Habits

So yesterday's post talked about Tony Horton's advice for making a plan, sticking to it, and doing it, forever. Essentially forming a habit. Humans are creatures of habit, some more than others. My twenty year old son is very habitual and fortunately has mostly good habits. His eating, exercising, and studying habits would be the envy of anyone. Unfortunately a lot of Americans have bad habits that are holding them back and keeping them from realizing their full potential.

On our trip back from Jackson Hole on Monday we stopped in the town of Rawlins Wyoming for lunch. There weren't a lot of healthy food options (at least within a stone's throw of the Interstate) and our hunger got the best of us and we ended up choosing a KFC/Taco Bell restaurant. Upon further consideration I think McDonald's would have been a better option. Anyway we perused the menu and quickly determined that Taco Bell offered no food choices of redeeming value. The KFC menu wasn't much better but they did have a grilled chicken option that seemed like the least of all evils so we both went with that.

It is a rare occasion when I visit a fast food restaurant these days and I have to say I was appalled by the experience. The food was awful! Really devoid of taste. I was tempted to ask for my money back. I looked around me and saw nothing but sad, overweight (many obese) people shoveling this slop into their mouths. I could certainly tell that no one was actually enjoying their food. In a society where 20% of our meals are consumed in the car I can only assume that we eat this way out of habit.

Mark Sisson has a good post about creating good habits here. If you have some bad habits that you would like to break read this.

Here's The Thing

Tony Horton (P90X guru) posted this today:

Life with exercise creates a completely different journey than a life without it. Making the time for exercise means that you're setting an intention to have a great life. Life without exercise means you're setting an intention to miss out on a better life. The quality of your life improves with exercise and it will get worse without it. Period! Your weight loss is a minute piece to the overall health and fitness puzzle. Every time you exercise you improve your fitness, health and quality of life. You always feel good afterward and you allow your mind and body to become less vulnerable to illness and injury. Every day you decide NOT to exercise your health, fitness and quality of life diminishes. You become more vulnerable to illness and injury and the energy and enthusiasm (feeling good) for a better life is not there. This is true for everyone. No exceptions.

Make a plan, stick to the plan and do it... forever!

I had the pleasure and privilege to hang out with Tony last weekend in Jackson Hole Wyoming. Tony led a group of us through four intense yoga workouts, each one lasting at least an hour. I have never sweated so much doing yoga as I did last weekend. The fact that there were about 15 other sweaty people in a fairly small room probably contributed to my sweatiness but there is also something about working out in front of "The Man" vs. on a video that makes you push yourself.

Getting up for an 8 am yoga class on a Saturday and Sunday morning isn't at the top of my list of pleasureable activities, but it was amazing how good I felt at the end of each class. The choices we make every day, big and small, have a much bigger impact on our lives than we realize. I have resolved to start every day with at least three Sun Salutations. When I get out of bed I can barely reach my shins when I bend over but after just 10 minutes of yoga I can reach the easily reach the floor and I feel invigorated and ready to face the day.

So I'm going to issue a two week challenge. Instead of crawling out of bed and heading for the coffee pot every morning, spend just 10 minutes (or 30 if you have the time) doing some yoga. If you've never done yoga you can learn how to do Sun Salutations here. Then have a cup of coffee if you so desire.