Day 22: Habits

I read somewhere that it takes 6 weeks to effectively change a habit and/or establish a new habit. If that's true, we're halfway through!

I enjoyed Elena's post from last week about how she noticed she was reaching for food when things got stressful at the office, because I'm the same way. We had a hectic morning at my house, after a night with very interrupted sleep -- my daughter is a little under the weather and was up much of the night coughing, so we decided she needed to go to the doctor. My husband is off work today and he agreed to take her so that I could exercise (yay, husband!) because I'm working this afternoon. (This post coming to you from the studio of Classical 90.5 WUOL -- I'm on the air until 7pm if you want to listen in!) Just as I was leaving for work, my husband and I were talking about a myriad of things that need to get done around the house, and I started to feel a bit overwhelmed. As I pulled out of the driveway, I was thinking about stopping at Starbucks for an iced green tea (it's a delicious minty blend and really refreshing on a hot day) and then I automatically thought, oh, and I can get a cookie or something too! Yessss!

The next thought, which followed immediately, was, but I'm not doing cookies right now. Why was I thinking about a cookie? Because I was feeling stressed out and that's my habit. But a cookie's not going to help in any real way. Cookies don't clean my house or give me more hours in the day or make my daughter's ear infection go away. They do give me a brief moment of pleasure, but I can tell you, I have been enjoying these gorgeous cherries I'm eating every night more than a damn industrial cookie from Starbucks, of all places. It was very interesting to watch that process and see where I instinctively reached in a stressful moment.

I'm spending so much time working out and dealing with meals (planning, shopping, cooking, cleaning up) that some other household tasks have fallen by the wayside. It's starting to get on my nerves. I'm hoping I can get better at the food angle, more efficient, so I'm not eating the same things all the time but not putting three pots on the stove for lunch anymore either. I'll figure it out. We're in the middle of an extreme heat wave here in Kentucky -- temperatures above 90 degrees F for the last week at least, and due to continue for the next week too -- so I think that's making me a little irritable.

I am infinitely cheered up by my shoulders, though. I think I'm in love with my shoulders. I don't want it to sound as though I'm only complaining -- I'm really enjoying the changes I'm seeing. My body is responding to what I've been doing, and my mind is coming along too.