Habits

I recently finished reading The Power of Habit by Charles Duhigg, and I highly recommend it.  The book explores how habits are created, the impact they have on each individual, business, and society, and concludes with practical suggestions for becoming aware of your habits and changing them.

What I learned from the book that I can apply to my own development, was that every habit consists of three parts:

Cue
Something that triggers the habit.  It could be a time, a previous action, a person, location, or event (the cues are endless).

Action
The thing you do that in order to obtain the reward, and is probably the thing you become aware of when looking at your habits.  For example, biting nails, pressing snooze on the alarm, eating a snack/meal, watching a specific program, going to the gym (or not) et cetera.

Reward
What you get out from the habit.  This could be emotional, physical, psychological et cetera.

The first step in changing an action is to become aware of it.  We are surrounded by our habits and by their very nature don't realize we're doing them.  For example, I know in my morning routine I get up, go to the washroom (whether I need to or not), put in my contact lenses, brush my hair, get dress, pack lunch/snacks, have breakfast, brush my teeth, fix my hair, and leave for work.  The only change to this routine (aka "habit") is some mornings I go to the gym first.  What makes these actions habits?  I do them every morning without really thinking about it, and I rarely miss a step.

Now, if one of those habits was something I wanted to change, according to Duhigg I'd have to:

1. Identify the action (become aware of the habit)
2. Explore the cues (by process of elimination figure out what happens prior to the action that acts as the trigger)
3. Understand the reward I'm experiencing from the action
4. Determine a different action that will give me the same reward (this is assuming you want to change the habit of course)

What's my number one habit that I want to change?  Pressing the snooze button for 30 or 40 minutes.  I'm pretty sure I know the reward - more sleep!  But I haven't figured out the cue yet, and not sure what the replacement action will be (but something tells me it might be "go to sleep earlier" or "move the alarm clock across the room, so I have to get up to turn it off")

Do you have habits you'd like to change?

Market Day!

My plan this morning - 45 minute spin class followed by a quick trip to the market to pick up a couple dozen apples and three pie pumpkins before all the "Oktoberfesters" were awake and moving about the city.

Things don't always go as planned.  The spin class ended up being a 90 minute class, which I normally look forward to, but not this morning.  My legs were pretty tired from yesterday's class, I'm fighting a cold, and I still have a pulled muscle in my left leg.  Not ideal for a long class!

I made my shower super quick so I could head straight to the market before my poor legs seized up!  I was there by 10:00 which was perfect.  It was starting to get busy, but since I stuck to the veggies outside and didn't venture inside any of the buildings I was done in about 20 minutes.  I managed a few photos before my hands were too full to take any more.


 

There were peppers all over the place at the market.  I didn't buy any, but there were people buying bags of them.  Not sure what they are planning to do with them - I should have asked they guy carrying two large bags of red peppers!  Not quite sure how I resisted buying them.  They all looked so good.

My first purchase...brussel sprouts (oops!).  Not exactly on the list or the menu for this week, but they looked so green and fresh (and they roasted up nicely for dinner tonight and went well with my potato and leek soup).

My original plan was to purchase three pie pumpkins and at most two dozen apples, probably MacIntosh and Honey Crisp.  I did stick to the three pie pumpkins, but went a bit overboard on the apples.  I ended up with a bushel of MacIntosh apples, and about 24 Honey Crisp apples.




The unplanned definitely happened at the market...1 bushel of MacIntosh apples, 24 Honey Crisp apples, a basket of brussel sprouts, 3 pie pumpkins, and 2 butternut squashes that jumped in to my bag.

The rest of my day was spent roasting pumpkin, pumpkin seeds, and brussel sprouts.  Jamming apples in to every nook and cranny of my fridge, and hoping that I'll manage to eat them all before they start to go soft.

The plan for tomorrow is to make a pumpkin and pear loaf, wash all the dishes, and makes plans for some of those apples!

Getting Back on Track

A little fall colour in my garden.  A calendula plant that I'm hoping will re-seed itself in my garden and not all over my lawn!

I unofficially took the month of September off from intense workouts.  It wasn't really planned, but since I think I may have averaged one and a half trips to the gym a week, I'm saying it was a break.  (And I definitely haven't been running).  The break appears to have been good for me, and I'm really hoping that the muscle pull in my inner thigh is better because of it.  (Doesn't hurt to walk/run, but definitely notice it when doing weights/yoga).

October is definitely a good month to get back in to the routine of working out.
Here's the plan for this week:

• Today - 5K run on the roads around my parent's place (done, although it was a bit frosty, and there was a guy out hunting!)
• Tuesday - BodyPump
• Wednesday - RPM
• Thursday - BodyPump
• Friday - RPM
• Saturday - RPM
• Sunday - Rest and plan my own weight workouts for next week.

Usually I skip the BodyPump classes and do my own thing, but I think to get myself back in to the "wake up early, in the dark" routine I need to have something that starts at a specific time.  Next week I'm hoping that I can sub out one of the weight classes to do my own thing, but we'll see how the mornings are going.  I'm going to try building in a better cue, other than the alarm going off, as it doesn't really get me out of bed that fast.  I'm going to make sure the last thing I do before climbing in to bed to read at night is get out my workout gear.
I know in the past, this "cue" has worked for me, and of course I'll stick to my reward of amazing endorphins and feeling great for the rest of the day.  (Can you tell I'm reading The Power of Habit by Charles Duhigg?  I'm only half way through, but I highly recommend it!)