Don't let your habits destroy you!

Wednesday 12th June 2019
Motivation is what gets you started, habit is what keeps you going.

Habits, they rule us don't they, we'll come back to them in a bit, but thanks to me repeating the same bad habit as last week, I woke up tired again this morning, why?  Because I didn't go to bed early enough, it was 11 by the time I finally went to sleep, partly because I was watching the end of Killing Eve, then just as I got to bed, Alfie starting going mental at the foxes, I'd enjoyed watching them for a few minutes before he realised they were there, the rain wasn't bothering them, they were running round the garden playing together and having a ball.  

Anyway, I've had my mug of tea and I'm perking up, when I heard mom going to the bathroom earlier, I thought I'd slept in and was late for work, I was relieved to realise it was Wednesday.  I wasn't impressed to see the weather is still fit for building an arc!   Alfie finally got a walk after I finished work last night, it has knocked off a little and he was ready to go, bless him.  

I did have a better food day yesterday, started my day with a spinach and cheese omelette, one of my BeYOUtiful members gave me the WW cheese, it was lovely added to the top of this, worth the 1SP for 20g. 

 I got back from my meeting and I was starving (I know I wasn't but I felt the need to feed, it's this damn weather). I had my lunch at 11.30am, a WW chilli con carne with rice, I still can't decide if I actually like chilli con carne, but I ate it! 

Dinner was a simple slow cooker chicken stew, diced chicken breast, diced spuds, carrots, onions, oxo's.  The chicken was a bit tough I have to say not sure if that was the way it was cooked or the chicken which was from Lidl.  I have two breasts left in the fridge which I'll cook today so I'll know if they don't cook well.  It's definitely slow cooker weather for sure.  

Back to these habits, we all join WW and we're all gung ho, like me at the beginning of May when I walked into Elle's workshop, I was like 'yeah let's do this', that lasted the month to be fair which for me is really good, then last week despite my best efforts, those bad habits started to rear their ugly head because bad habits are hard to break!  

Why are they?  Well let's be honest, bad habits usually give us short term pleasure and we're all about that, everyone likes to feel good!  Routines and habits make us feel secure, even the bad ones and habits are easier to continue than to change.   

So one of my bad habits is bread and butter with stew!  It's just so good, is it a bad habit though?  Only if I haven't got the points or I eat a dozen slices instead of two.  Yesterday I managed to only have 2 slices, if I'd been shopping I'd have had low fat spread instead of butter, but at least I only had a teaspoon worth.  Sitting here typing this I've just realised I can stop buying butter all together, I only buy it for moms toasted teacakes and she's actually stopped eating them as often and I don't think she'd even notice if there was low fat spread on them now, her tastebuds just seem to taste sweet and that's it.  

The other thing about habits, well everything to be fair, is we want everything fixed now, we want easy, we don't like working for things anymore.  Well TOUGH, life ain't like that, you can't change the habits of a lifetime in a few weeks, according to the experts it takes six to eight weeks for a new habit to become second nature, I'd actually disagree with that, I think yeah it might take that long to initially fix a new habit into your life but it only takes one bad week to undo all that good work. We then go back to our old ways, our bad behaviours because they're easier, we feel like we've failed and so end up giving up try to change, it's easier to stay the same.

Well not this time, it would be easy for me to dodge the scales this morning, not been brill, tired, raining, meh and anything else you can think of.  But I'm not going to. As I scrambled through moms cupboard last night looking for a bag of crisps, I smiled to myself as I realised what I was doing and thought, see you can't eat what isn't there and that's why you're not buying her anymore! 

Changing habits takes time and perseverance, nothing worth having comes easy.  Do things that make it easier, so I've been drinking a pint of water every morning when I get out of bed, the glass lives on my desk in my office, because I took it downstairs to wash yesterday, I haven't poured me a glass this morning.  I know for me to remember to drink that water, the glass has to be there.  Same thing with the fruit bowl, if it's where you can see it, you're more likely to grab a piece.  If you hide the crisps and treats in a cupboard, they're not the first thing you see when you walk in the house.  

What habit would you like to introduce into your life?  Notice I didn't say break, it's easier to create a new habit, than to try and stop one, let's work on replacing them.  Mine is activity, I want to make moving more part of my weekly routine, so when I've posted this, I'm going to do my 20 minutes of Lorraine's OnDemand as promised, 3 times a week is the plan, so far so good.  

Here's to a very, great day, I need to get it started as I have lots to do, including facing the scales no matter what they say - they don't tell the whole story, I know better than to only listen to them! 

I added to the food list that's for sure, although it still could be better. 

Food list since Sunday 

Baguette

Banana 

Beef mince 

Broghies 

Butter! 

Carrots

Cheese triangles

Cheese

Chilli Con Carne 

Chocolate biscuit - 1 honest 

Courgette

Crisps

Eggs 

Haddock

Kidney Beans

Lettuce

Low fat pork sausage

Milk  

Nectarine

Mushrooms

Onions

Oxo

Porridge - WW stuff 

Potatoes 

Peppers - green & yellow 

Rice 

Seafood sticks 

Spinach

Strawberries

Streaky bacon

Sweetcorn

Tomatoes - canned & cherry

Wholemeal bread