getting used to it

Most of us are creatures of habit. We get up. We go about our day. We have our routine. We do our makeup in a certain order...we eat the same things (at home or at fast food restaurants)... we sleep, we go to work, we run errands, we sleep.

Over and over and over again.

Thats why for most of us changing our habits and changing our lifestyles is H A R D!

Obviously eating healthier, getting in better shape, becoming more active, and more healthy, none of this is easy! Over the course of my journey to accomplish some of these aforementioned goals I have stumbled upon a simple yet profound, to me at least, realization. You (or rather I) have just gotta get used to it!

Its amazing what a little routine can do. Do something enough times, eat an orange instead of a cookie, drink a glass of hot tea at night instead of a beer, and the new albeit less fun thing becomes the routine. Another example...I gave up diet coke for lent, not really because I was worried about it being unhealthy but more because I drank it kind of obsessively every day and I wanted to give up something that would be difficult for me. Difficult it was! Man did i want a diet coke! Easter day came and I was so excited I poured my first one at work at about 11:00 am and went to drink and rather than melt into my glass in delicious relief I was more than underwhelmed. At first I thought maybe it was just the diet coke at work so I had another glass the next day and another a couple days after that until it finally hit me that I don't really want diet coke anymore. I had unintentionally but effectively broken myself of my diet coke addiction. (I may however have a new beverage obsession in iced tea but thats gotta be healthier than diet coke right?...right? haha!) 

In spain my routine consisted of walking a mile and a half or so to school and back, walking all over town, walking the mile and a half back, walking another mile and a half in another direction to go to the gym then walking back. I did this nearly every single day. It wasn't hard. It was routine. I had gotten used to it.

I watched my manager at work last night order a red velvet cupcake for herself and kids, our red velvet cupcakes (with cream cheese icing btw) are NOT small. Think giant coffee shop muffin size with icing piped in the middle AND on top. Yeah its huge and, I'll definitely admit, delicious. But when I saw her sit down with that cupcake that could easily feed two...three...four...for dessert my initial thought, my instinct, was "ugh! I would feel so gross if I ate that whole thing!" 

I was shocked. 

This was the moment I realized that I had finally managed to change the way I think about food. Don't get me wrong I'm definitely sitting here writing this at 1 am thinking about the hot pockets I have in the freezer and the left over easter candy I've got on top of the fridge but I've also got really cold grapes calling my name and the fact that they came to my mind with equal cravings playtime means something.

Get up a little earlier every day, go to the gym instead of sitting on your couch shopping online, eat a handful of grapes instead of a handful of M&M's...it's all about getting used to it.

love and healthy habits, 

Katie