Just coming out of it today.
I'm refocusing my energy and my attention to truly developing new good habits. When I say "new" I mean, compared to what I did prior to finding NoS. This has been a massive challenge to me, especially on the regular exercise and no eating at night front.
I just did 18 mins of dancing, squatting, light dumbbells, chorus line kicks, and finished with chakra mantras and short meditation.
I want to have success in this area *no matter what*. If I don't over commit time-wise, and have a regular routine here at home, in the spirit of Shovelglove, I can't make any excuses to not succeed. Besides,,,, It feels so great!!! I am always depressed and this is such a help for that, so it's gonna help my self esteem big time if I know I've done my exercise.
I also got pretty sweated up, so I *know* it's having some good effect, and over time will definitely help me get in good shape.
If I do other auxiliary exercises on top of my regular daily routine (which btw I'm trying to do in the morning, so I can get off to a positive start for the day, well that's great, but I'm not gonna start making a lot of commitments to four different habit cals.. but just fyi, I am most probably going to do more than just 14 mins at home a day (ie: yoga class, swimming, suburban ranger, stair climbing, etc...)
My version of NoS, will also be strict. I will allow myself 3 regular meals a day and one small fourth meal, consisting only of fresh fruit or salad.
And I'm going to go completely hardcore on myself when it comes to giving 100% to not eating at night. This has been a life long bad habit, which keeps me maintaining my weight. When I don't do it, I lose weight on those weeks. Simple. That's keeping me from succeeding in getting and staying healthy. It's gonna change, whether it takes a long time of trying or not.
I thought about how long it will take to really form a new habit to replace the old one, and here's an interesting observation that popped into my mind.
From the years 1987-2007 I drove a stick shift car. Then I ended up deciding (unfortunately) to not fix it when the inspection time came, cos the mechanic discouraged me from putting any major repairs into an old car, but if I had I think I would have been better off anyway, cos it was a Toyota Corolla and I think it would still have a bunch more years of life in it *and* be fuel efficient unlike the one I then inherited from my Mom, a major gas guzzler.. argh!! Sorry! Tangent!!
Anyway,, my hand for the first year of driving the new car, which was an automatic transmission, would, purely out of habit, go and try to find the stick shift to put it in gear when I would start the car, or if I was at a red light etc, to stop it, I'd try to find it to put it into neutral.. It was really funny. I was so habitualised into using the stick, that even when it wasn't there, I'd reach for it.
I can say that now, after 2 years or more of driving this new car, I no longer "look" for the stick shift. I think that habit took over a year to change completely.. I mean to the point that it's truly not a habit anymore.
I am thinking that the night time eating, which went on for a similar amount of time may take over a year to defeat and change.
I just have to substitute a regular positive behaviour, and stick to it everytime, when I have the urge to wander over to the fridge..
I think my best shot is to fill up the water pitcher and every night, religiously, drink water, when the urge hits.
Well, sorry if this was long and definitely *not* original in any way guys.
I just needed to make my commitment public. I thought long and hard about Reinhard's response on the thread about having a hard time sticking to it after 21 days, and realised that I have to shift my focus from goals, to habits. It's the only thing that makes sense long term.
Thanks Reinhard for the strict reminders like that when we need them.
It's "tough love"
Thanks for listening friends and have a great week!!
Debs
