blizzard to the gym or staying home get me to my goal weight? Staying home is safer, BUT doesn’t excuse you from working out. You can still do some push-ups and crunches at home. Get the point? The easier option is often not the answer. It’s much easier to stay in the warm bed than to get up and go to the gym; it just that it’s not the best solution to your health goal.

The Two Big Questions

This technique of framing decisions based on the long term goal works for any type of goal. The two important points to know are:

  • what is the goal?
  • why do you have that goal?

If you can answer those two questions, then you are set to tackle the goal. But you do have to remind yourself, quite often, about the goal and the why. Our minds (and bodies) are programmed for inertia, but it is possible to rewire our minds to focus more on the big picture and less on the immediate gratification impulses that sabotage reaching our goals.

Keep the Goal Forefront in Your Mind Always

So imagine that you are going on vacation and you are starting on the drive to get to your vacation destination. If you have children, you know that not 10 minutes into the drive the question arises: “Are we there yet?” You also know that if it’s someplace you are really looking forward to going, your own excitement builds as you get closer. You are thinking about the destination all along the journey to get there.

It should be no different in working towards a goal. The goal is the destination, and if you’ve considered why you have that goal, the reason should be good enough to make you excited about reaching that goal. It’s a good thing to be thinking of that goal the whole time you are working on achieving it. We do need constant reminders about our goal.

I like to start my day with The Miracle Morning Life S.A.V.E.R.S.[affiliate link] I’ve been doing this routine for almost 3 months now, and it has completely changed my focus for the better. I get up in the morning and start my day with meditation/prayer, affirmations, visualization, personal growth reading, and journaling. For exercise, I either go to the gym for about an hour or do about 10-15 minutes of light to medium cardio. Then I’m truly ready to start my day. I have more energy, more focus; I’m happier and I feel amazing! [You can read more about my experience with The Miracle Morning; and learn more about Hal Elrod, author of The Miracle Morning.]

All those things I do, and all those positive results I have are directly affecting my ability to achieve my goals. That doesn’t mean I don’t run into the occasional bump, but I am able to power through it because I know that sleeping in an extra hour is only going to feel good for that hour. Getting up and doing my S.A.V.E.R.S. is going to make me feel good all day. The latter is the more valuable option.

Techniques to Put Your Goal Forefront and Keep you Motivated

  • Create some affirmations. Say them everyday.
  • Create a vision board, or have some visual that represents your goal. Post it everywhere, and keep it on your phone (great as the wallpaper on your computer or phone!) Look at it everyday.
  • Get an accountability partner. You want someone who is encouraging, appreciates your goal and struggles to get there, and is willing to give you positive criticism. (Not yelling at you for eating the jelly doughnut while trying to loose weight, but rather gives you a stern, but encouraging talking to and cheers you for moving forward. Also not one who says, oh well, maybe tomorrow you won’t eat a doughnut!) Check in with him/her often enough to stay on track.
  • Know you will stumble on this journey. Prepare for this, but committing beforehand to stop and take a look at what caused the stumble and why. This is a learning and personal growth opportunity (good things!). Commit to seizing that opportunity rather than looking upon it as a failure or reason to give up.

It’s important to know what your goals are and why you have those goals, but it is equally important to remind yourself daily of those goals.

 

3 Tips on Getting Started with Meditation

water ripplesPart of my morning routine is silence. For me, this sometimes includes praying, sometimes focusing on what I’m grateful for, and sometimes meditation. Meditation is a tricky subject for some of us: preconceived notions of what meditation is exactly often leads to either not even trying or trying and giving up.

What meditation is

According to Wikipedia, “meditation is a practice in which an individual trains the mind or induces a mode of consciousness, either to realize some benefitor as an end in itself.” While there are practices where meditation involves “emptying the mind,” or more accurately, “focus the mind on a single thing,” not all meditation is that way. The important thing about meditation is finding a state of calm and mindfulness. It takes practice.

