Sunday, June 8, 2014

small things, daily things

Ok, it's confession time. Up until a year ago I never flossed my teeth except for a frenzy of hyper attentiveness before dental appointments to somehow cover up the fact that this adult still had juvenile oral hygiene behaviors.

I know, gross.

I then read a friend's blog post (newsletter, facebook thing...can't recall) confession that SHE had never really flossed but read an article that highlighted the importance of good oral hygiene especially flossing for overall health. I was so impressed that she admitted this publicly and was willing to just add this one habit that I decided I would too.

Here it is a year later. I went to the dentist who checked my gums and said they were pretty much picture perfect--no gaps or pockets. I don't think I have ever had a dentist smile and give me a thumbs up for my not bleeding gums. It made me wonder what other things I could make happen by changing simple behaviors. A lot it seems!

I cannot stress the importance of small things in my life. Almost all significant progress I've made with personal goals has been because of small, daily rituals and adjustments. I do pushups, lunges and planks daily--not a multitude but I do them before I leave the house and start my day. I would love to say these had given me into a beach body or made me ready to run a Tough Mudder (not really) but when I went in for a fitness evaluation it turned out I had measurable fitness--the kind of fitness that helps get you through the day and get things done. Even if I never do another race or challenge I have good enough fitness. I'm far from being a couch potato and I continue to get stronger as I go.

I've tried to control my weight with odd ball food plans with varying degrees of success but mostly find myself going back to old habits after whatever dietary regimen crashes and burns (seriously, anything that excludes entire categories of food doesn't make sense). I decided to drop all dieting and find a new way to treat my body. As I mentioned in an earlier blog post, I've been experimenting mindfulness practices. Just recently I decided to work with a nutritionist at my company gym to evaluate the kinds of things I'm eating and to give me a reality check. He suggested a few small adjustments to my lunch and snacks--nothing huge. He said to make another appointment when those adjustments felt like second nature and I was ready to try something new. I left our appointment feeling sane and relieved that he didn't try to eradicate my Sunday lunch at Mom's house or wine or meat or ANYTHING really.

Who knew a healthy diet was full of...food.

If you are anything like me you probably have a long list of attempts to make major changes in your life by going FULL THROTTLE and changing EVERYTHING at once (over exercising, extreme restrictive dieting, information immersion and so on). Personally, I would make progress but some "thing" would come up and knock me off my stride (holiday eating, I'm looking at you). The cycle=overwhelm. disaster. cold dead stop.

What I've learned is that there is an enormous difference between shifting a habit and and trying to force a change through extreme unsustainable measures.

Creating a good habit--even a really small one--is like putting money in an account that compounds interest. Over time you find yourself wealthy. Getting healthy, rich or anything else you want is mostly about building manageable habits around those things and paying attention. Even a small amount of daily focus can lead to incredible results over time.

Put aside the outcomes and timelines for a while and allow yourself to embrace small things done daily. Check yourself in six months or a year and see how far you've come. Allow yourself to be surprised and delighted by the power of small things.


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