Habits

As you may have noticed in my post “obsession” I had quite a freak out when group finished two weeks ago. Both the ideas of going it “alone”, and making a permanent change to the way I think and behave with regards to food and my body were pretty scary!!

I managed to stop freaking out quite so much by doing lots of reading of different blogs and other resources I’ve found about body acceptance and non-dieting approaches, but I was still noticing that some of my bingy behaviours were starting to creep back in. I had a couple of days where I definitely and deliberately ignored my hunger signals and ate beyond the point of being comfortable. I probably wouldn’t have called these binges in the past – but I think what is considered a binge or inappropriate eating for me is getting to be less and less in terms of quantities of food as I “recalibrate”, and more about the feelings, thoughts and “process” that happen around it.

You can imagine that this was pretty worrying – although I wasn’t yet “out of control” I was starting to feel like I was on a pretty slippery slope to telling myself that I’d just “start again on Monday”.

It was in the middle of all of this that I came across this picture posted on Facebook by the “Am I hungry?” Mindful eating program page.

It struck me Binging and/or Overeating are habits for me – it’s my default position – if I’m happy, sad, bored or procrastinating I eat. Sometimes I eat for no reason at all. Sometimes I eat because I’m already full!! I already knew all of this, but seeing this post was just what I needed to get me thinking about the habits that I do actually want to be cultivating in my life, to replace this habit of overeating. So, I can now reveal to you –

Lauren’s healthy life habits!

-       Eat with regard to my hunger and fullnesss signals most of the time

-       Focus on eating a healthy balance of foods

-       Gym 4 times per week – two spin classes and two weights sessions

-       Taekwondo twice per week

-       Daily meditation

-       Do what I’m supposed to be doing!

These are not ridged rules to be followed and to beat myself up about if I don’t reach them, but just things that I think are healthy balanced habits to have. I’ll aim to eat mindfully most of the time – but if there is an opportunity to eat lemon meringue pie I’ll probably eat it even if I’m not hungry! However, I will savor it and not ruin the experience with guilt. I’ll focus on improving my fitness and strength; I want to start meditating again because I know it helps me with my anxiety. Finally, I really want to work on my tendency to procrastinate! This is something I need to explore strategies on – I’m really good at doing everything other than what I’m supposed to be doing and the digital age makes this so easy!!

So, this is my list – but, do I think you should have the same one? NO! I think we could probably all use a list like this – but it should be individual to you. Maybe you don’t like going to the gym, maybe you hate meditating, fine! I’d love it if you would share your healthy habits with me.