Tomorrow is my turn to do early morning support. I shouldn’t still be awake at 23:42, as I need to get up at 05:00 !!! So the usual routine tomorrow would be get up late, rush out of the house and grab very very unhealthy breakfast at the station in London to ‘make up’ for the fact I’m on support (didums – poor davey wavey!).

I’m beginning to realise that time keeping affects diet, health and habits. I should be doing more walking than I am. But because I’m often late, I don’t have time to walk to the station and end up driving (or catching a taxi from the office after I leave late). Also when I’m in control of time I can plan for eating healthy food, but when I’m in a rush it’s just the vague justification I need to eat something unnecessary. There’s something to this, and I need to boil it down to some positive habits – more on that as I figure it out.

Suffice to say that going to bed late has a serious knock on affect throughout the rest of the next day, and it’s probably something I need to address soon!

Either way, I’m feeling positive generally as I can honestly say I haven’t put a foot wrong in 18 days. Even I’m impressed with that. I know it’s not about being perfect, more about building habits. Having this blog and the record of the Habits feedback, and the supportive messages I’ve received have all really helped. It’s such a simple and effective system for me that I’m genuinely surprised it’s working so well.

Goodnight all, and if you’re reading this on Friday, think of me.

Habits

Started today with a “Fasting Blood Test” at my local surgery. This was arranged during my last trip to my Doctor regarding my cough. She asked me about my weight and whether I wanted to try an appetite suppressant. There’s no way I want to mess with stuff like that. I mentioned this blog and how I’m trying to approach it. She suggested that we check my cholesterol level, thyroid function, and some other general bits and bobs.

I’m not good with needles, so it was pretty stressful for me. Couple that with not having eaten for 14 hours and I was shaking like a leaf. Once out of the Doctors, I caught myself in the midst of a massive Doughnut desire again. Two for two on trips to the doctors, and looking back I suspect that I’ve virtually always complimented a trip to the Doctors with a Doughnut chaser! Crazy that I never even realised before. Not this time – went home and had cereal and toast and then off to work.

Apparently I should get the results by Monday, so I’ll blog anything pertinent that shows up.

I’m starting to realise that my sleep pattern is the next thing I need to work on. I need to figure out how that works, but I’ll be blogging more on that tomorrow.

Summary today though – I did well with all the habits I could.

Habit 0: Blog on JustBigBoned.com every day

This (and updated Habits).

Habit 1: Take a different walk through the train station

Absolutely.

Habit 3: Pause before eating. Take your time and enjoy

Did this well today.

Habit 4: Always choose one of the top 2 healthiest option

Cereal for breakfast rather than Doughnut. Skinny Cappuccino with sweetener in the afternoon.

No opportunity for the following though:

Habit 2: When I’m feeling poorly I deserve as much fruit to eat as I want

Didn’t get the chance to gloriously action Habit 1 today as I’m working from my home-office. I’ve had this hacking tickly cough for over a week now, and felt it was time to let a professional pass judgment.

Professional judgment is: I’m better working from home if I can, both from a spreading the contagion point of view, and apparently it’ll likely clear up quicker if I take it easy.

But this was an opportunity to break another bad habit. I realised as I left the pharmacy having picked up my antibiotics, that almost without fail, my normal course of action would be to buy a doughnut (well it’s 3 for a pound, so 3 doughnuts) on the way home. Yep, when I’m poorly I clearly deserve a sweet sticky ball of sugar and fat. So here’s my approach for breaking that habit…

Habit 2 : When I’m feeling poorly I deserve as much fruit to eat as I want.

I figure I am feeling rough, so I deserve to feel I’m getting a treat. But it might as well be one with a degree of in-built damage limitation. I find it hard to believe that I can gorge myself on oranges, apples and bananas enough to have anywhere near the impact that 3 doughnuts would have on my health.

I’ll chat about feedback in more detail soon, but I need to start it now. I need to see how I’m doing. I need to get feedback. So I’m going to start a score table for my Habits. I’m going to score my habits based on the number of time’s I’ve actioned them vs opportinities I’ve had vs target actions (target always being 30 for me). So here we go:

Habit 0 (3/3/30) : Blog on JustBigBoned.com every day
Habit 1 (0/0/30) : Take a different walk through the train station.
Habit 2 (1/1/30): When I’m feeling poorly I deserve as much fruit to eat as I want.

There we go – I’m doing ok so far I think (patting self on back). It’s not much – but it’s progress.