After a really busy November, a conversation I had with Jill made me think it’s time for me to get back to basics. I find it’s easy to get caught up in the extreme or the minutia of exercising, healthy eating and motivation. Sometimes when I start overthinking, I stop doing.
What is back to basics? For me, back to basics means seven things:
1. Drink water. I like to feel my bike water bottles, and put a rubber band around them so I know how many bottles I finished per day. Using my bike water bottles also reminds me of all the fun I have biking.
2. Stand up and walk at least 250 steps each hour. My FitBit around my wrist reminds me at 50 minutes past the hour if I’ve been sitting from more time than I should have. When I was really fit, it meant go biking or running or some other form of cardio 50 to 60 minutes a day, however, that is not my current situation.
3. Get 7 1/2 hours sleep. Again I check my FitBit that tracks the dreaming and deep sleep and I always am hopinf for at least an hour of deep sleep and an hour of REM sleep. When I get good overall hours, as well as at least 60 minutes of each deep and dreaming sleep, I have a great day the next day. If not, I find I’m moody and more hungry than I normally am.
4. Eat my vegetables. My easy way to do that is to make a veggie salad, or if I’m feeling too lazy to chop lots of fresh veggies, I buy a bunch of frozen vegetables already sliced.
5. Skip desserts and excessive amounts of bread. I try to eat carbs early in the day and after exercise. They just seem to burn up better.
6. Count my blessings (at least 10) every day.
7. Listen to some music. I will get on a kick and listen to the same songs but there are some that always it the sweet spot, particularly my running playlists. I used to name my playlists for the race I was training for or a goal that I wanted to achieve.
These 7 points helps me stay on track… or get back on track. As you can see they are a blended combination of eating, exercise and motivation. I’m sure I could list 7 more, but these are my usual “go to” basics.
What are your basics? Leave a message below or shot me an email at Chris@BecomingELLi.com.
UPDATE: Less than an hour after posting I was thinking… why didn’t I include tracking and accountability? Good question…
Yes! Back to basics for me, too – almost exactly the same basics. (Also: deactivating facebook)
I’m thankful for the newsletter!
I’ve been really contemplating deactivating almost every app that I have. Our phones are so hard on the brain, I think.