Those of you who follow me through social media platforms and this blog may be aware of my "holidays of change", instituting projects and dietary changes. It felt great, I felt great... but I did have this looming deadline ahead known as the school term. It's all easy to eat well and exercise and structure your day to perfection when you don't have work commitments but when you're required to structure your day in certain ways for work... it's easy to lapse back into old habits!
Green Smoothies are going well - in fact I've been making extra and taking it to school! It kind of grosses my students out though; I had one ask me if I had thrown up in my travel cup when I was washing it out! I've also started packing salads for lunch - the school lunch that's provided is still stodgy winter food and I try and save my "naughty" meal of the day to be the one that I share with SB (he needs to be feed well, damn his high metabolism!). I'm thinking that I really need to prepare the salad the night before because making my smoothie is a bit more time consuming in the morning (I'd prefer the smoothie fresh because of the fruit content). I've also started skipping the cereal component of my breakfast on weekdays - on weekends I have it about an hour after my smoothie and coffee - and I don't seem to be affected by this too much at all.
Exercise? Another story. Work timetable means that I'm often not getting home til it gets dark and then I feel pressured to do the housework and cook dinner... and anyone knows that after dinner all you feel like doing is sitting and digesting. Between 3-5pm was working well for my walking... I need to prioritise when I get home and exercise first (or at least second and third) because I know that after dinner it isn't likely to happen. That's my time for sitting down and working on wedding and business (and Tweeting, let's be honest) work, stuff that requires an energetic brain and not an energetic body. I'm currently looking into Yoga classes so that on days when I need it, I can literally take time out of my time at home and use it to centre myself.
It is going to require being a little bit strict with myself in the mean time... when not working my teaching job I can afford to be more laissez-faire about the whole thing. I'm very tempted to do what Sarah Von was talking about and create a to-do list for the day! I often use these for project management so why not use them for my life? Make sure I drink enough water, set aside time to read and relax... why not?
On the whole, I think I'm on my way to making this a habit. I'm already questioning how I'm going to get my green smoothie fix when SB and I do our extended Wellington weekend (if any of you know a fab little cafe that will whip them up, without looking at me like I'm insane - recent experience - let me know) and I'm making sure I do it everyday. I should take my own advice that I gave Alice and create a star chart to keep up my progress, it works for grown-ups too!
How are you instituting changes and making them your new normal?
Since pregnancy, I have no idea what normal even is anymore!!!! I just go with the flow when it comes to social events and appointments! I don't know how to sleep properly (ie regular bed times and wake up times), I have no handle on the exercise thing - it's mostly incidental at the moment which is bad - i need to kick my arse so I'm fit for birth and after!
ReplyDeleteI am just relieved I am keeping my diary up to date so I can keep track!
I think if you can fit your healthy habits into your "normal" life in a way that it all starts to meld together as a new normal, you'll have figured it all out. Easier said than done! I used to feel guilty for exercising after work (got home 5pm most nights) but half an hour on the bike instead of flopping on the couch with a snack really did make a difference! Then I made dinner and tidied at the same time xo