What meditation is not

It’s not hard in the same way that running is not hard. If you’re out of shape, running may not seem so easy, but if you were to run a short distance every day for a week, you’d then be able run a bit longer distance the next week and/or run a bit faster. Meditation is no different. It takes consistency and practice to become easier and more effective.

Here are 3 tips that can make your journey into meditation a little easier:

1. Find a quiet spot. And a quiet time. Early in the morning is nice, before the household erupts. You can sit, stand, or lie down. Eyes opened or closed. It may take some experimenting to find what is comfortable for you.

2. Focus on your breathing. Feel your chest expand as you breathe in through your nose. Exhale through your mouth and imagine blowing away stress and worry. You can choose to exhale through your nose if you wish – whatever is comfortable for you. (Are you sensing a theme here?) Don’t worry if you mind wanders; learning to control your mind comes a bit later. Just go back to focusing on your breathing.

3. Do this every day. The first few days may only be for a minute or so. That’s okay! Consistency and practice; every day, even if only for a minute or two. It would also be okay to try meditating more than once a day. Do try to select one particular time of day as a basis, with any additional times being a bonus.

Try this for a week and you’ll see a difference in your ability to relax and calm your mind. At that point you’ll be ready to take your meditation practice up a notch.

New Book and Affirmations Update

I’ve blogged about affirmations before, and I continue my personal journey in modifying and implementing them on a daily basis. I find the many variations of the “right way” or “best way” to use affirmations insightful. Some sources tout a “say it even if it’s not true” discipline and others are firm in their belief that the statement must be true at the moment. Personally, I’m okay with the former as long as the statement feels true. So even though it may not be true at the moment I want it to be true, I know it will be true, I feel inspired to take action to make it true.

Case in point: I say the following affirmation: “My home is always clean and tidy, and my family helps keep it that way.” At this very moment, my home is no where near tidy, it’s fairly clean, and my family is getting better at putting dirty dishes in the dishwasher. I still say the affirmation every morning with conviction even though we are a long way from that statement being true. What it has done for me is put focus on this issue daily. Every day I’m reminded of my goal of a tidy house. Every day I take action towards that goal – some days a very small action, more at preventative maintenance; and some days large strides (laundry room completely cleaned out and rearranged!).

I’m curious how many of you have used or are using affirmations? How are they working – or not – for you?

Small Steps to Healthy Eating

Healthy Eating is a Journey, Not a Vacation

Stop treating dieting like a vacation - try & then return "home;" start treating healthy eating as a final destination; the place you are going - for good!This time you are going to do it. You are going to eat healthier and loose weight. We have started on this road to healthy eating more than once, and somewhere along the way we turn around and head back to our processed food safety zone. It’s time to stop treating dieting like a vacation – where you go for a while and then come back “home,” and start treating healthy eating as a final destination; the place you are moving to – for good!

While I’m not personally trying to loose weight, I am actively trying to maintain a healthy weight; a task that is growing more difficult as I age. I am trying to instill healthy eating habits in my children. I am trying to help my husband to loose a few pounds. We are all wanting to feel more energetic and fit. This journey is not one that can be accomplished in a day, or a week, or even a month. It may take a year, or two. The good news is that each day you can move closer to your final destination one step at a time.

Step One: Choose water.

Humans are 75% water and therefore when we don't drink water we dehydrate (picture a prune, shriveled and dry). However when we do drink water there are many, many health benefits! Knowing when to drink water increases those benefits.Choose water over soda. Choose water over any sweetened beverage. If you don’t like the taste of water add a slice of lemon or lime -a particularly helpful trick to mask the taste of some tap water. While I could write an entire post on the difference between waters (tap vs. distilled vs. filtered vs. spring water – whew!), suffice it for now to say that you should just choose water.

If you currently don’t drink much or any water, drink a glass with your lunch or dinner. After several days of doing this, drink a glass with lunch AND dinner. Then start drinking water between meals. Work up to half your body weight in ounces. If you weight 150 pounds, drink 75 ounces of water a day. Yes, you will pee a lot. And many, many toxins will leave your body. So just do it!

