D’habitude

I just adore an Old School riding habit, don’t you?

In the past few years I’ve come to realize that even more than those bursts of intention and energy, it’s our day-to-day habits that really determine and help shape the course of our lives. Showing up to work on time, paying our bills, keeping our vehicle clean and maintained, weeding the garden, walking the dogs, sorting the recycling, flossing nightly, even just making our beds in the morning are all actions that can be built into our routine so that they require little day-to-day thought, but add so much to the quality of our lives.

There are other habits too, like courtesy, treating our friends and loved ones with respect, listening, and kindness that can be learned and cultivated and become a part of who we are. And these habits add not only our own lives, but to the lives of those around us.

Some habits are harder to maintain than others. Weight management (for me, anyway) requires consistently maintaining healthy eating habits and watching portion sizes, but we live in a world where this often feels like swimming upstream, and it’s much easier at times to just drift with the current: that late afternoon snack from the vending machine at work, lunch from the taco truck one too many times per week, crackers and cheese for dinner when I’m too tired to cook. So I find that I periodically need to refocus my habits in this area, and pony up that little extra bit of attention and energy until the habits that support my goals take hold again.

In one of my weight-related posts from a couple of years ago, Duchesse mentioned that she “automates” some of her daily meals to help alleviate the stress of too many choices, and I’ve come to see that this is a very good strategy. (An ounce of habit is worth a pound of “willpower?”) Since returning from our trip to France in April, I’ve been making us a fresh-fruit-and-plain-yogurt breakfast daily, and this has now become an enjoyable habit. I’ve recently added a small bowl of oatmeal with a splash of half-and-half most mornings to give the meal a little more staying power. I’ve turned next to focusing my “automate” lens on weekday lunches and snacks so I have two or three “go-to” options that don’t require a lot of thought.

Common wisdom is that it takes 21 days of constant practice for any new behavior to become a habit. So I’m using Weight Watchers online again as a focusing tool to track my food and improve awareness until the new habits kick in.

Have you recently worked on developing any positive habits?  Or are there some you’re looking to cultivate? Do you find it hard to change habits once ingrained?
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26 Comments

  1. I can go 42 days or more being good about all the daily habits and then drop off like a lemming over a cliff. What’s up with that.
    Karen

  2. Not really, I have more or less the same breakfast and lunch ever day, so that I only need fuss over dinner. I’m pretty good at sticking to my health and diet regime.

  3. Bonjour my dear Déjà,
    Yes, I find when I automate things, it’s much easier for me and oddly also more pleasurable. I really look forward to my morning oatmeal with homemade yogurt and fresh fruit of the season. Nothing else is as satisfying. Having just moved offices (now next to Notre Dame, in the heart of tourist-land with too many overly-expensive, carb-laden offerings), I need to find some automated lunch options. The cantine (government subsidized, with healthy and not-so-healthy options) is probably my best bet, assuming I can restrict myself to the healthy options (although portions are absurdly large). Dinner is easier, as I am happy with a salade with eggs or whatever other protein is available. Maybe I should track things online with WW to keep me honest.
    Bisous, Karen

  4. I have been trying not to just slob out in front of the TV in the evening. I’ve started knitting and sewing again so I am doing something constructive while the TV is on – I’m getting there but still have evenings when I’m too LAZY TO DO MUCH.

  5. I can vouch for the effectiveness of automating meals. I did that for years, and easily maintained my weight. I got off track during a health crisis (no energy to cook) and developed some bad habits which, years later, I’m still trying to change! I’m working on getting back into a healthy routine. It will have to be slightly different now, due to my work schedule. That’s the challenging part–not being able to do exactly what was tried-and-true before, and having to figure out what to do instead.

    Like Lesley, I’m also trying to be more active in the evenings. Not necessarily exercising, but not spending the whole night on the couch either. I’ve heard that it’s something your body has to adapt to– that at first, you’ll feel tired and sluggish, but eventually your blood flow improves and you feel more energetic. I hope that’s true!

  6. Developing the theme of your pictorial pun, one of my quirks is that I enjoy side-saddle riding – almost an extinct skill these days here in England. I wear my great grandmother’s riding habit, tailored for her in 1919 (I have the bill!), and that costume tells me bluntly when its time to cut back on absent-minded snacking. Taking a hedge with a boned corset digging too tightly into one’s rib cage isn’t easily forgotten.
    Hester

  7. Health concerns can sometimes be a blessing. I am much more conscious of my intake and work at incorporating more fruits and veggies, fewer carbs. My breakfast rotates- oatmeal, whole grain cereal and, twice a week, eggs. Lunch is difficult- haven’t got that automated yet-but it always involves fruit. No snacking! I’m following the French model for that. The August edition of Real Simple has some terrific ideas for snacks that I am turning into light lunches and some interesting tomato ideas. Weight is stable, but that’s not so bad.

  8. yes! I have automated a new breakfast smoothie (blueberry/peach/avocado/protein powder with almond milk) and an afternoon snack of rice cake and natural peanut butter. Just two meals changes have had a large payoff. I have also switched to decaf tea without sugar. No sugar low’s and I’ve cut down on exhaustion my disciplining myself to stick to the menu. The hardest part is just keeping the fridge stocked with my go to items.

