You Are Your Habits
“We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act, but a habit.” – Will Durant
Developing and fostering good habits in your life will help you lead a more fulfilled life and get you closer to your goals.
Did you know when trying to create a new habit research has shown that it actually takes around 66 days for a habit to become automatic? Throw out the old notion of 21 days to build a new habit! It actually takes a bigger commitment to practicing the habit.
I am always looking at my routines and habits to see what habits are supporting my goals and where can I add a new habit that might elevate my game. I’m also aware of bad habits, and I look for opportunities to replace bad habits with good ones.
Here’s a list of “Good Habits” that you can cherry pick to bring you closer to reaching your fitness goals. This list is not all-inclusive, the possibilities of good habits and routines are infinite. Use this list to pick a couple areas that you want to improve on and commit to integrating them into your weekly routine, or use this list to spark an idea of a new habit you would like to make.
· Train Early
o Getting up early to train gives you the opportunity to get your training done before other demands of life start pulling on you like packing kids school lunches, or work emails that need to be addressed, or other distractions that begin to enter your space.
· Exercise When Fasted
o Studies have shown that training while in a fasted state, forces your body to tap into your fat stores of energy. A fasted state would be considered 8 hours or more between meals.
· Drink Water
o Drinking enough water daily can help with weight management, recovery, sleep, and athletic performance. Make it a goal to drink between half (1/2) up to two thirds (2/3) your bodyweight in ounces of water. You can use the color of your urine as a good gauge of whether or not you’re drinking enough water. Your urine should be the same color as pale lemonade.
Bonus – milk, decaf coffee and tea count toward your water intake for the day. Just keep in mind that milk is high in sugar, and coffee and tea have caffeine, which is a stimulant and does dehydrate the body.
· Be Prepared
o Set out your gym clothes the night before. If you have a gym bag, pack it with all your essentials. Set out all your vitamins, protein powders and pre-workout the night before. Creating this simple habit of preparing the night before will have you moving efficiently in the morning and get you out the door and to the gym on time.
· Take a Cold Shower
o Research has found that cold showers increase disease-fighting cells in the body, improved circulation, and boosted testosterone. Most importantly adding cold showers to your routine is a great way to develop grit and practicing being uncomfortable.
o Try alternating from hot water to cold water at a 1:2 ratio, or just go straight for the polar bear plunge with cold water from the start.
· Rearrange Your Fridge
o Studies have shown, you are 2.7 times more likely to eat healthy food if it’s in your line of sight.
o Get your fruits and vegetables out of the drawers and up on the shelves if you want to support your habit of eating more fruits and vegetables.
· Shop the Outside In
o When grocery shopping you are way more likely to shop for healthy foods if you stick to shopping around the outer edges of the grocery store first before hitting the isles. Grocery stores have all of their fresh produce, meats, seafood and dairy items on the outside edges of the store. Fill your cart with healthy vegetables, fruit, dairy, meats and seafood before you enter the isles which are typically full of highly processed foods.
· Check the Label
o The best foods for your body don’t come in boxes or cans, and they don’t have a long complicated list of ingredients either. Aim to eat natural whole foods with limited processing.
o For foods that you need to buy packaged, look at the ingredients list first. If it has a long list of ingredients you can’t pronounce, skip it.
· Keep a Food Diary
o A Duke University study found that people who set weight loss goals and keep a food log for at least 3 months lost weight than people who didn’t track their food intake.
o Training yourself to be a mindful eater is one of the best ways to lose weight and adopt good habits when it comes to eating.
o I have a FREE E-Book on how to calculate your BMR and use the MyFitnessPal app to track your daily food log and count macros. Send me a message here, and I’ll send it over to you!
· Partner Up
o Having a friend to hold you accountable is a great way to stick with a new routine. If you don’t have anyone within your family or friends that can team up with you to be your workout buddy, or support your habits, then consider going online. There are all kinds of groups online where you can connect with like-minded people looking to achieve similar goals and support each other.
o We have a private Run Lift Win Facebook group that helps our athletes connect and support each other. If you are interested in joining send me a message here.
