How Life Changed When I Embraced Something Once Scorned
Photo by pippalou@morguefile
Around this time last year, I got tired of hating how I looked in the mirror and in photographs, and decided to do something about it. But what?
I’ve tried meal plans, supplements, shakes and all kinds of exercise programs. My house is full of DVD’s, weights, benches and exercise machines. None of them worked long term. Sure, I lost some but it would always come back.
I decided, to do this right and make it stick it had to be something for the long term. In light of that, expensive packaged meals were out. So were shakes and all kinds of supplements or HCG shots. I pared everything down to the basics and looked at what I had. The plan was simple. Track what I ate, and get on the treadmill. No complex routines, no diets, absolutely no resolutions. In fact everything about it was B-O-R-I-N-G. Totally unsexy and it was a lot of hard work.
I won’t lie. It was tough in the beginning but before long, apart from the weight loss, I began noticing something else. If I failed to get on the treadmill at the time I normally did, it would feel like something is ‘Off’ and my day is incomplete.
Then, we took our family on a 5 week vacation out of the country. I figured surely I would fall off this wagon and not get back on but you know something strange? I didn’t. In fact, I slipped right back into the routine. Call it anything you want but the fact is – I’ve developed a HABIT.
It’s funny that this word just a short year ago would make me reject the plan outright. I despised structure and definitely anything that felt like it. Yet, there it is. Proof. Progress. Success.
In so many years of goal setting, I have to say this in conjunction with my one word, has worked better than anything else.
I feel so much better. Definitely love the way I look now and all the old clothing I fit back in to. I just returned from a yearly checkup. Even my doctor commented on the weight loss. I’m changed. In more ways than one.
Looking into the new year, here’s the bottom line – for me.
- Instead of promising to lose another 15 lbs, I’ll simply continue working out 30 minutes a day and tracking my food. This is going to be easy now that it’s a habit.
- Instead of making however much every month, I’ll be working on X number of visitors, Y number of conversion and $X of revenue every day.
- Instead of reading 12 or more non-fiction books a year, I’ll be reading 1 hour everyday.
- Instead of getting organized, I’ll be setting aside 30-60 minutes for reflection and next-day planning everyday.
It’s the things you do everyday that develop that habit and bring you another step further. Before you know it – you’ll have reached your goals and developed a good habit to boot. What about you? What do you want to do in the upcoming year?
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Thank you for your story. Great to read it now. I am planning to have an awesome year with my streamlined habits.
I absolutely love reading your story, Lynette! You are truly an inspiration. Your analogies are right on and I will definitely refer to this to stay on track in 2014.
Connie Ragen Green
I absolutely love this, Lynette! Esp the unsexiness of it all. I may need to steal that term from you to use in my own blog…. 😛
Great post, Lynette! I have recently read a fabulous book that I recommend to you and your other clients, The Power of Habit. I use it with my students at the university level, but it is extremely down-to-earth, filled with great illustrations, and fits right in with what you are talking about, but with the science to back it up. You will LOVE it. Get your hands on it, and let me know if I’m right. Blessings! And Happy New Year 2014 everybody. Make some great habits!!!
AmyBovaird I wish you all the best and am sure you’ll be very happy with the results very very soon.
Me? Inspiring wow conniegreen that’s a great compliment. Thank you. I personally can’t imagine any story more inspiring than yours 🙂
By all means bodycapable I didn’t coin it though and sadly can’t recall who I heard it from to begin with. I find that the stuff that brings you the most joy and the best results are often from doing unsexy things. Let me know about your blog post so I can read it.
DrGreg Thanks for putting that book on my radar again. I have read The Now Habit years ago and that’s a different angle. Seen The Power of Habit around a while and not bought it because nobody I know has personally recommended me that. Now that you have, I’ve put it in my to-read list. It sounds absolutely intriguing. Happy New Year to you too!
Wow. Loved reading this Lynette. Thanks for all the advice. Makes goal-setting much more realistic.
You’ve get the three words that develop habits in spades Lynette. Basic. Daily. Work.
It’s a serious mental shift from complex and unmet resolutions. Thanks for sharing your successes!
Thanks for stopping by ElizabethDelaney . It is definitely more achievable when you look at that big hairy goal this way.
Thank you MinnaBryant Mental shift is right. Funny how something so simple took me so long to ‘get’ 🙂
Nice post; you are not the only person who has succeeded with doing the “simple” and repeatable.” Having read the book “There is Nothing Wrong with You” I have stopped trying improve myself and simply focus on maximizing the few skills and talents I have. Life is much better for me all around. I am fan of yours and like your products.
srjanssen yup. I’m definitely not. It’s been around for a long time. I agree too about trying to be a more ‘well rounded’ person. Each of us are given specific gifts and talents which works out best for us to continue to improve those talents. There’s only one exception to that – in my eyes – that is personality and character. We should always work on a better character 🙂
Thanks for joining the discussion! Great to have you and thank you for your kind words.
I’m with you, Lynette. Last year, following a winter when I got almost no outdoor exercise, due to the high winds here, I discovered I’d become a lump…an unhealthy one. I got onto myfitnesspal.com and began to track everything that went into my mouth, the exercise I began to do and in short order, I lost about 10 pounds, but many inches. It’s also a phone app, so no matter where I went, I could enter the data.
Now I pay as much attention to my nutrition and exercise; it’s become a habit, a good one that I’ll continue to live each day.
Many good things to you in the coming year.
Riesah
LChandlerHI Lynette. Here is the post I wrote using the “totally unsexy” angly. I feel like I’m going to write more posts like that. http://bodycapable.com/4245/health-resolutions-for-the-new-year/
And thanks for the suggestion of tracking daily money making tasks. I’m going to embrace that in my daily doings.
bodycapable Love it! Thanks for the update.