    No working what works for you is worth the discipline.

  9. yes! I have automated a new breakfast smoothie (blueberry/peach/avocado/protein powder with almond milk) and an afternoon snack of rice cake and natural peanut butter. Just two meals changes have had a large payoff. I have also switched to decaf tea without sugar. No sugar low’s and I’ve cut down on exhaustion my disciplining myself to stick to the menu. The hardest part is just keeping the fridge stocked with my go to items.

    No working what works for you is worth the discipline.

  10. Thank you! I also semi-automate other meals, mostly lunches and snacks. Commenter eleanorjane introduced me to FitnessPal.com, and I’m using it to track calories (doing a mashup of WW and calorie counting.) I’ll be blogging about that after Labour Day. In the meantime, yes, habit really frees us from overthinking.

    1. Ooh, me, me! How exciting, I’m famous on teh interwebz! 🙂

      Yup, I’m back and tracking on MyFitnessPal. Just had a dreadful dinner at a pub but tomorrow’s a new day. I have porridge every morning for breakfast. As long as I’ve been shopping I’ve got a selection of healthyish snacks and lunch but it’s afternoon onwards that things go pear-shaped. And weekends. Break in the routine, a ‘treat yourself’ mentality… oh well, we trek on. Persistance is most of the battle.

      Cheers,
      Eleanorjane

  11. My eating habits are pretty good, especially since I stopped eating meat last year. I’m starting to get back into a yoga routine and reading more. I lose motivation in the hot months (which, for here, is the majority of the year).

  12. In the summer I have plain yogurt, fruit and granola with nuts and my daughter has Weeatabix, fruit and milk; we both have a mixture of oatmeal and meusli made with milk in the winter.
    We have never mastered automated lunches. School has already started here, so I can’t wait to hear what you come up with!

  13. I automate breakfast now. Overnight oats every day except weekends. I never get tired of it and it’s a good combo of protein and carbs. Lunch is my downfall because I’m out of the office at appointments daily. Sometimes I don’t find time to eat. Gotta work on that problem. I don’t have much trouble with dinner. Cutting out sugar is a problem. If I stop eating it entirely, within a month I can live without it, but if I indulge in anything sweet, than the sweet tooth isn’t hard to revive!

  14. I’ve commented here before, I think, about my 60lb post-childbearing/pre-menopause weight gain, and how after suffering with it for about ten years, I finally committed to Weight Watchers. 15 months later, I’m down 53 lb. Hooray! A good part of that success cones from automating meals. Breakfast is usually Cheerios with skim milk and fresh fruit, and once or twice a week a bagel thin with cream cheese instead. I switch from Cheerios to oatmeal in the winter. Lunch is often a turkey wrap with avocado, spinach, and a little ranch dressing. For a change of pace there, I make a black bean quesadilla, or maybe a scrambled egg bowl with turkey sausage and salsa. Or a big salad with a pouch of tuna, some dried cherries, toasted almonds or walnuts, and maybe a bit of goat cheese.

    This is easy for me since I work at home. Packing a lunch or having to eat out make it a lot harder. I can’t recommend Weight Watchers enough, though, for helping train and reinforce good eating habits. That point-counting business gets tedious after a while, but does it ever work!

  15. As I look back, every time I lost weight I automated a lot. When you posted on your yogurt and fruit breakfast, I immediately adopted it and felt so much saner. I hear a lot of commenters saying they don’t have lunch figured out yet, and that is my hardest meal. Any ideas?

  16. Adelfa, I’ll suggest my favorite lunch: a Flat-Out brand wrap, which is 90-100 calories, but large enough to hold a lot of stuff, filled with a couple slices of turkey, 1/4 of an avocado, a big handful of raw spinach or lettuce, other veggies if you want, and a drizzle of low fat salad dressing (I use ranch). It’s healthy, low calorie (don’t use too much avocado, though), delicious, and very filling.

  17. I’m feeling very overwhelmed right now, so I’ve gotten into a bad habit of complaining too much. I must start waking up everyday and remembered to feel gratitude. I think that’s a habit/practice also that can be somewhat automated, and should be (at least for me).

  18. Actually, the picture of Jackie O, is what inspired me yet again about this. She went through a lot in her life, good and bad, but went through it all with what seems like tremendous grace. And she died relatively young also – so we should all appreciate things, and stop beating ourselves up over a few extra pounds etc.

  19. Having a small selection of meal items for several meals of the day certainly makes managing the household grocery list quicker.

  20. Exercise is the best example in my existence. When I drove to work, I set up my day so that I’d work out on the way. Laid out my gear the night before. Habit. Now I walk to work, necessary habit:). It is all about reducing the amount of willpower and intent you use up every day, because we only have limited supplies.

  21. My automated breakfast is a hardboiled egg.
    Dinner of meat and salad, or veg and salad works.
    It’s the 9:30pm urge for ice cream .. haven’t licked it yet!

  22. Great post. Thank you for sharing your tips and your thoughts. We all have the same concerns… I heard Weight Watchers is one of the best ways to control weight…. But I am not strong minded enough to measure each thing I eat 🙁 So I do it my way: lots of salads. As many days in a year, as many salads. It requires little time and just a little imagination to create different ones. Healthy, good, nice looking. I am salad fanatic !