There was a group I signed up for at the end of the year, inviting “30 days of hustle” to jump start the new year. Each day we get a little (or not-so-little) to-do in our inbox, designed to encourage or nudge us farther on our path toward our goal.
Today, the 15th, is a “progress report” day. Since my goal was about establishing patterns and habits (in how I eat), I can’t really suggest a “bridge” between where I’m at and 100%, but the challenges have shaped the way I think about what I’m doing, so I’ll just run through what we’ve done so far, with my goal (eating patterns) as the example.
- The What: I have 3 food rules that I’ve been able to follow in the past, and they’ve been good for me. And they’re better than my not-thinking pattern.
- The Why: to remind myself I’m strong enough, and create habits that are conducive to dropping weight.
- The How — know ahead of time what I’m going to eat for the next meal, so I’m not surprised by my hunger.
- Pick something fun that advances your goal — A meal or two that is both fun and doesn’t offset my goals.
- When
- Macro– at the beginning o the year I made my perpetual menu so the big questions (Who is making dinner?) are answered.
- Micro– Daily I check the menu to verify what needs to come out of the freezer and check what sort(s) of snacks are available.
- Where — in the kitchen (is where I make food)
- Who (accountability & encouragement) — The kids know what I’m not eating and have adapted (“Mom! It’s the weekend! We’re having ice cream, right?!”) and Jay notices when I make an effort and shares encouraging words.
- Vision Time– Without a physical goal (that is, for this this area) I don’t really have anything to make a art board take physical pictures of. (I have an image of the kinds of clothes I want to wear, but since I’m focusing on eating patterns, not results right now, that’s still out of place.)
- Cut your goal in half.– This one I didn’t think I could do, and sort of thought I’d write off, since it wasn’t a quantitative goal. But then I looked at what I’d kept up with these nine days, and I realized that I’d been better (more-consistent) about my daily exercise than I was about writing down food. So I chose to cut that.
- Triggers (Name what will trip you up) — being hungry away from home. Seeing food I like when there’s not an alternative.
- Attack the triggers (If/Then statements)– If I get hungry away from home, then I’ll grab one of the nutbars I stashed in the glovebox. If I see food I can’t eat, then I’ll remind myself it’s never long until we’re home.
- Data collection — This was my food tracking, until I dropped that part. Now it’s fallen back to the scale, and days exercising, because that’s what I have.
- Who (has gone before) — Bearing (I don’t know her real name, which is funny when I’ve read so many posts. Either I keep missing it, or she planned it that long). She’s the first person I heard/read talk about focusing on behaviors (which one can control) rather than outcome, which you really can’t.
- Read a Book — I suppose I could read Beck, which Bearing recommended– or at least said she discovered at some point and found to be reasonable– but at this point I’m reading novels (!!!) GRIN.
- Check your progress– which, like I said, is sort of: aYup. Keepin’ up.
So there’s a start. The “official” push. But there’s other stuff going on, of course.
- The novels
- I’m also committed to staying gluten free from now out. Nothing good has ever come from going back on.
- A non-fiction project that is just crazy crazy important, and I’m just letting sit and simmer while I psyche myself up to introduce it here. I expect I will begin “blogging a book” before the year’s end. I will start on my own, but if the content comes together and I feel brave enough, I’ll start posting it.