Habits

A few weeks ago, David and I had the pleasure of presenting BOSU Week at Cal-A-Vie Health Spa in Vista, California. We taught BOSU fitness classes in the morning and were pampered by the spa in the afternoon. It was a wonderfully relaxing environment but our week was cut short by the wildfires burning throughout Southern California... meaning we had to evacuate the spa and go home!

However, we were there long enough to get to know some of the guests and join them in reflecting on each of our own journeys toward living a healthier life.

I had one particularly lovely conversation with a guest on an early AM hike (getting my morning cardio in!) about what fitness means to us as we enter new stages in life and how we can go about cultivating a spirit of health and vitality every day.

I believe it all boils down to our HABITS!

Some habits serve us well and keep us healthy and strong. Other habits keep us from reaching our goals. Right now, I have a few habits that I know are keeping me from reaching my pre-pregnancy weight (a certain red wine and chocolate/dessert habit in particular!) but they have been habits that I have been reluctant to break.

For me, it all boils down to routines!

Some of us thrive in our routines; others of us get stuck in them. I think I do a little of each. I used to be so set in a routine that my life became unhealthy. Now I make an effort to create structure for myself but stay flexible. I think that by indulging in alcohol and sweets, I am telling myself that I am staying flexible but I am realizing that it is, instead, preventing me from reaching my goals.

As my friend and I discussed on the hike, a week at Cal-A-Vie was the perfect opportunity to break away from many of the habits and routines we fall into and at the same time, create new ones! It is pretty easy to do in a relatively controlled environment like a health/fitness spa. The difficult part, then, is to keep up with the new habits once you've returned home - to the "real" world.

For me, breaking bad habits and cultivating new ones always becomes a spiritual activity. Quite simply, I have fantastic will-power but I have to dig pretty deep to get to it. I find that the more connected I am to my spiritual side, the easier it is for me to stay strong, on the path I would like to follow. Sometimes its a lot harder to get there than others, but I know that the reward is always so much greater when I do.

I just finished reading a great book called, "Eat, Pray, Love" and on page 175, there is a wonderful quote. It reads:

"The search for God is a reversal of the normal, mundane worldly order. In the search for God, you revert from what attracts you and swim toward that which is difficult. You abandon your comforting and familiar habits with the hope (the mere hope!) that something greater will be offered you in return for what you've given up."

I think that swimming toward that which is difficult in life is illuminating, rewarding and inspiring. However, it can be really hard to do! The first, most basic step I need to take is to reexamine my habits. By making 3 small changes, I know I will see a difference.

Why is all of this so important? Because by successfully reaching our goals we effectively enhance our self-esteem! Keeping habits that prevent us from reaching our goals keep us circling around the perimeter, never allowing us to hit the bulls-eye. It will keep you from feeling on top of your game because you know in your heart that you could reach your goals if you would only commit to changing a few simple habits.

Commitment is a very emotional thing. I would say that there is an emotional reason why we keep the habits we keep and why we break the habits we break. Sometimes it requires extreme circumstances to do so - like a person who finally quits smoking because his mother died of lung cancer, not because intellectually, he knew it was an unhealthy habit.

I like to use rules to help me break habits! One habit I have fallen into is walking to the coffee cart down the street every morning to buy a coffee with vanilla syrup and cream (because I really don't like to drink it black!). It's a habit I got into when my daughter was waking up around 5:30am and we needed something to do. I really enjoyed strapping her into the Baby Bjorn and going for that nice little walk, chatting with the coffee man, and getting a nice AM jolt of caffeine! Problem is that by noon, I felt tired and by mid-day, I was exhausted. (That doesn't happen to me when I drink green tea). Plus, the vanilla and cream was adding who-knows-how-many calories to my day, and day after day, it adds up. In order to break that habit, I have started putting my daughter in the baby jogger instead and we go for a run 4 mornings a week and visit the coffee cart only once... or twice!

At the same time, my rule for wine and sweets is only on the weekend - unless it is a special occasion or absolutely necessary (and I'll tell ya, some days it is!). Now instead of pouring a glass of wine at night, I have a bunch of new teas I want to experiment with (I found a Pomegranate White Tea at Trader Joe's this weekend that I can't wait to break into) and I have a bunch of fresh fruit around if I need something sweet to finish off my meal.

And if all else fails and I am tempted to break my rules, I am going to sit down, cross my legs, close my eyes and breathe until the urge passes. Sounds sort of spiritual, right?

The author of "Eat, Pray, Love" also says that, "Devotion is diligence without assurance." Am I sure that following these rules and cultivating these new habits will be the "thing" that will help me reach my goal? No. But I won't know if I don't try and something tells me that the reward wouldn't be as sweet either.