Last night I told my wife quite suddenly that I would be getting up at 4:30 this morning. She was more than a little perplexed as to why I would want to do such a thing. I explained that I was going to the gym. She thought it was a good idea, but couldn't understand why I had stated it so plainly and out of the blue. The reason was pretty simple, I was using a little mind trick on myself. It was out there now. It wasn't something I was going to try to get around to, I was going to do it. I had said so, and if I didn't go then I was going to have to explain why to my wife. She would have been understanding and wouldn't have given me a hard time about it, but I would have been disappointed in myself and having to admit to her that I didnt' go would have deepened that feeling.
I think that being wishy washy holds people back a lot more often than we may realize. I was a smoker for fifteen years. I tried to quit a few times during that time, but I think that was part of the problem; I was always trying and not actually doing. About two years ago I finally quit for good. I took a different stance that time, I didn't tell people I was trying to quit. I simply told them I didn't smoke. I decided that I was going to be a non-smoker and I behaved accordingly. It wasn't easy by a long shot, but that determination helped to take off the mental edge, plus I held myself accountable by presenting myself as a non-smoker. There were times when the thought of having to explain why I had falsely represented myself was enough to keep me on track.
Last night I made a conscious decision to change and stated it. That is just the way things are going to be from now on. So it's going to be easy, right? Hell no! One of the reasons I'm typing this right now is to keep from hitting the vending machine down the hall. Distraction can work great too.
So my first bit of advice, summed up nicely, is to make a decision to change and tell someone. Every time you feel like you are going to do something that's going to derail you remind yourself that you're not that person any more. I promise, the majority of the advice I give from now on is going to be far less like a motivational speaker. Now, on to what I did specifically today.
I got up just after 4:30 and made to the gym when they opened at 5. I did 45 minutes on the elliptical machine while watching Married with Children (knowing that show is on at that time of the morning may actually help motivate me to get up tomorrow). I made good choices food-wise. My day started with a bowl of cereal and a cup of black coffee. I ate every two hours or so from 6:30 on. I did no unsanctioned snacking and avoided the temptation of the candy jar in my bosses office. The peanut butter pretzels that made up my first snack was probably the worst thing that I ate today and those still weren't too bad. I feel like I may have eaten dinner a little too early as I'm only an hour in to class and I'm pretty sure the hunger that I'm feeling isn't just from boredom. I'll make sure to take that in to account tomorrow.
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