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I felt good when I could exercise wherever and whenever I wanted. I was an active person; I felt energetic; I slept far better than I do now. I probably wasn't the fittest I've ever been, and my build ensures that I will never be either fast or strong by any absolute measure, but still I felt good about the things my body could do.
A friend mentioned in a filtered post that she is working to replace unhealthy eating habits with exercise as her relaxation-and-destressing drug of choice. Boy have I ever gone the other way. Probably more than anything else about my foot problems (and wow is there some stiff competition there), this enrages and depresses me.
How does one build a healthy habit?
I've done it, or at least I've destroyed an unhealthy habit. I used to drink immense quantities of sweetened carbonated caffeinated beverages. When I learned what the caffeine was doing to the pinched nerves in my belly, I switched from Coke and Mountain Dew to ginger ale and Sprite. There's no question that there was some physical addiction involved, yet I did it. Then I thought it would be a good idea not to drink so many of my meals, calorically speaking, and I switched to flavored fizzy water without anything else in it. Now... I enjoy drinking plain water! I'll drink herbal teas, too, and that fizzy water, and on good days I can have decaf tea. (I also drink alcoholic stuff, but here I'm mainly addressing what I reach for when I'm thirsty.) In general, if you look at what's beside my keyboard at work, it's healthy -- or at least not un.
The lovely bit is that I don't even WANT sodas any more. I'm not "depriving myself" or exercising "willpower" or "self-control". None of that. I don't desire those sweetened drinks one bit. Seriously.
How did I DO that?
Here's where I start guessing.
1) Slowness. I made small changes one at a time and stuck with each one for a while, rather than trying to make an enormous change or set of changes all at once.
2) Pain. Once I realized what caffeine did to me, and after I rid myself of it, any time I slipped I was brutally punished. That'll help just about anybody change their ways!
3) Acceptable substitutes. Back when I was downing more than a six-pack of Coke a day, and sometimes washing down some Vivarin with it, I also enjoyed drinking ginger ale. Switching over to that alone wasn't like switching to, say, carrot juice. When I ditched the ginger ale, I had fizzy water, giving me the familiar carbonated feel on my tongue and the familiar sense of fullness in the tummy.
4) No cost. In each of these steps, the healthy option cost zero extra time and zero extra money when compared with the unhealthy option.
I can't think of any more elements to this right now, though if you folks can come up with some, that'd be great.
But I have utterly failed to build other healthy habits.
- I'll decide it's a good idea to take vitamins, and I'll be reliable for a year or two... and then *poof*, I stop. I usually notice this when somebody mentions vitamins and I think hmm, gee, when was the last time I took those?
- I've tried to build a routine involving swimming, and that was miserable. In the last few weeks, when I've been very busy, I even abandoned the weights. (Part of that is because the house is so cold in the mornings that my overriding thought is how fast I can get to the office.)
- I decide to cut back on fat or on empty carbs, and I can do that for a while, but pretty soon I catch myself with a buttered white-flour English muffin instead of my oatmeal.
If I get overwhelmed and start to neglect things, my health is one of the things I neglect early.
Yet I've never gone back to Coke or even ginger ale. I don't suddenly wake up and find that I've got one of those in my hand. I would now pay extra (money or time) to keep it out of my hand. I succeeded there. It is absolutely effortless for me to maintain that one. Why? Is it possible to replicate that level of success in other healthy endeavors?
A friend mentioned in a filtered post that she is working to replace unhealthy eating habits with exercise as her relaxation-and-destressing drug of choice. Boy have I ever gone the other way. Probably more than anything else about my foot problems (and wow is there some stiff competition there), this enrages and depresses me.
How does one build a healthy habit?
I've done it, or at least I've destroyed an unhealthy habit. I used to drink immense quantities of sweetened carbonated caffeinated beverages. When I learned what the caffeine was doing to the pinched nerves in my belly, I switched from Coke and Mountain Dew to ginger ale and Sprite. There's no question that there was some physical addiction involved, yet I did it. Then I thought it would be a good idea not to drink so many of my meals, calorically speaking, and I switched to flavored fizzy water without anything else in it. Now... I enjoy drinking plain water! I'll drink herbal teas, too, and that fizzy water, and on good days I can have decaf tea. (I also drink alcoholic stuff, but here I'm mainly addressing what I reach for when I'm thirsty.) In general, if you look at what's beside my keyboard at work, it's healthy -- or at least not un.