· Take a Walk
o Instead of having a big lunch, consider eating a light lunch with some protein and simple carbs like a grilled chicken spinach salad, and take the rest of your time to get in a brisk walk.
o According the the American Heart Association moderately-paced walking for only 30 minutes per day can lower your risk of heart disease. Also, walking at lunch will help you alleviate stress, mentally prep for the remainder of your day and feel refreshed.
· Lift Heavy Things
o Men and women lose 3%-5% of their muscle mass each decade after the age of 30 due to a reduction in testosterone. To counter balance this natural process, you need to do strength-training exercise every week. Resistance exercises, like weight lifting and bodyweight calisthenics, build lean muscle mass, which increases resting metabolic rate, protects joints from injury, improves balance and improves bone density.
· Sweat Outside
o A recent study at UC San Diego found that people who exercised outdoors were more active and completed about 30 minutes more exercise each week than people who exercised indoors. If you have the choice, get outside a couple times each week. The fresh air and natural light are refreshing. Also, don’t be afraid to get out in the rain, snow flurries, or heat and experience being a bit uncomfortable.
· Run with Purpose
o Running can be difficult for a lot of us. Try setting a purposeful intention to your run as opposed to just randomly running until you feel tired.
o Set a desired pace and try to stick to it.
o Set a desired distance.
o Run at alternating tempos, fast for 1 minute and slow for 2 minutes.
o Run on a trail for different scenery.
o Run a different route, enjoying the new things you see along the way.
o Find a running friend or group to meet up with.
· Be Grateful
o Twice each day, early in the morning and before bed, write down three things you are grateful for. It could be three completely separate things such as the love and support of your spouse, the car you have that gets you to and from work, and your dog that loves you no matter what, or it could be one particular thing that has three factors you are grateful for. For example, maybe you are grateful for your job, because it provides you with a sense of community and challenges, it provides you with an income to live in the house you want, and it has introduced you to new friends that you enjoy spending your free time with. Whatever it is, practicing gratitude will shift your focus away from the things you want and toward the things you have. Practice being grateful and it will be something you do naturally every day.
Do you want to kick your habits and goals into overdrive? Check-out the BestSelf Journal!! I have completed two BestSelf journals to form daily habits that support my goals and the results have been transformational. I have gone from procrastinating and over analyzing, to taking action and crushing goals. All with the help of setting daily habits focused on my goals.
You can read for yourself, but with the BestSelf Journal you are guided through setting up to a maximum of 3 goals and creating a roadmap to follow daily over 13 weeks to reach your goals. The BestSelf Journal has monthly calendars so you can have a high level view of your time commitments and priorities for the month ahead.
Then you have a “Week At A Glance”, which allows you to define the weekly milestones you must achieve to move toward your goals and look at them on a weekly calendar view. It also includes a “Habit/Activity” tracker, which is great for building new habits. Each week you reflect and review your success over the past week and use that to stay on course or correct course for the next week.
Finally, you have the “Daily Tracker” which is laser focused on just the current day. You have morning and nighttime gratitude’s. Space to organize a timeline for the day and make notes as well as sections to encourage you to reaffirm daily what your big goal(s) are, state what your most important target goals are for the day that must get done, and then space to reflect on the day once it’s all done.
I’m not trying to sell you anything that I don’t personally use myself and believe in. Actually, I’m not trying to sell you this Journal at all. I have had life changing success with the BestSelf Journal and that is why I’m giving it such a strong recommendation. If you want to buy it through my Amazon Associates link I appreciate your support, but you can also buy the journal here as well.
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Sources:
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3505409/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5050386/
https://www.healthline.com/health/hydration-chart
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4049052/
https://today.duke.edu/2019/02/tracking-food-leads-losing-pounds