12th February 2011

A habit is like a comfortable bed, easy to get into but harder to get out of.

How true is the above comment! It’s not easy to change your habits, which is why you shouldn’t beat yourself up when you don’t do it immediately! If you’re trying your best to stay focused and on track but occasionally slip because of ingrained old bad habits you can hardly give yourself a hard time for not being perfect. When a child’s trying to learn to ride a bike or walk if the fall over, do you shout at them? I hope not, so don’t shout at yourself either. Change is difficult for most of us and I’m sure we will all find it easier if we are nice to ourselves, rather than beating ourselves up.

I ate out yesterday with 3 other leaders, we’re supporting each other and we all ignored the bread basket and ProPointed our meals and had a really good afternoon, which shows you can with a little effort have a great time and stay on track.

I’m typing this on my new pc, and I was amazed yesterday at how easy it was to set up! I can’t believe apart from the cost, one of the main reasons I’ve put off buying a replacement desktop pc for so long is because I was dreading setting it up! I’ve put up with my old pc which has been a nightmare for the last 12 months because of the fear of change and how difficult it would be to choose and set up a new one. I think lots of us are like this with losing weight too, we think it’s going to be more difficult than it is. Change is much easier if we embrace it rather than dread it. Choose to see the change as good and then you can enjoy it. For example I used to dread the idea of having to go and decide and prepare what I was going to have for my dinner and now I take great pleasure in sitting watching tv at the weekend and looking through my Weight Watcher magazines and cook books looking for new recipes to try. I have to admit, I’ve never enjoyed cooking and eating so much in all my life and I’m losing weight so it’s all good.

The same goes for exercise, you can’t expect yourself to suddenly go from doing nothing to doing 4 or 5 hour long sessions at the gym each week! The most important thing to do is to find an activity you enjoy doing, this might take some experimenting, go try different classes, if you don’t like them don’t go back! I now really enjoy walking Alfie each morning come rain or shine, that has built up gradually since we had him, at first he could only be walked for 5 minutes and if it was raining or I was busy I didn’t want to go. Now come 7am or whatever time it starts to lighten up we’re both ready to go. I enjoy the quiet time, whereas others like to do something more energetic like zumba, or something entertaining, why not try belly dancing, apparently it’s great fun.

I’ve not made any plans for the weekend apart from lunch at Frankie & Benny’s tomorrow, think I need to do a little housework, looking round my office, I can’t see the floor anymore, so maybe earn a few activity ProPoints doing that. Whatever you have planned, enjoy yourself and don’t give yourself a hard time, it’s all about the love xx