Today, I’m taking my bike for a crappy beautiful little ride to work. By “crappy” I mean that it probably will burn 18.9 calories or something, and provide no real benefit other than kinetic movement for a bit.
But calorie burning and world-domination isn’t my goal this morning. My goal’s pretty simple this week — I don’t care at all if I lose weight or gain tone or burn fat. This week, it’s just about routine-establishing. Every day, a little something active. Every day, two healthy meals at least. Every day, the house is spotless before work and before bed. This is all I wish to achieve this week — routine.
When getting fit and thin and fab, don’t set yourself up for fail by going full-on-mode right off the bat. It’s hard to maintain it longterm. If you start by doing 10-20 minutes of good exercise EACH DAY, you’ll find yourself ramping that time up very quickly, but it’s the pattern of working out DAILY that will most benefit you.
All the things I’m doing this week, I did in February 2008, before I lost 50 pounds that year. I got my home under control, I started systems I could manage on a daily basis, and soon I was having success with all areas of my life.
It’s not about results this week; it’s about laying a groundwork for a new way of thinking and a plan for maintaining control and having consistent forward-moving results from this point on.
That’s this week, and I’m pretty pleased with how it’s going this far. At least my period had the decency to come yesterday so I can be done with all my physical hurdles come Saturday. Just slowly implementing a plan like this — daily activity, structured cleaning of the home, planning healthy food ahead of time — makes me feel so empowered.
You will feel it, too.