All we need is speed bumps and short cuts to change our habits.
There is always room for improvement. Some of us want to loose weight, others are just trying to get into better shape and commute by bike to work. No matter what it is that you are trying to achieve, there is one thing that you can do today that will not only get you results, but changes your daily habits. This is key, since we tend to not stick to short term goals but rather new lifestyle changes that impact our social and physical well being.
The path of least resistance: (20 seconds faster or slower can change everything)
Make it easier for yourself to be good and harder to be bad. How do you do that? Easy, if your plan is to go jogging more often, place your running shoes at the front edge of your closet. This will make it easier for you to get to them and also signals a constant reminder that you made a commitment to jogging. I do this for example with my stationary trainer bike in the winter. It's placed at the edge of the living room and I am forced to walk past it every time I am heading into the kitchen. (thankfully my better half rides bikes as well and allows me to do this) If I were to place my trainer in the basement, garage or anywhere out of sight, I would most likely never ride it. This is just one example on how to make "being good" easier, but it also works in the other direction.
Make it harder to be bad:
Want to eat less junk food, but somebody in your house keeps buying and placing it in plain sight around your apartment? Placing the junk food in one of the upper kitchen cabinets so that you need to use a step stool to get to it might just be enough of a delay to keep you from putting your hand into the cookie jar every five minutes. I am not saying it's a cure, but a great speed bump that hopefully will cut down on sugar highs.
Slowing down bad behaviors and speeding up good behaviors can be applied in many ways:
- cutting down TV time (taking batteries out of remote and putting them in another room)
- eat less ice cream (stash ice cream in the back of the freezer behind all the real food)
- no more cell phones during dinner (place phone inside a jacket away from the table)
- eat more fruits (have basket of fruits placed on the counter)
- commute more by bike (don't hide your bike in the back of the garage, store it in plain sight)
- recycle your trash (have a recycling bin next to your trash can)
I am not saying that this will work for everybody, but it for sure worked for me.
so be good :) and ride that bike
Jurgen
