Diet and Fitness Habits and Routines
Over the past two weeks I have moved from my former dwelling to a new one, in between the two places I went on a 4 day excursion to watch the opening college football game in Syracuse and visit with a good friend of mine. When I got back into town my new place still needed to be furnished and outfitted with just about everything from the ground up.
The point is that I spent almost 2 weeks without being able to cook a meal at home. I spent the entire time eating out and on the road. This isn’t how I would recommend anyone to go about eating but when it has to happen then it just happens.
This is about what my diet and workout routine has felt like the past two weeks
The interesting thing I noticed was how short of a time it takes to develop a habit or routine. When I finally got my new place set up I found it odd and almost as if I was an imposter when I finally cooked a meal at home. I even found the first trip to the grocery store to stock the new place with food to be a unfamiliar event. Even though I’ve been to that store 100 times before and I bought most of the same stuff, it just felt like it was a totally new thing. I almost felt as if it wasn’t my place to be buying groceries because I hadn’t done it for almost two weeks.
This experience just reminded me how quickly habits and routines can be formed. In just two weeks I completely lost touch with what it felt like to shop for and cook my own food.
The same thing goes for working out. It’s fine to take a few days off, and 2-3 times per year I advocate that you take a full week off and let your body recover/recharge/rest. But if you don’t plan for it, and you’re not paying attention to it, a few days off can easily turn into a few weeks off and before you know it a month will go by without working out.
We’re all creatures of habit, your daily diet routine and your workouts are both just habits. Once you get into a groove with each of them it becomes much easier to stick to a plan. But as soon as something shakes you out of your routine you’ve got to work to get it back into the groove that you had before.
It’s kinda like the messy room entropy theory. If you don’t constantly clean a room it will invariably become untidy and messy until it’s a total train wreck. The same sort of thing will happen with your diet, workouts (or lack thereof) and your body…if you don’t constantly work out, and pay attention to your diet your body will also become a train wreck.
John
3 Responses to “Diet and Fitness Habits and Routines”
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September 13th, 2011 at 4:57 pm
I’ve noticed that for me, a routine gives me the psychological motivation to stay on track and not break that routine. Going on the fly works if my motivation is there, but establishing a routine is just easier for me mentally.
September 16th, 2011 at 9:26 pm
John,
Habits are how I formed everything in my life. What seperates successfull people from ordinary people is the habits that they do everyday. An example of how I began my exercise habit: I started with 5 minutes per day for 7 days; the next 7 days in upped it to 10 minutes; the next 7 15 minutes; the next 7 20 minutes…after 30 days the habit is successfully ingrained and goes on autopilot. That’s when you start another habit (diet) and so on. After 12 months you have 12 hew habits. Amazing!
Tim
September 21st, 2011 at 4:53 pm
Habits are definitely foundational … but you have to be able to dance too:) Habits, as you pointed out in your post are something that we come back to and keep us grounded, but the nature of life is to intervene. That is why I love the AGD lifestyle … when life intervenes you can dance with the changes without losing your balance, as you did for your two weeks of change, then when life settles down you can ground again. A nice rhythm. A great life. Much less stress!!!!