Let's cut to the chase... This week's addition to My Best Me is to cut fast food down to two times a week maximum.
I know. I can hear it now from all my friends at Powerfit Personal Training. "Two times a week? How many times are you eating fast food?" The answer to that is "too many." There are a variety of reasons; working away from the home and being on the road a lot, it's super convenient, I'm not a fan of making lunches, and I just plain like it. Curse you Taco Bell!
The upsides to this kind of addition to My Best Me are many. We are trying to buy a house soon, so the money saving is clearly a benefit. I'm not going to calculate it, because I think it would be too painful. The obvious primary improvement here is the lack of nutritional value in that stuff. I've been eating very poorly all year and it's time to start moving in the right direction again.
One qualifier. The nature of my work leads me to meetings at restaurants quite often. This weeks' addition is explicitly to deal with fast food places, such as Taco Bell, Arby's, etc. It is not intended to reflect on nicer "sit-down" places to eat. I know, I know, it sounds like a cop out, but between you and I, let's just agree that when I'm at those better restaurants I'll make better decisions. Besides, this whole weeks addition will most likely be a mute point in a few weeks when we really start to change up some dietary stuff.
So stay tuned!
Monday, December 19, 2011
Monday, December 12, 2011
Gimme a Break!
Monday morning, sitting in front of the computer, sipping my coffee, and reflecting on how I did this past week with My Best Me. As one might suspect, I wasn't perfect. I had a soda on Friday, only played about 2.5 hours of bass, and who knows whatever else I didn't get just right. Which leads me to this weeks addition.
Give myself a break.
Not everybody knows this about me, but I have a pretty strong perfectionist streak in me or at least a really strong "it's never good enough" streak. This character "flaw" for lack of a better term right now, has it's ups and downs, but altogether it's not very healthy.
What I've also discovered is that my strive to do everything just right sets me up for failure. For example, if I were to get on a diet and workout plan (which are coming to My Best Me eventually), I have always done really well for a short while and then, it happens. I'll be at a party on a weekend, or traveling for work or pleasure, and I'll slip up. Easy excuses come fast. "They don't have the kind of food I need here." What happens after this slip up is a feeling of guilt and "what's the sense in trying if I can't be perfect at it."
Well, I've decided that this behavior is the next one I'm working on. I'm going to give myself a break. This may sound easy, but I don't think so. What it means is that I have to keep going. I have to keep honoring My Best Me even when I make mistakes. What it means is recognizing that My Best Me also includes making mistakes. My Best Me includes learning from my own mistakes and short-comings and gradually working on making them better. Sometimes, My Best Me needs a break.
Give myself a break.
Not everybody knows this about me, but I have a pretty strong perfectionist streak in me or at least a really strong "it's never good enough" streak. This character "flaw" for lack of a better term right now, has it's ups and downs, but altogether it's not very healthy.
What I've also discovered is that my strive to do everything just right sets me up for failure. For example, if I were to get on a diet and workout plan (which are coming to My Best Me eventually), I have always done really well for a short while and then, it happens. I'll be at a party on a weekend, or traveling for work or pleasure, and I'll slip up. Easy excuses come fast. "They don't have the kind of food I need here." What happens after this slip up is a feeling of guilt and "what's the sense in trying if I can't be perfect at it."
Well, I've decided that this behavior is the next one I'm working on. I'm going to give myself a break. This may sound easy, but I don't think so. What it means is that I have to keep going. I have to keep honoring My Best Me even when I make mistakes. What it means is recognizing that My Best Me also includes making mistakes. My Best Me includes learning from my own mistakes and short-comings and gradually working on making them better. Sometimes, My Best Me needs a break.
Thursday, December 8, 2011
My Best Me
I don't really have any idea how it started. I had the idea that I wanted to change a number of things in my life. Not just situational things, but habits that I had; shortcomings and/or simple behaviors that I didn't want to engage in anymore or that I did. It didn't really matter what they were, but it was this overwhelming list of things that needle away at the back of my head. These are things that I have always heard myself saying, "I should probably stop doing this." or "I should probably start doing that." Well, it was time to put it in motion.
