One habit at a time

I just read a really interesting post by a blogger called No Meat Athlete. It was about how after struggling for a really long time with developing healthy habits, he was able to by tackling one habit at a time each month. I find that concept really interesting because like the blogger, I often spontaneously decide that tomorrow my life will be forever changed and I often end up failing miserably. The problem, as this blogger mentions, is that often people decide to tackel too many habits at ones; eating healthier, working out more, waking up earlier, reading every day .... and all of this becomes incredibly overwhelming. Rather, we should devote a few minutes every day for an extended period of time to just one habit. Then, this blogger explains, at the end of the years we will have successfully developed 36 new habits which is pretty freaking awesome. So I am going to give this a go!

The first habit I want to develop is one that this blogger (named Matt; I just found his name on his blog!) worked on. Matt is a runner, but he explained how he would go days without running sometimes and so to develop the habit he started running everyday for just 20 minutes. I am pretty sure I can take 20 minutes out of my day to go for a jog. I really want to start working daily exercise into my life. Hopefully daily exercise will motivate me to eat better and accomplish my goal of losing some lbs this summer. 

Heres a list of habits I'd like to develop, one at a time.

1. Running every day

2. Meditating every morning

3. Practicing piano for 5 minutes every day

4. Drinking a cup of tea every day

5. Taking my vitamins

6. Making sure to get my 5 serving of fruits and vegetables

7. Replacing my constant chocolate cravings with something healthier

8. Planning outfits the night before

9. Sunday grooming

10. Waking up earlier every day

11. Reading every night before bed. 

Some of these are super simple such as taking my vitamins or drinking tea every day so I know I can accomplish more than one goal at a time. But for now, I am just going to focus on running. I obviously still want to try and take my vitamins and drink tea, but I'll put more energy into those later. 20 minutes of running tomorrow will be so lovely!

The exciting this is, I know this is possible. While I was away at school I started developing quite a few healthy habits such as making my bed, making sure my room is clean before I go out and washing my face and brushing my teeth everynight. These are habits that took time and daily practice to develop, but now I seriously can't leave if my bed isn't made and I always make sure my room is tidy before I go out. Its kinda cool how these things start to become second nature and I am excited to start developing a few more heathy habits!