The lovely bit is that I don't even WANT sodas any more. I'm not "depriving myself" or exercising "willpower" or "self-control". None of that. I don't desire those sweetened drinks one bit. Seriously.
How did I DO that?
Here's where I start guessing.
1) Slowness. I made small changes one at a time and stuck with each one for a while, rather than trying to make an enormous change or set of changes all at once.
2) Pain. Once I realized what caffeine did to me, and after I rid myself of it, any time I slipped I was brutally punished. That'll help just about anybody change their ways!
3) Acceptable substitutes. Back when I was downing more than a six-pack of Coke a day, and sometimes washing down some Vivarin with it, I also enjoyed drinking ginger ale. Switching over to that alone wasn't like switching to, say, carrot juice. When I ditched the ginger ale, I had fizzy water, giving me the familiar carbonated feel on my tongue and the familiar sense of fullness in the tummy.
4) No cost. In each of these steps, the healthy option cost zero extra time and zero extra money when compared with the unhealthy option.
I can't think of any more elements to this right now, though if you folks can come up with some, that'd be great.
But I have utterly failed to build other healthy habits.
- I'll decide it's a good idea to take vitamins, and I'll be reliable for a year or two... and then *poof*, I stop. I usually notice this when somebody mentions vitamins and I think hmm, gee, when was the last time I took those?
- I've tried to build a routine involving swimming, and that was miserable. In the last few weeks, when I've been very busy, I even abandoned the weights. (Part of that is because the house is so cold in the mornings that my overriding thought is how fast I can get to the office.)
- I decide to cut back on fat or on empty carbs, and I can do that for a while, but pretty soon I catch myself with a buttered white-flour English muffin instead of my oatmeal.
If I get overwhelmed and start to neglect things, my health is one of the things I neglect early.
Yet I've never gone back to Coke or even ginger ale. I don't suddenly wake up and find that I've got one of those in my hand. I would now pay extra (money or time) to keep it out of my hand. I succeeded there. It is absolutely effortless for me to maintain that one. Why? Is it possible to replicate that level of success in other healthy endeavors?
no subject
First, I think a lot of people benefit from short term changes, which is kind of what you did when you gave up the soda. Turning it into a real way of life took time, but the initial step of stopping was quicker and then you had habit and side-effects and things like that to help. It's kind of the difference between keeping a New Year's resolution, which seems to rarely happen, and giving up something for Lent, which seems much more successful.
So maybe you could set yourself a short term goal, with whatever motivation you think will work. Tell yourself you will swim or do weights (or whatever it is) every day for one month. Maybe you can put aside some money and put Rob in charge of rewarding you if you do it or announce it here in LJ and make it clear that you will update once a week so that you have a negative consequence if you fall short. But somehow encourage yourself to do it over a short period and then give yourself the opportunity to keep reinitiating that challenge. Hopefully the accomplishment after the first month will make it easier to put yourself on the hook for another month. Its not a perfect solution, but that's what I've got. :)
Maybe I'm just a lazy and cynical guy, but for me the pain reinforcement is the easiest one to live by. I don't think it's a coincidence that the soda was the thing you gave up, because pretty quickly your body started working with you to keep the change going, rather than tempting you to cheat. This also has a long history of people giving up smoking or drinking or whatever by making a bet with someone else, so that there is a real cost to "losing." So maybe you can use that to your advantage. Pick somebody you trust and make some sort of deal with them. You'll work out three times a week for a month or else... well, something. Something you have to give up or do for them or... well, whatever. I'm out of ideas because I don't know you well enough to know what a good incentive would be. :)
But I think the bottom line is to pick somebody who can help you through the process. Rob or a friend on LJ in general or, heck, me for that matter. :) Commit to emailing me regarding your progress once a week or you'll buy me a car or something. ;)