One, Little Secret
August 23rd 2010 08:51
I've come to the conclusion that being healthy is about one thing: habit. After all, its not like life is going to slow down long enough for you to focus entirely on going to the gym and drinking more water. In fact, Murphy's law means that it will most likely speed up the moment you decide to try.
How's this for a perfect example - the week after I started this blog, I landed my dream job driving black thunder at 104.7 FM. Fantastic job, been wanting it for years and god damn do I bloody love it. The only problem is that with two jobs to juggle, my Mount Franklin water bottle quota has gone from a decent four bottles a day to one.
While contemplating the best way to solve this dilemma, I realised that if drinking water was as easy as brushing my teeth, this wouldn't be a problem. The answer as to why I brush my teeth without dwelling on it but agonise over guzzling water is habit. It's subconscious. Formed all those years ago when my mum told me to do it or else I'll look like a hillbilly. Now while I'm happy to report that my teeth are doing fine, it would be nice to consume the recommended dosage of H20 each day without stressing about it. That's what we're going for here people - maximum results with minimum effort. We're lazy folks with hectic lives and the less stuff we have to consciously think about, the better.
Am I right?
Of course I am.
But how do I turn something that is frankly a pain in the arse, into a nice, easy habit I hear you ask?
Well, for that you'll need one month, a tiny bit of motivation and plenty of phone reminders. From what I can tell, it takes 30 days to create a new habit or to re write an old one. The good news is that if you can keep it up, day in, day out for one month then it will become automatic. Isn't that awesome! One month worth of bother and pain for a lifelong healthy habit? I'm down for that (Hint: if, like me, you have the memory of a goldfish with dementia, then for the love of god put at least 3 daily reminders in your phone.)
The key here is not to get over excited and try to change all your filthy habits at once. No one is asking you to complete a triathlon or quit smoking, just drinking 6 bottles of water each day. That's it. Just six. Once that habit is well and truly embedded in your subconscious, then you can move on to the next one. If it takes more than one month, then so be it. We're not trying to run a race here. If we want off the list of people who say "I want to get healthy" every new years, then this process is going to take some time. But do it once, do it right, and you won't have to think about it again. Ever.
The best part is, you don't even have to think about what habits you should be adopting! That's my job. Start with good old H20, and let me know how y'all go.
How's this for a perfect example - the week after I started this blog, I landed my dream job driving black thunder at 104.7 FM. Fantastic job, been wanting it for years and god damn do I bloody love it. The only problem is that with two jobs to juggle, my Mount Franklin water bottle quota has gone from a decent four bottles a day to one.
While contemplating the best way to solve this dilemma, I realised that if drinking water was as easy as brushing my teeth, this wouldn't be a problem. The answer as to why I brush my teeth without dwelling on it but agonise over guzzling water is habit. It's subconscious. Formed all those years ago when my mum told me to do it or else I'll look like a hillbilly. Now while I'm happy to report that my teeth are doing fine, it would be nice to consume the recommended dosage of H20 each day without stressing about it. That's what we're going for here people - maximum results with minimum effort. We're lazy folks with hectic lives and the less stuff we have to consciously think about, the better.
Am I right?
Of course I am.
But how do I turn something that is frankly a pain in the arse, into a nice, easy habit I hear you ask?
Well, for that you'll need one month, a tiny bit of motivation and plenty of phone reminders. From what I can tell, it takes 30 days to create a new habit or to re write an old one. The good news is that if you can keep it up, day in, day out for one month then it will become automatic. Isn't that awesome! One month worth of bother and pain for a lifelong healthy habit? I'm down for that (Hint: if, like me, you have the memory of a goldfish with dementia, then for the love of god put at least 3 daily reminders in your phone.)
The key here is not to get over excited and try to change all your filthy habits at once. No one is asking you to complete a triathlon or quit smoking, just drinking 6 bottles of water each day. That's it. Just six. Once that habit is well and truly embedded in your subconscious, then you can move on to the next one. If it takes more than one month, then so be it. We're not trying to run a race here. If we want off the list of people who say "I want to get healthy" every new years, then this process is going to take some time. But do it once, do it right, and you won't have to think about it again. Ever.
The best part is, you don't even have to think about what habits you should be adopting! That's my job. Start with good old H20, and let me know how y'all go.
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