The first thing I thought of was that I had to get out of the mindset that it all needed to happen at once. Not an easy thought considering my personality style. I'm not one that is easily given to pragmatism and patience. I was convinced it just wasn't going to happen overnight. I'm sure I heard it somewhere from somebody far more brilliant than I, but I resigned myself to the fact that it had to be done a piece at a time. How and when those incremental changes were going to happen had evaded me for a long time and it had always been overwhelming to think of how long that list might have to be, so I decided to break it down.
I decided to make one change per week. Once change that would be added to my life. It had to be something simple, like flossing more often, but it had to be more detailed, like flossing 3 times per week. (My wife is a dental assistant, so for those of you trying to convince yourself that you floss everyday, you probably aren't. :) ) It had to be enough that I couldn't just weasel my way out of it by some technicality and it had to be cumulative. Not just doing one thing for one week. Each new behavior or correction need to to continue on into the next week, adding to the next, and so on.
Finally, I am starting this plan with the idea that it is really designed to fix the small things; little bad habits and that sort of thing. It's not designed to dramatically change my life all at once and it's not designed to handle all of the big things. I won't be putting in things like "Resolve my relationship with my father." That's a different subject that requires a much more serious plan. The idea here is that I'm going to change little issues in little increments.
To start with, I had decided not to blog about this list. I didn't think it was terribly important that I record all of my thoughts about these little changes. As it has turned out, two things have necessitated this blog: 1 - I was having trouble remembering each thing on the list so I needed a place to keep them. 2 - I wanted a place where I could come back and review the list and to record my thoughts on why each item was added to the list. So, since I have started my list already, you'll see that I'm eight weeks in and the list is shaping up. Here is what I have so far.
My plan is to continue to add one item per week for a whole year. At the end of the year, I hope to have established a list of new habits, minor corrections, and hopefully a profoundly simple method of gaining control of the smaller things in my life.... Then I can work on the next phase.
The first thing I thought of was that I had to get out of the mindset that it all needed to happen at once. Not an easy thought considering my personality style. I'm not one that is easily given to pragmatism and patience. I was convinced it just wasn't going to happen overnight. I'm sure I heard it somewhere from somebody far more brilliant than I, but I resigned myself to the fact that it had to be done a piece at a time. How and when those incremental changes were going to happen had evaded me for a long time and it had always been overwhelming to think of how long that list might have to be, so I decided to break it down.
I decided to make one change per week. Once change that would be added to my life. It had to be something simple, like flossing more often, but it had to be more detailed, like flossing 3 times per week. (My wife is a dental assistant, so for those of you trying to convince yourself that you floss everyday, you probably aren't. :) ) It had to be enough that I couldn't just weasel my way out of it by some technicality and it had to be cumulative. Not just doing one thing for one week. Each new behavior or correction need to to continue on into the next week, adding to the next, and so on.
Finally, I am starting this plan with the idea that it is really designed to fix the small things; little bad habits and that sort of thing. It's not designed to dramatically change my life all at once and it's not designed to handle all of the big things. I won't be putting in things like "Resolve my relationship with my father." That's a different subject that requires a much more serious plan. The idea here is that I'm going to change little issues in little increments.
To start with, I had decided not to blog about this list. I didn't think it was terribly important that I record all of my thoughts about these little changes. As it has turned out, two things have necessitated this blog: 1 - I was having trouble remembering each thing on the list so I needed a place to keep them. 2 - I wanted a place where I could come back and review the list and to record my thoughts on why each item was added to the list. So, since I have started my list already, you'll see that I'm eight weeks in and the list is shaping up. Here is what I have so far.
- See my chiropractor once a week at a minimum.
- Eat breakfast every day.
- Go to bed at 10pm every "school night".
- Brush my teeth every night. (In addition to my daily morning brushing.)
- Play my bass guitar 3 hours every week.
- Do business invoicing once per week at a minimum.
- No more sodas!
- Every morning, out loud, be grateful for 3 things. Three different things, if you can.
My plan is to continue to add one item per week for a whole year. At the end of the year, I hope to have established a list of new habits, minor corrections, and hopefully a profoundly simple method of gaining control of the smaller things in my life.... Then I can work on the next phase.
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