Monday, 23 October, 2023

This Week: Habit check-in, trends not streaks, creating a personal environment that better serves you.

Linda Eskin — Personal Trainer, Behavior Change Coach, Martial Artist, and Author at GoYouFitness.com

Happy Monday, Reader!

This week we're going to do some thinking about how our environments could better support us. And there's a fun new article on the website. But first...

How are you doing with your habit(s)?

I hope you had fun experimenting with growing habits last week.

Did you knock it out of the park? Awesome! Keep going with that one for at least another week. If you really want to add another habit, remember to make it really small and easy.

Did you not quite get it done? That's OK! We started out with very small habits, but even then it's really hard to change our routine.

• It's OK if you to just plain forgot about your new habit. ("Oh yeah... I mean to ____ last week!") That's normal. You might want to stick a Post-It Note on your coffeemaker, or set a reminder on your phone.
• It's OK if you missed a day or two, or more. It's important to not hold ourselves to impossible standards. We all have off days. Don't beat yourself up.
• It's OK if you tried mightily, but just weren't ready to begin. Maybe you resolved to walk around the block every other day, but got blisters on day one, and realized that you need different shoes. No problem. Take a step back and take care of getting ready.
• It's OK if you tried, but then decided that's not what you really want to do after all. It's fine! You promised yourself you would eat broccoli 3x/week, but after the first serving you remembered that you hate broccoli.

We're experimenting. That's not failure, that's learning. It's OK to decide to do something else. It's OK to need reminders. It's OK to miss a day here and there. It's OK to take a few steps back and start with something more achievable, or something that will enable you to move forward. You're going fine!

Use Trends, Not Streaks

If you like keeping score or tracking progress you might want to play with Polar Habits, an app by Jesse Anderson, an author friend of mine. Jesse wrote Extra Focus: The Quick Start Guide to Adult ADHD. (Reminder: I don't use affiliate links. I only recommend things I think you might enjoy or find useful.)

Jesse also created this cool app to help people develop habits without becoming disheartened. Polar Habits tracks your momentum. If you miss a day, you lose some momentum, but you can keep going!

Most habit tracking apps use "streaks," where if you "fail" to keep up your habit just one day you've "broken" your streak and have to start all over from zero.

Streaks work great for some people (famously, Jerry Seinfeld, for one), but I've seen friends crushed by this approach. One faithfully studied a new language for hundreds of days, and then missed a day because she was sick, slept most of the day, and forgot about it. Her streak had been a source of pride, and now it all counted for nothing. 😭 Back to zero.

Whether you use a tracking app, a wall calendar with checkmarks, or your own memory, don't do this to yourself. Give yourself some reasonable number of free passes. No sodas for almost 2 weeks, but then one somehow ended up in your hand at a friend's barbeque? Only hit your sleep goal 4 days in the past week? It's OK, really.

OK, enough on habits for the moment. Let's look at environment.

Is your environment working for you, or against you?

It's easy to think up a plan: "I'll just do a few push-ups every day." But can you? Do you have a place where you could, if you wanted to?

Here's something to look for and think about this week: In what ways is your physical environment enabling you to be active, and in what ways is it making it difficult for you to be active?

Just look around as you go through your days and see what you notice. Make notes if that helps.

At least consider your home environment. You might also want to think about work, school, and how you get around, too. But we'll focus on home to keep things simple.

Here are a few ideas to get you started:

⬜ If you wanted to (for instance) do a few planks or leg lifts, is there a place where you could do that easily? Maybe a hallway with a thick rug or carpeting? Or would you have to rearrange the living room furniture and drag a dusty mat in from the garage?

⬜ If you wanted to do some easy push-ups against a wall, or wall-sits, is there an available patch of clear wall space you could use?

⬜ If you wanted to go for a quick walk or run at some point during the day, could you? Do you have shoes handy? Would you need to arrange childcare? Do you feel safe - both from people and traffic?

⬜ Is there a place outside where you can move and play? Bounce a ball? Jump rope? Hurl a slam ball at the ground? Carry something heavy back and forth? Maybe a sidewalk, driveway, or parking area?

⬜ If you wanted to carry something heavy (whatever your own definition of "heavy" is) up and down the sidewalk, do you have anything you could use for that? Rocks in a sturdy tote bag or backpack? Your toddler? A couple of kettlebells? A sack of dog food?

Is there one thing you could change to make things easier?

Think about what you noticed in your environment. Is there one thing you could change that would make it easier, more appealing, or more fun to be active? It could be anything from tucking a yoga mat next to the couch where it's easy to grab and use when the mood strikes, to keeping a pair of shoes at the office so you can walk at lunch.

Here's a thing I actually need to do: wipe the dust and cobwebs off two kettlebells in the garage so I can do loaded carries in the driveway. I've had the idea to use them several times in the past week, but they are gross, and there's something sitting in front of them, and I don't have a damp rag handy, and I'll get to it later. Ha. It's often these little things that stop us.

I'll clean up my kettlebells. See if there's one thing you can improve this week.

New Article: “Discipline” Won’t Get You Fit

Imagine being told to "Get out there and build a shed!" Even if you really wanted to, and were really excited about having a shed, could you?

There's often a lot we need to do before we can begin a thing. We need do learn new skills, acquire new tools, plan what the shed will look like and how big it needs to be, learn about roofing and paint, get advice from experienced shed-builders, buy materials, ... So many things!

But this "you can do it if you just try hard enough" strategy is how we often approach fitness. And it doesn't work.

The Book Report

Still reworking the structure of the book. I think I'll have a rough outline ready for your review and feedback by next week!

Table of Contents The Table of Contents is "in the shop" this week. The freshly-reorganized outline for the book and site will be available soon. Table of Contents

Release Notes With each significant site update I post a list of changes. Check out new posts and articles, plus website updates and new feature announcements. Release Notes

Thank you for being a part of Go You Fitness! Have a question, suggestion, or request? Drop me a note at Newsletter@GoYouFitness.com​

Join the fun on social media, too!

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If You're Having a Hard Time...

People often engage with fitness during major life transitions: a bad health scare, divorce or death, getting clean and sober, an empty nest, job loss, a move to a new community. We start out full of determination. But even when it's exciting, change isn't easy.

If you are having a hard time you might want to know about the crisis resource links on the website. You can find them under Fitness Resources.

Please take care of yourself, and get help if you need it. 💛

Copyright © 2023, Linda Eskin — Go You Fitness