Step Two: Smaller Portions

This was one of my husband’s biggest complaints: the smaller portions were not as satisfying and didn’t fill him up. I sometimes felt the same. Thankfully, we hung in there and after a couple of weeks we were feeling more satisfied with our meals. This came from several factors:

  1. I dished the meal out onto smaller plates or bowl. Silly as that may sound, if the small plate was heaped with food our psyche’s tricked us into thinking we were getting a full meal. Same amount of food on a large plate looked like we were getting a skimpy serving.
  2. Waiting 15 minutes after finishing a serving to see if we were still hungry. Sometimes it really wasn’t enough food (more on that below), but usually it was and it just took a few minutes for our stomach to get the message to our brains. Instead of having seconds and then feeling stuffed, we stopped at one serving and felt fulfilled – it just took a few minutes to make that realization.
  3. Healthy snack instead of seconds. If we were still hungry after waiting 15 minutes, then instead of seconds we ate some raw veggies and hummus, or peanut (or almond) butter and an apple. Sometimes we had a small handful of almonds or walnuts. If part of the meal involved a salad, then we’d have seconds on the salad.
  4. We kept reminding ourselves what the goal was. In that moment when you’re still hungry it is easy to succumb to the desire to eat more. But we reminded ourselves (and each other) how great we were feeling – and in my husband’s case, how much weight he was loosing. The motivation to stay on track with our goals often kept us from having seconds.
  5. Indulged every once in a while. There were some meals though that were just so awesome that we couldn’t resist a second helping, but we kept it small (not a full second serving). Allowing ourselves a little more once in a while of a healthy meal felt like a reward that wouldn’t jeopardize our progress. We were careful to save indulgences like this for healthy meals – and not pizza night!

Step Three: Start Where You Are

We were starting from a 90% prepackaged or processed meal point. Breakfast was frozen waffles or sugary cereal. Lunch was a heat and serve package or maybe a sandwich (white bread!), and dinner was an entree from the freezer or maybe pizza or other carryout. I don’t like to cook, but I really wanted my family to eat better. So we started with breakfast.

No more frozen waffles. We started drinking protein shakes made from vegan chocolate protein powder, frozen strawberries, spinach or kale, a banana, and almond milk. Whirl all that in a blender (I use a VitaMix), and yummy! Six mornings a week we have that. I tried a few different recipes in the beginning, but the family consensus was they liked this recipe the best. Makes my morning super easy and my shopping list is consistent (at least that part of it) as well. From there we switched out white bread for whole wheat at lunch for sandwiches and added salads to the mix. Our goal was to have most of our lunches be healthier than they had been.

Lastly, we tackled dinner. At first I wanted to make all the meals healthy, but that was unrealistic coming from a once a month healthy dinner start point. So we aimed for once a week in the beginning. Once that was a system, I began adding another dinner each week. I’m still not up to seven awesome dinners a week, because I honestly find the whole meal planning and prepping and making thing exhausting. (Did I mention that I don’t like to cook?).

You Got This!

The point is not to go from zero to sixty in a week. Remember that in order to make healthy eating be a lifestyle, you have to make it a journey. Your tastes will change over time. Your skills will improve. Your willingness to try new things will also be tested.

Don’t get caught in the “it’s not enough” cycle. I started making healthier meals, then I’d get wrapped up in “should I buy organic?” or “fresh versus frozen” for veggies or some other argument (with myself) that sometimes stopped me from making anything and resorting to old processed meal habits. Broccoli (fresh, frozen, organic or not) and chicken (fresh, frozen, organic or not) is better than a processed chicken and broccoli meal from the freezer section of the grocery store. Steam the broccoli, saute the chicken, and call it a meal. You can always make improvements over time. Remind yourself that making it yourself is better than relying on processed, so you’re already heading in the right direction even if you’re not using all organic, non-GMO, whatever-the-current-hype-about-food-is ingredients. You got this!

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