Choosing habits..

The next time that you feel like not doing something for your health whether it be a walk, a run, choosing the right food, skipping a workout or whatever I ask that you first consider the alternative. If I skip this workout it may be the beginning of a bad habit that costs me much more than I have in my pocket right now, If I decide to eat that way again the possibility of developing type 2 diabetes multiplies by some number that I have no clue what it is. Perhaps death is just waiting for the right moment to stick his hand in and twist something inside that will ultimately take us out and it can all start with a wrong decision. Now I am not saying that a single bite of chocolate will be the doom of you but can it be? can it be the snowball that starts the avalanche? bad habits have to start somewhere right? they just don't appear one day unexpected and unexplainable they are created by making the wrong decision too many times and ultimately end up being the norm in our lives.

I have heard that bad habits are hard to break and I have to agree with that statement but I also believe that if the bad ones are hard to break so then are the good ones that we create. There was a time in my life when I couldn't walk past the refrigerator without popping it open to see if I missed anything the first time around and I always seemed to find something to grab and stick in my mouth, always. Grabbing the gallon of milk from the shelf and taking a few chugs right from the bottle was a familiar sight in my house, we literally went through more than a gallon of milk a day and it wasn't because I needed that milk, hell did I even want it? it was just a habit and so it was. I have shifted my habits towards things that are better not only for my health but for my entire life as a whole because now a gallon of milk lasts a week, and I instinctively get up and start getting ready for the gym without thinking about it just because its that time of day. Looking out the window and seeing the sun shining instantly makes me think about a bike ride or heading outside to do some yard work and in the past all it meant was that I would need to start the ol air conditioner up or make up an excuse for why I wasn't going to join someone doing somehting that required some movement to participate.

Taken 5 minutes before this post was published, its the corner of our kitchen sink and I'm askin for it by taking a picture instead of taking them off and dropping them into the trash but hey! live dangerously I say!

All habits are hard to break and its that simple, and if all habits are hard to break then why not try and make all of our habits good ones? I know that it really isn't that cut and dry but why not try and make as many good habits as possible when its health that is in the equation? I have some bad habits that Wify really gets annoyed at as illustrated above and I know that I should stop doing them but I think that she knows they were and can be worse so she allows me to live when she finds the pear, apple and other assorted fruit and vegetable stickers on the corner of the sink, hey its an easy spot to stick them when I rinse the food off! The old habits were closer to eating an entire box of cereal or stopping at Del taco on the way home from work bringing sacks of goodies for the both of us home at ten O clock at night and the stickers on the corner of the sink don't look so bad when compared to that and that is a bad habit, but like I said they are all hard to break! right?

The next time that you are reaching for that bag of chips or into that cookie jar think about whether your hand is diving into the bag or jar because you want whets inside or if its just because of a habit. When you realize that its a habit and not because you need it recoil your arm empty and keep on walking, your ass will thank you for it come summer time when the shorts are being slipped on. In addition to that I would like for you to do something that you know is good for your health today, walk upstairs and use the bathroom up there instead of the one twelve feet from you, take the stairs instead of the elevator or drink a glass of water in place of the juice or diet soda. Whatever you did that was good for yourself, do it again tomorrow, then again the next day and keep that up until its a glass of water that you go for first, or you notice that you are taking the stairs more often than the elevator and before you know it you will have another habit in your repertoire but instead of cookies it will be stairs or H2O and viola! see I told you they were the same.

Every choice that we make on a daily basis is exactly that, a choice, some are easier to make than others and many of them are habits some good some bad but all are yours to decide which way to go.

So which side of the force will you choose young Padowan?

As Ever
Me