Cornerstone Habits

Made it through the first week of the New Year! My kids have already missed to days of school due to sickness, but that is the way it goes sometimes. Unfortunately they shared their germs and I have the cold from hell. It started a few weeks ago and lingered longer than any other cold I have ever had, as my husband pointed out numerous times. It lessened quite a bit, but now it is back! UGH!!!! So my workouts haven't been what I was aiming for, but I also must admit that there is a lot of flexibility in my workouts at this point in time. If my workouts can't always be what I want them to be then my nutrition should be, right?!

I read a great book about habits sometime ago. One of the things that stuck in my mind is the idea of what the authors call cornerstone habits. These are habits that other habits build upon. The specific cornerstone habit that I totally related to was exercise. The authors put not only nutrition but also sleep as habits that build upon the habit of exercise. As I thought back at my own experiences that only thing I could do is nod in agreement!

Moments when I have been injured and couldn't workout for some reason or another I easily justified eating complete crap. Those are the days that I over indulged in treats and just said "oh well" as I ate another pudding cup. The days when I was "stuck" were the days that I told myself "I will get back on track later" or I enjoyed a few extra chips because I wasn't worried how they would make me feel as I tried to push through a hard training run.

On the other hand I have also noticed the opposite, if I am teaching an evening class I pay much more attention to how my afternoon snack will make me feel later. I know that a big ole spoonful of cookie dough late at night will not be so yummy as I hit a hard training run first thing in the morning.

Sleep has always been a pretty easy one for me. My body needs sleep and I will not deprive it willingly. I realize this is not the case for many, I have clients cancel because they were on the computer until late in the night or they just couldn't turn the tv off.

The more you can learn about how all these things connect for yourself the better off you will be. And most important, don't skip a workout just because you don't feel like it. Get in the habit of doing something and notice how much easier it becomes to make healthier food choices.

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