A lot of habits have changed for me since I started living a healthier life; the obvious changes are my eating, exercising, and being aware that my decisions about what I put in my body have consequences. Since July 2010 I’ve worked very hard to make these changes from a have to, to a want to. These changes aren’t temporary, they are forever. Do I slip up sometimes and eating an obscene amount of food in one sitting? Yes! But I pick up at my next choice and keep going forward.
In establishing healthy habits into my life I still recognize a few unhealthy habits that I’ve decided I want to change. I find that I become obsessed and zone out in front of the TV for hours and the next thing I know, it’s time for bed. My life is passing me by one TV show at a time. I realize this as an unhealthy habit that I want to change, and I am committed to make the change.
The change I want to make the most is obviously how much TV I watch. In the past fall TV used to be something I looked forward too, I guess it still is, but in a different way – let me explain. In previous years I’ve waited in anticipation for the fall TV guide to come out with all the new shows listed. Once it did, I would print it out and start highlighting the shows that looked interesting and/or reoccurring favorites of mine. At times that list had consisted of 10 different shows if not more. I would write down in my planner what shows I would watch at home and then I would make a spreadsheet using excel to organize the shows that I needed to record. I guess you could call it my hobby, lame I know, but it was. I was trying to fill a void in my life with mindless entertainment.
Since recognizing this unhealthy habit, I have limited my shows on cable to only three. This is a vast improvement since last year. Because I’ve limited my cable TV intake to only three hours a week I inadvertently picked up another unhealthy choice regarding Netflix. I noticed that instead of zoning out between the hours of 8-10 pm via cable TV I was now more flexible because I was using Netflix. But the flexibility spun out of control and I was sitting on my butt from the time I came home. I thought to myself “I can stop anytime I want, I have more control” – so I thought. Since realizing yet another unhealthy TV habit I have dwindled my DVDs from three at-a-time to ONE-at-a-time! Moderation is the key that I am coming to realize and appreciate. It’s amazing to me what I choose to give power too.
Empowered is what I’m feeling now, the ability to choose how and where I spend my time. I have had this control all along but never realized how I was debilitating myself through my choices. It seems I’ve replaced one bad habit for another, but you know what, I’m aware of it and that is the most important thing to me. I make the choices; therefore I suffer the consequences but also relish in the victories as well.
The other night was just a taste of how these small but massive changes how affected me. After work I went to the gym for half an hour when I came home I prepared dinner, while it was cooking I unloaded and loaded the dishwasher. By the time I did this dinner was done. I took my plate to the dinner TABLE and ate my dinner while I enjoyed reading my book. (Another goal: sit at the table for my meals) Once I finished dinner and picked up the kitchen I cleaned my bathroom and organized my kitchen cabinets. When I finished that, I looked at the clock and saw that I had some time left before bed, so I read my Bible and then TREATED myself with an episode from a show I am currently watching and actually found myself enjoying it more and not being distracted by other mindlessness. The episode ended and I saw I had 20 minutes before bed so I thought “perfect amount of time to catch up on some pinterest.”
As I went to bed that night I didn’t feel like I “should have done this or I should have done that,” I was content and happy with myself. This year my values and priorities have changed. Do I still enjoy watching my shows, yes! But there are other activities in my life that are more worthwhile. Working out and taking care of myself is one of those activities. This year when the fall preview came out I was faced with reality. I thought to myself, “There is no way I can get my workouts in, prepare for the next day, and keep up with housework all before 8 p.m. I have to give something up and it’s not going to be my workouts.” In that moment I made a choice to take care of me and in the process I found a freeness that wasn’t there before. It just shows me where there’s a will there’s a way.
