Changing Habits

A Time to Change: empty nest

Habits

They say it takes 21 days to create a habit.

I'm banking on being able to change several habits concurrently, because I just don't want to have to do it consecutively.  Guess it all boils down to a lack of patience.  Imagine that.

Exercise

My daughter and I have signed up to run a Color 5K in Des Moines on October 6.  I am so excited about this!  First off, if you watch the video, it looks like an incredibly uplifting experience of pure joy.  (shocking to type that, since running is FRAUGHT WITH PAIN for me!)  HA HA.  I will likely run/walk.  Well, no,  walk/run.  Well...probably walk a lot and jog a little.  But look at this!!!  How FUN does it look? WOOO HOOOO!  I actually cannot wait to do this...and it is exercise!

In the mean time, I have to build a few good habits.  Gotta get out and walk/jog a little.  No, more than a little. 

Habit 1: regular exercise

Diet

I also have to improve my consumption habits.  We all know the drill.  More veggies and fruits.  Fewer carbs, fewer and healthier fats, healthy protein choices.  Anyone that knows my husband knows that he is the cook in the family.  Cooking is a huge chore for me, and generally a delight to him.  Win, win!  Except that John is one stubborn guy, and he cooks what he wants to.  I will ask nicely for healthier food, and he will sweetly cook it for me.  When he feels like it.  :D  This makes it my job to a) be nice and b) pick through what he offers.

Habit 2: eat healthier


I believe I will break that one down into more specific  choices, such as 3 servings of  fruit and 3 servings of non-starchy veggies daily etc.  Then I can get credit for good more often for eating things like peaches that I LOVE, and specific goals are incredibly important to me.  I love checking off boxes, and I actually draw them on my lists so I can check them off.  

Record keeping

Then I get down to my pups.  Pi is now my new running...I mean walking/jogging-a-little buddy. I find the prospect of taking him to trials entirely too stressful.  I do agility for fun.  Pi is a blast to train, and a blast to run.  But I just cannot depend on him to be sensible with other dogs.  He has made some stellar choices in the recent past.  Every once in a while, however, he just makes a choice bad enough to ruin all my confidence that I can enjoy being at a trial with him.  Sigh.  Of course I would make that decision just as he is ready to trial.  But I suppose that is to be expected.  I didn't have to decide earlier.

Stevie is doing wonderfully and a total joy to train.  Clearly, God has created me another heart dog and I feel incredibly fortunate.  Alice is coming along, as is Indy in many ways.  I still have to separate them due to Indy's focus on Allie.  This is a challenge to manage, and I fail in that more often than I succeed.

Habit 3: Keep a training journal.

I have one.  I love it.  I don't use it as often as I train, which is silly.  In 21 days it will just be second nature to me and I won't have to remind myself to do it.  That's how it is supposed to work anyway.  

I think that all these resolutions are something akin to a New Year for me, and it is simply because my son left for college this morning.  He is my youngest, and a sophomore, so this isn't exactly a new experience.  History has taught me I have to keep busy when my kids leave the nest.  

When Emilie my oldest, left for college, I taught Jane to weave in three weeks and took her to Border Collie Nationals for her first trial.  That was a great decision and opened an entire new life for me.  

All of these things play together.  A more fit trainer is a more energetic trainer, and more fun to learn from.  (please don't call the grammar police on me..yikes).  A more fit handler is a better handler.  

Thus:  Fix me, eh?   So excited!!!

LOL